Rebirth Online World

After finishing the meal, Elle-chan went straight to her room to do something. I didn’t know what though. Nor did I want to know. Okay, maybe just a little.

I was currently sitting in satisfaction in front of the table adorned with cleaned wooden dish plates. I guess there were no ceramic plates in this era? Or maybe it was just reserved exclusively for the rich. This, I did not know yet.

Which reminds me, I had to ask someone about the common sense. By that I mean, a resident of this world. As I looked at Marielle-san cleaning up the plates, I decide to ask her after helping out with the cleaning.

I should do that at least.

Usually, Marielle-san had to clean the dishes with a damp cloth, but this time I was here. So, I used <<Water Magic>> on the plates to clean them up real quickly. Though, there was only a small amount of water that came out each time I chanted it. It was Level 1 after all.

Each time, I had to repeat washing them until I could see a dull shine on them, but I had to say, I did a good job. It seems that Marielle-san thought so too, since she hugged me for a few seconds when she saw how clean the dishes were. Was <<Water Magic>> that rare?

No, it must have been me over thinking things. There were no pipelines or indoor plumbing in medieval times after all. Although, now, I couldn’t breath.

Two deadly weapons were currently crushing my head in a soft manner, depriving me of oxygen the more I stayed in here. I think, I’m going to die.

Ah, but this death might be just fine…

No, don’t give in to temptation, me! I had to gather information about this world so I can live the rest of my days in peace. Maybe even find a way to get back home.

Although, the latter sounded a thousand times harder than living here instead, so let’s put off finding a way back. I had no strong ties back on Earth either way. Also, I doubt I would have been successful in life, working every day.

Well, I will cross that bridge when I get to it.

For now, I use the rest of my measly strength to release myself from Marielle-san’s hold on my head. Albeit reluctantly, I sat back down on the chair, and gestured her to sit down in front of me. I had many things to ask after all.

“Hmm, what is it Kyouya-kun?”

Somehow, her way of calling me had changed. I’m not complaining though. Not one bit.

“Well…..I just wanted to thank you one more time for letting me rest here last night. You even made me breakfast, if there is anything I can do in return, please let me know.”

It’s only natural to give something back when you receive kindness from a stranger.

But it seems that after my serious speech, Marielle-san smiled like a radiant sun. What, was anything weird about what I said? Does the culture here differ from Japan that much!?

While I was inwardly finding mistakes I had made within myself, I was interrupted by the slightly admonishing, but tinged with amusement, voice of Marielle-san.

“No, I just found you cute, that’s all. There’s no need to thank me. In fact, you should thank Elle for finding you in the bushes. Without her, we would never have met.”

Marielle-san, being called cute doesn’t make a guy happy you know?

Well, I’ll let it slide just this once. In her eyes, I might just be a kid after all.

Now that I say it myself, that is depressing.

“I see. Then, I’ll make it up to both of you. Deal?”

With a straightforward tone, I said this to her. She must have been surprised since no one would expect this playboy-ish line to come from yours truly.

Well, that would be true, normally.

But this, was after all another of my many facades! I call it, the ‘Dense Handsome Guy’ facade. Over the years, I had some classmates who had this trait. By observing them, and the way they talk, as if they didn’t care that much about saying the wrong thing, I had learned to imitate the ways of being popular.

But, since I liked spending time more on games rather than talking to different people back then, I only used this once or twice, maybe a bit more. Even so, this was the perfect comeback for someone treating me like a child. I am a genius!

“*Giggle* I see, then I’ll be waiting. Now, what is it you wanted to ask me?”

Ah, it seems it worked. But I almost forgot, it was time to start…

“Then, let’s leave it at that. What I wanted to ask you about, was…”

………..

Quite a bit of time had passed since I started asking questions to Marielle-san under the pretext of coming from the countryside. I still think she saw through my obvious lie, but I couldn’t possibly tell someone I had just met, that I had come from a different world.

I’m glad that she was this understanding.

To summarize what information I had obtained, was this:

Firstly, this world had one big continent altogether. Although there was a small number of islands across the sea, most of the living beings were on this continent known as ‘Realis Saratum’. It had a strange name, as with all the things here.

Different races were scattered across the land, just like what the letter had said.

Marielle-san didn’t know much about the other races, but the human countries were divided into three. The largest country, that I was now in, is called ‘Zershel Kingdom’.

This kingdom was ruled by the ‘Royal Family’, and nobles called ‘Feudal Lords’ governed each city around it. There are in total, 5 cities that composed the kingdom.

Surrounding the capital, were the cities Edoria, Lavis, Shieshel, and Graund.

The one centered around the other four, was the ‘Royal Capital, Zershel’.

A few villages were located under the kingdom’s rule as well, including this one.

It seems that in every city, an organization called, ‘The Association’ is found. This organization had spread throughout the entire continent, as a completely neutral force. Their job is to regulate the economy by managing the movements of the groups knows as ‘Famiglia’. Here, you can officially apply to join an existing ‘Famiglia’ or create your own, as long as the requirements are met.

In the past, Marielle-san seemed to have been part of it as well. A ‘Famiglia’ that is.

No wonder she was strong enough to carry me all the way here.

In actuality, this was the main source of income for commoners that wanted to become stronger. It’s activities included monster subjugation, gathering of materials, escort requests, and many others…

Since I had money, I doubt I needed to work for a lifetime, but it wouldn’t do to waste my time idling each day. There were no games in a different world after all. I would die of boredom. Still, an interesting bit about joining, was that they give you a card that can function as ‘Identification’.

I guess that was what the guards I met with Elise-san was asking about. It would be a hassle to travel without it, so I decide to register when I reach the next city.

The other countries were named ‘Haleven Empire’ and ‘Holy Country, Vanadis’. But it seemed Marielle-san didn’t have any information about them since she never went there.

Next, I asked her about the most important thing at the moment, the value of money.

I currently had about, more than seven thousand gold coins the last time I checked, so I was hoping to at least have enough to continue living in prudence for a month or maybe more. But, what I heard surprised even me.

The breakdown of currency in this country, no, the entire world, was divided into three.

Copper Coins, Silver Coins, and lastly, Gold Coins.

All the countries used this as a means of trade, by all, I meant even the other races. Though, I doubt Elves had a use for currency when they live in forests hidden from the world. Well, that’s just my preconceived notion on Elves due to video games, so I’m not entirely sure. I hope to meet one someday in the future, so I could ask.

Putting that aside, Copper Coins were the lowest valued coin, and Gold Coins were the highest. A Silver Coin was equivalent to one hundred Copper Coins. As one Gold Coin, was equivalent to a hundred Silver Coins.

The conversion rate was high. Being, Copper<Silver<Gold.

When I asked how much were the products and items circulated were, and to how much an average person makes a day, I felt as if I was tired.

It seems that an average family’s income was 10 silver coins a month. That was for a family of four or less. For a single person, they would be lucky to get 1 silver coin a day.

Nobles were said to spend silver coins every day like they were water, but only the wealthiest nobles would choose to part with even a single gold coin.

Gathering all that information, if I converted this world’s currency to Japan’s, it would be:

1 Copper Coin = 10 Yen

1 Silver Coin = 1000 Yen

1 Gold Coin = 100,000 Yen

This meant that I had a shocking amount with me. An earth-shattering amount of more than 700,000,000 Yen. My eyes were spinning thinking of all the things I could buy with such a large amount of money.

How rich was that god of darkness supposed to be? Oh, right, he was a God after all.

People like that, had no need for trivial things such as money. I am thankful for that.

But it wouldn’t be good to drown in greed, so let’s spend my abrupt fortune wisely.

Still, all this fortune would be useless without knowing how to materialize even a single coin, so I subtlety ask Marielle-san to show me a Silver Coin as ‘reference’.

When she agreed, she seemed to have been concentrating magic power for a second, and in the next, she snapped her right middle finger, and thumb together to make a crisp snapping sound. In the next moment, a dull shine of silver was  reflecting the sun’s rays ever so slightly in between her fingers.

I see. So that’s it.

How could I have not seen it before. If I remember correctly, Elise-san also snapped her fingers before she lent me that one Silver Coin. I didn’t pay attention to it before, but is that how you materialize currency in this world?

I would have wished for some kind of easy payment thing like a ‘Credit Card’ but it seems that wasn’t the case. Well, it’s not that difficult, so it’s fine.

When I tried it for myself, I imagined one Copper Coin inside my consciousness, transferring from my total amount of currency, into my hand, and snapped.

The next thing I knew, a brownish red hue of rustic metal materialized in between my fingers. It seems that it was a success.

Finally, I can deal with most things by using money!

Ah, I let my true desires slip out there for a moment.

I apologize for being this greedy, but I was only human. Still, I had to control myself. Let’s live a frugal life, and get an honest job in the new world, shall we?

This doesn’t change the fact that money is still useful in certain situations, but let’s leave it at that for now. The next thing I had to ask was about how to travel to other places.

Travel in the world called ‘Aragnor’ was diverse, albeit inconvenient.

The most widely known way was by going by foot. This included having escorts from a ‘Famiglia’ guarding you from danger, or going by yourself.

Other means of travel were either riding a carriage for commoner travel, which was regulated by the ‘Association’ as a way for cities and countries to interact with each other. While private carriages were only used by wealthy merchants, nobles, or generally, the affluent citizens in each city.

Apparently, the most efficient way to travel was boarding a ship when crossing the giant rivers and lakes separating countries, travelling to the outer islands outside the continent, or getting on a flying vehicle called an ‘Airship’.

An ‘Airship’ was a rare vehicle of giant stature powered by magic, to fly in the sky. Truly, a fantasy-like way of travel. In the game, there was an ‘Airship’ in every town I went to as a means to go between countries quickly, but only a picture of the vehicle would be seen, and nothing more.

I had hoped I can see the real thing someday, but according to Marielle-san, only the ‘Royal Family’, the leaders of other countries, and the ‘Seven Major Famiglias’ had access to these mammoths of travel.

Speaking of the ‘Seven Major Famiglias’, it seems that their bases were indeed the ‘Seven Seraphim Shrines’ as the letter had foretold.

Marielle-san had said that all of the shrines were separated from each other, and was divided amongst the countries. It is said that whichever country had the most shrines under their dominion was the strongest, hence the larger the amount of shrines, the larger the domain of the country.

Currently, the ‘Haleve Empire’ had three of the shrines, where the ‘Famiglia’s’ that focused on ‘War’, ‘Engineering’, and ‘Magic’. So they are called the rising power that will soon dominate the entire human race.

Coming in second, was this ‘Zershel Kingdom’ which had two of the shrines that focused on ‘Summoning’, and ‘Knowledge’. They might not have combat power, but their intelligence about how to prosper as a country was still high.

And last but not least, the ‘Holy Country, Vanadis’, which only had one of the shrines under their control, which worshiped the seraph, ‘Luminaris, Seraph of Healing’. Which in turn, made the ‘Luxinias Famiglia’ prosper in the field of ‘Medicine’.

But, the final and seventh ‘Famiglia’ were not allied with any country.

No one even knew who they were, nor where their shrine was located. What they specialized in was rumored to be ‘Power’ but no one knows for sure. Other than that piece of information, not an iota of credible source was found. It was as if they were completely anonymous and were hiding from the rest of the world.

I wanted to ask Marielle-san as to which ‘Famiglia’ she had belonged to in the past, but I decided to refrain, as asking a personal question so abruptly might make her hate me.

Because, I also noticed through using my <<Dragon Eyes>> that Marielle-san had considerable strength, maybe even enough to match up with that ‘Black Panther’ I had met before, but something was wrong, I couldn’t tell what it was though.

Still, throughout this discussion, I had rearranged my plans for the future, and decided to leave first thing tomorrow when I had booked a carriage ride to the next city, Lavis.

Marielle-san had said that every ‘Monday’ morning, a carriage would leave for ‘Lavis City’, the nearest city from here, located in the western part of the ‘Royal Capital, Zershel’.

Since she said this, I made her elaborate about the dates in this world, and as to which day it was today. It seems that my hunch was correct, that this world shared the same calendar with Earth. Having 365 days a year, and 12 months in a year.

Incidentally, ‘Edoria City’ was located in the southern side.

As to the rest of things we had talked to each other about, I would explain at a later date. Although, it seemed that Marielle-san was the first to wonder about my strange clothes, which was strange that in itself, but I decided not to mind it.

When I explained that I had no idea where to buy new clothes, as a means to dodge the question, she kindly told me where the general stores were. Again, she really is a considerate person, so much that I might fall for her.

No, this is just gratitude. Just gratitude. Get it together, me.

While I was thinking of at least cleaning my clothes that was dirtied during my time in prison, and the fight with Zetsuen, the little girl, Elle-chan went out of her room, and appeared in front of us…

 

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