Chapter 50: Copper Coin and Censer

But getting too close would burn his internal circulation. Right now, he couldn't absorb it at all.

He hesitantly took another half step toward the stone pillar.

The burning sensation surged up from his chest again, sharper than before. The warmth inside the Seat of the Sun began to tremble.

He stopped.

After retreating to a safe distance, his Breathing stabilized again.

Know your limits. No wonder his grandfather had written that on the note.

As long as he could step back, he was safe; if he couldn't, things would probably go completely wrong.

Donner watched his reaction, seemingly having expected it.

"You've got quite sharp Inspiration, kid. For someone your age, that's both a good and a bad thing."

Richard looked away and walked to the other side of the shelves. "Can I take a look at the copper coin and the censer?"

"Of course." Donner took the copper coin and the censer down from the shelf.

He returned to the front of the shop and set the two items on the velvet pad resting on the counter.

"Since this is your first time here, I'll explain the market rates."

Donner sat back on his high stool, crossed his legs, and rubbed his thumb and index finger together:

"The supernatural item market in the Imperial Capital is currently divided into three tiers.

"Items with less than a century of corruption and weak ether residue go for under ten pounds a piece."

"Those ranging from a century to a millennium, with a clear history of ritual saturation, start at twenty pounds with no upper limit."

"As for the even older ones..." He jutted his chin toward the stone pillar fragment in the corner of the back room.

"Just pretend you didn't see that. Goods like that almost never circulate through normal channels."

"What about these two?" Richard tapped the copper coin and the censer.

"This coin itself is from the ancient Roman era, with under a century of corruption. Its foundation is clean and its ether residue is stable. Six pounds."

Donner then picked up the censer and rotated it.

"This is a Sufi brass censer. The craftsmanship isn't bad, and it's a larger piece overall. The corruption time is also around a century. Seven pounds."

"Thirteen pounds for both." He laid the two items side by side on the velvet and spread his hands.

Thirteen pounds... but he only had twelve pounds in his wooden box. Did he really have to borrow money from Vincent here?

"Could you tell me a little about their origins?" Richard asked tentatively, preparing his haggling strategy.

Donner's eyes narrowed behind his monocle.

When buyers of supernatural items asked about origins, it was for one of two reasons.

The first type were amateurs who liked to hear stories. The more legendary the tale, the better, and the more legendary it was, the easier it was to get them to open their wallets.

Vincent used to be exactly that kind of person, and Donner loved those amateurs the most.

The other type were experts. They asked about origins to determine the specific process of ether corruption.

Whether it was active ritual saturation or passive environmental permeation, and whether it came from a single source or multiple overlapping sources.

Judging from this boy's reaction the moment he stepped into the back room, he likely didn't belong to the former group.

Donner placed the coin on top of a wooden box on the counter so they could see it more clearly.

"This is a silver coin from the Diocletian era—"

"It's a copper coin, even if it's mixed with silver," Richard interrupted.

Donner's eyelid twitched.

"The obverse bears the profile of Diocletian, so the time period is right.

"But the material is a silver-copper alloy, with a silver content of less than thirty percent. That's a hallmark of the empire's financial collapse in the fourth century.

"Back then, the official copper-to-silver ratio was drastically adjusted to pass off inferior coins as good ones, which eventually triggered a persistent currency crisis."

He flicked the edge of the coin with his fingernail. The sound was dull, lacking the crisp resonance of pure silver.

"A silver ingot sounds different from a copper ingot, sir."

Donner didn't deny it, simply shifting his magnifying glass aside.

"Fine, a silver-copper alloy. But the age is authentic, and the ritual saturation is real. You're not buying it for the bit of silver inside anyway."

"I believe the ritual saturation," Richard said, flipping the coin over.

The front featured a laurel-crowned Diocletian, while the back depicted Victoria, the goddess of victory, holding a palm branch in her right hand and a round shield in her left.

"But the wear is too uniform."

Richard placed the coin on the velvet and pointed at the worn edges with his index finger.

"In normal circulation, the recessed areas wear down last.

"Yet the wear distribution on this coin is completely homogeneous. Even the top of Goddess Victoria's head is worn to about the same degree as the recessed areas."

He stated his conclusion:

"This isn't normal circulation wear. It's from grinding.

Someone placed this coin on a flat surface and ground it in wide circles to collect copper powder.

"It was most likely an alchemist's doing, using the silver-laced copper powder as a potion medium. This kind of grinding causes homogeneous damage to the copper surface."

Vincent stood by watching, secretly marveling at his cousin's profound Learning.

Donner's expression barely changed, but he tucked his hands under the counter.

"Even if it was used by an alchemist, the ether corruption is a fact."

"It's a fact, but there's a problem with the nature of the corruption."

Richard felt the feedback from his internal circulation.

"This copper coin was repeatedly ground down, and the ether was forcibly injected along the direction of the grinding. It wasn't naturally deposited."

He set the copper coin down.

Donner studied him, not saying a word for a long time.

"And then there's this censer. You said it was Sufi."

Richard lifted the lid of the censer, set it aside, and leaned in to inspect the inner wall of the chamber.

There was a fine layer of carbon buildup on the inner wall, which had seeped into the copper from years of constant use.

The inner bottom bore a shallow relief of a rose. In Sufi tradition, the rose is a symbol of divine love and is closely associated with fire rituals.

"There's nothing wrong with the censer itself. It was a daily implement in a Sufi sanctuary, and the ether corruption is a completely standard natural deposition from incense."

He put the lid back on and ran his index finger around the hollowed-out rim.

"But here, on the outside edge of the lid, there is a ring of heterogeneous copper oxidation. It's different from the patina of the main body.

"That shows the lid was replaced later on. The original material wasn't used, and the proportions of the copper alloy are different."

He flipped the censer over. The base had no inscriptions, only regular small round holes.

"There are three vent holes on the bottom. Original Sufi sanctuary censers don't require bottom ventilation.

"This was a later modification, likely to allow the censer to be hung."

He set the censer back on the velvet. "Nine pounds for both, how about it?"

Donner's monocle nearly slipped right off his nose.

"Not good at all. Little brother, your haggling is way too ruthless."

"Mr. Manager, I've already made the issues with the copper coin and the censer very clear."

Donner opened his mouth.

Vincent chimed in from the side, "Uncle Donner, that copper coin really is worn pretty badly."

"You're joining in too?" Donner glared at him.

"It's only right. He's my cousin after all," Vincent grinned, not backing down in the slightest.

Donner picked up the copper coin and flipped it over, then brought the censer up to his eyes to examine it with his magnifying glass.

"I concede on the copper coin. It really does have some wear issues.

"But you're wrong about the censer. That little modification doesn't affect its overall structural integrity."

"Eleven and a half pounds. I won't sell for a penny less."

Richard frowned and pointed out the censer's most fatal flaw:

"This censer changed hands in the past, and it underwent a change of owners while it was actively used as a ritual tool.

"When used repeatedly by people of different factions, the subsequent ether overlays the original deposits, creating a layer of interference."

"To clear out this interference requires extra effort early on. Nine and a half pounds."

"How old are you?" Donner asked suddenly.

"Sixteen."

"Who did you learn all this from?"

"Books."

Donner sighed and cast a couple of glances at his ledger.

"Ten pounds for both pieces. I'll even throw in a leather pouch for you to carry them in. The clogged ether is your problem."

"Nine and a half pounds."

"Ten pounds flat, non-negotiable. If you don't want them, see yourself out."

Donner slapped his palm against the counter. "At this price, I'm not even making a reasonable profit. It's purely out of respect for Mr. Gerard, and..."

He pointed at Richard.

"And because you really do know your stuff, kid. You won't do wrong by my goods."

Richard thought for a moment, opened his satchel, and counted out the bills.

"Deal. Ten pounds."

Donner counted the bills one by one and stuffed them into the Iron Box under the counter. His expression looked like he'd just chewed a raw lemon.

He wrapped the copper coin and the censer in a double layer of oiled paper, placed them in a leather pouch, and pushed it over.

"Every single person who comes out of the Ashford family is a shrewd bastard."

He muttered, pulling the monocle off the bridge of his nose to wipe it.

"The last time that aunt of yours came, she ground me down just like this. There's not a single easy-going person in your whole family."

Vincent grinned in sheer amusement.

Donner put his monocle back on, his short, stout body waddling around from behind the counter.

He walked to the door, lifted the tapestry, and made a "please" gesture.

"You've bought your goods, and you've got your letter. Safe travels, I won't see you out."

"Uncle Donner..."

"Go, go, go. I haven't even eaten yet. Getting ground down by you two all morning, the money I made isn't even enough to buy a salted fish."