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Translator: Kazumi
Editor: Kabur & Silavin
It was during a contentious discussion between Floria and Alec about the founding of Razequa Amamiya that Kousuke suddenly thought of something.
While listening to the conversation, which was riddled with political jargon, Kousuke suddenly remembered something.
Remembering the past, and confirming that the matter had not climbed up in the conversation between them, he asked a question to the two as they continued their discussion.
“What’s happening with the currency?”
At Kousuke’s question, the two stopped talking with a snap.
Each of Earthgard’s continents used a common currency, similar to the euro on Earth.
In the past, each country issued its own currency, but after a certain time, each continent unified its currency.
It was no coincidence that the time coincided with the development of the coastal areas of the Central Continent.
When settlement started in the Central Continent, people came from all over the continent and used their own national currencies.
Naturally, the currencies of most of the countries on the four continents flowed into the Central Continent.
The sheer number of currencies meant that in order to start a business in the Central Continent, one had to be able to distinguish between them.
However, there were only a handful of merchants who could memorize all the currencies, and ordinary peddlers mainly traded in the currency of a country with a certain degree of power.
Then, each of the major countries started to claim its own currency, and the situation became so troublesome that four different currencies were used for each continent.
They had explained the history of one process so far, but no one was certain whether it was actually true or not.
There was even a theory that the currency became unified due to the frequent attacks by powerful countries that did not have gold mines on countries that did.
There were various other theories, including minor ones, and even today it was not known which one was the true story.
The most popular theory was that a combination of various factors may have led to the current form of the currency.
This was why the Central Continent did not have a currency of its own.
The currency that Kousuke was given by Schmidt when he first arrived was the currency that Schmidt used in his previous hometown.
The currency sphere of influence in the Central Continent was divided roughly by direction, so that towns located around the border would have both currencies flowing in.
In fact, in Ryussen, the first town Kousuke visited, both the North Continent and East Continent currencies were available.
When Crown set up the four gates, the currency of each direction was available, so four different currencies were available.
This situation continued to the present day.
Schmidt, who had been peddling his wares all over the continent, laughed and said that it was only natural that he could do that, but for Kousuke, it was a pain in the ass.
He asked at the beginning because he thought that if they were going to create a nation anyway, it would be better to create a unified currency, which would at least free the public from that hassle.
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Kousuke tilted his head inwardly as he realized that his one word had had more of an effect than he had expected.
“Is there a problem?”
This question was answered not by Floria or Alec, but by one of the higher officials.
“There are no gold mines in our sphere of influence.”
“Ah. I see… Hmm? Does that mean there are gold mines outside our sphere of influence on the continent?”
“No. My apologies. To be precise, there are no gold mines within the Central Continent’s sphere of activity.”
“Oh really?”
Kousuke shrugged his shoulders, knowing exactly what the high official meant.
In fact, it was known that there were gold mines in the Central Continent.
They even knew that it had significant gold reserves.
However, the gold mine had been completely untouched.
The reason for this was simple: it was in the habitat of monsters.
In the past, there have been numerous attempts to develop the area after exterminating the surrounding monsters, but each time the attempts have been abandoned.
The gold mine in the Central Continent was a dangerous area that they could not touch, even though they knew the treasure was right in front of them.
“So, if we want to create a currency, we would have to import gold.”
“Yes, but we don’t have enough exports to trade in large quantities of genuine gold on a regular basis, do we?”
“More to the point, no country is going to go out of its way to trade gold with a new country when a new currency could be created in the Central Continent.”
Floria and Alec followed Kousuke’s simple thinking.
After all, if a new country were to issue a currency, it would have to secure its own gold.
“I see.”
As far as currency was concerned, it was not realistic for the new country to have its own currency at the moment.
However, it was also understandable that a nation without its own currency cannot be said to be independent in the true sense of the word.
Without a currency, there would be no way to exchange goods.
A country that could not issue its own currency would inevitably become weak.
The high-ranking officials in front of Kousuke probably know this better than him.
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For some reason, Kousuke left his seat with his head tilted to the side, and everyone talked about the rest of the previous exchange.
Just as they were about to call it a day, Kousuke came back.
He was smiling, a far cry from the contemplative mood he had before he left the conference room.
Seeing his smile, Floria instantly understood that he had come up with another crazy idea.
Although she thought so, she decided to break the ice, thinking that she would have to be the one to initiate the conversation.
“Kousuke, what’s up?”
Floria’s words drew everyone’s attention to Kousuke.
“Well, I’ll ask you one question. If we have a gold mine, we can technically issue currency, right?”
“That’s, well…?”
Tilting her head, Floria looked at the person in charge.
The person in charge thought for a moment and then nodded.
“We can do it, but it takes time to develop, so it won’t be ready in time for the founding of the country, you know?”
“That’s, I guess, to be expected.”
Alec asked Kousuke with a wry smile, this time with trepidation.
“I think you don’t mean to say… You have found a gold mine, don’t you?”
“Father… Is there anything you can do when Kousuke starts talking like this?”
Floria asked in reverse, letting out a sigh as if she had given up.
“Well… I’d like to think so, but…”
Alec, who had a distant look in his eyes after hearing his daughter’s words, replied.
Kousuke’s next move, which would have to have its own currency, was as follows.
First, as Floria had predicted, he would prepare a gold mine on the tower’s floor.
However, he would not simply prepare a gold mine, he would also prepare a large number of monsters to be killed in that gold mine.
In other words, intentionally prepare a quest to kill a large number of monsters to get it.
In this way, the tower could also earn Divine Power, so it would not be a one-way giveaway.
It may seem like a bit of a new idea, but he didn’t want people to misunderstand that he could prepare whatever they wanted whenever they wanted, so he dared to prepare monsters as an obstacle.
“… In other words, instead of preparing a gold mine, you are also going to create a large number of monsters?”
“That’s how it is.”
Alec, who managed to understand what Kousuke was saying, made a thoughtful gesture.
When he looked around, he saw that the dignitaries were also pondering.
If the method Kousuke had just suggested was used, the residents, especially adventurers, would no longer be under the mistaken impression that the tower could prepare whatever they wanted at any time.
In fact, the tower could do so if it wanted to, but since it did not intend to respond to every single request, it was better to let them think it could not be done.
After receiving Kousuke’s proposal, the dignitaries started to consider whether it would work or not.
