“Sir, I sold the crystals!” Without any spoils to sell in the first place, Layn decided that following after the leader of the group seemed to be the most rational choice. And soon, his guess proved to be correct. While everyone else was busy rushing around the war camp, Karter quickly moved to a nearby stone building. With just a single glance inside, Layn’s lips curved up.

‘I guess some things remain the same, be it now or ages and ages in the future.’ Letting out a gentle chuckle, Layn followed into the stone building. In the instant he crossed the doors, a joyful atmosphere of the Inn overwhelmed him. Feeling as if he has returned to the times of his heroics, he quickly found the way to the table when Karter laid his body down.

And it was here, where the rest of the group soon started to report in.

“Sir, the carcass of those three ungraded monsters went for seven gold pieces in total!”

“Sir, I managed to sell those medicinal herbs we gathered for eighteen huge coins!”

“Sir, the stale water…”

“Sir, the voice of the spring…”

“Sir…”

One by one, the group quickly converged at the inn, presenting all their earnings to the leader. Soon, the archmage managed to make a sense of what the local currency was.

Starting with the smallest denomination, there was a copper coin. Judging from how many other names all the other coins had, it was inevitable that ancients had some other ways of calling it, but as it appeared only once, Layn had no way of learning it for now.

After the copper coin, came the silver one, also called a medium coin, standard coin or flux. As for the origin of its last name, Layn couldn’t even begin to imagine it. In the end, there was still a chance it was some mistake of his translating spell, so the archmage decided to just disregard it.

Past the silver coins, the golden coins appeared. Whether there were some further divisions of the golden coins, Layn couldn’t really tell. Outside of its most direct name, people tend to call them huge coins, gold pieces and a word that his translating spell failed to translate altogether, sounding along the lines of a ‘cow’.

There could be some other pieces of currency in the circulation, but as they weren’t brought up during the count of the spoils, Layn would have to be an oracle to guess their names or even if they existed in the first place.

“Okay guys, summing everything up, we earned forty-three ‘cows’ and twenty fluxes. Like always, the coppers will be donated. But now, let’s speak about the costs.” In an instant, the atmosphere turned far more grave than what one could expect from the talk about money.

‘Even if the costs are high, shouldn’t they still be happy that they managed to earn…?’ Puzzled by the strange behaviour of his ancients, Layn continued to sit silently in the corner of the now crowded table.

“For Pasha… Like we agreed, ten ‘cows’.” Bringing up a name that Layn didn’t recognize, Karter silently pushed ten pieces of gold away from the main pile. The stiffness of the man’s moves was the final clue that allowed the archmage to figure out what was going on.

It wasn’t that those people couldn’t handle parting with the coins they earned, even if it was for the sake of necessary costs. The huge portion of their pay was deduced for the sake of the girl that Layn was unable to save.

‘Now that I think about it, what would happen if I weren’t with them in the first place? And if they still encountered that monster? And if their wounded didn’t make it?’ With how Saulus managed to heal all the wounded but one, if they were to die instead, then wouldn’t the costs of their deaths that they agreed upon already greater than what they managed to earn?

“Okay then, with the sad part over, let’s discuss the other costs. The standard maintenance and tax, the supplies fee and the others. Brought together, it should amount roughly to twelve ‘cows’. With that said, we are left with twenty-one gold coins and twenty fluxes.” With his voice pausing for a moment, Karter made sure that everyone was focused on him before pointing his hand at the archmage.

“If not for this guy, we would most likely lay our heads during this trip. With that said, I suggest we all take a single ‘cow’ each, leaving the rest in his hands. This money would also be slowly used up as our fee for escorting him to the low-tier lands.” Glancing at the faces of his group, Karter ignored the shocked look on Layn’s face.

‘Lay their heads? Wasn’t I the one who forced them to break their formation? Shouldn’t they blame me for both their casualty and the injures they sustained?’ With a long history in the military on his own, Layn was fully aware of the importance of the formation. Even though he couldn’t recognize the way the ancients set their group, it didn’t make his guilt any smaller.

“I concur.” After a long period of time when only Karter’s voice could be heard in the discussion, Irea suddenly stood up with agitation brimming in her eyes. Quickly noticing what she actually did, her face flushed in red as she plummeted down to her chair.

“I already inspected the place where my wound was. If what we know about that demonic flame is true, then my wound was lethal. One gold is just enough to survive until the next season, so I think that’s the most we can ask for.”

“After all,” Moving her eyes on Layn’s confused face, Irea pushed all her gratitude to her eyes putting the archmage and his morals in an even tougher spot. “if not for him, we would surely all die while fighting that beast.. Without his help, instead of returning to sell the spoils, they would be snatched by some other party once our dried-up, rotten corpses would be finally discovered.”