Back to his room Daniel told Jenkins that he was going to make a few errands in town for the evening. The butler sent for a pair of knights as an escort, a young noble wandering around town at night would make an easy prey for criminals too brazen to ignore the consequences of attacking one of his birth. He changed into a set of light armor made of black wyvern leather and added a white silk short cape with gold trim to mark his rank. A belt and an ornate sword with a gilded hilt finished his outfit for the night.

Three horses and two young knights were waiting for him at the gates of the castle. He knew them, but had little respect for them. They were from good families and their only aim in serving his father as knight was to get to spend some time with his sisters in the hope that one of them would fall in love with them. The few times that they had to be his bodyguards they did little to hide the chore that it was for them. Daniel made a mental note to make sure to select the few knights that he could take with care.

"Where to?" asked one of them in a snarky tone.

"The Great Shrine of Ivendrelle, we'll go to the Imperial Bank next and then the Adventurer Guild's hall." With the entire program of the evening announced, Daniel would probably not need to speak to either of them for the night.

As they rode into the port city, Daniel found himself missing cars. Heroes in stories have their trusty steeds sharing their adventures, with cute or powerful names. He never cared to learn the name of any of the horses that he had been given, judging them an unreliable mode of transportation that could randomly decide to ignore the commands given, wander away, or even throw off their rider.

The streets were lively in the early evening. A lot of stalls set by street vendors were still out, lit with torches or, for those few merchants that could afford them, lanterns powered by mana stones or monster cores.

The Great Shrine was a massive temple in the Gothic style ubiquitous in the Tellarian empire. The giant gates were still open, the temples of Ivendrelle never closed their doors. The goddess of purity and health had multiple orders of priests and priestesses devoted to her whose calling was to heal the sick, wounded and afflicted.

Daniel entered the shrine, walking to the altar and kneeling in front of it. He was an atheist in his former life and the novelty of an universe with multiple pantheons of gods intervening in the daily life of mortals, granting powers to their clergy and performing miracles on occasions had been a huge shock for him. His fragile health had meant that he had needed the frequent attention and care of priests and healers over the years. He was not the most pious individual in the land, but he made his best to come often to give thanks to the goddess he owed his survival to.

"How is your health these days, Marquis" the voice uttering these words was melodious yet mature, Daniel would recognize it anywhere, it was one of the first voices he heard when he woke up in this world beside the harsh disappointed tone of his father.

"News is spreading fast, aunt Gloria, I was appointed barely this morning. I'm feeling better, I haven't had any seizures or any serious issues in months." She was the older sister of his father and the mother superior of this shrine, she had personally taken care of him in his worst days, when his survival was at stake. Her grey hair was the only hint of her age and even this could easily be attributed to the imperial bloodline, at well past fifty the sober robes of white and purple she was wearing, eschewing the golden regalia she could wear instead, did little to hide the perfect body of an absolute milf. Being hugged and healed back to health by her were warm and fond memories, as well as fodder for a few fantasies.

"You think my oaf of a brother would have taken such a decision without consulting me? He still resents you, but his heart is in the right place. You can't hide in Westmere forever, you would get eaten alive trying to live in the capital and there are few other opportunities for someone afflicted as you are. Yet you are a smart young man, a position with little competition, with the challenges of the place as your only opposition will give you a chance to show your worth, or if it comes to the worst to fail far from the judging eyes of the court, knowing that you did your best. What brings you to my humble shrine tonight? You usually come for the mass on Sunday, what caused you to change your habits? A need for guidance perhaps?"

"In a sense. My life is finally blooming into something that gives me hope for the future and I wanted to give thanks to the goddess for keeping me alive to see this day. But there's also a more practical reason for my presence today. I know too well the importance of the temple in the life of a fiefdom, the health of the people can make or undo the growth and success of any place. My posting is remote, was settled hastily and then left to fester abandoned or close to it for years. I was allowed to bring with me some people to help me with asserting my power over the island and make it prosper. I came here tonight to ask if it would be possible for me to take a few priestesses, novitiates and missionaries from the great shrine and bring them to Wrokdal with me. Their presence would be a boon to both the spiritual and physical health of my future subjects."

"I knew that you were one to think of such things. Know that a small shrine had been created during the initial settlement, I had to check our archives when discussing it with your father. Sadly we lost contact with it, due to the lack of exchanges with the place. I have no way of knowing if there's still some clergy in place there. I can provide you with some of what you want, but my resources are limited. I think that your father was clear on the fact that you cannot go there in force, for diplomatic reasons."

"I'm fully aware of the political situation, yet it is my duty to try to scrape any crumb of support I can from various sources to make my mission a success. Anyone you can spare would be greatly welcomed. What can I expect?"

"I can give you a missionary, two priestesses and four novitiates. More would mark it as an official deployment from the temple."

"It's already more than I hoped. I will put them to the best use I can. They will need to be ready to sail in five days at dawn. I have to leave you now, aunt Gloria, I have other business to attend tonight and little time for it, but I will come by to visit before leaving."

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Standing up, he was surprised to find himself embraced in a warm hug, his face planted in the cleavage of his aunt. Gestures of affections were rare and far between given his status in his family, so this was something he enjoy when they came upon him.

"Be safe, child. And make them regret underestimating you. Make all of us as proud to have you in the family as I do." Nice words and platitudes were the appanage of the clergy, but Daniel could feel the sincerity behind those words and the radiant warmth of the blessing that she sneakily placed upon him.

"I've been given a chance to prove myself and I won't squander it. I hope to see you again auntie, I'll take care of those of your wards you will send with me."

"Scram now, I'm sure that you have better things to do than to talk to an old lady." she released him from her embrace and he could see that her eyes were a bit teary. Despite her encouraging words she knew that it was a very harsh world he was thrust upon.

"I sure do, it's why I'm here to talk to you. Now I will take my leave and continue the preparations for my trip. Revered Mother." he said, using her title and ending with a bow that would have the tutor who taught him etiquette very proud. It got the expected reaction of turning her worried face and teary eyes into a snickering smile.

"Silver tongued devil, I'll be sure to remind my girls of their vows before sending them to you."

"I'm a Marquis, they could do a lot worse."

"If they would marry you, maybe. But not as your mistresses. Now stop this foolishness before I change my mind."

Daniel left her and exited the temple at fast pace while trying to look like he wasn't running away from his very powerful aunt.

The two knights were sitting on the steps of the temple and in a very professional manner that indicated the respect they felt for him, playing dice. In this world the type of dice that was most commonly used was a 12 sided one, it had something to do with Gods that Daniel never really figured out, two kinds existed one with numbers and one with symbols related to gods or their domains and they were used on their own or with each other in a variety of games from very simple number games to very complex ones with very numerous rules. Having little in the way of friends before the soul transfer and little time for this since, Daniel only knew the most simple ones.

"To the offices of the imperial bank!" he said, getting on his horse with as much grace as he could muster (which is to say, not that much) and without waiting for them.

He had only a vague idea of the location of the bank, but it was funnier to watch the two knights hurry to pack their dice and follow him than to wait to be guided. Once they got on horseback and caught up with him he let one of them take the lead.

It was getting late, only a glimmer of little was visible on the horizon and soon some streets not important enough to have lamp posts would be in the dark, not any place a well dressed and nearly defenseless young nobleman would want to be alone.

After the friendly chat at the temple the bank was setting up a completely different mood. After being welcomed by an obsequious clerk with a fake smile, who somehow knew exactly who he was before he even introduced himself, Daniel was quickly led to the office of the branch manager. The front of the bank with its marble floors and lines of counters behind some bars were for the common people. The office he was led to was luxurious, with fancy carpeting and way too much gilding. He was offered a fine leather couch to sit on and there was some tea imported from the Golden celestial dragon empire (a very good brew) with some delicious biscuits (the plate might not last this whole encounter).

While the honorable branch manager of the Imperial Bank of Tellavria, Bellio Aspetto (another Lucrezian exile it seemed, the republic was renowned as much for the financial acumen of its upper class as their propensity to either die young or flee abroad due to the cutthroat intrigues and politics of the place.) introduced himself, Daniel noticed something worrying. A very high pile of documents bearing official seals was set in front of him on the coffee table. The Imperial Bank was charged with transferring the funds he'd need to rule his fief to him, some from the imperial treasury directly and some he was sure from his father. The empire loved its bureaucracy and he wouldn't be simply handed the ludicrous sum of sixty thousand gold sovereigns without having to read, fill and sign an amazing quantity of paperwork. The sum was impressive and he could have lived like a prince for a long time if he had nothing to do but as he was thinking of all he would have to do to make his fief prosper it seemed to melt away. It was a huge sum, but it was all the help he would get, after that he'd have to earn through taxes, trade or loot enough to support himself and the March he had to rule (including the pay for all his men if he didn't want them to leave or revolt).

Money in this world was special as it was divinely ordered. The coins had different shapes and names in different countries but their weight and materials were decreed by Creozius god of wealth and trade, he would put a blessing on each coin minted of the correct weight and purity, it could be felt by anyone and any coin missing it would be suspect. While some units of measure in this world were decimal (the math where thankfully the same between the two worlds) money wasn't, it would take 20 copper pennies to get a silver shilling and 12 of these to get a golden sovereign. A simple laborer would live on a few pennies a day and would rarely handle silver due to the fact that most of their expenses were bellow a shilling. At 240 pennies per sovereign, gold coins were exceedingly rare outside of the pockets of the nobles, merchants and very rich adventurers.

Thankful to the gods for the quick reading and paperwork related skills of his [arcane scholar] class for once, Daniel was done in 25 minutes of reading and signing the endless forms reminding him of the regulations and responsibilities regarding the money he would be handed. Including in these was the fact that he was responsible for the safety of the funds and how much he could use for personal expenses before being charged on various forms of corruption charges, the empire was rather strict on the division between the money tied to ruling a fiefdom and the personal treasury of its ruler.

"And that was the last one, let me congratulate you once more on your investiture young Marquis. Here is the card that will let you access the funds granted to you. I would advise you to always keep it on your person until you have a more secure place to store the money. It is a platinum one, the blessing should last for one hundred years, you can always recharge it in any temple of Creozius for a small fee should you need it. I've been told that overusing the change function reduces the charge quicker," said the banker, he was clothed in an outfit that would probably cost enough to feed a large poor family for more than a year and was rather short, fat and bald, a perfect caricature of a fantasy banker.

What was handed to Daniel was an artefact that was very strangely reminiscent of something from his world. It was a small slab of platinum, inscribed with runes and embossed with his name and title, it was about the same size as a credit card and used in a very similar way. In essence a storage artefact like his bracers, it could only hold money (proper, Creozius blessed money) once inside (one side could be made to open by focusing on it.) the hard, real metal coins could be changed into other currencies and denominations (the three main coins used in the empire were not the only ones that could receive the blessing, other could be used as long as they remained pure copper, silver or gold and that their weight was a multiple of existing ones.).

With it he could deposit one gold coin and then retrieve a few handful of copper coins for small expenses. He could even transfer funds to split it or pay if the other person had a similar card. These cards could only be made by priests of Creozius, making them privileged partners to most banks on Eris.

Daniel quickly put the item in his bracer, it being the safest place to put enough money to raise an army or build a small town that he had at his disposal. Poping the last biscuit in his mouth (he had purposefully kept one for when he would be finished) he left the bank, now with the means to rule this new land he was sent to.

The sun had now fully set, the only light being provided by the magic powered street lamps. It wasn't a problem, his next stop was a place used to do business at almost all hours. He would finally go to a staple of any trip to a fantasy land:

The adventurers guild.