Fantasy Economics 101 - Chapter 5 (Patreon)

A world of gold, loot, and high adventure

"I actually have a story like that," Raol noted while gently pinching his chin. "As a matter of fact, I had experienced it in my own skin."

"Really? Please, do tell!"

While Elkayla was busy trying to refill her fountain pen, a curious invention Raol found rather fascinating at first, the skeleton exhaled a wistful breath. Hours had flown by without them even noticing, and the self-ascribed hermitess was not only pleasant company, she was also endlessly curious, attentive, and based on the small stack of notes on the table, her interest in Raol was more academic than he could ever suspect.

In any case, he was already used to these kinds of conversations. In his trade, this was called 'building rapport', though some would simply call it 'sucking up' instead. Terminology aside, the idea was as old as time; act friendly, helpful, and honest, answer all questions to a satisfactory degree, and wait until the mark feels comfortable with you. Once that happens, you can start asking your own questions, and they would be obligated to answer them. With some skill, it wasn't impossible to draw otherwise confidential information out of even the tightest of lips.

In truth, Raol didn't feel the need to do this, as Elkayla was acting forthcoming from the very beginning, but as always, old habits died hard. Sometimes harder than the people practicing them.

"If you insist," he said in a leisurely tone and launched into yet another tale. "Her name was Mariska. Countess Mariska of Bizder, to be precise. At the time, I was disguised as the stableman and traveling companion of Duke Suttner during his touring of the North-Eastern provinces. I was barely out of the academy yet, and she was the famous red rose of the socialite circles, with fiery hair and a temper to match it. Widowed after just a few months of marriage to an old man with one leg already in the grave, and only two years older than me. I originally wanted nothing to do with her, but believe it or not, she approached me first and tried to seduce me shortly after our first meeting."

"Oooh? Was it love at first sight?"

Raol let out an amused chuckle in response to the young woman's innocent question and slowly shook his head.

"No, of course not. She was trying to wrap me around her little finger so that I would spy on the duke for her. I soon discovered that she had connections to the secessionists, and with the duke's blessing, I started an 'affair' with her in order to get to the bottom of her ploy."

"Oh. So it isn't a love story after all."

"That's… debatable," Raol muttered, sounding remarkably unsure of himself. "Looking back at it now, the year the duke and I spent in her residence, while he was pretending to be recovering from a fake hunting accident, held some of my fondest memories of my previous life. Mariska was a surprisingly pure girl and an absolutely terrible schemer. She only approached me because she thought I was a dumb commoner she could seduce by showing her ankles and a few meaningful looks, and it was quite amusing to play mind games with her. We had many strange encounters and some rather memorable nights, and… actually, I think I was rather fond of her, and she might've also shared the sentiment. Alas, it soon turned out that her connections to the secessionist nobles were loose at best, and when it was deemed she was but a pawn of her father and mostly harmless on her own merits, I was reassigned to another mission down South. We had to leave in a hurry, and… thinking of it now, I couldn't even say my goodbyes to her. A shame, and one of my few regrets."

"So you did like her! I knew it!" Elkayla declared and jotted down a few words onto the paper in front of her. "Romantic relationships are really complicated, aren't they?"

"Yes, they certainly are," Raol noted with an introspective undertone, which was soon followed by a pensive sigh.

"Hm? Is there a problem, Mister Raol? Did I say something wrong?"

"No, not at all," the skeleton denied her concerns with a wave of his bony hand, yet the dimmed lights of his eyes said otherwise. After a few breath's time, he tilted his head back and stared at the ceiling, looking lost and forlorn. "It's been three hundred years since then, hasn't it? She had not only grown old and died, but it's likely that nobody in this era even remembers her anymore. The same goes for everyone else I knew in life."

His words were followed by yet another sigh, and soon the lights in his eyes completely died out. For a moment, Elkayla was caught up in his motionless appearance, like a macabre statue, but after a few breaths' time, she let out a panicked voice and reached over to grab the skeleton's sleeve.

"M-Mister Raol! Don't cross over to the other side yet! There are still lots of things to live for!"

"I wasn't planning to," he answered a touch testily, but after seeing the anxious eyes glued to his face, his countenance softened, at least as much as that could be applied to a skull and bones. "I was just lost in my memories for a moment. There's no need for you to trouble yourself over me."

"B-But there is! Mister Raol is the only person I could ask about these things, and your stories are fascinating! Please don't pass over to the eternal meadows just yet!"

"I just told you I wasn't planning to get anywhere near Unalas's courts any time soon. No need to worry."

Raol waited for the easily excited hermitess to calm down a little, and only after that did he speak up again.

"Also, please don't jest. I'm certain young men would be eager to talk to you about romance on any day of the week. We are admittedly weak to the requests of the fairer sex."

"That's not it, I really can't! I can't talk to other men!" Elkayla denied it while shaking her head, but instead of a proper response, she soon muttered, "It's… complicated."

Raol maintained a furtive stare, but she didn't budge, and it didn't take long for him to stop. He had spent the better part of an afternoon buttering up his host; it made no sense to ruin his own efforts by needlessly prying into her private affairs. It was also about time he shepherded the discussion toward more productive topics, so to punctuate that, he raised his curled up fingers to his mouth and lightly cleared his throat.

"I understand. I'm happy to just talk with you like this, but it's getting late, so may I as a few questions of my own?"

"Hm? A-Aaah! It's already this late?" After glancing through the window, the young woman let out a strange noise and began to frantically clean up the notes on the table. "Please forgive me! I've got so caught up in this opportunity, I completely forgot why you came here!"

"There's no need to blame yourself; I am just as guilty for losing track of time," Raol told her amicably, but it only made Elkayla more apologetic.

"Sorry! I'm truly sorry! Here, let's put these away, and… All right! Please, ask whatever you're curious about! I'll do everything in my power to answer you!"

Raol was once again taken aback by his host's enthusiasm, but he soon collected his thoughts and asked the most important thing he needed to know.

"When I was traveling through the forest, I was attacked by three merchant's guards, completely unprovoked. Could it be that undead are hunted in this day and age on sight?"

"Usually, that's the case," Elkayla answered as if it was self-explanatory, but she soon realized that she didn't share the same common sense with her guest, and she hastily clarified, "It's because naturally occurring undead are classified as monsters, so they most likely mistook you for one."

"Naturally occurring— Wait, since when do the undead occur 'naturally'?" Raol blurted out in alarm, and Elkayla looked rather confused by his outburst.

"Wasn't that the case in your time, Mister Raol?"

"No. The undead were mostly seen around construction projects."

"Oh, wait! I've read about this!" the young woman's eyes sparkled and she nearly jumped to her feet. "Were Necromancers still common back then? Did you meet any?"

"I wouldn't call them 'common', but they were certainly around. I gather that's no longer the case. Did Unalas's lawsuit finally catch up to them?"

"Hm? I don't know about that, but I think it was the Adventurer's Guild that outlawed them. Something about fraud, I believe."

"There is that word again," Raol noted with a sense of trepidation but put his concern aside for the moment in favor of making sure his first question was fully answered. "More importantly, would I be attacked on sight if I tried to enter New Reedcourt?"

Even though their initial discussion was unstructured, to put it politely, Raol still managed to gather a few snippets of information from it. One of the most important details was that they were close to where Upper Raven Rock stood in the past. Based on that, and his memories from when he passed through the area on his way to the East, the closest city with a temple had to be New Reedcourt. It used to be a large agricultural center famous for its cattle and sheep markets, and out of all the settlements he knew in the area, it had the highest chance to be still standing.

"New Reedcourt? There's a major Guild office there, so I'm afraid you would probably get attacked. But… why do you want to go there?"

"I have some business with the temple," Raol answered off-handedly, his mind already considering the next question. "When I was attacked, one of those adventurer people said she detected my presence from a distance. Is that a common thing nowadays? Can people detect 'monsters'?"

"It's not hard to do," Elkayla answered, oblivious to Raol's dilemma. "There are tools sold at the Guild that let people do that, but I think some can do it naturally."

"So I can't sneak in just by covering up my face," the skeleton whispered, and after some consideration, the young hermitess tentatively nodded.

"Mister Raol has a very strong presence, so it would be hard," she noted absentmindedly, and her comment caused Raol's attention to snap back to her in an instant.

"What do you mean? What kind of presence?"

"Oh, it's, like… kind of heavy, but not in a suffocating way. More like a big blanket on a long winter night, or a—"

"No, sorry, that wasn't what I meant. Please allow me to try again: what exactly is this 'presence' you speak of?"

"It's… erm… I'm not entirely sure, but I think it might be the magicka you give off? Can't you feel it?"

"I can't say I do, but to be fair, I don't know the first thing about the mystic arts."

"That's odd," Elkayla mused with one finger on her lips, and after some thinking, she tentatively added, "I do have a few trinkets that can calm and suppress ambient magicka. Do you want to give them a try?"

"I appreciate the thought, but they would do me little good once I leave for the town."

"Oh, wait! If they work, do you want to borrow one? It could help you to avoid adventurers, and…" She very nearly added, 'And we could talk again when you return it', but she swallowed the words and flashed an awkward smile instead. "J-Just give me a minute! Let's see if my idea even works first, and then we can discuss the details later!"

"Thank you, but can it wait? I want to ask a few more questions first."

Elkayla already stood up in the meantime, but seeing how Raol remained unmoved, she soon returned to her seat.

"R-Right. Priorities. You're right, Mister Raol. I shouldn't get ahead of myself."

The skeleton waited for a few breaths for her to collect herself, and once her attention was fully on him again, he lightly tapped his finger against the mug of tea still on the table.

"Can you tell me who these 'adventurers' are? I gather they have a guild and offices, so are they some kind of freelancer mercenary company?"

"You… are not exactly wrong, but not completely right either. Adventurers are more like… well, they mostly hunt monsters."

"That's another thing you mentioned. What do you exactly mean by 'monster'?"

For the first time in a while, Elkayla was stunned into silence, and could only blink at him in incomprehension. That reaction, naturally, also made Raol feel tense, and fearing he might've asked something strange, he tried to refine his question. However, before he had the chance to do so, the young woman slightly tilted her head to the right.

"Monsters are just… monsters. Did Mister Raol never see one when you were alive?"

"Depends on what the word means nowadays," he answered with just a hint of uncertainty. "I have seen a griffin when passing through the Eastern Batatooths, but only from a distance. Oh, and once I saw three goblins in a circus. Best jugglers I've ever seen."

"Right, yes. Those are considered monsters," Elkayla agreed with a nod, visibly relieved now that they found a common ground. "Griffins are still very common in the Batatooth mountains. During the summer, you can see hundreds of them swarming around the mountaintops."

"Hundreds?" Raol blurted out, sounding genuinely alarmed. Back in his day, a single griffon was often considered to be a major threat, and one setting up its territory near an important road or a settlement would warrant the mobilization of an entire army division. "Is nobody doing anything about them?"

"I think they aren't very profitable to hunt, so most adventurers leave them alone."

"Profitable? Do they also explode into gold coins when they die?"

"Well, of course. All monsters do that," she said as if it was common sense, but then the source of the disconnect finally dawned on her, and she let out a loud, "Aaaah!"

"Hm? Is there a problem?"

"No, not at all! I just realized something. Mister Raol is from before the time of the Wish." The skeleton slowly blinked, and when she remained silent, he carefully gestured for her to go on. "Oh, right. I should explain that, shouldn't I?"

"Please do."

"All right, here we go!" she declared, and she went as far as to roll up her long sleeves in preparation, as if she was about to do some heavy lifting. "So, it all started in 1672, during the one-thousandth anniversary of the founding day of the Monarchy."

"Wasn't this Attusan and Sevralian union formed in the late fifteen hundreds?" Raol pointed out, but Elkayla shook her head.

"No-no, we're not talking about that. Sometime around 1630-ish, the Monarchy annexed Warra, then the emperor at the time declared that they were now the inheritors of the Warran Republic, and then the Temples agreed, and so the history of the Attusan Empire was dated back to 672."

"But for what reason?"

"Prestige, I think? Anyhow, since the one-millennium anniversary was a big deal, there was an enormous festival that was in the planning for years, and it involved the Seven Temples, and… Oh, wait. To properly understand this, you have to… Erm… Please don't get mad over what I'm about to tell you."

"Is it something that would raise my ire?"

"… Maybe? You said you were part of the imperial secret agency, so I imagine you had to swear loyalty to the emperor and everything."

"Yes, I most certainly did. I suppose this means what you are about to tell me concerns the imperial family."

Elkayla nodded and launched into another explanation.

"So, I'm sure you know this already, but the Attu family was famous for rising to dominance through well-planned political marriages."

"It is quite well-known, yes."

"All right. So, there was one problem with that: by the 1600s, every major royal family and notable noble lineage was related to them. It wasn't known until much later, but the reason why the imperial family had an unusually high rate of chronic illnesses and inborn diseases was that they were… how should I put this nicely…?"

"Inbred?"

"That's… not very nice, but accurate," Elkayla nodded while keeping an eye on Raol, but when the skeleton remained unconcerned, she let out a relieved breath and continued with, "So, probably because of this, the freshly crowned emperor, Erwin Attu the Seventh, was… not very bright."

"I understand, but how does this relate to the monsters, the adventurers, and the gold coins?"

"I'm getting to it, I promise! But first, there's another thing you must know!" No sooner than declaring that, Elkayla immediately backpedaled by waving her hands in front of her. "No, wait! I said that backward! It's something I must know."

"I'm listening."

"Tell me, Mister Raol: are you aware of the printing press?"

"Yes, of course, I am. I even had a friend who attended the opening of the first printing house in Luteum."

"Phew. Good. That means I don't have to explain that!" Elkayla exclaimed with a relieved smile, but then quickly reeled herself in and cleared her throat for emphasis. "So, by then, printing became commonplace, and there was an enormous market for all kinds of mass-produced books and papers. One of the popular genres at the time was a series of novels that were kind of like games? How should I explain this…?"

"Very carefully," Raol uttered with the utmost seriousness, and it drew a giggle out of the young woman.

"Okay, so, they were stories about these gallant knights who went on quests to slay monsters, but instead of a simple tale, it had branches where the reader had to go to predetermined pages, and when the knight encountered a monster, they had to roll snake-eye dice to see whether the knight won or the monster escaped, and for every monster slain, they would get gold coins, which could then be used to buy the knight better equipment to make the later fights easier."

"That… sounds very over-complicated, and I still don't understand what it has to do with—"

"Please, wait. I swear, it will all make sense by the end."

After a momentary pause, Raol slowly nodded, and Elkayla took another deep breath.

"So, what you have to know is that these books were made for children, and the emperor at the time was an ardent lover of the series, commissioning multiple books himself. Some say he even had an enchanted trinket that kept track of the knight's gold and rolled the dice for him, and… and it's not that important. The part that you have to keep in mind is that Erwin the Seventh really liked these stories."

"Very well. I shall do so."

"Good! Now, here comes the really, really important part! You see, because this was a once-in-a-millennia occasion, the Seven Temples were convinced to grant a grand miracle to Monarchy to celebrate the anniversary. Since none of them wanted to be left out, the Seven Gods all collaborated."

"Was this the 'wish' you mentioned?"

"Precisely! Originally, the emperor's aides had it all planned out, and they were meaning to ask for something very specific. It was about revitalizing the land and refilling the mines and some other things like that. At the end of the festival, the emperor was supposed to request this miracle from the seven head priests and priestesses, in the middle of Lauteum's main square, in front of the crowd, but—"

"Wait, hold on! Please stop!"

Raul suddenly cut in while holding his head, as if in pain. His eye-lights blinked repeatedly as his mind rapidly assembled all the puzzle pieces that his gracious host laid out in front of him, and at last, he let out a groan that rattled all his bones. Without thinking, he reflexively reached out towards the mug on the table, threw its contents into his mouth, and placed it back down with a loud clank. His eyes, flaring, focused on Elkayla, and after several breaths of time, he exhaled hard and straightened his back again.

"Let me see if I get this straight. The gods gave a miracle to the emperor to celebrate a fabricated anniversary. This emperor was inbred and stupid, and he really liked these playbooks. When the time came to officially request the miracle, he threw away the original plan, and decided to ask for monsters to explode into gold coins, like in his books, and the gods granted the request, no doubt because of some sort of contractual obligation. Then, because this was something the Seven all worked on together, they all had a hundred clauses written into the contract, and due to that, they couldn't decide whose fault it was and who should resolve the chaos they caused, so they descended into petty legal battles, nobody reversed the effects of the miracle, and now we have a new mercenary class whose sole purpose is to hunt down monsters because their cadavers are filled with gold."

"Wow… Yes, you nailed it! Even the part about the gods!"

Elkayla's eyes were wide open in a nearly worshipful daze, but Raol only scoffed and crossed his arms.

"The Viserwright Institute was formally owned by the Temple of Silma. I had learned more about the gods and their ways in my youth than I'd ever wished to know."

That commend, strangely enough, made the young woman look even more impressed.

"You said people were scared of your face, but you're actually really smart, aren't you?"

"I don't see how the two of those things are related, but I'd reckon they would be just as startled by my current visage, if not more."

Elkayla giggled and stood up.

"I can't really tell you more than this just from memory, but I swear I should still have my old history textbooks. I'll go look for them, and then I'll get those trinkets I mentioned, and then…" All of a sudden, her words trailed off, as she absent-mindedly put the mug in front of Raol back onto the plate, only to realize it was empty. "Um… Mister Raol?"

"I… believe I was too caught up in the moment and had temporarily forgotten about my condition," the skeleton answered, sounding genuinely mortified. "I believe you might also want to bring a dry washcloth."

"D-Don't fret, Mister Raol! It's just some tea! It's not that big of a deal!"

Despite her words, she was infinitely more fretful than her guest and she rushed over to the kitchen area. In the meantime, the skeleton's eye-lights narrowed into barely perceptible lines as he let out a defeated sigh and carefully loosened the laces at the neck of his robe. While there was a good chance it already soaked up the drink, he wanted to make sure he didn't douse the artifact tied to his sternum as well. He wasn't sure whether the strings he used would keep firm when wet, but as he reached down his robe and back up his ribcage, he was relieved to find that the cords were bone dry, no pun intended.

No longer concerned about the amulet, this time he shifted on his seat and touched the chair to see if it was damp. Contrary to his expectations, its surface was also completely dry, and so was the back of his robes. Raol knew his sense of touch wasn't what it used to be, so he repeated the process one more time, but no matter how hard he searched, he couldn't find a wet spot, either on his clothes or on the floor.

That was mildly odd, and so was the strangle, bitter aftertaste lingering on his nonexistent tongue, but any curiosity regarding the peculiar event soon got overwritten by Elkayla returning with the books she promised, and was soon buried under much more important thoughts and considerations about the nature of this familiar yet alien country he found himself in.