"Is it Finn II you're referring to when you say he doesn't want to lose face?" Gloria asked.
Aurelio nodded. "Who else would it be?"
"The rumors about his vanity seem to be spot on," Gloria remarked.
"He's not just vain; he's also cruel and vulgar," Aurelio said. "His coronation ceremony was grand, yet it was in terribly poor taste. At the end of it, he scattered coins on the streets. The silver coins he threw out were worth eight hundred thousand Gran when converted, which amounts to forty thousand Serin gold coins. That's about the annual budget of some small city-states."
"He's completely mad!" Gloria furrowed her brow. "When I was little, I thought people like him were generous, willing to share their wealth with the common folk. But then my brother set me straight... and I realized that the money he was giving away was the people's to begin with."
"And that was just a tiny fraction of what he plundered from the people when he usurped his cousin's throne," Aurelio added.
"That's just... disgraceful!" Gloria's eyes widened with anger, and after a moment's thought, she couldn't find the right words to express her outrage.
"Then, feeling like he'd lost out, he found a way to get that money back," Aurelio continued.
"How? By raising taxes?"
"Raising taxes is too unimaginative. He started minting new coins instead. It's a common tactic among tyrants," Aurelio explained. "There was an ancient king who minted a new type of coin. The gold content of one new coin was equivalent to one and a half of the old ones. But then he declared that the new coin was worth two old coins. That was relatively restrained, just a case of levying a rather high seigniorage. These days, seigniorage is also imposed on current currencies, and they're usually not worth their face value either."
"Seigniorage? I don't really understand that," Gloria admitted.
"Let's take the silver coins of Libera as an example. Their silver coins are only nine-tenths pure silver. The remaining one-tenth is the seigniorage. These coins aren't actually worth their stated value, but in that country, they're still considered to be of full value, equivalent to the same weight of pure silver," Aurelio elaborated. "The main reasons for levying seigniorage are to pay the coin makers and, more importantly, to prevent the outflow of precious metals. In other countries, the value of these silver coins is based on their actual silver content. Even if they're brand new and unworn, they're only worth nine-tenths of their face value. If you don't use them in Libera, you'll take a loss.
Our country is different, though. Wealth from all over the continent flows into it, so there's no need to worry about precious metals flowing out. That's why our three types of coins – the gold Serin and the large coin Gran – are of excellent quality. The Serin is especially pure, almost pure gold. Only the small coin Becina is a bit different. It's made from a silver-copper alloy, but there's no skimping on quality either. Our coins are so good that it's convenient to do business. When we use our currency abroad, others are quite happy to accept it."
"I see," Gloria nodded.
"Seems I've gone off on a tangent," Aurelio said. "Finn II minted a type of coin that's only thirty or forty percent silver." He took out a pale yellow coin and showed it to Gloria. "This is the change I got when I bought something in town a few days ago. Just look at the color. Who would think it's a silver coin? But he insists it's equivalent to the old silver coins."
"Yeah, it clearly has a lot of copper in it," Gloria agreed, nodding. "After minting so many new coins, there'll be more money in circulation, right? But does that really make the country richer? I don't think so!"
"Exactly. Many monarchs in history have made the same mistake. They genuinely believed that increasing the amount of money would mean they could buy more things," Aurelio said. "They're different from the Serenians. They're not merchants and don't understand these things. Increasing the amount of money just makes everything else more valuable compared to the money itself, unless the production of things like grain and cloth increases at a similar rate. Devaluing the currency only serves to transfer the people's wealth into the king's hands. It doesn't make the people or the country any richer. To make sure the people's property ends up in his hands, Finn II has other measures too."
"What other measures?" Gloria asked.
"Of course, raising taxes is always part of the equation. He introduced several new taxes and required them to be paid in kind. That way, regardless of how much money is in circulation or whether it's worth its face value, at least this part won't be lost. Merchants in our country have also started trading in kind when dealing with Westrick lately. This king, like our merchants, knows full well that the coins he's minting are substandard."
"He's really clever when it comes to exploiting the people," Gloria picked up the coin and asked, "Is his portrait on this?"
"No, it's his father's," Aurelio replied.
Gloria wrinkled her nose in disgust. "What a dutiful son! After doing things like this, people despise these coins, and it's like they're spitting on his father's face. How can there be such a shameless king? And now we're supposed to support him? I heard he promised to cede the land south of the Gael River to us, but... Is that enough to make us overlook his evil deeds?"
"Has the price gone up again? The offer I heard before wasn't this tempting," Aurelio thought to himself. "It's hard to believe such a high price. Which one is true?" He shrugged and said, "This is the Senate's shortsightedness. Helping the rebels overthrow him and then asking the new king for these territories when they come to power might not be a hopeless plan."
"If only it were that simple. This could be your chance to avenge your teacher... Maybe we should just sit back and watch him be hanged by the peasants! It's what he deserves," Gloria said.
Aurelio was silent for a moment before saying, "Let's spare his life for now. If you don't take part in the revenge yourself and just rely on so-called karma, can that really be called revenge?"
"Alright... alright. I hope the day of revenge comes soon! I can't wait to kill that bastard myself, but I'll leave the opportunity to you," Gloria said. "After all this talking, I'm even thirstier. I'll go get the red wine. There was still some left from before." With that, she got up, went back to her room on the second floor, and fetched the half-empty bottle of wine.
"Sure you don't want a drink?" She poured herself a glass and downed it in one go. "You've done most of the talking. Are you sure you don't want a sip?"
Aurelio had already resumed his calculations, his head bent over the paper. Without looking up, he said, "No. I'm designing a magic spell. I can't afford to make any calculation mistakes."
"Then I'll get you a glass of water," Gloria said. She picked up the tray and made her way to the kitchen. After washing the dishes, she returned to the hall with a large glass of water. As she placed the glass beside his left hand, she glanced at the papers on the table. They were filled with a jumble of numbers, letters, and strange symbols, even more than she'd seen earlier. "I'm feeling a bit dizzy just looking at what you're working on. Is this magic... for me?"
"Yes," Aurelio replied, pausing his hand for a moment before continuing with his calculations. He was afraid that speaking would lead to errors in his writing.
"Don't tell me I have to do these calculations too," Gloria said.
"No. I'll handle the theoretical part. You just need to be able to perform it in practice," Aurelio reassured her.
"Thank goodness. If I had to do these calculations, I wouldn't want to learn it at all," Gloria said, visibly