All the title and sub-titles in this chapter are the name of theme song and OST from No Game No Life. Sing along as you read!

===start===

The King's Plan

We'll overcome
All of this world's hatred,
So abandon any false sense of justice!

Game Start

Today once again, Hatsuse Ino, the Vice Ambassador of the Eastern Federation for the Elchea Kingdom, received Kurami Zell in the Embassy reception room. Similar scenes had happened multiple times for the last three months.

Usually, Kurami came to negotiate trade agreements or to take care merchants' permit to operate in Eastern Federation. But today, she didn't seem to bring any documents.

There were only three persons in the room. Ino, Kurami, and Izuna who noisily chewed on the snacks brought by Kurami. She hungrily devoured them without restraint.

For the past week, the Embassy had implemented food rationing for all of its residents. This was because of information that suddenly Eastern Federation faced unexpected food shortage. It was hard especially for Izuna, who liked to eat and had tasted Divine Food.

Thus, she ate all the food that Kurami brought for her. She always asked for Kurami to bring food since the cooking competition.

"Cough." Hatsuse Ino started the conversation. "So, what is your business today, Kurami-sama?"

Kurami didn't answer right away. Instead, she stood up and walked to the big screen displaying Eastern Federation map. Facing them, she pointed to the map and said,

"By the power invested to me as Elchea Kingdom Representative, I delivered this message to Eastern Federation. Elchea Kingdom hereby challenge the Eastern Federation to a game between countries!"

"What? Kurami-sama, even for a stupid bald monkey, that's foolish!" Ino said in surprise. Didn't she know that the previous Elchea King played and lost eight times against Eastern Federation?

As if she didn't hear him, Kurami kept saying. "What we want is everything you have on this continent!"

"Wha!" Ino exclaimed. He subtly listened to Kurami's heartbeat. It was steady and without any disturbance. He asked again, "Are you really serious?"

"Why won't I be?" Kurami grinned in challenge. "Ah, for our bet, if we lose then we will give you this." She put down a bronze coin on the table. It was the smallest currency denomination circulating in Elchea. "I trust that this is enough?"

"You hairless ape!" Ino shouted. "Do you think our territory just worth one bronze coin!"

Kurami pretended to be surprised and said, "Oh is that not enough?" She put down another coin. "Here, I double my wager. Satisfied?"

Ino shouted again. "The hell are you playing?"

"Still not enough? You are so greedy." Kurami said and she poured her leather pouch content on the table, piling bronze coins on top of each other. "Here, twenty times my initial offer. Oh, and one more thing. We don't want our memory erased."

Ino silently pondered. She must know about the previous games between Elchea and Eastern Federation, that's how she knew about memory erasure, but why she still pressed on, challenging The Werebeast on an unwinnable game?

No matter. He simply couldn't accept this challenge. The wager was not of equal value.

"I refuse..." His sentence stopped midway, seeing Kurami put another thing on the table.

It was a crystalline construct, shining with silver-blue light, its radiance increasing every second.

"You can't refuse if I include this in our wager," Kurami said, smiling ferociously.

"It can't be..." Ino said, staring at the shining object. Izuna also stopped eating and stared at the crystal.

It was an object described in the legend. A crystal chess piece, given to each Exceed Race by The One True God, symbolizing their membership to the sixteen intelligent races.

A Race Piece.

An object bestowed to the current official representative of the race. It can be used as a wager but betting it meant betting everything the race had as a whole. Their belongings, their territory, and also their very life. If they lost the race piece, the winner can do anything to the loser without being restrained by the Ten Oaths.

Ino also looked at Kurami's chest. Noticing Ino's look, Kurami slightly opened her blouse, showing the glowing mark on her chest. That was the sign that the Imanity's Race Piece had been wagered.

Kurami withdrew the Race Piece and said, "Well, I guess you can't decide by yourself. Contact your capital and tell us your decision later." With that, she left the place.

Hatsuse Ino's mind was in a panic, but he quickly gave a command to his staffs. He investigated the situation in Elchea. If a Race Piece had been genuinely wagered, there would be chaos on the street.

Soon enough, his staffs returned bearing the news. The glowing mark had appeared, seemingly on every imanity. There was a commotion when the mark appeared. Thus, solidifying the claim that the Race Piece was really wagered.

With that information, Ino hastily went to the teleconference room to contact the Eastern Federation.

====break====

There's A Reason

"Huahahahaha!"

In a dark conference room, a little girl was laughing.

The little girl had white silver long hair and ruby red eyes. She wore a white royal dress and golden crown decorated with jewels. She was watching the projected screen on the wall, showing the Embassy of Eastern Federation.

"How's that! My plan is brilliant!" The girl, Illyasviel von Einzbern, The Queen of Elchea, addressed the people in the room. "Now we just need to defeat her in a game and that's it!"

"Umm…" Kurami, the government of Elchea special staff, raised her hand, asking permission to speak. She had been controlling the meat golem that they sent to the Embassy, but after the meat golem entered the carriage, her duty was over. "I did as you instructed, but what is the purpose of challenging them like that?"

"Hem hem!" Illya smugly raised her chin and replied in a singsong voice. "No other way, I will explain my grand plan to you. Be grateful!"

Illya's plan was like this: By sending a meat golem controlled by Kurami, and provoking Eastern Federation into a game, Elchea could play a game between countries without any risk at all.

Why was that? Because obviously, the Race Piece that the meat golem showed was a fake. A very convincing fake created by magic, complete with light show, but still a fake. And because neither the meat golem or Kurami had the authority to wager the Race Piece, the bet was invalid.

Illya took care not to authorize anything to Kurami. And Kurami also never said anything about Race Piece. Kurami only said "this", and she meant a crystal king piece, not the Imanity Race Piece.

So, if they lost the game, all they lost was twenty bronze coins and a crystal trinket.

And the glowing mark on every Elchea Kingdom citizen? Easy, magic. We got Caster here, as long as she had time to prepare, something like that was a child's play.

"How about that? I am a genius, right?" Illya puffed up with pride.

However, the Servants present didn't praise her. They were still watching the screen with serious expressions. Only Stephanie spoke to Illya.

"Umm, Your Majesty," Stephanie said. "I think that's not going to work."

"Ha?" Illya scowled "What do you mean not working? Didn't you see how that old fox freaking out?"

"Illya." Saber suddenly said. "Watch and learn, you will see soon why your plan will not work."

The screen showed Hatsuse Ino reporting to the female fox, the ruler of Eastern Federation known as Miko-sama. He reported every detail, including the phenomena where Elchea citizens' chest were glowing.

"But Ino," Miko-sama asked. "Did she say that it was a Race Piece?"

"That is…." Ino was lost for words.

"There is a possibility that it's not a Race Piece, they are just misleading us, making us think that they wagered a Race Piece," Miko-sama said. "Remember that they now have Elves and Flugels at their side. Who knows what can they do."

"Grrrr." Illya banged her fist at the table, angry because her scheme was seen through.

"Then what shall we do, Miko-sama?" Ino asked for instruction.

"We accept their game," Miko-sama answered.

"Eh?" Ino was surprised. "But you just said that the wager is fake?"

"It is. But that doesn't mean anything." Miko-sama smiled ferociously. "We can just confirm again before the start of the game. The Elchea Kingdom wagered its Race Piece. And then whoever the true representative must come out to said the oath, otherwise, the game will be invalid."

"Wait!" Illya shouted to the screen. "That's cheating!"

"It is not," Kurami said to Illya. "Remember, we do the same thing when we held off the cooking contest. The terms of the game and the stake was confirmed once again before the game. If we have a game with Eastern Federation, at that time, we have to deny wagering the Race Piece if we don't want to really bet it."

"Grrr." Illya stomped her feet. "My brilliant plan… My genius scheme…."

"Sssh." Archer motioned Illya to be quiet. "This is the important part."

The screen still showed Hatsuse Ino and Miko-sama, but now Miko-sama was giving instruction. The Eastern Federation citizens must be evacuated from the continental territory, to prepare if they really lost the territory game.

The time needed to evacuate all werebeasts in the continent was estimated to be around ten days. After that, the game between the Elchea Kingdom and the Eastern Federation could be held.

"Ten days huh…." Archer said. "Tight schedule, but doable."

Illya tilted her head, perplexed by the comment.

"Illya." Saber now addressed her, deciding that the screen finished showing all important things. "Do you know why I didn't stop you when you told me your plan?"

Illya pouted at Saber. Did Saber allow Illya to carry out her plan, just to let her fail? Did she want to humiliate Illya? Or was this bullying?

Saber was unfazed by Illya's pout. She continued. "There is a reason why I let you go on with that plan. Actually, we just need to provoke the Eastern Federation, the method is unimportant. Even showing the real Race Piece is fine, we can just retract the wager before any oath spoken."

"Provoke?" Illya was confused. "For what?"

"For this." Saber gestured to the screen. "A mass exodus. By the way, you remember that our merchants are still there, right?"

"Yeah, and also the food. You said they are renting several warehouses in Eastern Federation. Why we did not take the food here?"

"Simple, because our merchants have the permit to trade, and that means selling things is also permitted. Caster, tell them that they can start selling."

"Right away, Miss Prime Minister. Hehehehe" Caster laughed eerily.

"Selling?" Illya didn't believe her ears. They had stockpiled all that food and now they would sell them?

She wanted to protest, but she remembered that she had just done a mistake. Maybe she would shut up and observed for a while.

====break====

This Game

In another world, another timeline, if there's no food crisis happening in the Eastern Federation, the citizens would obediently follow government instruction and quietly evacuated to the islands from the continent.

That's not what happened in this story.

When Eastern Federation government announced that all citizens should evacuate, many farmers said something like this: "But if I and my family go, who will take care of the crops? Even with automated irrigation somebody still need to turn on the switch. I have sold the harvest for this season, I will be in red if I can't deliver it."

And then the fisherman said something like this: "But we already signed up an agreement to supply fishes every week! You think these fishes will just come to our warehouse by themselves?"

And so on, many people in the food industries refused to go. For them, even if they went to the islands, they would still be in ruin if they couldn't deliver their side of the deal. And also, it's not certain that Eastern Federation would lose territory, right? They always won anyway.

But still, some of the retail merchants were in a panic. These merchants didn't have any trade contract tying them down, so they were evacuating in a rush. And yet, they also brought their stocks with them.

What was the number one thing they brought with them? Food supplies. They brought still unsold food supplies with them. They knew that the food crisis would last a long time, so food was the most valuable commodities right now. They closed shop and transported their goods to the islands.

This had two big impacts. First, the evacuation slowed down because the ships carried out food merchandises, not people. The officials knew that they must prioritize food, otherwise they couldn't eat. The merchants also bribed the officials to prioritize their luggage.

Second, there's no one selling foodstuffs on the continent anymore. Even if there was, the price soared to an unbelievable level.

The Eastern Federation territory on the continent was quite big. Even with all the technology, to cross all that distance needed time. And what was needed for people in the move? Food.

In that kind of situation, many werebeast citizens had given up on evacuating and stayed instead. There was no guarantee that they would be able to get food in their travel, and even in the islands, food was scarce.

In this situation, Elchea struck.

====break===

The Rules

What can you do with a single coin?

"Selling, we are selling rice!" A human shouted in the central plaza.

One middle-aged female werebeast approached the stall. She was surprised to see several imanity watching the stall, but the hesitation didn't last long once she noticed that they indeed had food. She read the sign for the price

Price:

5 sacks for 1 Gold Bars

1 sack for 1 Werebeast Gold Coins OR 100 Werebeast Silver Coins

1 sack for 10 Imanity Silver coins

10 sacks for 1 Imanity Gold Coin

The female werebeast cringed after seeing the price. That was the ongoing market price, but for the average citizens, 1 gold coin for one sack of rice was too much.

And then she looked again at the price tag. Imanity coin? She was not familiar with Imanity's currency, the Eastern Federation only used one currency.

"Excuse me, what is this.. imanity coin?" The female middle-aged werebeast asked the stall minder.

"Oh, dear customer!" The human replied. "They're the coins used by the Elchea Kingdom. There are gold, silver, and bronze coins, just like in the Eastern Federation." He showed some samples of the coin.

"Uhm… but why it's cheaper in imanity coin?"

"Oh.." The seller lowered his voice and whispered to her. "It's because the Elchea Kingdom has more food now compared to Eastern Federation. You can exchange your coins to imanity coins there." The seller pointed at a small shop across the street. "It's cheaper to buy with imanity coin."

The female werebeast was cautious, but hunger pushed her feet to move to the small shop. The signboard at the front said "Avalon Bank"

"Welcome!" A voice called out to her when she entered the door. It was a girl behind a counter.

She approached the counter while looking around. It was a well-ordered place, there's bench for waiting, and notice board at the wall. There's no other customer except her.

"Umm, I was told that I can exchange money here?" She said to the girl minding the counter.

"Yes, welcome to Avalon Bank! We deal in money lending and also foreign currency trading." The sales girl said in a cheerful tone. "Do you want to exchange werebeast coin to imanity coin? Here is the exchange rate today." She showed a paper with numbers on it.

EXCHANGE RATE

1 GOLD BAR = 3 IMANITY GOLD COIN

1 IMANITY BRONZE COIN = 2 WEREBEAST BRONZE COIN

1 IMANITY SILVER COIN = 2 WEREBEAST SILVER COIN

1 IMANITY GOLD COIN = 2 WEREBEAST GOLD COIN

1 IMANITY GOLD COIN = 100 IMANITY SILVER COIN = 10000 IMANITY BRONZE COIN

The female werebeast did a quick calculation. If she had one werebeast gold coin, she could buy one sack of rice.

But if she exchanged it into 50 imanity silver coins, she could buy five sacks of rice!

"Pardon me, are you sure it's correct?" She asked because she couldn't believe it.

"Yes, it is correct." The girl receptionist said. "But take care, it's the exchange rate for today only. I heard that tomorrow the price of imanity coins will go up, one imanity gold coin will be equal to two werebeast gold coins and twenty werebeast silver coin. I recommend buying today before the price goes up!"

The female werebeast still hesitated, expecting trickery. What kind of people deliberately selling below market price? But the memory of her children waiting at home, and her empty stomach, motivated her to act.

"One werebeast gold coin." She said, putting it on the counter. "Give me imanity coins this can get."

"Yeees, pleasure to do business with you." The receptionist took her coin and gave her a clinking pouch.

The female werebeast took the pouch, confirmed its content, and hurried back to the imanity food stall. Her one werebeast gold coin had changed into fifty imanity silver coin.

"Excuse me!" She said to the stall keeper. "Umm, one sack of rice. I can pay with this, right?" She took out ten imanity silver coins.

"Okaaay! One sack of rice, coming up." The stall keeper took her coins and gave her a sack of rice.

The female werebeast silently marveled. She secretly checked the sack content. It was genuine rice.

But that meant she just bought this rice with only one-fifth of the current market price.

She didn't go home right away but took a look at the different stalls opened by imanity.

As expected, all the price was the same as the market price when you buy with werebeast coin, but only 10% of the market price if you buy with the imanity coin.

Calculating the exchange rate, the price became 20% the market price. As long as she exchanged her werebeast coin with imanity coin, she can buy five times the amount of food with the money she had.

However, that receptionist said that the price of imanity coin would go up. Oh no! She must go home and take out her savings, and exchange it all to imanity coin!

====break====

Mode : Very Easy

"Why Avalon?" Illya asked about the name of the bank they made.

Saber replied in a somber tone. "Because only in Everdistant Utopia human needs no money to live."

"Eeeh?" Illya exclaimed. "Isn't that a bad name for a bank? It's not a lucky name."

"No, it's appropriate. We are trying to make the werebeast coin disappear." Saber said.

Illya and Saber were in their usual conference room. There was a big blackboard on one side, where Saber wrote and draw diagrams. She was explaining the special operation that Elchea was conducting.

It's because Illya kept complaining that she didn't understand what they're doing.

"The foodstuffs price has risen to around ten times the usual market price, and still continue to rise. One sack of rice is usually around seven to ten silver coins. Now it's one hundred silver coins, or equal to one gold coin." Saber said while writing with a chalk on the blackboard.

"In this situation, we sell food at cheaper price, but only if they buy with imanity coins." Saber said.

"But isn't it a loss for us?" Illya asked. "We buy food with a higher price before."

"It is a loss, but not so much." Saber answered. "And the food we buy can't stay fresh indefinitely. Even preservation magic has a limit, and it constrains our resources to keep them. It's better to release them."

Saber draw again on the blackboard, making a picture of two werebeast coins and one imanity coin. "Now, the Werebeast has no other means of exchanging currency other than the Avalon Bank that we made. We set the exchange rate one-sidedly. For two werebeast gold coins, they got one imanity gold coin."

Saber then put a balance scale on the table. She put one werebeast gold coin on one scale and one imanity gold coin on the other. The scale balanced out. "As you can see, the weight and size of the coins are almost the same between two currencies. There is a difference in the content mixture, but it's so small and can be neglected. And that means?"

Illya jumped from her seat and shouted excitedly, "We buy two gold coins with just one gold coin! We get double profit!"

"Exactly. And then, the Eastern Federation citizens are still under the effect of inflation. The period before we sell food has made some of them lost their savings. Even now, the price of the food we sell is virtually double the usual market price. They need money."

And then Saber wrote 'Consumer Loan' on the blackboard. "Avalon Bank will lend money with 0.5% annual interest. There will be many people who will borrow money, expecting to pay the debt later after they got their salary or income."

"But that's almost zero!" Illya protested.

"Yes." Saber said. "But we only lend imanity coin. And we demand they pay with imanity coin."

Illya shuddered after hearing that. If the value of werebeast coin kept decreasing, the people who got their salary or payment in werebeast coin wouldn't be able to pay their debt.

"What if they can't pay?"

Saber wrote three points on the blackboard. "We will give them a choice. First, handover their asset. Of course, the asset we seize should be in higher value than the outstanding debt. Second, we offer a game of arm-wrestling with a Servant. Preferably Berserker. The wager is all of their assets, and if they win all their debt is erased. Most people will back down after several brave challengers lost."

She underlined the third point. "Third, and this will be the choice that the majority will pick, is to give an exclusive right to Elchea Kingdom merchants to buy their products, if they are producer or farmers. That will secure the food supplies for the next two years at least. We will monopolize the entire food supply."

"What about middle-class workers? Or low-income household?" Illya asked.

"We take away their asset. For example, seize the ownership of the house and make the family pay the rent. If they can't pay rent it will become another debt." Saber said.

"That will result in... endless debt!" Illya said in surprise.

"It is." Saber said. "The takeover will not happen instantly. There will be some time before an average person really unable to pay the debt."

Saber wrote again on the blackboard, this time writing 'Interest rate' and 'savings'. "Even with the lending scheme and the lower price of food, the wealthy will still keep werebeast coin in their saving account. The Eastern Federation has several private banks. They are still primitive though, even with electronic record and computer."

"Avalon Bank gives 10% annual interest for any saving in imanity coin." Saber grinned. "That will get their attention."

"But the bank will lose money!" Illya protested again. "We give 10% interest for deposit and only take 0.5% for lending, we lose 9.5%!"

"There's a simple solution for that. We melt werebeast coin and mint new imanity coin. Because these people will exchange their coins with us, we practically take half of their money. After deducting that 10%, our profit is 40%. If we use alchemy to transmute werebeast coin into imanity coin, it will be fast and efficient."

Illya tilted her head and pondered. "Are these werebeasts so stupid?"

"No." Saber answered. "But money and profit can make people behave irrationally. People will trust imanity coin because it's backed by food. As long as we supply food with a fixed price, their confidence in the currency will grow."

"Money, gold and silver coins have intrinsic value. But what's important is the perceived value. 'I can use this one imanity silver coin to buy a loaf of bread.' Meanwhile, one werebeast silver coin can't buy anything worthwhile, and its value keeps decreasing."

Saber kept drawing to illustrate her point. "For investors, they have reserve money not used in anything. Let's say 1000 werebeast coin. They can buy 1000 sacks of rice with that money."

"But if they exchange their money into imanity coin, they can buy 5000 sacks of rice. However, they don't need 5000 sacks of rice right now. That doesn't mean they can just do nothing."

"If they wait, the value of werebeast coin will drop, and that money can only buy 4500 sacks or something. But, if they exchange it and save it in Avalon Bank, assuming the price of rice is stable, next year they can buy 5500 sacks." Saber finished explaining.

"I see." Illya nodded. "They are blinded by the prospect of profit. But won't the other banks respond, maybe by raising their interest rate?"

"They can, but that's only delaying their bankruptcy. They have to make a profit, so the loan interest rate must be higher than the deposit interest rate, but that will only make people move to Avalon Bank with a lower loan interest rate. And they can only deal in werebeast coin, something that will soon be abandoned. If the other banks want imanity coin, that's good too, they have to exchange it from us."

"Hmm." Illya was thinking, trying to find a flaw in Saber's plan. It's not like she was being petty, but the Queen must correct her subordinate, right?

"What about the people in the islands? They also keep werebeast coin."

Saber grinned. "That's why we also opened a branch there."

===break===

Now Loading

"I am sorry dear customer, this restaurant only receive payment in imanity coin or Avalon Banknote. Also, you have to pay upfront."

In front of an establishment, a waitress was explaining to potential werebeast customers.

This restaurant was one of many restaurants that Elchea Kingdom opened in Eastern Federation. The signboard said "Flugels Cuisine."

The promotion flyers said: "Taste the cooking of the sixth ranked Exceed!" , "Food that satisfies the Heavenly Winged Race, now also available for you." "6000 years' experience pursuing the ultimate cooking."
And so on.

After Archer taught the Flugels cooking, he said something like, "A true chef can cook in a professional setting, for the paying customers." And then he gracefully provided the place and opportunity for Flugels to have practical experience by opening restaurants and food stalls all over Eastern Federation.

Or so that's what the official story told to the Flugels.

And that's how the Flugels worked for free as chefs in those restaurants. It's possible that the Flugels knew that they're being used, they're not that stupid, but they didn't really care. All they wanted was to test out their cooking skill.

The restaurants and stalls sold delicious food, cooked by Flugels. Some humans were working to assist them by taking the orders, delivering food, or handling the payment. The price was cheap, so many werebeasts visit them rather than buying the very expensive food.

Inside the restaurant, on one of the table, a cat-eared merchant was having a conversation with a goat beastman.

"What? But that's 50% higher than the price last week!" The cat-eared merchant said.

"That's how it is. The living expenses increase, so I need to raise my milk price. Otherwise, me, my family, and my farmhand cannot eat." The goat beastman said.

"I can always find another supplier." The cat-eared merchant threatened.

"Be my guest." The goat beastman was unfazed. "Everyone is in the same situation, and I expect the other to increase their price more. I can also find other buyers. In fact, the merchants from Elchea buy anything these days."

"Surely you can't trust these... these... foreigners!" The cat-eared merchant said indignantly.

"They sell food, that's what I know." The goat beastman shrugged. "And anyway, the price will increase by 100% next week."

"Whaaaaat?"

"Yeah. That's because you pay with werebeast coin. I have to exchange it to imanity coin, and I predict the value of werebeast coin will keep lowering next week." The goat beastman said and sipped his tea.

"Wait! I bet there's a conspiracy here. This exchanging coin business sounds fishy!" The cat-eared merchant said.

"Don't care." The goat beastman said, putting his cup down. "What I know is that imanity coin gets me food. If you still pay with werebeast coin, then the price will keep increasing. Maybe you should exchange your coin now, and pay me imanity coin next week? Just a suggestion."

====break====

Mode: HARD

"Almost all the Eastern Federation natural resources, such as food and minerals, metals, and even textiles, are produced in the continent." Saber said while pointing at the map.

"Now imagine if almost all of the citizens in the continent changed their currency into imanity coin." Saber drew on the blackboard.

"Ah!" Illya hit her left palm with her right fist. "The citizens on the islands have no choice but to also switch to the new currency."

"Precisely."

"Why don't we left them starving? I bet our position will be stronger that way." Illya asked.

"In famine, the weak died first. Women and children will be the first to die. It's not worth causing that casualties just to play a game." Saber answered.

"We are playing a game?" Illya asked. They hadn't declared the word Aschente.

"We are, even if the other side doesn't know yet. It's called real world monopoly." Saber said.

Ah, Illya remembered that game. While she was visiting Shirou's house, Taiga sometimes brought board games and she ended up playing together with everyone. One of the game was a classic called Monopoly. Shirou, as well as Sakura, was not too good at playing it. Rin played well, but she often made mistake in crucial moments. Illya was quite good at it if she can evaluate herself. Saber…. Once she understood the rules and adapted, she was indomitable.

Still, Illya had difficulty imagining Eastern Federation as monopoly board.

"So, we absorbed their currency and replace it with our own. And then what?" Illya asked again. She liked the straightforward method. All of these complicated schemes flew over her head.

"Well, first we have the report that several banks already collapsed. It's just a matter of time before Avalon Bank becomes the only bank operating in Eastern Federation. We have already moved to buy the assets of the failing banks."

"Failing banks?" Illya knew banks from the real world and monopoly game. But banks can fail?

"Yes, people withdraw their money en masse, intending to exchange werebeast coin into imanity coin." Saber drew the square with a 'bank' label and filled half the square with the word 'money', leaving the other half blank.

"The problem is that the bank doesn't have enough money in reserve because they have lent away some of them. When everyone tries to collect money all at once, the bank can't give it. The bank defaulted, that is the word for a bank that can't give its customer the money it owed." Saber drew several other squares with label 'bank'.

Ah! Illya now understood. It's when playing monopoly, the player acting as the bank run out of toy money and can't pay the players their GO salary. The player needed to open a new set of monopoly game and take out another set of toy money.

"Because one bank failed, people will be worried about their money saved in other banks. They will also withdraw their money from other banks, creating a chain reaction." Saber explained.

Saber crossed the banks square one by one. "Like a house of cards, they will all fall."

===break===

Time-out

There was a delay because the Eastern Federation government was busy in evacuating the citizens to the islands, but when the banks defaulted one by one, of course, the government finally noticed.

The Fox Shrine Maiden, [Miko-sama], was listening to her subordinates' reports. She clenched her teeth and gripped her chair hard, seething in frustration. Her fiery gaze cowed the country's officials in the room.

It was obvious to the officials why she was angry. Actually, this scene mirrored the one happening six days ago.

"The Piggy Bank and the Peacock Finance Bank has declared bankruptcy today. That makes six banks who already declared bankruptcy so far in two days." The fox eared Finance and Trade Minister said to the meeting.

"Everyone is in panic, and that makes the situation worse." The wolf-eared female, the Minister of Industry said. "They all want to withdraw money and exchange it to imanity coin, and deposit it to Avalon Bank."

"Preposterous!" Miko-sama shouted. "They trust another country's money more than our own? They will rather store their money in hairless monkey's bank? Anyway, HOW COME A FOREIGN BANK IS SUDDENLY DOING BUSINESS HERE?"

In this world, the banking system was not fully developed. Even when Eastern Federation developed computers and created electronic records, the bank activity didn't change much, only doing saving and lending. Because of that, there's no strict regulation on banking. And the nation also didn't guarantee the deposit stored in the bank. It's all private sector without government interference.

Also, there's no such thing as foreign currency exchange or international trade. In the rare occasion that international trade happening, usually, it was done by the barter system. Another nation's currency didn't worth anything. Usually, foreign merchants converted everything into goods to sell when they came home because werebeast coin was only used in the Eastern Federation. If some merchants took foreign coin home, they're only a few, and there's no impact felt in the economy.

That's why Eastern Federation was ill-prepared in tackling the economic attack.

A bureaucrat presented a document with a trembling hand. "We… we didn't expect…. Buried under all the paperwork… They applied for a permit…"

In a glance, it was just the usual permit application for a foreign merchant. But when reading the details, the long-winded complicated sentences had one meaning: to establish a bank. The details about storing money, lending money or giving interest rate, all dispersed in many clauses and hidden in difficult words.

"They're taking our gold. One imanity gold coin is now traded for three werebeast gold coins. That's three to one ratio. We have to stop them!" The treasurer, one male elephant werebeast said.

"Get them out!" Miko-sama said. "Revoke their permit! I don't care how, just force Avalon Bank to close and expel the bald apes from this country!"

"I'm sorry Miko-sama." The Finance and Trade Minister apologetically said. "I believe we can't do that. Rather, that will worsen the situation." His fox ear twitched. "They now hold our citizens'money, banishing them will only move our money to their country."

"I agree." Fisheries and Sea Resources Minister, a beaverkin said. "If we stop their bank, I'm afraid the food merchants and the restaurants will also close shop. If that happen…, there will be widespread famine. The refugee from the continent lives only by borrowing money and buying the food from foreign merchants. In fact, the economy currently depends on the loan given by Avalon Bank. If we expel them, there will be a recession."

Miko-sama gritted her teeth. Right now, it's as if the Elchea Kingdom took the Eastern Federation economy hostage.

"Our most urgent concern is government shutdown." Internal Minister said. "The civil official's salary and our budget and expenses are still in werebeast coins. If the price keeps rising, we can't run the government. Unless… we also exchange our treasury with imanity coins?"

"What do you say?" The treasurer yelled.

"No, our most urgent concern is the banks." Finance and Trade Minister said. "We need to inject the still standing banks with new capital, giving them government loans. We need to save them and keep citizens trust in our banks."

"Where do we got the money?" A voice asked.

"But it's private sector! A government interference there is unprecedented!" Another voice asked.

"We already in a tight situation just to pay salaries!" "We are the ones who should borrow money!" "The price for infrastructure maintenance is increasing!" "What about the refugees?"

The room descended into chaos.

"Silence!" Miko-sama said to the room. The room quieted down after she shouted. "We can't lower ourselves by exchanging our currency to imanity coin. The only way remaining is….. Treasurer, mint new coins, as many as you can."

"Understood. I will make as many as I can. Fortunately, we have an exclusive supply of gold and silver." The treasurer said, his large ears waved in relief.

'This is not the end for Eastern Federation. We are not cornered yet.' Miko-sama thought.

===break===

Game Over

"By the way Saber, where do you learn all of this?" Illya asked. She knew that Saber was a king, but did ancient England had an impressive banking system? Illya can't remember.

"Oh well. Shirou was always going to school during the day, so I don't have anything to do at the house." Saber answered. "So, I watched TV. There are many informative programs and I learn a lot. And then there's this one time when they talked about the banking system."

Illya was gaping. From TV? A country was brought to ruin using knowledge from TV?

"I was interested and then I asked Shirou about it. He bought me a book and also showed his school textbook. Iyaah, the modern banking system is so wonderful! If only I had something like that during my rule, there are many things can be solved." Saber's eyes glazed over, remembering the distant past.

"Hmm," Illya responded. "You haven't told me why we replace the currency though."

"Ahem." Saber switch into serious mode. "Tell me Illya, what is the function of government?"

"Eeeh? Umm.." Illya looked at the ceiling, thinking hard. "Umm, to have police, and then…. Umm to have judge and the law and all that… and… Ah! To have military and invade other countries!"

Saber smiled and patiently explained. "Well. You are right for the most part. To maintain public order by police, to uphold law and justice by the judicial system, to defend against external threats by maintaining an army, making laws and regulation, building and maintaining infrastructure, mint official coins, and impose taxes to fund all of those activities."

"Armies? Now that you mention it…. We don't have armies." Illya put her index finger on her chin.

"That's true, isn't it." Saber gestured with her palm to the sky. "In this world of Disboard, every conflict is resolved with a game. Every contract and promise resulting from the game is sealed by Ten Oaths. In that case, there is no need to maintain an army, because no foreign army can invade. There is no need for police because there is no robbery, violence, stealing, killing, or any other crime. Well, there's fraud, but that's rare. You can't even dine and run in this world."

Saber continued, showing three fingers in her hand. "And that makes the government in this world essentially only have three works other than having a game with other nations. These three are: doing public works, making regulations, and minting coins. If we replace Eastern Federation currency, they will have no money to do public works, and their legitimacy to create regulations will also be void."

Illya beamed. "In other words, a useless government!"

"Yes." Saber said. "A trust in a currency is directly related to the trust in government. When people don't trust the currency, they also don't trust the government. Anyway, this is actually an experiment."

"Experiment?"

"I want to try taking the official representative position of the Werebeast race without any game. See if all the trust in government switch over to Elchea Kingdom government, will the Race Piece also change hand?"

"I don't think so," Illya said. "And it's impossible for all of the werebeasts to suddenly trust me. They haven't even seen me yet."

"Uh-huh." Saber nodded. "That's why, only experiment. And even if it fails, it doesn't matter. We will essentially take over all of Eastern Federation's economy."

"But Saber, if I were the Eastern Federation Queen, I will mint more coins," Illya said. "And then using the new coins, I will stabilize the economy and gradually drive the foreign influence out of the country."

"No, this is the end for them. Checkmate." Saber said, tossing a coin to Illya.

Illya caught the coin and inspected it. "What is this? A werebeast gold coin?"

"No," Saber said. "Look carefully."

Illya examined it closely. And then she caught the difference. If the picture in werebeast coin was a lion, then this was a cat. And then the writing also said a different thing. "What is this? Toy money? Or maybe… forgeries? A fake coin?" It was very similar to werebeast coin, one must inspect closely to notice the difference.

"Yes, a fake coin." Saber said. "It is lighter than the werebeast coin and the gold purity is much lower."

"Eeeh? We can mint fake money?"

"Yes." Saber said. "What we can't do is to mint the REAL werebeast coin. That is actually counted as stealing from another country. But we can melt it into pure gold or imanity coin because the werebeast coin already belongs to us. Funny system."

"And this fake coin is?" Illya asked, still examining the coin from various angles.

"We can mint a coin that resembles werebeast coin. We never claim that they're werebeast coins. If someone misunderstands, it's their own fault." Saber said, grinning in satisfaction.

Illya marveled. So evil! This was so evil. "I know! You want to make people panic! A rumor of fake werebeast coins will make people distrust the currency and switch over to imanity coin. But then, how can you spread this fake coin? Paying with fake coins is counted as stealing if I understand this world mechanic right."

"Do you remember the bandits?" Saber said.

"Ah!" Illya remembered the bandits who tried to rob them with a game.

"The werebeasts also have bandits. We sent groups of people to bandits' location and deliberately lost a game. We handed over our belongings. Mixed in with real money is the fake coins. Also, we dropped these fake coins around and declared that we release ownership of them. Anyone can pick them up. After that, we just need to spread rumors."

"And the bandits and the people who picked up money will try to spend them." Illya nodded. Ëventually a skilled merchant will notice something wrong with some of the coins."

"And panic will spread." Saber said.

"If people don't trust the werebeast coin…." Illya rubbed her chin, thinking about the scenario. "Then even if the government keep minting new werebeast coins, the citizens will immediately exchange them into imanity coins."

"And it will lead to hyperinflation if it goes on, so we will have an excuse to adjust the value of imanity coin." Saber grinned. "And then we just need to find out which one happening first. We seize all of the citizens' assets, the minting processes can't keep up resulting in an empty treasury, or the Eastern Federation exchange all of its money into imanity coin."

Illya excitedly jumped around. "And then we can play the game! It will be soooo unfair! Hahahahaha!"

===end===

AN

Writing this chapter is quite hard. Need to imagine a lot and read lots of historical financial crisis. Tell me if you think something is wrong.

List of references consulted.

/Currency_substitution

/Bank_failure

/Revaluation

/Currency_appreciation_and_depreciation

/Great_Depression

/Systemic_risk

/Hyperinflation

/Money_creation