LIGHT NOVEL
LIGHT NOVEL
— Alde’s perspective —
A few days after we set out, we’d arrived at a bustling city.
A city developed as a hub of transport, all sorts of people coming and going, the shopping district lively, the main street packed with open-air stalls.
In such a city, driving the Magic Vehicle at a crawl, Tisli murmured,
“A city this size probably has a bank.”
“Are we short on travel funds?”
“I’ll top up the travel funds too, but more than that, I have to pay your wages, don’t I?”
“Ohh! You’re paying already!”
At the word “wages,” my heart leapt.
After all, they’re supposed to be ten times a Royal Guard’s! Now I can send plenty home to my family. And today, let’s eat something good!
As I was nearly drooling in spite of myself, Tisli said,
“I’m a pay-in-advance sort… by the way, Alde, do you have a bank account? I’d like to transfer it rather than hand it over.”
Among commoners, having a bank account is still a minority, merchants aside. That’s probably why Tisli asked. Royal Guard wages were paid in cash, too.
So I nodded.
“Yeah. I needed one to send money home, so I’ve got an account.”
“I see. Then I’ll arrange to transfer the wages into that account.”
“Got it.”
I nodded, then voiced something that had come to mind.
“Still, they’re a mystery, aren’t they—banks.”
At that murmur of mine, Tisli, driving, glanced over and asked,
“‘Convenient,’ I’d understand, but what do you mean by ‘a mystery’?”
“I mean, you just put the coins in your hand into a weird box and it sends money to the far-off countryside, right? Just what’s going on there?”
“By ‘weird box,’ you mean the automated cash terminal?”
“Yeah, yeah, that’s about what it was called. The first time I put coins in it, I was so nervous it’d pocket them on me.”
“You… really are a silly one, aren’t you…”
Tisli said in an exasperated tone.
“That terminal isn’t actually transferring the coins, you know?”
“Eh? It’s not?”
“It’s not. Transfer magic tools are still large and expensive, so you can’t install many around the city at terminal size. So the terminal is, at most, just a device for storing and withdrawing cash.”
“Huh… then just how is my money getting sent home?”
“What’s being sent is information.”
“Information?”
“Yes. The information that ‘Alde sent a thousand Peln from the royal capital to his hometown’ is transmitted to the local bank. By the communication magic tool on the bank’s grounds. With just that information, the money saved in the local bank can be handed to your family, right? It’s not as if the coins have names on them. In other words, the actual coins aren’t moved.”
“H… huh, I see?”
“That said, regional differences in the amount of currency do arise, so the central bank makes adjustments. So it’s not as simple a mechanism as I just explained, but at its core, it’s just ‘exchanging information.'”
“H… huh? Amazing?”
“…Alde, you don’t get it, do you?”
“A-actually, no, but… either way, my money’s reaching my family, so there’s no problem, right?”
“Haa… well, no harm in not knowing, I suppose.”
Gazing intently at Tisli’s profile as she drove, sighing, I said,
“Still, Tisli, how come you’re so knowledgeable about banks?”
“Because the one who overhauled how banks and currency work, and created the remittance system, was me—as a child.”
“…Huh?”
“Before long, I’d meant to reduce physical currency and move to information-only currency. Though it’ll probably fall through now that I’m no longer a princess.”
“Information-only currency…?”
“Well… judging by your reaction, Alde, information currency is probably a concept too early for the times, so maybe it’s just as well it fell through.”
“…No, I have no idea what you mean, but… either way, there’s no mistaking you’re a genius.”
“…That part of you, I don’t dislike.”
Her cheeks faintly red, Tisli said that. What “that part” referred to, I, the very person, couldn’t quite tell.
Well, either way, she seems pleased at being praised, so it’s fine.
As we talked about that, we came before a bank built of red brick, and we parked the Magic Vehicle near a carriage hitching spot. The Magic Vehicle must be a rare sight; the drivers around had their eyes wide.
Then we went into the bank, told the receptionist our business, and after being made to wait a while, our number was called and we walked to the counter.
“Welcome. A transfer today, is that correct?”
When the lady across the counter said that, Tisli nodded, “Yes, that’s right.” I’d assumed we’d transfer with that what’s-it terminal from earlier, but for some reason Tisli began the procedure at the reception window.
“Then please fill in the necessary items on this document.”
Tisli and I each received a quill and filled in our account information and so on. Of course I don’t remember my account number, so I took out the note I’d kept in my wallet.
As I was filling it in, Tisli, who’d apparently memorized her account number, finished first and handed her document to the lady.
“Thank you for filling that in… eh? Um… e-excuse me…?!”
And the lady’s face, seeing Tisli’s document, went pale before my eyes. Plain as day.
Whether she’d known that reaction was coming, Tisli told the lady in a small voice,
“I’m incognito, so I’d ask you to keep it confidential.”
“C-c-c-certainly?!”
Ah… I see.
She must have learned Tisli’s identity from the document. That she’s Tiariece Wil Calvan—that is, this country’s princess.
Anyone would be startled if royalty suddenly sat down before them.
I finished writing my document too and handed it to the lady, but the lady’s fingertips, taking it, trembled so much I felt sorry for her.
“Th-th-then, we’ll process the transfer now, so please wait a moment…!”
So saying, the lady walked unsteadily to the back. On the way she stumbled and nearly fell.
Seeing off that figure, I could only groan.
“Hmm… to be startled this much just over receiving wages—it makes me feel kind of sheepish…”
“True. But there won’t be any more of this from now on, so rest easy.”
“No more from now on… why?”
“You’ll see soon enough.”
“Well, all right…”
As we chatted like that, a few minutes later, the lady from before came back, along with a portly, aging man. And the man and the lady bowed deeply.
“Th-thank you so very much for visiting our bank today…!”
This man must be the most important person at this bank. He was sweating greasily.
“Yes. But I don’t want a fuss made, so could you keep your voices down a little?”
True enough, the other customers were stealing glances our way, wondering what was up. Unused to attention, I felt restless, but Tisli, being a princess, showed no sign of being fazed.
“M-my apologies…! Th-then, h-here is the statement for your most honorable transfer…!”
His honorifics were getting shaky somehow, but at any rate the man reverently held out a statement.
When Tisli took it, she handed it to me without even checking the contents, then said to the two bank staff,
“Thank you. Then we’ll be going.”
Our business was only the transfer, so Tisli and I stood right up.
After that, the man and the lady saw me off all the way to the Magic Vehicle, drawing yet more unwanted attention, but it couldn’t be helped. Having learned she’s a princess, they could hardly just say bye and be done.
After that bit of a commotion, I got into the passenger seat and asked Tisli,
“It was just a transfer, so why’d you do it at the window? Even revealing your identity?”
Tisli answered as she set the Magic Vehicle in motion.
“The amount was the amount. It couldn’t be transferred at the terminal.”
“Ah, so that’s—eh?”
I dropped my gaze to the statement I’d been handed—and was stunned.
And carefully, so as not to make a mistake, I tried counting aloud.
“One, ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand…”
The number of digits in the transferred amount just keeps going. On and on?!
“H-hey, Tisli! What’s this amount?!”
“It was a bother, so I transferred ten years of your wages in one lump.”
“Ten years?!”
“Yes. This way there’s no worry of my identity being found out every time, right?”
“Th-that’s true, but… an amount like this—my family, my relatives, of course, and down to my grandchildren’s generation could live in idle luxury a whole lifetime!”
“Is that so? Your household lives modestly, then, Alde.”
“If anything, just how money-guzzling a life do you royals and nobles live?!”
Stunned, I checked the statement again.
No matter how many times I counted the digits of the wages, it came to an outrageous sum.
“H-hey, Tisli… paying this much in advance, didn’t it occur to you I might run off with it…?”
When I asked that, Tisli, with a rare full-faced smile, glanced over.
“Heh? You think you could escape from me, of all people?”
It’s a smile, but it’s so terrifying my spine freezes…
“I-it hasn’t even crossed my mind… I mean, it’s just a hypothetical, okay? Really, I’m not thinking of running.”
“Is that so. Well, you may think it if you like? Even if you ran, I’d chase you to the ends of the earth and have you work off every Peln of your wages.”
“I-is that so…”
Work, she says… but for now I’ve got nothing in particular to do…
“I mean, before running off and all that—”
“Before?”
“You… for at least the next ten years…”
“…?”
At me, faltering, Tisli tilted her head with a puzzled look.
“The next ten years, what?”
“…No… never mind. I’ll do my best for the next ten years.”
“Yes, do. Work like a carthorse, all right?”
“Yeah, yeah, understood.”
—For at least the next ten years, do you mean to be with me?
Asking that would only make Tisli go red in the face and angry… and besides, it started to embarrass me, so I swallowed the words.
(And that’s that.)
Copyright(C) disolo Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.