Slayers: Alive

Slayers: Alive 20

Slayers: Alive - Episode 058: Money! The Value Of A Coin

Xellos and Filia had a nice meal at the Golden Dragon Cafe. Even if Filia had taken advantage of Xellos invitation by purchasing a large amount of food to feed the townspeople, things were progressing relatively well; the key word being 'were'. Just as they were starting on Xellos' favorite part of any meal: dessert, the young waiter who had been serving their food the whole evening approached nervously. "Excuse me, Mr. Metallium; it seems there's a... situation."

"What situation?" Xellos asked calmly. He couldn't imagine anything happening that could really affect him. Plus the waiter looked like he was easy to upset, he was probably overreacting.

"Well... you see... The local inn and the Golden Dragon Cafe belong to the same person, thus their respective managers are familiar with each other. A letter arrived recently, but the inn keeper had been unable to locate you for information, though he did mention it to the manager of this cafe. I was told about it, but I kind of forgot... You see, Mr. Metallium..." The waiter shifted nervously some more, staring at his feet. "It seems your account's funds are... insufficient."

Xellos raised an eyebrow in disbelief while Filia began to worry. "Insufficient?" Xellos questioned. "I'm sure there must be a mistake. Do you even understand how this works?"

"Yes, sir, I do," the waiter assured. "The establishments you visit accept your signature as a form of payment and bill the central bank where your account is. They later take care of sending someone to deliver the payment." It was something similar to how royals did it, passing the bill to their kingdom's treasury instead of carrying a huge load of money in their travels. The practice was later adopted by rich families even if they were not of royal blood. "However, instead of the payment arriving, a courier came with a letter claiming that your account was... empty." Given the considerable expenses Xellos had underwent, generous tip aside, there was no way he had enough money concealed in his person to pay for everything.

"There's no need to worry," Xellos still kept his cool, certain that there had to be a mistake and it shouldn't be too hard to fix. "I'm sure it was all a mistake, in fact, a letter correcting this misunderstanding will probably arrive before we're done with dessert."

"If you say so..." The waiter didn't look like he believed it, but didn't want to continue insisting. "I will leave you to enjoy your dessert then." After excusing himself, the waiter left.

"I knew that fake account of yours had to blow up in your face eventually," Filia scolded after the waiter was gone. She was frowning in that disapproving way of hers in which her eyes screamed, 'I told you so' even if she had not exactly done so.

"My account is not fake," Xellos defended. "Lord Beast Master runs a lot of businesses and has more followers than anyone would admit. A lot of merchants make their fortune with the help of monsters. Human businesses like that and businesses that are directly operated by monsters for various purposes such as research, as is the case with Celo, all pay income taxes to Beast Master. The merchants think that Zelas Metallium is a business woman who worships Lord Beast Master and thus has adopted such a name. They see her as a rich lady to be cautious about, but they believe she's human, or mostly so. The rumors still go around that she made a pact with Lord Beast Master, but making pacts with monsters is more common among merchants than most would ever admit. They're too stupid to realize she is Beast Master, or maybe they know, but they're too afraid of the consequences of openly admitting it. Zelas has funds automatically transferred to my account at the start of each month, so that I'll have a good budget to work with while spying."

"But you're not working right now," Filia reminded. "You haven't been doing a whole lot of work since the entire curse thing started and Zelas wasn't exactly pleased with you when we last saw her. What if she stopped paying you?"