The treasury sat between the castle and the Administrative Office, its walls thick enough that the world’s noise didn’t reach inside. Roland passed through three guarded gates before the last door swung open and he stepped in.
He had been here before, many times — but the change was still striking. Back in the Border Town days, a few cases of gold royals had been enough to keep a small town breathing. Revenue had climbed as the steam engines and magical artifacts moved to market; it had kept climbing as the territory expanded and the industries compounded. For a long time Barov had not raised the alarm once.
The treasury was built large on purpose. Roland had designed it to double as a production space, its dimensions suited to something other than coin storage — though Barov hadn’t known that at the time, and the decision had drawn considerable argument. A noble spending everything on territorial expansion was unusual enough. A noble opening his treasury to departmental directors was nearly unprecedented. Only Barov had understood, in those early days, that Roland simply didn’t care about personal wealth.
Barov was waiting near the shelves.
“Your Majesty.” He gestured at the remaining cases with the expression of a man presenting a wound. “Twelve cases of gold royals.”
Roughly two thousand royals per case. Twenty thousand in total. Mounds of silver and bronze occupied more space but represented far less value.
“How long will it last?”
“Two months. Perhaps slightly less.”
“Faster than I expected.” Roland walked the shelves slowly. “Payroll is the largest drain?”
“Over half the total expenses. The construction teams and welding units have grown with the immigration, and we pay the Fjords Chambers of Commerce four to five thousand royals monthly. If we suspended those payments, we could hold until the Joint Chamber’s profit share arrives — ”
“We need people,” Roland said.
Barov’s hands stilled. He had been waiting for this conversation since Roland had mentioned a permanent solution in a meeting months ago. “Then — is it time? You did say there was a way.”
“I said there was.” Roland turned to look at the open space around him — the high ceiling, the broad floor, the shelves already half-cleared. It would serve well. “When is payroll due?”
“One week.”
“Store the gold royals. We won’t need them for now.” Roland nodded once, the decision made. “Come to my office. I need to establish a new department.”
The groundwork had been laid half a year earlier. Roland had run a quiet pilot — distributed test notes to the Witch Union and the Sleeping Spell, then watched what happened. No witch had managed to forge them. The anti-counterfeiting architecture held. He had been ready since then; the timing simply hadn’t demanded it.
It demanded it now.
“Yes, Your Majesty.” The anxiety visibly left Barov’s face — a man who had feared poverty restored to the prospect of solvency. The lines around his eyes smoothed. “What is the new department called?”
“Bank,” Roland said.
Five days later, a notice appeared on the central square bulletin board in Neverwinter, and the city argued about nothing else.
It was rare enough that the Administrative Office sent a spokesperson to explain a posted notice directly — that alone told residents the matter was serious. The Graycastle Weekly ran it as the lead item. The king, it announced, intended to introduce a new currency to replace gold royals, silver royals, and bronze royals.
The argument spread through every tavern, every worksite, every delivery route — and reached the hotel where Victor Lothar had been staying far longer than he’d planned.
Victor had originally meant to return to the Port of Clearwater after the magic movie. Then the Bloody Moon had risen, and the logic of staying in Neverwinter — the safest city on the continent, as events tended to confirm — had outweighed the logic of leaving. He had been summoned by the police several times as a witness to the theater incident, answered their questions, and settled in to wait.
He had been preparing to leave when the currency news broke.
The shock it produced dwarfed anything the Bloody Moon had stirred. The Bloody Moon was a catastrophe from outside. A currency reform was the king reaching into every transaction that had ever occurred, every debt, every deal, every coin sitting in every merchant’s counting room, and saying: this changes.
The four kingdoms had used the same monetary system since they were founded. Gold didn’t become worthless overnight. Victor had assumed, reading the first report, that someone had been drinking.
Then Twinkle brought him the newspaper. Then the tavern talk all pointed the same direction.
The first provision: All old currencies shall be exchanged for the new ones. The new currencies shall be used exclusively for transactions, at face value.
A piece of paper for goods. In practice: the king could buy anything brought into Neverwinter with paper. Victor had read that provision three times, testing whether there was an interpretation he’d missed. There wasn’t.
“Many people are already leaving the city with their cargo,” Twinkle said from the bed, her voice cautious. She was lying on her stomach, watching him read, and he couldn’t tell whether she was worried about him leaving too or about the Rainbow Stone inventory.
Victor smiled, but it was the smile of a man calculating. Twinkle didn’t know that his fortunes ran along a track laid by the King of Graycastle. Without Leaf’s seeds, the brand collapsed. He was not leaving.
And Roland Wimbledon was not robbing anyone. Victor knew that much. A king with this man’s instincts didn’t throw away public confidence for a single short-term seizure. He had spent years building something here.
Victor kept reading.
The second provision: All salaries in Neverwinter to be paid in new currency.
The third: All Administrative Office and Convenience Market transactions — food, real estate, everything — to be conducted in new currency.
The fourth — the one that required the most thought: The Administrative Office will offer long-term currency exchange services. Residents may exchange old currencies for new or new for old at face value. A five percent transaction fee applies when exchanging new currencies back to old.
Victor sat with that for a moment. Then he saw it: a blade aimed, with great precision, at traveling merchants who had never paid taxes.
Neverwinter had always been, by accident of its governance, a near-perfect tax haven. The previous patrol teams had extorted merchants directly — not collected taxes, just taken what they wanted — and the new regime had eliminated that without replacing it with proper commercial taxation. Merchants with property paid something. Merchants who leased premises or moved goods through the city paid almost nothing.
The fourth provision changed the ledger. Not by force — by arithmetic.
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Roland passed through a few heavily guarded gates and entered the treasury
in the castle district.
Back when he had still been in the Border Town, he had only had a few cases
of gold royals that were sufficient to maintain the operation of the small
town. Since the sale of the steam engines and other magical artifacts, his
revenues had increased rapidly and soon reached a peak.
With the expansion of his territory, the expenses incurred also increased
correspondingly. For the convenience of the Administrative Office, a treasury
was built between the castle and the Administrative Office. Although it has
heavily guarded, all the directors had access to it as long as they followed an
appropriate procedure. This decision had indeed sparked a heated discussion
in the beginning. It was unprecedented that a noble spent all his money on the
expansion of his territory, let alone allowing other people to access it.
At that time, nobody except Barov had known that Roland did not give a
damn about his treasures. All he had cared about was the urbanization of the
city. For a very long time, the revenues in Neverwinter had been greater than
the expenses. Barov had not had a financial issue for quite a while.
“Your Majesty,” Barov, who had been waiting in the treasury, said
respectfully. “You see, we only have 12 cases of gold royals left.”
Normally, there were around 2,000 gold royals in a case, which meant that
they currently only had 20,000 gold royals in total. The treasury now looked
pretty empty compared to the past.
Although there were mounds of silver royals and bronze royals, they were
not worth much.
“How long will they last?” Roland asked.
“Based on the current situation, two months at most.”
“It’s faster than I thought,” Roland commented as he raised his brows. “Are
most of the spendings on the payrolls?”
“Yes. The payroll expenses take up more than half of the total expenses. As
the population grows too fast, there’s a big increase in the payroll of the
construction team and the welding unit. Plus, we have to pay the Chambers of
Commerce from the Fjords 4,000 to 5,000 gold royals every month. If we
stop this payment, the Administrative Office will be able to manage until we
receive the profit of the sale from the Joint Chamber of Commerce — ”
“We need people,” Roland cut across Barov.
“Then…” Barov said as he massaged his hands nervously. “I remember you
said in the last meeting that there was a permanent solution. Is it true?”
“You still remember,” Roland said smilingly as he surveyed the treasury. He
had anticipated that this day would come. The treasury was quite spacious
and bright. It would be almost the same as an ordinary residence if without
the iron bars and the shelves. Therefore, it would be a perfect place to
produce notes. “When’s the next payroll due?”
“In a week.”
“Store away these gold royals. We don’t need them for the time being,”
Roland said while nodding. “Come with me to my office. I need to found a
new department, and I’ll discuss the details with you when we get there.”
Although it was a little earlier than Roland had expected, Roland had started
preparing for this day half a year ago. He had actually conducted a pilot
project by distributing notes to the Witch Union and the Sleeping Spell. The
result showed that the witches had no way to forge those testing notes, which
indicated that it was now time to replace metal currencies with paper
currencies. He could put them into use anytime.
“Yes, Your Majesty,” Barov responded. It was obvious that this old governor
feared that he would sink into poverty again. After receiving the
confirmation, his face lighted up, all the wrinkles around the corner of his
eyes smoothened. “By the way, Your Majesty, what’s the name of this new
department?”
“Bank,” Roland replied.
Five days later, a new notice posted on the bulletin at the central square in
Neverwinter created an uproar among the public. The Administrative Office,
very surprisingly, sent a person to further explain the notice, which was very
rare after the implementation of universal education.
The notice also made the headline on the Graycastle Weekly. According to
the notice, the king was going to distribute a new type of currency to replace
gold royals, silver royals and bronze royals.
For the next couple of days, everyone in the kingdom was discussing this
currency reform.
So were the customers in the hotel where Victor stayed.
Victor had planned to return to the Port of Clearwater after the magic movie.
However, the appearance of the Bloody Moon disrupted his original plan.
Due to disorder and the unstable situation, he immediately changed his plan
and decided to stay in Neverwinter for a while. He made this decision not
out of his loyalty to the king but because he believed that it would be only
worse in other cities. Since the Bloody Moon represented the end of the
world, the safest place on this continent would be Neverwinter.
Peace was soon restored after the king and the queen came to sooth the
masses. With the the police and the garrison cracking down criminals, order
was quickly re-established. Victor, as the witness to the incident at the movie
theater, was summoned by the police several times for investigation
purposes. When he was about to leave the soft arms of his maid and head
back to the south, he heard the news of the currency reform.
The shock brought about by this new policy was far greater than that by the
Bloody Moon.
The king was going to abolish the currency system that had been in use since
the foundation of the four kingdoms!
As a businessman, Victor had not believed it when he had first heard the
news. He had thought that they were delirious ramblings of some drunkards.
Gold was the most precious metal throughout the four kingdoms as well as
foreign countries. How could the king abolish the currency system all of a
sudden?
Nevertheless, he later confirmed the validity of the information after reading
the newspaper brought in by the maid. The rumors circulated among various
taverns and pubs also further confirmed the news.
The first reform policy was that “All the old currencies shall be replaced by
the new currencies. It is mandatory to use the new currencies to conduct
transactions in accordance with their face values”.
This meant that the king could use a piece of paper to purchase all the goods
brought into Neverwinter, which was pretty much like robbery.
“I saw many people flee the city with their cargo when I came back,”
Twinkle, who was lying on her stomach on the bed, said apprehensively.
Victor was not sure if she was worried that he would leave the city like
everyone else or about the Rainbow Stone clothes.
Victor managed a bitter smile. Twinkle did not know that his fortunes had
been closely tied to the King of Graycastle. Without Miss Leaf providing him
with the seeds, he would not be able to expand his brand.
Whatever happened next, Victor would not abandon the business in
Neverwinter easily.
He knew Roland Wimbledon would soon implement this policy throughout
the whole nation.
The king himself was an excellent businessman with an acute business sense.
He had no reason to rob people at the moment to maintain the status quo. At
this thought, Victor calmed himself down and read on.
The second and third policies concerned the livelihood of the community.
“All the salaries in Neverwinter will be paid in the new currencies.”
“All the transactions in the Administrative Office and the Convenience
Market, including but not limited to food and real estates, shall be carried out
through the new currencies.”
The fourth policy was regarding the number of paper notes distributed to the
public.
“The Administrative Office will offer a long-term currency exchange service
that enables residents to exchange their old currencies, namely, gold royals,
silver royals and bronze royals, for the new currencies, and vice versa. The
Administrative Office will charge a 5% transaction fee for each transaction
when residents exchange the new currencies for the old ones.”
Victor saw the underlying implication behind this policy.
It seemed that this policy was made to force foreign merchants to use the new
currencies.
“Also, the transaction fee could be waived for merchants who have
permission from the Administrative Office to run business and who have
submitted the application for same.”