Isaac and Birger were standing right in front of Anee's house, they could see there was still a lot of commotion, seems the family business was still alive and well...
"So...what made you decide to finally meet Anees?" Asked Birger in a cheeky tone.
"Well...he's making fake items...we're making fake notes...well...we're all on the same page...plus he's got to have some connections right? He'll get us to meet someone who'll need our notes and pay us back." Said Isaac.
"You're thinking big huh?" Said Birger.
"We have to...the loans has to be payed off after all." Said Isaac.
"Yeah...let's show Anees our new creation huh?" Sighs Birger, the loans reminding him of...Grandpa.
Isaac and Birger walk into the big residence, and luckily they find Anees pretty quickly.
"Hey Birger! How's it been? Haven't heard from ya in a while...so ready to get into the shoe forgery business? And it seems the smart guy has come along as well?" Asked Anees.
"Uh no...actually we've got something to show you..." said Birger in a knowing tone, as if to get Anees curious.
"What is it?" Asked Anees.
Isaac pulls out two 500 Finn notes. "Here's two notes. Spot which one is fake." Said Isaac.
"Right...You know I sell fake stuff? Of course I'll figure it out." Anees took one note in one hand, running his fingers along the paper, his eyes checking the patterns, even checking the hidden face of the first King in the sunlight.
"Son of a bitch...if you're not tricking me by giving me two actual notes...then man, this note is nigh perfect." Said Anees in a bewildered tone.
"Oh wow...we made it." Said Birger in a confident tone, while Isaac gave a confident smirk.
"Holy...God...that's why I was saying to let you meet Sketch Manja! You would've fit in perfectly!" Said Anees excitedly.
"No." Said Isaac bluntly.
"I've gotta show Grandpa this!" Said Anees, as ran into the house, with Birger and Isaac following behind.
"Grandpa! Grandpa! Look at this!" Said Anees excitedly, a little too excitedly for an adult.
Grandpa took the note in his hand, as Birger and Isaac finally caught up to them, before sitting next to Anees.
"Wow...is this a fake?" Asked Anee's Grandpa, as Birger gave a quick nod.
"It's very well made...but let me give you some advice..." said Anee's Grandpa, as Birger leaned forward to listen, while Isaac remained calm and sat still.
"See...no matter how good a fake is...it will inevitably get caught...so...we have to make sure the fake when it gets caught...is in someone else's pocket, not ours..." said Anee's Grandpa.
Birger took that advice with utmost attention, making sure to spread the notes as much as he could while Isaac just sat there, an expression of contemplation on his face...the advice was...interesting.
"Well...unless you guys want to hang around...I think you should be going... I'll tell Sketch Manja about this." said Anees.
Birger and Anees nodded and left the premises of Anee's household.
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Inside the stone walls of the Kingdom of the Veldt, along with the Knights and governmental departments, also housed the grand mansions of the nobles, also know as "The Producer Heads." These were noble families who controlled one aspect of production for each of the Kingdom's resources. Wood was handled by one family, ores by the other, along with weapons, gold, anything.
The Gahlot family handled the Financial Department for many years, they were the ones who made the rules for the Producer Heads, basically they handled all the financial regulations. And Richter Gahlot was next in line.
He had come back to his mansion after a long day of work, but...Catarina's idea was stuck in his head for...whatever reason.
After freshening up, he made his way towards a room in the mansion...
Inside, was a young woman, black hair and amber eyes, she was holding a Finn note in her hands, examining all the patterns, the intricacies in this one single piece of paper...not by using glasses...but by letting a ray of light out of her finger, shining all the features on the note, she was a rare breed after all...a person who could use magic.
Elara Gahlot. The adopted sister of Richter.
Richter remembered how and why she got here in the first place.
People who could properly use magic were scarce across all three races of Man, Elf and Dwarf. One had to be born with the ability to control magic to use it, otherwise you couldn't become a user at all. Such was the rarity of a magic user was that each generation of the three races had only 100 magic users combined. The usual division was Elves had 50, Man had 30, and Dwarves had 20. And due to the rare occurrence but high need of Magic users, being mages and clerics for parties, or making quick work of high labour tasks, these children were immediately adopted into the richer, upper classes of the Kingdoms, where they are provided the best commodities for everything, food and education, high value training...all because of their scarcity.
and Elara herself was extra special...she had the power to control...light magic...a perfect pick for a cleric...only if she wanted to be.
Richter was 8 when he first met Elara, she was adopted at 4 years of age, and they started to bond and became close siblings.
"Elara? Still looking at notes huh?" Said Richter as he entered her room.
"Oh! Hello Big Brother! How'd your day go?" Asked Elara sweetly.
"Pretty stressful, being thrust into the position so suddenly isn't exactly ideal..." said Richter.
"Oh...well...anything interesting today?" Asked Elara.
"Well...there was this Knight...she wanted some anti counterfeit unit for something." Said Richter dismissively, while Elara's eyes brightened up at that.
"Really? That'd be so cool! Counterfeiting is a problem that needs to be dealt with! Maybe I could help too with my light magi-" that was all that Elara could get out before Richter interrupted her.
"Sorry little sister, but counterfeiting is just one of many crimes, and plus our reputation is pretty low for this...high risk move..." said Richter, as Elara seems a little dejected.
After a moment of silence, Richter seemed to understand that he had hurt his sister a little.
"Sorry, Elara...the maids are probably done making our dinner...you coming?" Asked Richter.
"Oh, I'll come in 5 minutes!" Said Elara.
"Okay, see you at dinner." Said Richter, as he left Elara's room.
Elara seemed...dejected that her brother didn't care for counterfeiting...these beautiful notes-no! These beautiful works of art! Needed to have their respect and dignity preserved...but tomorrow was the financial department's monthly regulations meeting, and there would be a section where people could pitch their ideas to the Financial Minister and the other delegates present...and she did have a pitch planned...as she stared at the small wooden contraption sitting at the corner of her desk.