The Extra Villain's Second Chance: A Hero's System
Chapter 58 - 57 - Currency System

Chapter 58: Chapter 57 - Currency System

"Seeing as you can speak Drakovian, can you read Drakovian Runes?" Lev asked Astaroth.

Drakovian was the language spoken by the people of the Dragomirov Kingdom.

Drakovian runes themselves have sharp, angular shapes like stone carvings, distinctly different from the letters used in the language commonly spoken by demons.

Since Astaroth awoke until now, oddly, the language he uses isn’t the demon tongue but Drakovian.

However, speaking and reading are two different things when the script used in each language differs.

"Hmp! Although I only had time to briefly circulate on this continent a long time ago, I can master various languages even if I only listen once."

"Just answer whether you can read Drakovian Runes or not!"

"Good. Then, help me read all this."

Lev pointed at the documents he had placed on the table.

"All of these?" Astaroth’s finger trembled while pointing at the pile of documents on the table. His left eyelid also twitched.

Astaroth looked like he wanted to rebel, but Lev raised his fist slightly and threatened not to let Astaroth rest on the Black Lotus crest if he rebelled.

Astaroth’s small body flew closer to the documents on the table. Although his shoulders dropped reluctantly, he still assisted Lev in reading.

Lev only needed to turn the page and listen to Astaroth.

Besides Astaroth’s ability to read Drakovian runes, what Lev did not expect was how Astaroth could understand the terms written in Andrei’s personal documents, including the financial statements.

He was initially prepared to field questions about the mathematical symbols in Andrei’s documents, but who knew that Astaroth would be able to read and decipher them.

Although the math in the financial statements was not complicated at all, he had hardly ever seen a demon who could do it.

Lev chose not to ask Astaroth because he knew that he could be very annoying if he started acting up—it was better to let Astaroth finish reading everything.

Some time passed.

Lev finally found out the true financial situation of his family after finishing listening to Astaroth’s reading.

If he had to summarize everything very briefly... Lyudmila as the regional manager who replaced Andrei often sent monthly money to the family members here in the capital, more precisely depositing some of the people’s tax money to Andrei.

In the capital, Andrei did not use the money for business or other activities that could have a positive impact or benefit to the citizens, but for his own interests.

Not to splurge in entertainment venues like other nobles in general, but Andrei spent his funds to finance his illegal activities.

Giving more money to his subordinates who helped carry out the kidnapping so that they would remain silent and loyal to him.

Giving more quality weapons to his subordinates to prevent anything unexpected.

It was reported that there were occasional clashes between his subordinates and monsters because they chased their targets deep into the forest or there happened to be family members of the targets who were good at fighting.

Apart from Andrei’s use for his illegal activities, family funds also flowed to Irini, Boris, and Lev himself. Everything was strangely neatly recorded.

However, the thing that surprised Lev was the record of how extravagant Irini’s life had been.

Lev was surprised by how much money Irini had accumulated.

’Is this the reason why Andrei intends to announce that he will take a concubine?!’

There was only one word for the Razanov family’s financial situation.

Bankrupt... that was the exact word to describe the Razanov family’s finances right now.

Even though he knew Irini had stolen some of the family’s wealth, there was no way Lev would tell Irini to return all the money she had worked so hard to accumulate.

’Let’s consider that money as severance pay for her.’

People on this continent only recognized one currency.

So, there are no different currencies in each country like there are on earth.

The currency system in this world uses only precious metal coins with no paper money.

Copper coins, commonly called Fenn are the lowest type of coin. One to three Fenn coins can be used to buy a loaf of hard bread.

Above it are silver or Argen coins, which are used for medium-level transactions. For example, to buy household appliances.

The most valuable coin was gold or Aurum—usually used by nobles and upper-level merchants.

1 Aurum was equal to 100 Argen, while 1 Argen was equal to 100 Fenn, that was a simple description of the currency system in this world.

"Do you understand now?" Lev asked Astaroth, to whom he had just given an explanation of this continent’s currency system.

Rather than seeing Astaroth’s face continue to be confused as he read—for example, 125 Aurum was used to buy gems for Irini, so immediately Astaroth’s face was confused as if asking whether 25 Aurum was a lot or a little.

"Okay, okay, I understand. Without you telling me, I will also find out myself after reading more transactions."

Although Astaroth had finished reading all the documents on the table, he was still busy flipping through the pages as if studying something.

"Do the demons in your world use their own currency system?"

"Now or long ago?"

"What do you mean?"

After Lev asked, Astaroth squinted and scratched his head as if he didn’t want to explain, but in the end, he ended up explaining anyway.

"A long, looong time ago, they used the law of the strong taking the property of the weak. Then, there was a time when we used our own currency system. But..." Astaroth paused, looked away, and continued, "No. I don’t want to tell you the rest. I don’t want to tell you at all."

’What an incomplete story that was.’

Although what Astaroth told him seemed useless, he ended up getting quite a bit of information from him.

If the demons had used their own currency system, it meant there was buying and selling activity among them. Meanwhile, the process of buying and selling could only be done by creatures with minds and reason.

In other words, almost all demons had minds of their own.

’But, why is it that the demons I saw all seemed to have no mind of their own.’

Although the door to the demon world had been opened in his previous life, he had never seen a demon that could actually interact with humans.

The question was, was it possible that something had happened in the demon world?

’I don’t think I can force Astaroth to tell me more.’

However, there was a chance Astaroth would tell him himself later—slowly.

Lev tidied up the documents on the table and put them back into the safe.

Besides the important documents that could prove Andrei’s crimes all along, there was also a pile of Aurum coins.

Lev didn’t need to count them one by one to know the total number of coins in the safe.

He knew they were all Aurum coins from the cutout images on top of the coins.

The number detected by his heightened senses was around 10,000 Aurum coins.

Other than the metal material of the safe, he understood why it took three to four servants to lift the safe. It was all because of the Aurum coins inside the safe.

Were 10,000 Aurum coins a lot?

Certainly a lot for an ordinary person.

The poor families across this continent, typically spend around ten Argen coins per month to cover food, clothing, and the rent for their shacks. This estimate applies to a family of three.

The sum of 10,000 Aurum would allow them to live for over eight thousand years—assuming they could live long enough to spend it all.

Yet for a prestigious noble family holding the rank of Duke, that same amount would barely cover one month of living expenses.

Unlike impoverished families who focus solely on food, clothing, and shelter, nobles like the Razanov family have far more complex financial needs.

Salaries for maids, servants, gardeners, and soldiers, not to mention the costs of hiring or retaining knights—ten thousand Aurum disappears like passing wind.

The salaries of maids, servants, gardeners, and soldiers, not to mention the cost of hiring or employing knights, ten thousand Aurum would be like the wind passing by.

’I think Lyudmila kept some money for land management needs.’

If the money in Andrei’s safe was all there was, there was no way the Razanov family would last long. Evidently, until Andrei was found to have a connection with demons in Lev’s previous life, the Razanov family was still standing tall.

Lev took all that and put it into Astaroth’s magic storage.

’I think those are all Andrei’s personal money left over.’

He had originally thought that Andrei would have a special vault to store his wealth, but who would have thought that there was only the size of a square safe box left.

"Hey, I have a limit to how often I can use this magic, ok. The more often I use magic, the more often I have to stay inside your body."

"Stop complaining. Don’t you want to see the outside world?"

"Of course I want to. If I could fly away from you, I would already be traveling around this continent by myself. But, what does my desire to fly around the continent have to do with my complaining?!"

"Has your brain stopped working from hibernating for too long, O Great Demon?"

"Ohhhh. You can’t travel without money?!"