Chapter 90, Coin Exchange in the Village

Kil then picked up the wine glass and raised it high: "Finally, I would like to salute Knight Rumi again and wish him good luck in martial arts."

The three guards nearby raised their glasses and said in unison: "The martial arts will be prosperous."

Clink glasses and drink heavily.

Not wanting to waste time in the tavern, Kil drank all the delicious ale in his glass in one go.

"Gudong, Gudong, Gudong, Gudong..."

Putting down the wine glass, Kil took a breath and said: "I still want to go around the area, so I won't accompany you any more. I will take away the boiled mutton, and you can handle the other leg of lamb on your own."

He rummaged through the small backpack under the cloak behind him and found an empty leather bag. There was nothing in it, so it was relatively clean.

Keir smiled and poured the mutton in front of him into the leather bag, then tied the mouth of the leather bag, tied a knot, and hung it on his belt.

The three guards didn't bother to stay. Anyway, they would see each other every day. They just nodded and continued to eat the roasted leg of lamb while it was hot.

Because the fees have been paid in advance, after the food and drinks are served, what the guests do with it, whether they eat it directly or take it away, is their own business, and the local villagers do not care.

Just don't take away other people's wooden plates. After all, the prices of common wooden plates here are more expensive than elsewhere, so you have to pay attention.

But none of the business travelers coming and going were that bored. In other places, no one would pick up this thing if it fell on the ground.

-

The boiled mutton, soup and water in the bag swayed slightly as Keir moved around.

After carefully checking the knot on it and making sure it was secure, Kil walked out of the room that was used as a tavern.

There are still a lot of people outside, but there are fewer people than when we just finished eating. Many caravan guys don't buy things here. After all, things that are cheap in other places are extremely expensive here.

They, the most ordinary guys in the caravan, don't have extra money to spend carelessly. After all, they take considerable risks when traveling for business.

If you want safety, it is better to stay in your hometown to farm and herd, or to learn a craft from a craftsman, than to risk your life and leave your hometown.

Keir didn't want to buy cheap things from the stalls in the passage outside. Although they were local items that were cheap and useful to him, they were not available anywhere else. He looked at the other unlocked rooms on both sides of the surrounding passage, wondering what was going on there.

The aroma of barbecue kept coming from another room next to the tavern room, which was obviously where the food was made.

There were a few people at the door who kept looking inside, as if they were waiting for something.

Soon, a piece of roasted meat was brought out. The barbecue was steaming and sizzling. It was obvious that it had just been cooked, and it was simply tied with a string.

The eyes of a waiting businessman at the door lit up and he asked a question. After getting the answer, he just picked up the rope and left.

Apparently you can buy food here and it's easy to take away.

Kil thought for a moment, then walked over and asked the local villagers guarding the door.

He didn't ask anything else, but asked about the price of roasted lamb leg and boiled lamb. "A roast leg of lamb costs seven copper coins, and boiled lamb costs three copper coins."

The villager at the door answered directly, speaking very quickly, obviously remembering it clearly.

When he realized that he hadn't been slaughtered, Kil smiled a little.

"Do you want to buy it, guest? We also have lamb ribs, roasted lamb backbone, pan-fried lamb tail oil and wheat cakes." Then the villager mysteriously whispered to Keir: "Under the sheep That one can also be roasted, do you want to try it? Many caravan stewards like it very much."

Keir didn't plan to buy it, but looked like he was considering it. A businessman waiting for food next to him laughed at him: "You're overthinking. Who needs to eat this for such a young guy?" He turned to look at Keir. Er: "Don't be tempted by him, it's useless."

Seeing that the villager introducing him next to him was staring at him, the man changed his words: "It's of no use to you."

Keir looked inside the house and found that there was not much space inside. Several strong villagers were busy inside. In the wide and shallow baskets made of strong straw on the ground, there were stacks of lamb legs and mutton, obviously for delivery. It was already handled simply when I came here.

The young villager cuts the meat with a kitchen knife and then hands it to his companion next to him. Another person puts the meat in a wooden basin and sprinkles it with granulated salt and ground local spices.

Then he repeatedly beats the meat in the basin with a stick used for self-defense.

Keir knew that this was not because the villagers were in poor spirits, but because they were beating the tendons in the loose pieces of meat with sticks. After processing in this way, it will be much softer when you eat it in your mouth.

In the middle of the room is a large fire pit, with a grill on one side and an iron pot on the fire. There were several pieces of meat on the grill. The middle-aged, sturdy villager seemed to be of great status. He was holding a small clay pot filled with seasonings in one hand. He used a wooden brush to dip oil from the barbecue with the other hand, and then put it in the clay pot. Pick up the seasoning, then brush the wooden brush against the barbecue repeatedly.

Try to stick the seasoning on the meat.

Because the grilled meat is very fatty, there is no need to add additional oil to grill it. If it is lean meat without fat, you need to add extra fat for grilling, otherwise it will be very dry and dry.

This is why the meat of many wild beasts does not taste good when grilled. Wild beasts live a difficult life. It is difficult to accumulate enough fat under their fur and muscles.

As for the livestock raised by the village itself, because they have enough food to eat every day and do not exercise a lot, their body fat is much higher than that of their peers.

-

Even though he had just finished eating, Keir still swallowed hard when he saw the delicious and fragrant meat inside.

Fortunately, his bulging belly prevented his head and nose from becoming dizzy, and persuaded Kil's unwise move: "Well, I'd better forget it, I'm full."

Seeing that he had no intention of buying anything, the villagers at the door shrugged and stopped talking to Keir.

Turning around and pushing through the crowd, Kil walked towards the house in another passage.

There are no people blocking the way at the door, and it's not noisy inside. Although there are not many people, they basically just talk in low voices.

Kiel looked around and found a well-guarded counter, with wooden tables and elderly villagers sitting next to it. There was enough lighting in the room, which allowed Keir to see what was placed on the wooden table surrounded by people.

There were several sets of scales and weights.

At this moment, some caravan stewards who had eaten were taking out the money bags full of money with their men. There was a table with an anti-falling frame next to it. The money bag tipped over, and it was full of coins. It poured out loudly.

People around you will be unconsciously attracted by the sound of coins colliding, and all their eyes will be on the various low-denomination coins pouring out.

The same goes for Keir. He could tell at a glance that most of them were iron coins and copper coins.

After thinking about it for a moment, I knew what was going on here.

It turned out to be a currency exchange place.

It is naturally impossible for business travelers who go out to do business to bring heavy change coins in addition to their goods. Most of them will bring high-value gold and silver coins to do business.

Light weight, high value, easy to carry and maintain value.

These are the advantages of precious metal coins.

When you go all the way and arrive at a suitable trading location, large quantities of goods will be traded with high-value gold and silver coins, and the change you use along the way or sell goods in pieces will be exchanged for powerful or specially created coins. Find change everywhere.

On the contrary, the low-face value copper and iron coins earned scatteredly will also be exchanged for gold and silver coins here and taken away.

However, this convenient transaction will charge a small fee.

Sure enough, after just scanning the room, Kil saw a clean and golden tapestry of the emblem of the gods hanging on an open wall.

The emblem of the God of Wealth was embroidered with gold thread on the expensive-looking tapestry.

At this moment, as the coins in a certain merchant's purse were dumped, the emblem on the tapestry seemed to shine brightly.

The people around him seemed not to be surprised, but Keir was surprised.

At this time, as the businessman asked the waiter behind him to empty out the scattered coins and shake the deflated strong leather bag, the old villager sitting behind the wooden table spoke.

"You're old, please ask the guy to help separate the copper coins from the iron coins. Let's deal with the iron coins first."

Although the old man was old, he was in good spirits. He said please and started to move his hands. He is different from other villagers or businessmen. The sleeves of the loose robe worn by the old man have been specially processed to make a pair of tight sleeves that are close to the skin.

In this way, without the obstruction of clothes, any of his movements can be clearly seen by the guests in front of him.

He separated the coins from the pile of coins, then nimbly picked out the dark iron coins with his hands, and placed them in a pile of ten in a special coin card holder beside him.

After each pile was placed, another old man next to him would draw an obvious circle on a dedicated place on a small piece of parchment paper.

The businessman waved his hand, and the two young men next to him also rolled up their sleeves and went up to help sort out the coins.

The young man has good eyesight, and although his movements are unskilled, he is faster. He quickly places the ten coins in a pile, and the sound of the coins colliding is clear and sweet.

At least Kiel himself never tired of hearing it, and so did the other businessmen talking in hushed tones around him.

Some businessmen even sat on adobe chairs beside the walls of the house, crossed one leg, closed their eyes and enjoyed the wonderful sound of the coins colliding.

"A voice as good as the best bard's."

"Hush, how is that possible? You haven't seen it before. Our King of the Kingdom of Saint Halls is the best bard in the entire continent! This is something that the gods have acknowledged and witnessed."

"Oh, I don't understand, tell me quickly."

Several businessmen nearby were talking quietly, and Keir also heard it. Of course he knew what the businessman was talking about. Because he was interested in other worlds, especially the history of his own kingdom, Keir had heard this widely circulated magical story.

The story was nothing. The Kingdom of Saint Halls he was standing under was actually founded because in a music event witnessed by the gods, a group representing humans overcame obstacles, defeated opponents of other races, and won the final victory.

And the reward is a new human kingdom.

The Kingdom of Saint Halls comes from the strongest bard - Baiken Halls himself.

Kil stopped listening to the people next to him. He had never seen the work process of this exchange office, so he held his own money bag in his hand and pretended to be busy, but in fact he was curiously watching the people busy.

After a short period of busy work, the merchants repeatedly rummaged through the pile of copper coins to confirm that there were no iron coins.

Then the old man behind the wooden table dried the parchment in his hand, checked it carefully, and handed it to the businessman opposite for confirmation.

"Mr. Radley, please check it out."

No businessman who went out to do business was not careful. Even if the two old men in front of him were not dealing with him for the first time, the businessman also counted the iron coins stacked in rows of ten on the table again.

"One hundred and seventy-three piles, and there are seven separate iron coins left. Yes, it is consistent with what is recorded on the list. Alas, these iron coins are worthless and heavy, but they are inseparable from these love-hate ones. Little cutie.”

The businessman finished confirming while talking, then he picked up the quill pen on the table, signed his name on the list, took out a metal seal from his chest pocket, and burned it in a small stove next to the wooden table. Bake and heat it. After the heated seal is heated, the temperature is transferred to your fingers. Use the ridges on the other end of the seal to burn the place where you just signed.

Burning at high temperature leaves a unique black mark on the parchment, which is confirmation.

Then came the more professional work, with Keir standing aside and watching carefully.

The two old men placed a stack of iron coins on one end of the scale that had not been used, and then picked up a larger weight from the weight placed on another table.

The weight is square in shape with a flat bottom and a metal ring on top that can be grasped by hand. On the remaining four sides of the weight, a number is cast in gold.

The gold sparkled in the flames, and the numbers on it could be clearly seen from a little distance.

This number represents the specific weight of the weight.

The old man held the weight in his hand as a special display and gestured to the surrounding merchants. This means that everything has been supervised by the merchants present and that the weights are correct.

The weight is then placed on the other end of the coin on the scale.

This weight is quite heavy. After putting it down, it immediately moves back most of the scale that was originally pressed to one side.

Then the other weights came on the stage, with the same movement, but the weights were too small. The mass of the weight becomes smaller towards the end, and finally the balance rebalances.

In this way, the weight of all iron coins was confirmed by weights.

Kiln didn't understand why the iron coins should be weighed at first, but when he saw the old man announcing the actual weight of the iron coins to the businessman, and then after calculation, he subtracted the value from the previously counted number of iron coins. Go get some numbers.

"I see."

As the people around him chatted quietly, Keir figured out the reason for doing this.

It turns out that although iron coins are more resistant to wear and tear, and other things are added to resist rust during production, every iron coin will still have some wear and damage when touched.

One, two or ten is nothing, this is a small amount. But once the number reaches hundreds or thousands, the originally inconspicuous wear and damage becomes a problem that must be taken seriously.

Therefore, the number of iron coins belongs to quantity, and their weight must also be weighed.

Because the coins circulating in the kingdom are basically made after the Empire's coins, the quality standards of the coins are also the same as those of the Empire. Except for a few differences in the manufacturing process, each coin is the same in most cases.

By converting the missing weight of all the iron coins, you will know how many iron coins are missing from the total that should be included.

This work seemed redundant, because it could not save one or two coins in total, but through the discussions of other merchants present, Keir knew that this was just an appetizer.

The real big part of the baht exchange will be on the copper coin that will be waiting for you.

According to the decree of the Kingdom, one standard undamaged copper coin is worth ten standard undamaged iron coins.

Therefore, the copper coins that were as many as the iron coins just now were the bulk of what the businessman used to exchange for money this time.

-

The sound of clattering coins continued, and the two old men who had confirmed the iron coins and the merchant's men began to count the copper coins. All the iron coins just now were received into the protective counter at the deepest part of the room and locked up.

The counter was also guarded by several villagers carrying bags wrapped with iron bars.

Of course, the strength of these villagers is limited, but the intention is here. Whoever has the idea here will obviously be classified as unwelcome in the entire village.

As the most important trade route in the western province that runs through the province, there is a village on the Qifeng Plain that must be settled every day.

Being unwelcome in this Tol village, unless they completely subjugate the village through violence like the Kendal people today, they can only spend the night outside the village.

I don’t need to say more about how risky it is to stay overnight here.

"One thousand, seven hundred and a few copper coins." Kil glanced at it and calculated the approximate number of copper coins from the stacks of copper coins arranged in a regular manner.

"If you think about it, it's only one gold coin and seven silver coins. It's really not much."

Kil curled his lips, but he didn't expect that it looked like a lot, but in fact it wasn't much.

After all, he always carries a few gold coins and more than 20 silver coins in his inner pocket for use. More coins were placed in the dream chest that the lady asked him to use.

Other useful gadgets of high value or whose value cannot be judged are also safely stored there.

In addition to the commonly used coins, there were also dwarf coins he got on the rocky mountain, and two elven coins picked up from elven ruins were also included.

However, the two elf coins were often played with by the little goblins who appeared in the dream. Seeing that the other party could not take the elf coins out of the dream, Kil ignored them.

In addition, an unknown metal obtained by killing bandits when he met Lanissa Knight last year was also among his valuables. That piece of metal is not that big, but its weight is extremely heavy, no less than the same volume of gold, or even heavier.

The long beak teeth of the monster that were cut down by the spider-shaped monster alone were also important items. He never knew what the two different-looking teeth were used for. Recently, he was planning to turn the numerous teeth, which were flat as a dagger blade, into a monster-style cloak similar to scale armor.

That thing is light and strong, and the tips of its teeth are poisonous. It makes a special-style cloak very cool no matter how you think about it.

Also very practical.

It was just too cool, he was afraid of being criticized by Knight Crow.

He didn't think about what to use the stubby teeth of another kind of monster, so he just left them alone because they couldn't be broken anyway.

In addition, there are still several kinds of magic materials left that were bought from the blacksmith priest in Kendall City for a lot of gold coins. There are still a few red copper particles and a few black iron metal ingots, but the fire-absorbing gold is completely useless and is stored completely.

In addition, there were many lightweight metal shelves dismantled from the elven ruins piled outside his box. Kil planned to find an opportunity to smelt all these things to make an elf light metal full-body armor.

He had been thinking about this plan for a long time, but because he could not find a skilled armor craftsman, he could only give it up temporarily.

Some other Elven Relic valuables are also placed in the chest.

On the top is the osteoma side of the monster's skull given to him by the young priest after he defeated it in Lake Umi.

He knew at a glance that this thing could be used to make a large buckler to protect the whole body, but just like armor, he had this magical material, but Kil had not met a powerful shield craftsman who could use this material.