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Chapter 28: Money Matters

Translator: Haruchin   Editor: Marky

The sight of overgrown grass at the yard greeted me when I teleported back to the rented house. It was still normal yesterday, but it’s like they’re on growth steroids for some reason. I had a sickle since the yard was also like this when I first came into this house. The cut grass could be used in kindling fire when dried, so there was a stack in the corner. I piled some freshly cut grass on top of that.

Ugh, having to clean two houses was soooooo tiresome!!!

Today’s plan was to sell some potions to the Commerce Guild then go to the Adventurer’s Guild afterward.

One bottle of potion would be sold to the Commerce Guild for around one gold coin and one small gold coin. Maybe it was easier to think of the price as three small gold coins? A small gold coin was worth half of a gold coin. The weight of the gold corresponded to its value, so even the size was halved.

So then, the market price for selling potions to the public was three gold coins, apparently.

Water must be bought at 『 Fae’s Bough 』 but it could get pretty expensive over there. Plus, there was a limit on how much you could buy in a day.

『 Fae’s Bough 』existed in all cities and towns, and the structure design varied. Monsters frequently attacked this borderland city, so the one here wasn’t as flashy as the one in the capital, but the size was huge.

『 Blessed Water 』depended on the spirits, so it was not something easily obtainable, apparently. Well, I kinda felt it was simple though, since you just had to put some water in a dish and if the spirits drank from it or bathed in it then it’s considered as『 Blessed Water 』 already.

Spirits preferred flowing water, so they didn’t use the water dish that much. The water in my home was blessed since it was originally built by powerful spirits, and there were a lot of spirits drinking and bathing there.

Eh? The water that Az used… Well, whatever.

I was curious about this, so I tried looking it up. It seemed that water that flowed out of the fief would turn into normal water. The water from 『 Fae’s bough 』 would return back to normal after half a day.

It’s just that the duration of time before it reverts back would also depend on the power of the spirit who bathed in, er, blessed it, so the water was more powerful the closer it was to my house.
Well, water was convenient for me, thanks to my fief being like that.

I could make potions in large quantities, and only the medicinal herbs need funding. Didn’t wanna stand out too much, so I could only sell two bottles at a time though.

A dozen silver coins was equivalent to one gold coin, twelve pieces of copper coins was equivalent to one silver coin. Gold, silver and copper coins — all the countries use them, but it’s inconvenient with just those three, so they also have denominations such as small gold coin, small silver coin and small copper coin which are equal to half of the coin value. Plus, quarter gold coin and quarter silver coin for one-fourth value. The monetary value was kinda the same between countries though, thanks to both Adventurer’s and Commerce Guild.

They were stamped with the images of the king of that particular country, or else their names differ, though the size was the same, so not sure if it was a last-ditch effort to be different despite being the same gold coin.

The smallest money was called mon, and 12 pieces of mon was equivalent to one copper coin. The gold and silver coins used whole, half and quarter monetary value, but the copper coins were different. Small copper coin was half, mon was 1/12.

The whole roast pig cost around 2 silver coins. Ah, but I never, ever bought them in this city since the day I learned that they were being let loose in the sewers.

The sewers were made from tunnels. Thick areas were irrigation channels, and there were passages on both sides where people could walk. The sewage that flows from the houses were stocked inside hollows, and when the water was full, it just overflowed, leaving behind left-over foods and spoils. And that’s where the pigs enter, tentenenen.

Yeah, I get that pigs were omnivorous, and yup, cleaning the sewage was rea~lly important. But who, tell me, who came up with such an absurd method! Why didn’t they use some kind of fantasy slime to clean that up!? So that was why the pigs of farming families were more expensive by one small silver coin, huh. Yep, totally understandable.

I memorized the goods I saw for sale and their price on my way to the Adventurer’s Guild.

「 The price of a relatively huge Horned Bear is one gold coin for wholesale. 」
「 Jean-dono? 」

Ash was there when I entered. There was a demand for fur and pelts during this season, and since bears ate a lot during autumn and nourished their stomachs and hearts. These were ingredients for making medicines, so bears fetched quite a hefty sum. The price would drop by spring, though.

Plus, the normal sized ones were only worth one small gold coin each. Huge bears had higher value since they could sell the huge, flawless pelts to rich guys, so that was why it was one gold coin each. So, Ash aimed for the big ones, huh.

「 Jean-dono, can you spare me a moment after this? I just want to properly settle the charge for the potion. 」
「 I didn’t give it so you’ll compensate me — it’s okay after you settled on a house, and your life’s stable. 」

I was about to refuse that payment, but she seemed to feel down so I added a few more words.

「Mm….Sorry. 」
Did Ash somehow get a sense of economy? She seemed reluctant, but she agreed. Noth bowed his head behind her. His fluid movement was so elegant.

Basically, people that did not have affiliations in towns and cities couldn’t do credit, and they had to do prepayments. That’s applicable to renting a house, too. Well, it’s tough for non-residents to buy a house, but renting one was also 50% tougher.

Even if she was refunded by that rip-off inn, she still needed to buy a lot of things after deciding on the house.

「 Hey, there you are. 」

Dean waved his hand from a table in the pub. A long-haired guy sat on the same seat with him. Medium built, medium height — you could say that he’s a bit lanky, I guess? That was the vibes I got from this uncle.

He’s probably around 30 years old or so? Ah, but he might be younger than he looked, judging from his skin? Maybe he looked older because of that beard, hunched back and those half-lidded eyes that made him look so tired?

Seems like he is the「Reliable Adventurer」Dean was talking about.