Chapter 34: Normal Days Part 2

  I had sent Fidus and Solon to the Federation of Libertas, alongside a highly disciplined force of ten thousand soldiers, the first fully modernized battalion of the Leo Principality, equipped with the newly mass-produced one-shot rifles, including five of our newest "Earth Shakers."

  With Fidus and Solon gone, I was left with only one Grand Mage in the capital—Duchess Zemlya. Although she was restrained with Solon’s magic, she was still a Grand Mage. My grandfather was securing the south, and Ares Revalis was stabilizing the west, trying their hardest.

  My daily routine continued as usual.

  Every morning began essentially the same way: with a fiercely competitive wake-up call.

  "Your Highness, I have prepared the Darjeeling blend from the southern estates. It is exactly at the optimal temperature," Aelrue’s voice would chime as she opened the heavy curtains of my bedchamber, letting the July sun stream in.

  Before I could even sit up, Rosy Revalis would inevitably push past her, holding a silver tray with an arrangement of pastries.

  "Darjeeling is far too bitter for the morning, Aelrue. His Highness requires a robust breakfast to sustain his mana. I brought the sweetbreads from the royal bakery."

  "I am his personal aide, Lady Rosy. I manage his dietary schedule."

  "And I am his lady-in-waiting. I manage his immediate comforts."

  I would simply sigh, splash cold water on my face, and take both the tea and the sweetbreads just to silence them.

  Breakfast was usually taken in the small dining hall, with Aelrue and Rosy standing on opposite sides of the room, glaring at each other, while Vane stood in the shadows near the door, delivering his Nightwatch reports.

  "The revolutionary forces’ estates have been fully liquidated, Your Highness."

  "The remaining loyalists of the Western Faction who attempted to flee across the border were intercepted by the Venator Order. None survived. The seized gold has been transported to the royal vaults."

  "Excellent work, Vane," I said, taking a sip of the tea. "Ensure the border patrols remain tight. The last thing we need is Imperial spies slipping through while our Vanguard is in Libertas."

  After breakfast came paperwork in my office. Rebuilding a nation required an agonizing amount of administrative oversight. I signed decrees allocating grain to the recovering western provinces, approved the budgets for the new orphanages run by the Deos Temple, and finalized the trade routes for the upcoming Libertas caravans.

  By mid-morning I would leave the suffocating office and head straight to the industrial districts. I personally directed the renovation and expansion of the capital on the ground. The city was transforming from a medieval stronghold into a sprawling, early-industrial metropolis.

  Thorgar, my Chief Engineer and Master Smith, was always waiting for me amidst the smoke and noise of the production lines.

  "Your Highness!"

  "The new batch of black steel is cooling! We've managed to increase the yield by fifteen percent using the new bellows design you sketched out."

  "Show me the rifle barrels."

  Thorgar proudly presented a crate of freshly machined barrels. I inspected the rifling inside the steel tubes—it was clean, precise, and lethal.

  "Good. Keep the production running day and night. The moment we secure the autonomous mana golems from Libertas, I want them immediately integrated into these assembly lines to handle the heavy lifting."

  After a quick lunch, my afternoons were entirely dedicated to the pursuit of magical mastery.

  I would retreat to the royal library, a cavernous, dust-filled sanctuary of ancient knowledge, where Duchess Zemlya awaited.

  Without Solon there to teach me the volatile arts of light and heat, Zemlya focused entirely on grounding my power. She taught me the intricate structural engineering of earth magic. She didn't just teach me how to throw boulders; she taught me how to feel the fault lines in the stone, how to manipulate the molecular density of the ground, and how to construct defensive walls that could withstand an Earth Shaker's blast.

  Most importantly, she guided my nascent understanding of space magic, forcing me to practice localized teleportation and spatial expansion until my mana core throbbed with exhaustion, of course with the instructions left by Grand Mage Solon.

  By evening, with my magical reserves depleted, I would head to the training courtyard.

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  Since Fidus was leading the Vanguard, I was forced to spar with a person who had newly joined the Royal Army, Rank 7—the same rank as me and my grandfather. He was the one who had been captured after the Vetus defeat at the Battle of Arthenburg, the former Knight Commander of the Duchy.

  He had been forced to work for the Duke under circumstances similar to Governor-General Ares. Luckily for him—and for us—the baron who held his family hostage surrendered without resistance after the annihilation of Avarus City.

  The commander’s family was released, and it became clear that he had only been forced to do dirty work under the Duke’s orders.

  I continued to appoint that baron as the mayor of his territory. After a thorough background check, we discovered he was a good man who had simply followed orders because he was powerless, and his nature was decent.

  As for the commander, he was offered a position in my Royal Guard, along with an estate in the capital so he could settle his family safely, and a generous salary.

  He immediately accepted.

  Now he serves as the Vice-Captain of the Royal Guard, Sir Leontar.

  I spar with him until nightfall, then attend dinner, and afterward return to office work before finally sleeping.

  This routine continued day after day until one day—

  "Your Highness."

  Count Bellica Lauranto, the leader of the court nobles and the newly appointed Minister of Finance, entered the room.

  According to my system, he excelled in finance and accounting beyond anyone I had ever met in this world, so I immediately appointed him to the position.

  "We are facing a logistical crisis."

  I frowned, looking at the numbers. The treasury was overflowing. The confiscation of the Western and Central Factions' wealth, combined with the booming industrial taxes, meant the Principality was richer than it had been in three hundred years.

  "Explain."

  "That, Your Highness, is precisely the problem."

  "We cannot move it."

  He pointed a trembling finger at the ledger.

  "The Royal Army has expanded exponentially. We now have over thirty thousand active-duty soldiers stationed across the northern borders, the western reconstruction zones, the southern forts and the capital not including ten thousand in Libertas. Paying their monthly salaries requires us to transport millions of physical gold and silver coins across the nation."

  "The weight if the problem" I immediately found the problem.

  "Exactly!"

  "It takes convoys of heavily armored, horse-drawn carriages weeks to reach the frontier outposts. The sheer weight of the bullion breaks the axles on our carts. Furthermore, a slow-moving caravan filled with tons of gold is a massive target for any remaining bandit factions or desperate mercenaries. We are spending an astronomical amount of money just to transport money."

  I leaned back in my chair, tapping my fingers against the armrest.

  The economy of this world was entirely based on the gold standard and physical bullion. It was archaic, cumbersome, and totally incompatible with the rapidly expanding, modernized empire I was trying to build.

  It was time to introduce them to the power of paper currency.

  "Minister."

  "What if I told you we never have to transport a single gold coin to the borders ever again?"

  "Pardon, Your Highness? Do we pay them in grain?"

  "No. We pay them in paper."

  I stood up and walked over to the chalkboard I kept in the office for tactical planning. I picked up a piece of chalk and drew a large square, representing the Royal Vaults, and several smaller squares representing regional outposts.

  "We are already mass-producing high-quality paper across the entire continent."

  I explained, drawing lines between the squares.

  "We will establish a centralized institution: the Royal Bank of Leo. All the physical gold, silver, and seized assets of the traitorous factions will remain locked securely right here in the capital's vaults."

  "Instead of moving the gold, the Royal Bank will issue standardized promissory notes printed on our highest-quality paper. These notes will explicitly state that they represent a specific value of gold held by the Crown. We will pay the soldiers' salaries with these notes."

  The Minister looked horrified.

  "Your Highness! You expect hardened soldiers to accept pieces of paper instead of silver? There will be a mutiny!"

  "Not if the paper is backed by the absolute authority of the Crown."

  "I will issue a royal decree making this paper currency legal tender for all debts, public and private. I will mandate that all taxes owed to the state can only be paid using this paper currency."

  I let that sink in.

  The Minister's eyes widened as the economic implications struck his seasoned mind.

  "If taxes must be paid in paper... then the merchants will have to accept the paper from the soldiers in order to pay their taxes to you."

  "Precisely."

  "The paper gains immediate, undeniable value because the state demands it. We will set up regional branch banks in the major cities. If a merchant truly wishes, he can take his paper notes to a branch bank and exchange them for physical gold. But once they realize the paper is lighter, easier to hide, and universally accepted, they will stop trading in heavy coins altogether."

  "But... the forgery, Your Highness."

  "Anyone with ink and parchment could draw a note and steal from the Crown!"

  "Which is why the currency will be technologically and magically impossible to counterfeit."

  I walked back to my desk and pulled out a fresh sheet of pristine paper.

  "Thorgar will cast highly intricate, standardized copper printing plates using our new hydraulic presses. The ink will be a specific, complex chemical mixture unique to the royal mint. And to ensure absolute security..."

  "I will have Duchess Zemlya and Solon’s underlings weave a microscopic, localized spatial-mana watermark into every single large-denomination bill. Any bank teller with an ounce of mana sensitivity will be able to feel if the note is genuine."

  The Minister of Finance sank into a chair, staring at the chalkboard as if I had just rewritten the laws of physics.

  In a way, I had.

  The transition from a bullion economy to a representative paper banking system would supercharge the Principality's economy. It would allow us to control inflation, instantly mobilize capital for the war effort, and completely solve our logistical nightmare.

  "We will call it the Leo."

  "Draft the legislation, Minister. Have the royal artisans begin designing the printing plates immediately. I want the face of the first Sovereign of the Principality on the highest denomination."

  "It... it shall be done, Your Highness," the Minister said, bowing deeply.

  As he left the room, I looked out over the expanding capital.

  Before conquering the world, I will conquer the economy first.

  Just you wait, Kalian Empire.

  I will trample your empire with economy alone.

  (Continue.....)