Elf Tensei Kara no Cheat Kenkoku-ki

Book 5: Chapter 15-1: The Broken Empire

~ Duke Voldeck's Perspective ~ 「Explain this! What's with this surge in prices? The market value of wheat has increased almost tenfold, hasn't it!? And not only in the territories of Duke Florandi, which are exhausted as planned, but in all the other major cities of the Empire as well.」 Duke Voldeck, who was usually calm and composed, was shouting in his office located in his ducal residence within his territory in the Empire. On his desk were documents summarizing the situation in his territory. With less than a month remaining before the invasion was to begin, the collection of food for the expeditionary force had not progressed at all, so he had checked with the person in charge. The response was that the collection was not progressing due to the rising food prices. Hence, he ordered an investigation into the reasons for the price increase. While there were issues like the army's stockpiles being stolen or soldiers diverting supplies, these were trivial compared to the extreme price surge. The hands of the three barons, who had come to report on the state of the territory, were trembling as they held the documents. Duke Voldeck was one of the Empire's four great dukes, a high noble who absorbed the territory of Duke Florandi, who fell from power after being defeated in the war against the elves, and governed two of the Empire's four major cities. He was in his forties, slender, combining a sharp appearance with intelligence, but his expression was distorted by anxiety. 「It appears that most of the food and other vital supplies within the Empire are being bought up and taken away by neighboring villages. These villages are buying everything, no matter how high the price, so merchants keep raising their prices. Moreover, this mass export has resulted in a shortage of food and other supplies throughout the Empire.」 「Supplies are being bought up by outsiders from the villages? Impossible. How could they have such funds? You're not trying to deceive me, are you?」 In Voldeck's understanding, the surrounding areas were all impoverished villages under the control of the Empire, except for the neighboring village of the Orc tribe. Any money they had would have been taken from them through taxes by now. If they had extra money, they would use it for no good. But being too harsh could cause them to rebel, so Duke Voldeck's policy was to squeeze them, leaving just enough to keep them barely alive. Yet, a buyout so extensive that it raised prices in all four of the Empire's major cities? That was absolutely impossible. Such a feat would be unachievable even for the renowned commercial city of Erin. 「It's no lie, my Lord. For some unknown reason, messengers from poor villages are using a large amount of paper money to buy up food and jewels.」 「Paper money?」 「Yes! They are not using gold coins, but paper money.」 「Could it be? Are counterfeit bonds circulating?」 Duke Voldeck pondered. The paper money, the bonds, issued on the premise of being exchangeable for gold coins, was a scheme devised to legally extract gold from the peasants of the former Florandi lands, with the end goal of impoverishing them so they could be managed more easily. However, its convenience was recognized, leading to its widespread adoption throughout the Empire. Being lightweight and easy to carry, and more importantly, being able to increase, even if fraudulently, the total amount of gold in the Empire at any time, the paper money was a revolutionary invention. Duke Voldeck was personally praised by the Emperor for this and envied by the other great dukes. Through paper money, Duke Voldeck gained stronger influence among the great dukes and earned enormous profits by managing this venture. At the same time, Duke Voldeck was aware of the dangers of paper money. Its value depended entirely on the trust that it could always be exchanged for gold coins within the Empire. This is why paper money would become worthless the moment this trust was lost. 「It's unlikely to be counterfeit. We've seen a considerable number of the bonds circulating in the market. All of them are identical to those produced in our territory.」 「If you say they look the same, then they probably are.」 The credibility of paper money would be critically undermined by the circulation of counterfeits. If counterfeits were produced and circulated more than the gold held by the Empire, the exchange of paper money for gold coins became impossible. Therefore, Duke Voldeck had implemented countless measures and prohibited the production of paper money in any workshop other than his own. Watermarks, special ink formulations, and intricate printing techniques — all of these were supposed to be impossible to replicate outside of his state-of-the-art workshop. 「I'm going to inspect it myself. I want to see the situation in the city. We'll need to bring along the most skilled craftsman from the paper money workshop. Arrange it immediately.」 「Understood. There are preparations to be made. How about next week?」 Upon hearing this, Voldeck, unable to contain the anger welling up inside him, hurled the glass in his hand at his subordinate’s head. A dull thud sounded, and blood began to flow from the subordinate's forehead. The subordinate crouched down, trembling. 「Idiot! Do you understand how critical the situation is right now!? We need to act as quickly as possible, and you suggest waiting a week!? Next time you say something so foolish, I'll kill you!」 The subordinate prostrated himself and apologized repeatedly. However, even seeing this did not ease Duke Voldeck's frustration. The reason was that the subordinate was merely showing fear in response to Duke Voldeck's anger, without truly understanding the severity of the situation. Voldeck found it infuriating. He yearned for more capable subordinates. He remembered the Elf leader — that one was good. Although a bit naive, he followed his own line of thinking. That man could have become his right-hand man. It was a pity that he needed to kill him. The golden and silver fire foxes who brought tea were also remarkable. He thought of keeping them as pets rather than turning them into magic stones, if he could get them alive.