Shades of the New World

Chapter 220: 15%

"I'm feeling alright now, so we can do whatever you were trying to do," Rith said after a small pause.

"How did you do that?" Evin asked, properly impressed by the Cosmic's talents.

"Remember how the outer edge of a portal can't cut anything? Well, I can also will it to become malleable upon contact with something. So I just create a portal right above the floor and push it down, so it fills in all the gaps. Afterwards, just move it across the surface you want to clean" Rith explained, sounding much livelier.

"Huh. That's a neat trick," Evin commented and put away the cleaning cloth he was holding.

"You wanted me to call Abe? With a Contract?" Rith asked and Evin could see her ears twitching a bit, excited about the prospect of new business. None of the previous hungover Rith to be found.

"Yes, I'm going to sell you an idea. A big one at that," Evin smirked evilly.

Rith smirked back and the two entered the World of Space. Rith started her ritual of breaking a necklace to summon Abe, but this time, Evin noticed that the necklace was blue. 

Sure enough, after a few minutes, Evin saw Rith's brother appearing, with an array of blinding blue stars painted across his body. Evin could also sense a feeling of natural superiority from the Cosmic, which wasn't present the previous time Evin saw him in the World of Space. 

'When did he become so strong?' Evin wondered and thought of the last time he saw Abe.

When Abe appeared to send Evin off to his come, he had come with a proper flesh and body and Evin didn't bother to check him with his soul vision at the time. So it could've been that Abe was already stronger at the time, it was just that Evin didn't see it. 

"Why hello there Heh, ever since my sister met you, she's called upon me three times already. Weirdly, those are the only times she ever called me, so I guess you deserve a thank you at the least," Abe greeted the two with a weird statement of some sorts.

"You're welcome?" Evin replied unconfidently and Rith just sighed exaggeratedly.

"Again, I told you I would call you if I found something out of my control. It's just that I've never met something like that previously. And also, you're being weird," Rith retorted.

"Ah, and what kind of situation you've met today?" Abe asked, an amused grin on his face.

"Actually, I'm not sure myself. Evin just told me to call you since he has something big in store," Rith said with a shrug.

Abvelgail urged the boy to begin talking, but Evin needed to clarify a few things before speaking. He was also feeling a bit teasing as well.

"Let me ask you a few questions first," Evin began after clearing his voice: "Could you enlighten me with the history of money in the Empire?"

Abvelgail seemed a bit surprised by the question, but still started to faithfully recount the details that he could remember.

"Well, as all things start a bit clumsily, in the earliest accounts of trading, one can see that lodestones were the biggest form of currency compared to gold and silver. Earliest recorded time, being of course, the 1st year of the calendar. The year the Empire was formed by the Empress," Abe began.

Evin remembered being quite shocked at the fact that no one in the Empire knew anything about the time before the Empire, but he now knew the reason: practically everyone had died due to the Empress' massacre. Evin had a few theories on how all those people reappeared again, but in the end, it was all speculation so he didn't dwell on it too much.

At any rate, naturally, not a lot of people had access to information from before the Empire. Evin was actually quite surprised that the Vulpine Mother managed to find out about the Empress' previous title. But Twelve hinted that aside from the Authorities, there was a special group of people who knew about the Empress' past, so Evin guessed that the fox learned it from them, somehow.

As for money at that time, it was in line to what everyone would expect. There was no unified cast of coins like the Empire and instead, every country used differently minted coins. Naturally, the three giants of the time (Nosk, Hexmagi and the Holy Lands) had stronger currencies compared to the rest of the countries.

"Naturally, the Empress had all the countries use the same system we use now, with the gold, silver and bronze coins, but those weren't all that popular. Everyone was much more interested in the Worlds and the lodestones, hoarding the magical stones as much as humanly possible. But, as we all know, the lodestones were things that disappeared every century," Abe chuckled slightly.

"So, in a span of a single day, the entirety of the world's economy was thrown on its head. Mass confusion ensued, as the richest men in the world had suddenly turned broke overnight. Though that's just an overstatement, they still had their property to work with," Abe suddenly explained his analogy and resumed speaking: "At any rate, the world learned its lesson and started to focus more on the gold and silver coins." 

Oddly enough, Evin never saw a single piece of a lodestone inside Anna's memories. Everyone used the Divine Essence that could be found in the air. This could only mean that the Empress had created the lodestones at some point and scattered them across the world.

"From then on, there wasn't much change in the system. There were a few countries who tried to mint their own coins, but those never found success, so eventually people stopped trying. There were also a few times when the Countries agreed to reduce the amount of real precious metals in the minted coins. Currently, the gold and silver coins have to be more than 90% real gold and silver. The bronze coin though, only has 1% real bronze in it, due to the price of the metal being much higher than what you can buy with it."

Evin was a bit shocked with the revelation, but found it reasonable after thinking a bit. After all, although not as expensive as silver, bronze was still considered a fairly precious metal.

"Who decides how many coins are minted?" Evin asked.

"The rulers of the Countries decide that, but they're not allowed to exceed a certain sum every year. This was an order from the Empress herself, so there's no trickery there. And so basically, since the coinage system that the Empress has given us works without issues, so no one bothered to change it," Abe shrugged.

'Oh, thank you, Empress. For all the authority and trust you instill in your citizens,' Evin thought happily, before starting the biggest sell of his life.

"Well, have I got an idea for you." Evin started, rubbing his hands together.

"Alright, get on with it already," Abe urged from the side. 

"No. First, we must discuss payments."

"How much of the business you want?" 

"No. I won't take any share from the idea that I'm about to tell you. Instead, I want 15% of the profits of your banking business," Evin said in the most confident tone he could manage.