Rudra landed in the center of the village. He turned towards the Death Knight, who killed all the knights except for three of them.
"Good, Death Knight. Now stay back with your zombie servants."
The villagers who hid, started to come out one by one, before eventually all of them revealed themselves.
As Rudra walked up to them, he could more clearly see confusion and unease in the face of the villagers.
All the villagers in the square had seen the violence done by the Death Knight, even though its actions did save them but it was also true that it extremely scared the villagers. Being the master of that disastrous thing, made the villagers afraid of him too.
Seeing the fearful expressions of villagers, Rudra reminded himself to also consider the perspective of the weak.
"You have been saved, Be at ease, I am the summoner of that creature." he said while pointing to the death knight. His statement made the villagers audibly gasp.
Mutterings occurred among the crowd of villagers. Their expressions still revealed fear and suspicion towards Rudra.
Rudra also thought that their suspicion was reasonable.The fact he was far more powerful than knights made the villagers frightened. Additionally, such a powerful person saving them without any reason would likely raise doubt.
A middle aged man with tanned skin and gray hair stepped forward from the crowd. He seemed to be in his early 50s. The tanned skin must be from doing work at fields in the sunlight. He spoke to Rudra with a tone mixed with respect and fear.
"Esteemed sir, I am the chief of this village, could you please tell us who you are?"
"You can call me Rudra,...um, do you know magic?"
"Yes, The alchemist who comes by our village knows how to use magic."
"Well, that makes it easier, I am a wandering magic caster, I saw this village getting attacked, so I took it upon myself to help you."
Rudra knew Helping strangers without any profit for oneself would always garner suspicion.
"Of course, I fully expect reward for my services."
Although it cleared suspicion, it brought troubling expressions on the faces of the villagers, probably they were worried about money. Chief's next words confirmed Rudra's assumption.
"...M-Money…with, with the current state of this village…"
As Rudra and the village chief were discussing, Elsabeth brought Liza Reni and her little sister, Riza Reni there. Elsabeth walked up to Rudra, her armor made metallic sounds as she walked, bowed to Rudra before standing beside him.
Both girls smiled upon seeing Rudra, Especially Liza, her stiff face when she walked behind Elsabeth, blooming a genuine smile when she saw him.
Although Rudra was a Celestial Demon, his appearance resembled a human, that too a highly handsome one. It might not gain full trust from the villagers and Liza but it certainly helped him to have a favorable impression.
The sisters bowed deeply in front of Rudra.
"Thank you for saving us." Liza said.
"Thank you", Riza said.
"Don't mention it."
"...Sir Rudra, I want to discuss your reward, ...b-but before that c-could we please proceed with the burial? That is only if you don't mind it?"
"I do not mind at all. This is an important thing for you. I can wait for my reward."
"You have my gratitude sir."
The burial ceremony was held in a nearby communal graveyard. It was surrounded by a broken down fence, and within were circular stone slabs inscribed with people's names.
The Village Chief recited the verses to ease the spirits of the dead, and the words from his mouth appealed to a god Rudra never heard of.
It appeared that there were not enough hands to bury all the dead bodies at once, so they were burying some of them first.
He spotted the sisters among the villagers he saved - Liza Reni and Riza Reni. Their parents' bodies were among the ones that would be buried today.
"[All Knowing Eyes]" Rudra's eyes glowed with reddish shine. It was one of the rarest abilities in the Nero game which he bought with real money. This ability could give maximum information regarding almost everything in sight. He used that ability on the villagers and the sisters. Although it would drain a large amount of mana from him, he still used it.
All the villagers including the sisters did not have an ounce of mana in them. Levels of everyone were less than level 5, they were so weak that it almost baffled Rudra but he did not let it show outwardly.
When Rudra focused a bit more, he found out that Liza Reni had a mediocre amount of spiritual energy in her. It seemed that she awakened it when she stood against the knight, a life threatening situation earlier.
Spiritual power/energy is more rare than mana/magic power. It helps to summon spirits from other spiritual planes.
Although the quantity was below average of a beginner level spirit user, Liza definitely had some. Even though more than half of them had this power in Arcanum, Rudra thought it was still special in this new world.
He wanted to gain the trust of the villagers for the future purposes. For a moment, he thought about reviving the dead villagers or at least Liza's parents but ultimately denied the idea. Because he thought it would be dangerous to show one of his cards without fully knowing about the new world. Besides, he did not think villagers would keep quiet about the resurrection.
Riza was crying very hard. The 10 year old could not bear the fact that her beloved parents were not coming. Liza tried to stay strong for her sister but could only hold back her tears for a short time before she too weeped very hard.
Rudra approached Liza and put his hand on her shoulder to comfort her. Probably, Liza desperately needed some emotional support at the moment, she hugged Rudra and cried over his shoulder. Riza also joined her sister in his embrace.
It took some time, but the sisters finally managed to calm down with the help of fellow villagers.
Then Rudra met with the village chief in his house to discuss his reward. Elsabeth was patrolling the village and the Death Knight was guarding the prisoners.
His house was near the village square which upon entering one would be greeted by a large living room with a kitchen off to one side. A rickety old table with four chairs occupied the center of the room.
The sunlight shone through the window was the only source of light in the house and it illuminated every corner of the house.
He sat on one of the chairs at the table. The chair crooked as he sat on it. The house and the furniture screamed poverty.
He took a look at the farming tools. As he expected, there were no manufactured tools. Even though this world was like the medieval era, he thought at least technology would develop with the help of magic but it seemed that was not the case.
Although Rudra said he wanted reward, his real objective was information, not money. While in this village he may be the strongest, but that did not guarantee the fact he was the strongest in the whole world. He imagined that it would be too late for him if he went against mightiest beings in this world without any knowledge. Additionally, being a demon did not help his situation. Thus, he had to tread very carefully.
"Sorry to keep you waiting."
The Village chief sat across Rudra. The chief's wife stood beside him. Her face was full of wrinkles and her skin was tanned, probably because of the field work. She seemed to be the same age as her husband. Her shoulder length was a mixture of black and gray.
"Let us cut to the chase and begin the negotiations about the reward."
"Yes. But before that … thank you very much!"
The chief bowed so low that his head nearly touched the table. His wife did the same following him.
"Without your help, we would all be dead now. You have our deepest thanks!"
The couple had expressed their unreserved gratitude. He was quite surprised by it as he never received such earnest appreciation. Well, it was only expected because he never saved someone's life before.
Although Rudra was somewhat embarrassed, he did not dislike the praise.
"There is no need for thanks, Like I said earlier I did not save you for free."
"Still we would like to thank you for rescuing us and the rest of the villagers."
"Then paying me would be good enough. I do not wish to take much of your time in this critical period."
"We would like to spend time with our savior. But I understand your point."
"Then I will speak more frankly. How much can you pay me?"
"I dare not be dishonest with our saviour and a powerful person like yourself. If we take all the money from everyone in the village except the bare minimum, I think we could gather around 200 bronze coins and a little more than 100 copper coins."
I have no idea what you are talking about, thought Rudra.
In the Nero game world, there was only one type of coin : gold coins. It could be obtained either by completing missions or buying them from a game store, 100 gold coins for 10 dollars. So, he had no idea about the currency of the new world, let alone about bronze and copper coins.
"I am not from this country, so I do not have any currency belonging to this land. Could you please tell me what I can buy with this gold coin?"
Rudra secretly opened the inventory and withdrew a gold coin from Nero Game. He placed it on the table for the couple to see it. Although most of the gold coins in the Arcanum were stored on the 8th floor, he always had a decent amount of gold coins in his inventory.
During his time as a player in Nero, he earned so much that all the residents of Arcanum could live an extremely lavish life for several centuries. In the Arcanum timeline, he was absent for 20 years, even if everyone in the Arcanum had lived with maximum life expenses without earning anything, there would be enough gold for another 1000 years. Besides, there is also a function known as "The Exchange Box" which could convert anything of value into equivalent gold.
One side of the coin had an Indian goddess with a posture of giving money and another side was an image of a laughing Buddha.
The Village Chief and his wife stared at the coin with wide eyes.
"This, This is!"
"This is a coin used in the land where I came from. Can it be used here?"
"Oh, yes… please wait, I will check its value."
Rudra was relieved that it could be used, if gold had no value in this new world then he would be broke.
Chief left his seat, went inside of his room and came back with a balance scale. Although Rudra heard about it, it was the first time he had seen it.
After that, the wife took out a circular thing and put it next to the gold coin. After she was satisfied comparing them, she placed the gold coin on one of the scales and she put a counter weight on the other scale.
The gold coin was heavier, so the counter weight went up. The wife added another similar counter weight to balance the gold coin.
Rudra understood this method. It was also used on Earth albeit in the olden days. The Village Chief's wife first compared the gold coin he gave to an object similar to a regular gold coin that was being used in this land. Then she weighed its weight to check its mass, i.e its gold content.
"It seems to be… twice as heavy as a regular gold coin… perhaps, perhaps if we could scratch the surface…"
"O-Oi! You are being rude! Please accept my sincere apologies on behalf of my wife, for saying such foolish things."
"It is twice as heavy as a regular gold coin… perhaps, perhaps if we can scratch the surface…"
"O-Oi, you are being rude! Please accept my apologies on behalf of my wife, for her foolish words."
It was the same as seeing a 200 dollar bill instead of a 100 dollar bill. No wonder. She must have suspected it was gold plated.
"I can understand, but aren't you too thick skinned to doubt me even after what I did? Well, whatever, if you scratch it and find that it's pure gold, you will take it, right?"
Although Rudra was slightly offended, he did not get angry. But the fact that the couple had irked him made them extremely afraid.
When they remembered how strong the death knight was, the chief's wife whose mind was momentarily clouded by money instantly snapped back to reality.
She prostrated with her head touching the ground.
"P-Please forgive me!"
"I am not really hurt. Let us come to the matter. It was shown that my gold coin was twice the weight as the regular one. But if you consider the artwork on the design, its value would be more than twice."
"The artwork is certainly beautiful… but we are not merchants. So we cannot tell the value of the art."
"Is that so? Then, my gold coin should be atleast twice as valuable as the regular one. Now, tell me how it is comparable to the other coins you mentioned earlier."
"It seems Rudra sir is not that really familiar with the Empire."
"Yes, I came from far away to further my research in magic." Rudra lied with no hesitation.
"Then that explains your lack of knowledge. But don't worry sir, I will tell you everything you need to know honestly."
"Please do"
"The Empire uses four types of coins. There are also other means but mainly these coins are used as currency. The four coins are copper, bronze, silver and gold."
The Empire and the majority of the continent were using the same financial system.
10 copper coins = 1 bronze coin
100 bronze coins = 1 silver coin
1000 silver coins = 1 gold coin
"By the money you offered earlier, I can understand the financial condition of the village is not good. So, let me buy something from the village. I have a few more of this type of gold coin with me."
"I dare not deceive you, sir. If we sell everything in the village, we could give you a decent amount sir. But we cannot afford more than 200 bronze coins without starving ourselves in the winter."
The village chief continued,
"The same applies to our produce. Many fields have to be abandoned due to the lack of manpower. So our supplies are also limited. I know what we offer is very meager to the sir. But that is all we have. Although you might be suspicious of us, we would not dare hide the truth from you, sir."
Rudra initially wanted to buy something to estimate the market prices but Chief's statements made him rethink.
He soon thought of a better idea than the first one.
"Let's see, you have neither money nor supplies to give, right."
"We are extremely sorry but you are right."
"Why don't you pay me in installments in either money or supplies? I will also provide you loans and protection to make your Village recover faster."
"R-Really, Not only will you let us pay in installments but also give us loans and protection?"
"Yes, did you not like it?"
"I love it sir! You have our immense gratitude."