True Love's Seventh Kiss

Ch.9 Money and Culture

"Don't smile like that... it's gross." Henry said to Marion the next morning.

"Don't make any expression, your entire face is gross." Marion flicked Henry's nose.

"Oi, watch the merchandise, I ain't selling these goods to your ilk." Henry rubbed his nose and then brushed his fingers through his hair. "I'll have you know I am very desirable."

"Bats who want to eat you don't count," Marion jabbed.

"At least I don't go throwing my whole body at them like some people." Henry chided.

"I have natural animal magnetism. What can I say?" Marion shrugged proudly.

"Ya whatever, by the way why are you wearing two swords if you are a sharpshooter." Henry pointed at Marion's hips which had a cutlass on either side.

"Oh ya, since this one is a cursed sword, it is rather dangerous to swing around willy nilly. So this guy is a training sword. My dad wasn't so happy when he heard I was recklessly killing animals in the forest and wasting ammunition." Marion patted the swords and smiled wryly.

"Since the young master will need a sparring partner, Count Cliffgard sent an extra training sword for his son's first friend." Kaliban presented a training cutlass to Henry.

"Whoa really! For me!" Henry swiped the sword from Kaliban and then pulled it out to look at it.

"It's a training sword so it hasn't been sharpened, but it is still metal and will leave a nasty bruise if you get too excited. The young master's sword is the same." Kaliban advised.

Henry got a wicked look on his smug face. "If I say I'm his best friend, do I get a real sword?"

Herman smacked Henry on the back of the head. "I already told you, your mother and I will buy you a proper sword when you are fifteen and become a man. So stop groveling, and just practice diligently. I already have an arrangement with the Count to find a proper blacksmith for a custom sword. But if you don't practice the deal is off."

"Don't worry, you will have plenty of time to practice. I have trained every count of Cliffgard in swordplay since its inception for one hundred and seventy years. Count Novak Cliffgard had a particular talent for the rapier, if his body were stronger, he may have become gone from sword master to sword saint." Kaliban said. "I'm told that was how he first caught the Countess's attention. That and the signature handsome feature the Cliffgard's have possessed even longer than they were named Cliffgards." Kaliban bragged with a glowing smile on his face.

"Just how old are you, Kaliban?" Henry asked.

"I find age is just a number, but my friendship with the Cliffgard family line has only sweetened with time. Just like a fine dwarven spirit from the halls of the brewmasters." Kaliban said, licking his lips as he walked about the ship.

*

Kaliban wasted no time whipping Henry and Marion into shape over the months. They mapped the world tree roots and gathered shrikes. They ran into some trouble when Henry insisted that they explore both the shallow mines and the deep mines for roots. Marion was able to get away with it because he insisted it would be the only way to safely reach his kill goal without constantly firing over the side of the ship.

Under the consultation of Count Novak, they scheduled time to help guard the mining teams with professionals to start. So they split their time with aiding mining teams, mapped roots, and gathered shrikes.

On weeks where they weren't exploring the forest, they spent exploring the rest of the process so that Marion knew the business that was happening in the territory. Herman's wife show him how they were dried whole, how the smaller ones were ground into dust and packaged and how the larger ones were specially dried for auctioning. Kaliban educated Marion in every part of the process and sold them both to individuals and merchant businesses. He was walked through the process, literally walking through the marketplace, met with merchants and nobles alike. He was shown to auctions where large Shrikes were judged not only by their size but by the processer like a brand name.

He even attended the sale and loading of a large shipment was even set to go to the mage's tower in Academy City. Marion met with people in charge of that transaction with his father they whole heartedly welcomed him as the future heir.

Soon he was intimate with both shrike and mana stones. Mana stones were smaller and harder to find in the Mines of Cliffgard forest the bigger export was copper which was incredibly rich in the forest. Thanks to his interest in guarding the mining teams he was able to expedite the process of learning territorial affairs that his father had planned for him.

Copper had its own demand, and it was mostly in magical technology. Copper had special properties when it came to magic and magic technology. Most notably, in it's more pure states it was highly resistant to magic. This made it very valuable in magic devices as a metal that wouldn't warp, overheat, or crumble under pressure from magically induced stress. So it was sold in large quantities to both the mage's tower and several other corporations. They were also the primary supplier of copper to the kingdom for making money, so they caught a tax break, and a tree was on the back of the copper coin in their honor.

He also had to learn the money system, which turned out to be more developed than he would have thought. Iron Checkles were the lowest denomination. They were tiny iron rods with a twisted copper center to prevent counterfeit. 10 of them was equal to one copper coin, then 100 copper coins was equal to 1 silver coin called a Bite, but the silver coins had markings so they could be split into 4 pieces and still be considered money. one half of a silver was 50 copper and called two bits, and 1 quarter of a silver was 25 copper and called one bit. 100 full silver coins was 1 gold. Each gold was a square piece. 5 gold was 1 white gold which was rectangular and 10 gold was a platinum piece which was a coin. 100 gold was a crown piece which was only really used by nobles and wealthy merchants. A crown was closer to a gold bar than a coin and was densely intricate with multiple materials and designs to prevent counterfeit.

It was all vastly intricate and when Marion asked why it wasn't more streamlined it was because if it was, more copper than anything else would be traded and that saturation of one coin type would hurt the market. That was why silver was made to be broken into bites and bits to alleviate the demand on copper. It was the same with gold, white gold, and platinum coins because they mainly circulated in the upper echelons. There was some more economic mumbo jumbo about it too, but Marion accepted that no matter how much he knew it wouldn't change things. So I just learned how to spend money.

To put matters into a common perspective. A single night and meal at an Inn would be a bit(or 25 coppers). A commoner meal at that tavern would be 10 copper. A single fruit or roll of bread would be a couple of checkles. A meat kebab may be a copper or a handful of checkles depending on the neighborhood and type of meat.

At a certain point Kaliban gave Marion a sack of money and sent him on errands for his extravagant meals. And if he could match or do better than the servants he passed. Although Kaliban followed and directed him so he wouldn't get lost in the marketplace it took him 2 months to match all of the prices that the servant managed and it was a good training experience.