Recently, a major event occurred in the Lanwan Viscountcy.
Of course, this did not refer to the birth of the Lanwan Viscountcy's first Giant Eagle Knight, but rather to the fact that the Exchange House in Elm Tree Town had adjusted the exchange rate between the Fuso and the Dir from 1:4 to 1:3.8.
Currently, the Lanwan Viscountcy was a hub for merchants. The adjustment of the exchange rate between these two currencies immediately attracted the attention of these people who dealt with money all day long. They flocked to the Exchange House to inquire about what was going on.
"Since I was born, it has always been one Fuso for four Dirs. I have never heard of the Fuso depreciating!" a merchant complained loudly.
"It isn't that the Fuso has depreciated, but rather that the Dir has appreciated," Bessel, the first manager of the Exchange House, came forward to explain. "Mr. Paul, you often go to the Soqya Peninsula to do business. Have you not noticed that the Dir is becoming more and more valuable?"
Bessel was extremely handsome, with no visible Adam's apple, and his voice was soft and melodious, unlike that of a man. When he spoke, a tattoo of a delicate pomegranate flower could be faintly seen on the right side of his neck, which his collar could not completely cover. The knowledgeable merchants could guess from Bessel's appearance that he was likely a castrato.
Castrato singers were not exactly fashionable in this world—after all, the Church had not developed the tradition of having castrati sing for Ig—but they were still relatively common. Some slave merchants would select boys with handsome features and pleasant voices. At the age of seven or eight, they would knead the boys' testicles daily until they were crushed, then carefully educate and raise them until they were in their teens before selling them to nobles or the Church.
Such castrati could serve in bed as well as perform and show off at the banquets of the nobility, yielding profits many times higher than ordinary page boys.
Although they knew he was a castrato, the merchants dared not underestimate Bessel, because Bessel had money in his hands.
Money is power; merchants were the group of people who understood this simple truth best.
"Indeed, Paul. Even the slaves on the Soqya Peninsula know that they are getting fewer Dirs in exchange. Why are you still unwilling to accept the fact that the Dir has appreciated?" a young man shouted with a laugh at the merchant called Paul.
"Shut your foul mouth, Rashid!" Paul cursed. "I know you're making a killing again, but don't try to provoke me. Otherwise, be careful that someone doesn't break your legs when you go home tonight."
The young man named Rashid obediently shut his mouth.
This was because the Exchange House of the Lanwan Viscountcy had long undertaken the business of exchanging Dirs for Fusos, As for Fusos, Fusos for As, and Dirs for As, but simply would not undertake the business of exchanging Fusos or As for Dirs. Consequently, a group of people gradually appeared in Elm Tree Town who specialized in hoarding Dirs. They would exchange As and Fusos for Dirs for other merchants at a rate slightly lower than the Exchange House, earning the difference.
Rashid was one such "Dir Merchant," and one of the earlier ones to enter the industry. He had hoarded quite a few Dirs in his hands. Now that the Exchange House, with its "official" status, had confirmed the appreciation of the Dir, Rashid naturally made a profit.
The reputation of "Dir Merchants" in Elm Tree Town had always been poor. In the eyes of other merchants, these people were stealing money from their pockets. Therefore, Rashid dared not talk back after being scolded; otherwise, if he provoked public anger, he wouldn't even know who broke his legs on his way home at night.
"Mr. Bessel, will the price of the Dir drop in a while?" Paul frowned and asked Bessel again. He had a sum of Fuso in hand that urgently needed to be exchanged for Dirs. However, if he went to exchange them now, he would definitely be fleeced severely by those "Dir Merchants" again.
Bessel shook his head and said, "I'm afraid not in the short term. I heard that the nobles in Badan and Carmela are hoarding Dirs. The Dir might appreciate even further in a while—er, that is, rise in price."
Hearing that the price would rise again, the merchants who wanted to exchange Fuso immediately wailed, while the merchants who had accumulated a lot of Dirs waiting to exchange them for Fuso beamed with joy. They even started thinking about taking advantage of the situation to hoard more Fuso now.
How would Bessel know if the nobles of Badan and Carmela were hoarding Dirs? These words were all taught to him by Charlotte.
Charlotte had also been very hesitant about making the decision to increase the price of the Dir at this critical juncture. Fedi's unprecedented emergency conscription order had already reached Badan. The order even bluntly stated that "all allies must dispatch every available citizen-soldier to Fedi."
This confirmed the news Lilith had brought back: the coalition forces of the Ivy Alliance had indeed suffered heavy losses on the front lines, and the situation was already precarious.
Fedi might be finished. Was it really necessary to continue executing the original strategy regarding the Dir now?
After hesitating again and again, Charlotte decided to proceed according to her original steps.
The considerations behind this were multifaceted.
First, many people in North Soqya and the Lanwan Viscountcy, even upon learning the news that the Ivy Alliance had been defeated yet again, still did not feel that Fedi would perish because of it. After all, it wasn't the first or second time the Ivy Alliance had been defeated, yet didn't the ancient Fedi still stand there?
This mindset affected Charlotte to some extent, causing her to inexplicably harbor some wishful thinking—what if Fedi held on again...
Secondly, even if the Delmore Alliance captured Fedi, Charlotte felt that the Dir would continue to circulate because... the Delmore City-State did not have its own currency.
This sounded absurd, but it was the fact.
The Delmore City-State believed that material enjoyment would corrode the fighting will of the citizen-soldiers, so they extremely emphasized a simple collective life. The City-State provided public meals for the citizens; the meals were filling and healthy enough, but the taste could only be described as mediocre.
Citizens of the City-State could only live in collective dormitories before the age of thirty, even if they were married. All citizens had to serve until the age of sixty. A large part of their lives was spent in military camps, and the only things they had to do were fight and procreate. All their clothing, armor, weapons, and housing came from the City-State collective.
This undoubtedly compressed the personal material needs of the citizens to the extreme, so the Delmore City-State actually did not need any currency.
Originally, the Delmore City-State had issued iron money for a period of time, but later, during trade with the Oran Empire, they discovered that counterfeit money was rampant—iron money was too easy to counterfeit and the cost of counterfeiting was too low—so the Delmore City-State simply abolished the iron money as well.
Today's Delmore City-State had no currency, which created a situation where the currency of Fedi on the Soqya Peninsula—the Dir—dominated alone.
The Delmore people could go without currency, but their allies could not. Delmore's allies had material needs, and their needs were no smaller than those of their enemies. Where there is demand, there is naturally trade. The currencies issued by ordinary city-states were hard to trust in other city-states, and the Delmore people, who were qualified to issue currency, were unwilling to do so. Thus, a strange spectacle appeared...
In recent years, the Delmore people had beaten the Fedi people black and blue on the battlefield, but in the market, the interior of the Delmore Alliance consistently used the enemy's currency—the Dir.
Therefore, Charlotte felt that given the Delmore Alliance's degree of dependence on the Dir, even if the Delmore people conquered Fedi, it would be difficult to abolish this currency unless the Delmore people were insane enough to demand that their allies transform their city-states into pure war machines along with them.
Thus, Charlotte resolved... to make a small gamble. If she won, she would make a killing; if she lost, she would only lose about ten million Dirs.
"Money is something that can be earned again if lost... er, borrowed again? Asked for again? Robbed again?" Standing on the small building of Cecilia's home, gazing at the distant Exchange House, Charlotte suddenly realized that not much of the money in the Lanwan Viscountcy's public treasury had been earned legitimately. "Ah, anyway, it will come again."
Cecilia did not mind Charlotte's laissez-faire attitude and said, "However, your plan for a second Exchange House in Ambratu might have to be postponed."
"Oh? What happened?" Charlotte asked curiously.
"John Rice has written three official letters in a row, claiming that conflicts among the residents in Ambratu County are rife, and he hopes you can dispatch military force to help him maintain order in the city," Cecilia said as she took out several letters. "Knight Garcia also sent news via Letter Raven, likewise stating that the situation in Ambratu County is unstable and something unpleasant might happen."
Charlotte pulled out the slender strip of paper, which was obviously delivered by a Letter Raven, and glanced at it.
"Tsk..." Charlotte crumpled the paper into a ball and said, "Then send the personnel to Little Sassinian first and open the second Exchange House there."
"Yes," Cecilia nodded, then asked hesitantly, "Do you not intend to intervene in the matters of Ambratu?"
"Of course I will intervene, but not now," Charlotte laughed. "If those people aren't given a heart-wrenching lesson, how will they agree to my subsequent administration?"
Cecilia thought for a moment and said, "You intend to let the Ambratu people petition to abolish the promise of 'Ambratu governed by Ambratu people'?"
"Not only that," Charlotte shook her head and asked in return, "The administrative and judicial teams in Elm Tree Town are trained just about enough, right?"
Cecilia finally understood. "You are preparing to..."
"I am preparing to move the current Elm Tree Town Government Office and Court over there to take over Ambratu," Charlotte said with her arms crossed.
Elm Tree Town was not only the capital Charlotte built but also the "training academy" Charlotte opened to cultivate civil servants. Currently, both Ambratu County and Dorukocha County operated under a system where the Governor held sole power. This did not align with Charlotte's expectations and was merely a temporary measure used when purging the city-states.
The modern local management system of Elm Tree Town, consisting of a Government Office plus a Court plus a Patrol Team, was what Charlotte truly wanted to establish.
After some consideration, Cecilia said, "The Government Office, Court, and Patrol Team of Elm Tree Town can just about operate normally, but you must leave me at least a few core members. Otherwise, Elm Tree Town will be directly paralyzed, which will also be very detrimental to the training of the next batch of civil servants."
Elm Tree Town was built up almost entirely by Cecilia, bit by bit. She cared about this small town even more than Charlotte did.
"Mhm, what you say makes sense," Charlotte readily accepted the advice and said, "How about this: you personally select two-thirds of the civil servants to prepare to receive Ambratu, and the remaining one-third will stay in Elm Tree Town. At the same time, recruit a batch of personnel to supplement Elm Tree Town's civil service system."
"Yes," Cecilia nodded.
Soqya Peninsula, Ambratu.
Hundreds of former Ambratu citizens and their supporters gathered at the entrance of the Governor's Mansion. They chanted John Rice's name, demanding that John Rice come out to see them.
John Rice was given a headache by the noise, but he never went out to meet these people because he knew what these former citizens wanted, but he also knew he could not agree to them.
Just as Bill was leading the former citizens in shouting enthusiastically, a caravan that had just returned from the Lanwan Viscountcy passed by the entrance of the Governor's Mansion. A merchant in a carriage spoke disdainfully: "Look at these people. They still think this is a City-State. All day long, they're just like a pack of barking dogs."
The merchant did not lower his voice at all when he spoke, and the former citizens heard him clearly. These people instantly exploded and blocked the caravan. Ronnie Kane pointed at the merchant who had just spoken and questioned, "What are you saying?"
"What am I saying? I said you are barking like dogs!" The merchant did not back down either. He craned his neck and said, "Am I wrong? Even a dog knows to help fetch a rabbit. You people refuse to even work all day long and only know how to beg on the streets!"
"We are just claiming back what belongs to us!" Ronnie glared furiously and said, "Your shops are ours, your fields are ours, your mines are ours! You are the maggots living on our wounds!"
The merchant laughed upon hearing this and said, "Yeah, yeah, not just those. Our wives were yours too! Hahahaha..."
"Hahahaha..." The merchant's companions also laughed along cooperatively.
However, this laughter sounded so piercing to the ears of certain people.
Because of Jonathan Hackman's vigorous propaganda in the city stating that the Ambratu citizen-soldiers captured by Little Sassinian had all been executed, and that the property of these citizens was to be forcibly confiscated, Avery's wife had been forced to remarry a freeman to protect herself.
Avery did not want to blame his wife. When he was slaughtering on the battlefield and serving hard labor in Little Sassinian, his wife had been his spiritual pillar. But now that he was homeless, it was ultimately hard for him to let it go in his heart, which was why he drowned his sorrows in alcohol all day long.
At this moment, suddenly having his sore spot poked, a surge of rage rushed into Avery's heart.
"Hahaha, uh..."
The merchant was in the middle of laughing when a figure suddenly rushed out from the crowd of former citizens and grabbed the merchant by the neck.
"Die!"
Avery's eyes were bloodshot. With one hand, he lifted the merchant, who was sturdier than himself, and threw him out. Then, kneeling on the merchant's back with one knee, he punched the man's head again and again.
Avery was a One-Winged Warlock. Although the First Wing ability of the Citizen-Soldier Faction was not strength enhancement, three or four punches were enough to beat the merchant until flesh and blood flew and brain matter splattered.
This ferocious scene stunned the onlookers for a moment.
"Murder! The citizens are killing people! The citizens have started killing people!" It was quite a while before a scream startled everyone awake.
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