"Excuse me, my lord."
"Hmm?"
Grand Slam Empire, Imperial Capital E. Nurtz.
The court, headed by a government official headed by the emperor, is given a dedicated office for each minister. So each minister finishes his paperwork, because he wrote a sentence, and sometimes he calls someone to have a meeting.
The Minister of Finance, Oscar Uno, likewise has his own office called the Office of the Minister of Finance. Most of the time, it's their job to keep the books and books in check. There are only people who come to the Oscars to report suspicions of inconsistencies in books, tax revenues reports for each territory, or the discovery of embezzlement.
He had such a rare visitor.
"I'm not a visitor from the Magic House. What happened?"
"I had some concerns about whether I should report it to His Excellency the Minister of Finance. Are you busy?
"No, I don't mind. I'm just getting tired of fighting numbers. Sit down, please."
That's what Oscar says, urging him to sit on the couch in the office.
She is an elderly woman dressed beautifully. A woman wearing accessories that are not too flashy, but plain dressed to the point that they are not too classy. I wonder if my age is in my sixties as well as Oscar's.
I don't even think I'm a magician if they don't tell me I'm from the Demon House first.
"Now, if you'll excuse me."
"Hmm. So, who are you?
"Let me introduce myself first. My name is Ursula Birches, and I am an external advisor to the Magic House."
"-!"
To an unexpected name, Oscar opens his eyes with surprise.
Its name is "The Four Witches of the Continent", which is known throughout the Empire.
"Purple Sage" Eleonora, "Pale Flame" Silky Garnett. Alongside the three "Thirsty Queen" Celestias, the famous master of magic on the continent.
Sure, those two names.
"Baba over time" - Ursula Birches.
"Ugh. A little, with two rude names on your mind."
"Ugh... this, I'm sorry"
"No. Because it's two names that have spread for some reason. Well, there's hardly anyone to tell me."
"So... uh, Lord Birches. This time the hell..."
"Yes."
Speaking of Ursula Birches, she's an external advisor to The Magic House, but the truth is she's supposedly hundreds of years old. I don't think the age of appearance is any different from that of an Oscar, and I feel like I'm at a calm waist, but I wouldn't really take that.
That's like dealing with a child, such as Oscar, if it's Ursula.
"First, may I take a look at this?
"Ha..."
and place something Ursula took out of her nose onto a wooden table, placed between the couch facing each other.
What the hell comes out of it - when you run tension on your shoulder and look at its fingertips.
It was there.
"... silver coins, is it?
It's just silver.
I was wondering if something would come out even with the extra finesse, but I frowned because I didn't know what it meant.
"Go ahead, touch it"
"Yes."
I'm not particularly interested in just silver coins, but I have silver coins for the first time for requests from Ursula.
The feeling is it's just silver coins. Nothing in particular has changed. What the hell do you want to do by showing this to Oscar?
View the table and back and its overall picture, but nothing uncomfortable.
"... what does that mean? It's just silver."
"Again, does that seem so from the Finance Minister's point of view"
"What? What the hell..."
Ha, and so Oscar opens his eyes.
And again, look at silver coins. Now be more careful, point that gaze at the silver coin like you lick it.
But it's just silver. Oscar sees it like every day, the treasury reserves - there's no distinction whatsoever between the silver coins there and the
That's right.
Exactly the same. Exactly the same.
"No way, this is...!
"Yes."
Ursula nods at Oscar's words, who perceived everything.
If that's true, this is important -!
"This silver coin is fake."
"-!"
"I thought it was just silver coins at first, too. Because, coincidentally, my disciple ran the Appraisal Eye on this silver coin."
"I see... I mean, is this made by magic?"
"Yes, it is."
Along with that, the leather bags Ursula had brought when she entered the room - the contents of which would be flushed onto the table.
All of that, silver coin. Perhaps Oscar doesn't know, that it's a fake made by advanced sorcery.
Every one of them, take it and check it.
"... this, ha"
"Yes. The fine scratches on the edge of the silver coin are all identical. Perhaps the silver coin you used to replicate is the wound you had from the beginning. I know this magic."
"What the hell kind of magic is that?
"'Duplicate (copy)'. It's magic that makes exactly the same substance by magic."
"This is what... was made of magic...!
Oscar takes the silver coin out of his pocket.
The feel, the color, the luster - it's nothing different from what's right in front of you. I would bite the edge, but the texture was the same.
If something like this gets rampant within the Empire...
"Here's everything I've collected, using all my handouts. For once, you might need to check with the Demon House."
"Yep... we need to deal with this as soon as possible. But this is what..."
"Let me say as an advisor to the 'Magic House' that there is no magician who can do this kind of imitation. You'll need hundreds of concurrent magicians to replicate one of these silver coins. I am also a witch who has lived for hundreds of years, but even with all my magic, I can finally replicate (copy) one of these silver coins."
"I see. That would be reassuring."
Oscar strokes his chest down with relief.
If it was a technique that even a concurrent magician could do, it would have started by reviewing the monetary system. That is what would be expected at the planning stage to be quite difficult to navigate, such as changing to something that you would never be able to replicate.
But the problem is - there's someone who can do that.
"Let me ask you frankly... who the hell replicated this silver coin?
"I, too, am now investigating. Because I'm interested in this technology, even as a" magic house ". Of course, we don't counterfeit money."
"It would be helpful if you could do that"
"It's just definitely not human work,"
"Hmm."
To Ursula's words, Oscar tilts his neck.
If it is not human work, who the hell can imitate it like that?
"You think pureblooded arves had far more magic than we did? That is enough to destroy a country by itself. With all that magic, it would be easy to replicate this amount of silver coins."
"Ho ho...... but I hear Arv perished a long time ago"
"I am aware of that, too. But if there's a pureblood arv out there somewhere right now, you can say he's the one who forged this currency."
"I see..."
I'm somewhere in this world - possibly, pureblooded arves.
If you say that's who made the money.
Then it's easy.
It means that this case will be solved as long as we can capture pureblood arves.