"You want to rent a room? That'll be three silver coins."
"For three nights, yes? Sorry, I only want to reserve one night."
"No, one night is three silvers."
"..."
This was already the sixth inn. I had started my search with the cheapest-looking hotels, so how was this happening? Every single inn was at least three times the usual price.
This place had cracks in the walls and didn't even have a bath, but the proprietor was saying that one night cost three silver coins?
What a joke.
I kept at it. "Can't we negotiate? I only have one silver and three coppers…" I turned my purse upside down on the counter. Clink— you could hear the sad truth.
"Isn't that only four coppers?"
"Ah, this one's silver."
"…Oh, so it is. It's very dirty."
"Isn't there anything you can do?"
"There's nothing I can do." The man running the inn sighed. "Please understand, miss. This is a business."
"So extorting money from the poor is a business?"
"Commerce has always been this way."
"Aughhh…" There was no denying that, and it looked like staying at this inn was not an option. "I have a question for you."
"What is it?"
"Don't you think that the prices in this country are a little too high?
The town doesn't even have any sights to see or any unique local product that would justify raising all the basic consumer prices so much."
"Uh… Miss, you're a traveler, so you wouldn't know…," the innkeeper murmured.
As I expected, there was more to it.
After glancing around, the innkeeper lowered his voice. "The newly crowned king is a foolish man, and he artificially inflated the local currency."
"Artificially? Do you mean counterfeit money is circulating through the market?"
The innkeeper nodded. "Indeed. And with all the counterfeit money going around, the value of our currency crashed. As an outsider, the prices in this country would seem a little high, but for everyone who lives here, everything's a reasonable price."
"Reasonable, hmm…? But it's counterfeit money, right? Isn't there any penalty for using it?"
"The king's the one who put it into the market, so I should hope not."
I see.
I finally understood what was going on in this country. I didn't know what the king was trying to do, but if he thought he could stimulate his economy with counterfeit currency, he must be bona fide fool.
However, there apparently hadn't been much pushback from his citizens about it…
"It doesn't really matter if the money we're using is real or fake. If the king increases the amount of money in circulation, the citizens can just increase prices. It doesn't cause problems for us locals. Only travelers like you run into trouble."
"…We sure do. People coming from outside are liable to have their hearts broken by the high prices." People like me.
The innkeeper glanced quickly at something behind me. When I looked, another customer had lined up behind me, and I saw the three silver coins for one night. Apparently, paying triple the ordinary price really did seem appropriate to the locals.
"Will that be all, miss?"
"Yes. Thank you very much for your valuable information."
I bowed and left the inn.