After talking with Gerian, Fante and Rhea found another sparsely populated hotel to stay in for a while.
Late in the evening, Rhea suddenly spoke to Gloria, who was combing her hair: "Actually, the person who was holding the van that day was you, wasn't it?".
"Why do you say that?"
"You can't get into a city like Karafrog if you don't have a van certificate, and I saw this man from the window last night driving the van you bought."
"So quickly exposed, huh?"
"You weren't really trying to hide it, were you...".
"Yes, I've been trying to figure out how to find a way to confess to you, and now that you've found out, it will be much easier for me to change back."
Rhea cast her magic spell, and she turned back into Fante, a melancholic and pure-looking young man.
"Are you a man or a woman...".
"Of course, I am a man, but Rhea is a woman, and although we are both one person, our consciousness and thinking are different."
Gloria covered her head, seemingly unable to accept the situation for a moment.
"What about tomorrow's deal? We'll have to go to a notary, right?".
"Let's put it this way: two women are still making decisions that they can't make at home, so we'll have to escort the male host out."
"A man?"
"It's not that hard to pretend to be a couple, is it?".
The desire of women was much less than the opportunity to earn a thousand gold coins at once.
If Gerian sees that he is dealing with a woman and uses strong-arm tactics to threaten and rob her, then Fente will gain nothing from this.
Only then will Fente be able to unravel the trap and turn the course of events.
Thoughts of gold, lies, calculations, all sorts of things surrounded Fente's thoughts, and so he fell asleep without realizing it.
But ... the room with a large bed, originally prepared for two ladies, rightfully had only one bed and only one blanket.
Gloria looked at Fante, who was puffing and puffing indifferently, and had been thinking about it all evening with a complicated expression on his face.
"Good morning, why do you have such dark circles under your eyes."
The next day, following the traveling merchant's rule of getting up early for profit, Fente opened his eyes early and saw Gloria sitting next to him, shaking her head and dozing.
"We slept together until last night, there's no need to be so formal, right?"
"No, it was different before, this ... was a scam, yes, it was a scam!".
"Although I'm pretty sure that neither the laws of Aarvgard nor the laws of Southland have provisions regarding gender masking, but let's calm down, today is the day of the notary contract."
The system of notarial contracts, as follows from the word itself, is intended for the conclusion of contracts, with a third body acting as a witness.
Although the contract is signed in the presence of a notary, it is not a code of laws, and if there is a violation of the contract, but not to such an extent as to violate the law, the soldiers and knights who ensure the security of the city will not arrest the violator for it.
Despite the lack of legal protection, the party whose contract was violated could use the notary's name to seriously criticize the reputation of the violator.
No one wants to deal with a person who has violated a contract, especially a merchant who wants to make a big deal.
Even a traveling merchant from a foreign country after such an incident would not be able to earn a single copper on the spot and would have to move again.
Given such consequences, Fente wondered why Gerian didn't certify it in Karafrog, where the notary system was better, or in the city of Tristral, where notary fees were lower.
If he had lost trust there, in the bustling capital city and free trade port where people came and went, the information about the person who lost trust would have spread throughout the southern border along with the people who came and went.
It would not be a case of starting all over again in another city, but at least fleeing to the north or, in the worst case, having to leave Aarvgard to trade in another country.
It seems that Gerian foresaw the worst-case scenario that he would violate the contract and chose this slightly isolated port city to minimize the damage.
It would seem that the notarial act is a simple formality, worthless, and Gerian will definitely violate the contract.
But Fente did not want to refuse notarization for anything, it would be too strange and, perhaps, would lead to the opposite consequences.
At 8 a.m., when Fante appeared in front of Jelian with Gloria, the man was clearly stunned: "Boss, where is she, Miss?".
In turn, Fente, without changing his face, said what he had been going to say for a long time.
"My sister was taken home for stealing a deposit."
"And the deal?"
"If this is a really good thing that will allow you to earn a thousand gold coins, as my wife says, then, of course, the deal will take place."
"It's clear, I kept thinking why the lady and the sister are not very similar, but it turned out that it's you, the boss, the wife of the older brother, so, boss, I'll tell you in detail about the terms of the deal again?".
"Hmm."
There was simply no point in listening to the terms of the deal again after they had been sounded countless times, but Fente still pretended to hear them for the first time, and Jelyan asked in detail about quite a few details.
The pointless show won the endgame.
"That's it, since you made a deal with my sister, then I trust you too."
Three men paid a notary fee in the amount of 8 silver at the notary office.
The contract was signed in the presence of a notary, and then the transaction was considered completed when they saw Fente handing 10 Kabul gold coins to Jelian.
Gerian dragged Fente into a closed cell and informed him about a silver coin that would have a significantly higher silver content in the future - the Catalan silver coin.
It was a silver coin issued by the city of Tristral, one of the few cities of the mineral-deficient Southern Mainland that was allowed to issue silver coins because it was a free trade port.
The only silver coins in the south of the kingdom are the silver coins of the free trade port of Tristral, the silver coins of Duchess Floria from Karafrog and the silver coins of the Hutt from Kalahkat, a foreign trade port that conducts trade with other countries in the far south.
In general, however, more than thirty silver coins were issued in Aarvgard, compared to more than 130 in all countries of the world, which gives an idea of the prosperity of Aarvgard.
After the successful conclusion of the contract, Fante and Gloria said goodbye to Gerian and headed straight to the market.
After telling Gloria that the silver coin that could rise in value was a catalytic silver coin, Fente also gave Gloria a catalytic silver coin as a sample.
"Why is the name of the city Tristral, and the silver coin is called a catalytic silver coin?".
It was this question that Gloria voiced.
True, by and large, if it was called Tristral, then how the issued currency could be called Hypni, but it was one of the ten incredible things known to all merchants of the Southern mainland, and everyone did not know the answer, so there was nothing to say.
In fact, if it is a silver coin, then it is really good to buy it in this area, because a silver coin is the most commonly used currency in this generation, the denomination is higher, one probably costs about 25 copper coins, even in the world one hundred and thirty silver coins are also counted as a currency with a high price.
If the population of the Territory did not use the local currency, the fate of the territory was reduced either to extinction or to becoming a vassal of other territories in name only.
From the earliest days of the Mint, when the Mint League was guilty of allowing the Wang Millio family to dominate the world copper market, money fortresses were deliberately erected by various lords.
In the territory where the economy is developing, the currency of the country is usually used, and only in foreign trade the coin of another country is used, and there is a tax on sales and purchases when using the national currency for settlements.
The city of Tristral is not only well preserved, but also has ambitions to expand south and compete with Hutt Silver for currency for foreign trade, so, merchants aside, the locals definitely use almost exclusively Trini silver coins, and only a reduction in sales tax is a great asset that can be accumulated over the years for those who live in Tristral for a long time.
"This silver coin is a very reliable currency in this region."
Gloria asked, still holding her head and looking at the silver coin in her hand.
"There are hundreds of currencies in the world, the gold and silver content in them often increases or decreases, so each of them is trustworthy."
"Isn't the content of gold and silver in the currency set uniformly at the Mint?".
"No, this is not the case, although the official stitching and price change takes place at the mint congress, in fact, the mint begins to slowly change the content of the bars some time before that."
"So what?"
"How should I put it, maybe the man named Gerian really wasn't lying."