Ming Dynasty and New Rome and Infinite Magic Machine

Chapter 1566 Assassination of the Elf King

"Oh, you've all sorted it out?" When Fahrenheit returned, Shangluo and Victoria had already eaten two more ice cream cones.

After a brief exchange, Phaethon understood two things—first, they had already organized an assassination attempt on the Elf King; second, they hadn't paid for the ice cream cones they had just eaten.

Where did the money for the ice cream cone come from?

"I didn't bring any money." Shang Luo licked his lips. "I borrowed it from Karin. We can't just sit here and wait, right? Now that you're here, let's give her the money."

"Tsk." Fahrenheit had no choice but to take out her wallet—she was in charge of the wallet, because neither Shangluo nor Victoria usually carried money. Victoria genuinely didn't spend money, while Shangluo didn't need to carry money when he did.

Therefore, the task of carrying money, that is, the task of carrying the concrete entity of a "wallet," was Phaethon's responsibility.

"How many?"

"We each ate two, for a total of four balls, which cost 200."

"My God!" Fahrenheit slapped his head. "So the price has gone up to 50 drachmas for a scoop of ice cream? That means a four-scoop ice cream must cost 200!"

She knew prices in Alexandria had changed drastically, but she hadn't expected them to be this outrageous. The prices were simply outrageous; a simple ice cream cost 200 drachmas—if this were in...

“Hmm.” Victoria nodded. “So the two of us only ate four balls together.”

"So why is it so expensive?! I know the price has been going up, but after I left, it seems to have gone up to an outrageous level."

“We don’t know either. I witnessed the whole thing, but we still haven’t figured out what happened.”

Shangluo licked it again.

He remembered that when he first arrived in Alexandria, many things cost one drachma. This ice cream also cost one drachma.

The price has now suddenly jumped to 50.
He didn't care anymore. Since they were already this outrageous, raising the price to 50 each didn't seem to make much difference.

But what exactly is the reason for this?

"If I had to say something, it would be that shortly after you finished the Golden Bough ceremony, prices in Alexandria started to skyrocket. We suspect that some cunning spirit creature set us up. Although the price surge disappeared after a while, it still had an irreversible impact on prices in Alexandria."

"Wait, so it's related to us?"

"I wasn't sure at first either, because we weren't actually that familiar with each other, right? I didn't know how amazing you were."

At that time, Victoria and Shangluo were not very familiar with each other, and Victoria did not realize that Shangluo was Rome's last hope.

Of course, all of that is in the past now, and the two of them are quite familiar with each other.

But it is precisely because they are so familiar now that Victoria has begun to rethink the issues from back then—

Because the end of the Golden Bough ceremony and the soaring prices in Alexandria occurred very close in time. If we rule out other possibilities, the likelihood of a causal relationship between the two is very high.

Victoria once tried to get to the bottom of this. But as the price surge came to a halt, Rome returned to its old self, overwhelmed by countless trivial matters.

In some life-or-death races, the soaring prices are not so surprising. Economic problems can be controlled to some extent; ultimately, it's simply a matter of reshuffling everyone's assets in Alexandria and multiplying the price of everything by 50.

This was, of course, a colossal problem. But Rome was already numb from losing, to the point that it had become too weary to even deal with its losses. Problems that wouldn't directly lead to Rome's demise were simply ignored by the Romans.

A 50-fold increase in prices isn't a big problem. The money supply has increased anyway, so we'll just make do.

Victoria also ordered the forced destruction of a portion of the currency—a move reminiscent of classic Western bloodletting. While Victoria forcibly reduced the circulation of currency, this did little to solve the problem; instead, it exacerbated Rome's economic turmoil.

But after a while, things calmed down. Ultimately, Rome is such a large entity that it can't be destroyed overnight by external forces, and it's not going to collapse just because of a major economic reshuffle.

After all, this wasn't the first time. Even under normal economic conditions, financial crises once or twice were not uncommon in Roman history. But unlike in the past, the operation of the economy itself was magic, an inexplicable mystery. But this time, Victoria, at the center of the vortex, discovered some clues:
"Shangluo, I suspect it was one of your underlings who did this."

You mean Xiao Han?

"Yes. Someone saw him hand over the drachma he was holding to a spirit creature in the forest while performing the Golden Bough ceremony."

Shangluo still remembers the situation at the time. Han Xingzhi and he did not enter the forest through the same entrance, and they were also separated at the beginning of their operation.

Although everyone eventually reached the heart of the forest, they all used different methods.

Han Xingzhi simply used money. He handed the drachma he had to the "Mr. Fox" who was leading the way, and then successfully arrived at his destination.

"Wait, was that matter really that serious?"

"Yes, it's very serious. Although it's just a guess, we can now be basically certain that he did it."

Fahrenheit looked up at the sky: "That kid is actually quite useful. He's Shangluo's little follower, always ready to help. What if he really did this?"

“What else can we do?” Shang Luo rubbed his forehead. “I’ll call him over to solve the problem. I can’t just lock him up. After all, he didn’t know anything at the time, so I can’t really punish him. But the one who tied the knot must untie it. This matter started with him, so we have to take him along when we solve it.”

“Shangluo is right,” Victoria nodded. “Actually, I knew beforehand, but I never thought of settling scores with you. Anyway, it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter. Let alone the fact that it has nothing to do with him. Even if it does, there’s no point in arguing about it now.”

"So, what happened next? He gave the drachma to the fox, and then what?"

“Hmm,” Victoria thought for a moment, “So this might have to do with the nature of the drachma. Shangluo, do you know what a drachma is?” “A coin? I remember it was a type of currency minted in ancient Greece.”

"It's not just ancient Greece. The Greeks have used the drachma as currency from ancient times to the present—but the drachma used in the spirit world is different because, strictly speaking, it's not currency at all."

"Not currency? Then what is the drachma?"

"Dracma is actually a lucky coin, or a wishing coin. It is essentially used to make wishes."

Yes. The drachma is a lucky coin. It contains the causal relationship that 'something good will definitely happen,' which is why it is used as currency in the spiritual realm.

"Since it's currency, there must be someone or something to guarantee it, right? Because this doesn't seem like a completely fiat currency."

"Yes, the issuance of the drachma is guaranteed—it comes from the elves."

"An elf???"

"Yes, an elf. And a great elf of the spring."

"Irodias?"

“No, no, no, it wasn’t her, it was another Asha before her. At that time, Rome and the Fountain Elves had a very deep cooperation. Those drachmas were actually fragments of the Elves’ true names.” She glanced beside her; Karin wasn’t there.

“It wouldn’t be good for her to hear this, but I can say these things when she’s not around. Actually, the drachma is a promise from the elves—a promise from the elves that whoever holds a drachma can ask the elves to fulfill a promise. The elves use a fragment of their soul as collateral, and each drachma is such a fragment of their soul.”

The drachma is a "wish-based currency." It is backed by the promise of one of the myriad elves. Each drachma represents a small wish.

"Can I make a wish? What kind of wish can I make?"

"There's no hard and fast rule—after all, we can't put a price on wishes. But in principle, you can make any wish. Whether it's granted depends on your negotiation with the spirit. However, if you want the spirit to run errands for you or do your homework, those things can be done."

"So, actually very few people actually keep their promises?"

“That’s right. Like other currencies in circulation, the elf’s guarantee is just that – a guarantee. In actual circulation, as long as the system itself doesn’t have any problems, no one will exchange their currency for something that’s inconvenient to circulate. If the gold standard currency can at least be exchanged for gold, and gold can circulate – then once a wish is exchanged, it’s immediately withdrawn from circulation, and the elf will directly take back the drachma they issued.”

"Then why are there suddenly so many of them? Can elves buy their integrity in bulk?"

"Well, we actually investigated this issue. In the end, we discovered one thing: all those extra currencies were replicas."

"Is this really a wholesale distribution of moral integrity?"

"It wouldn't be wrong to say it was wholesale. The amount of those currencies was ridiculously large, practically endless, completely exceeding the normal circulation volume."

"So, have you actually fulfilled your promise?"

"That's the problem—we can't find the elves, and while the currency is all real, it's disconnected from the underlying collateral."

"Why is that?"

"We guess there are probably two possibilities—first, these wishes have already been fulfilled, and the elves don't want to respond. The elves have their reasons, though, as their promises and wish coins are one-to-one. If they have already fulfilled a promise, there is naturally no need to fulfill any promises beyond their responsibilities; second, I think the second possibility is more likely: those elves simply do not exist."

"Is it completely counterfeit?"

"That's right. In a sense, the first type isn't counterfeit money. It seems he just found blank serial number segments in the currency through some method and then copied those that had already been exchanged. The second type, on the other hand, is counterfeit money created out of thin air outside the financial system. The counterfeiter simply mastered the algorithm and then mass-produced currency. Both of them are outrageous."

Upon hearing this, Phaethon fell into thought.

"Hmm?" Shang Luo noticed that Faetong's expression was a little off. "What's wrong? Did you notice something amiss?"

“Do you think there’s a third possibility—that all these currencies are real, all of them are real. But the elves who guaranteed them are all dead.”

"???" Victoria was stunned for a moment. "Is this really possible?"

"If a great war breaks out among the elves in a place unknown to us, and all the elves are killed, then we can make as much currency as we want in their name, since we don't need to cash it out anyway."

"Good heavens!" Shang Luo rubbed his forehead. "This matter, upon closer examination, seems to be quite serious. Victoria, have you found any traces of the war?"

"The war between elves is endless. But if it has caused such a massive, tsunami-like death, then there must be a serious problem among the elves. But we don't even know about this problem yet? Shangluo, this is not a good thing. It means that our understanding of the elves is still extremely limited. If we don't even know where our opponents are hiding their backup energy sources, then there is no point in continuing the fight."

Just like when the Ottomans besieged Constantinople, one of Constantinople's unique advantages was that it could never be completely blockaded by land. This was because one side of Constantinople faced the sea, allowing reinforcements and supplies from other directions to be continuously sent into the city from the sea.

If this problem isn't solved, this city will never be able to be conquered.

The same applies to the elves. At most, it simply forces them back into seclusion.

Victoria shook her head: "We seem to know very little about elves. Their world is much larger than we think."

“Regardless, we must exterminate these elves,” Shangluo said. “We need to be more cautious about this matter—and it just so happens that I’m here. But speaking of which, it seems that the elf problem can also be addressed by looking at the Drachmar. So, where were the Drachmars made?”

“I’ll take you to see it. It’s in Alexandria. The process of generating drachmas is very slow because each drachma is different, and drachmas from the same elf are mutually certified, so theoretically they cannot be forged. But this time, our opponents used some special means to bypass these certifications, and printed a huge number that Rome simply couldn’t handle.”

"I'm wondering if that Mr. Fox is the culprit behind all this. If it really is him, I wonder if he would still dare to stay in the sacred forest of Lake Nemi and not come out."

(End of this chapter)