Elf Tensei Kara no Cheat Kenkoku-ki-Chapter 15Book 5: -2: The Broken Empire

「At such a critical time, where has our savior, Ashno-sama, gone?」 「…I've heard that she went to repair the seal of Erna, as it's become very unstable.」 「The seal, huh?」 Voldeck pondered. Indeed, one of the eight seals of Erna in the world was supposed to be near the elf village. She must have gone there. Why not simply destroy the seal? If it broke, the overflow of monsters would easily annihilate the elves. The seal was already on the verge of breaking. Now should be easy to shatter it. But what was he thinking? If one seal was broken, it would lead to a chain reaction, unsealing all others. That would lead to the destruction of the world. He might be more exhausted than he realized. ◇ Duke Voldeck decided to inspect the city in his own territory, not the one in the ruined lands of the former Duke Florandi, which he deemed expendable. He deliberately wore a shabby cloak to conceal his identity, and he forced his escorts and subordinates to do the same. According to the reports and his own predictions, he knew how dangerous it would be to reveal his true identity in the current state of his lands. The city was in a dire state, with beggars and people selling themselves at every turn. The situation was bad in the territories of the former Duke Florandi before the introduction of paper money, but this was even worse. 「Unbelievable.」 Duke Voldeck sighed deeply, distressed to see his own territory, which he valued above all else, in such a state. And he became certain of something — it was beyond the point of "needing to act immediately." It was already too late. What exactly happened? The damage was too great and too sudden. Who could have orchestrated such a massive disruption? With these thoughts, he continued towards his destination. 「Thank you for coming today, my Lord.」 Duke Voldeck entered a shop under his influence. He knew that the merchant here was far more aware of the reality than his own subordinates. As he entered the store, he felt something amiss. There was an armed man, seemingly a mercenary, standing at the entrance, who usually wasn't there. 「Do you have any of the bonds the orcs used when they came? I also want to know about the current state of the city.」 「Understood. I will prepare them immediately. And I will answer any questions you have to the best of my knowledge.」 「Thank you.」 「Don’t worry about it, I am always at your service, my Lord.」 Despite the sudden visit, the shopkeeper greeted Voldeck with a smile and ushered him into the guest room. 「What do you think of this bond?」 「Well, this bond… it looks authentic.」 Duke Voldeck was showing the bond, thought to be fake, to one of the best craftsmen in his workshop. 「It looks authentic?」 「Yes, it clears all the criteria for distinguishing between fake and real, including the watermark, the special ink formula, and the hidden engravings.」 「But it's a counterfeit, right?」 「Yes, its quality is too high. The printing is impeccably perfect, without a single flaw. Even the bonds we produce have slight variations. I can assert this: it was not made by us. It's a fake surpassing the real thing, created by someone with greater technical skill than ours.」 Upon hearing this revelation, Duke Voldeck broke into a cold sweat, a sense of dread washing over him. Printing technology that surpassed that of the Empire, which boasted state-of-the-art techniques? That was impossible. The entire premise of creating paper money was based on the assumption that no one outside the Empire could produce anything of such quality. This premise was now shattered. Which country could possibly be behind this? Could it be the Choline Kingdom, that had the commercial city, Erin? Or, could it be those damn elves? 「Hey! What do you mean you don't accept bonds anymore!?」 As Voldeck was lost in thought, he heard a shouting voice from the entrance of the shop. It seemed that an Imperial citizen was trying to exchange bonds for goods, but the shopkeeper was refusing. 「No, absolutely not. We only accept payment in coins.」 「I'll pay double, even triple, just sell it to me!」 「No way. Three gold coins for a bag of wheat. I won't budge on that.」 「How can I afford three gold coins? I'll give you ten gold coins' worth of bonds!」 「If you don't have gold, leave!」 The shopkeeper then drove the man away. Voldeck covered his eyes with his hand. This was like a nightmare. 「Shopkeeper, what's the meaning of this?」 「That's because… it's difficult to say this to you, my Lord, but among merchants, there's a rumor that the bonds won't be exchangeable for gold coins next year. The shrewder merchants have already stopped transactions in anything but coins. The rationale is that there are too many bonds in circulation in the city, and it's unimaginable that the Empire could pay out that much in gold coins next year.」 「They doubt that the Empire will be able to return the gold, huh? I know the answer to that. Do you want to know if it’s possible?」 「No, that's not necessary. Any decent merchant can guess the total amount of gold the Empire possesses. Asking whether it can all be paid back is now a futile question. All we can do is to somehow hope that the bonds we hold can be exchanged for gold coins. If you promise us that, we will cooperate with you in any way we can.」 Voldeck smiled thinly. As one would expect of a merchant, his sense of money was keen. This man would probably survive even in the midst of this turmoil. 「Just for reference, how many times the Empire's total gold coin holdings do the merchants estimate the current amount of bonds in circulation to be?」 「Roughly twenty times. That's how much counterfeit money is circulating. This figure is very close to reality, and goods worth twenty times the Empire's gold have already left the country. There's nothing left in the Empire now.」 If the merchants realized this, they would never accept the use of bonds as payment for their goods. It was already too late. The bonds had no value whatsoever. The best the Empire could do next year, when citizens flocked to exchange their bonds for gold coins, would be to claim the bonds were fake and refuse the exchange. Loss of authority, riots – hellish scenes would unfold.