Village chief Matt lived in a wooden house near the edge of Eldham Village. Upon entering, one would  be greeted by a sizable living room, with a kitchen off to one side. In the modern age where Hiro originally came from,  the  average household lived in a cramped house, with living rooms much smaller than this. 

"Please have a seat, my Lord!" Matt invited the noble lord who was actually Hiro, from another world.

A rickety old table and five chairs occupied the centre of the house. 

As Hiro sat, he surveyed the interior from where he was seated on one of the chairs while Krol, the militia guard remained standing. Matt also didn't dare to sit and Hiro didn't want to make a big fuss of the village chief's unnecessary politeness.

The sunlight which shone through the windows illuminated every corner of the house.

"Ema! What are you doing? Lord Piero is here!" Matt called out and a middle aged woman in his fifties nervously stood behind him.

"My lord. She is my wife, Ema. My son was working."

Hiro caught a look at the tools in the kitchen and the farming equipment leaning at the wooden wall of the living room. There were no manufactured goods to be seen anywhere.

Hiro started to realize that there would not be much in the way of technology here. He shifted his hand across the old table to avoid the sunlight. This Piero's body that Hiro was using was not bulky and heavy, but the shabbily made wooden table shook under its weight. The chair also creaked from Hiro sitting on it. 

This was a textbook definition of the word "poverty". And this house belonged to a village chief. It's a far cry from Sraffa's manor.

When Hiro first came into this world, the first person he encountered was Mari who on the first impression, looked like an old maid who didn't know about the outside world. 

His initial impression of Mari had been misleading, as she turned out to be a key figure handling the affairs of his territory but as he was already far from the manor, he decided to explore the village.

Matt, the head of Eldham Village, this man in front of him was the first knowledgeable person he met in this world. That's why he stayed here for a while to consult with him about the workings of this world. The problem was asking about every single information would be strange.

Logically, anyone would find it weird if Hiro knew nothing about this world. Fortunately, the original owner of this body, Piero Sraffa had a reputation as a prodigal who was ignorant. Nevertheless, Hiro had to tread very carefully.

Matt and his wife, Ema stood beside Hiro while Krol stood further away near the door.

Their skins were tanned and covered in wrinkles.

Compared to other male peasants Hiro encountered before, Matt seemed less muscular although their bodies were similarly honed through heavy labour.

More than half of Matt's hair was white.

Ema's shoulder length dark hair was mussed up, and she looked gloomy even under the direct sunlight. 

"Please, help yourself."

Ema placed a crude looking cup on the table. Hiro drank it to show his courtesy.

That's after Hiro observed how she painstakingly boiled the water before.

She first created sparks with a flint before lighting the wood shavings or tinder with those sparks. Shen then fanned the sparks into flame and it was big enough, she transferred it to the stove. Subsequently, she had to boil the water, and by the time it was finished, over fifteen minutes had passed.

That was the first time Hiro had seen water boiled by a hand-started fire, rather than through the use of electric kettle. 

The whole endeavour looked very troublesome. "Then, let's cut to the chase..are you paid wages as the village chief?" 

The couple looked disconcerted. Hiro wondered whether this world had no concept of periodical remuneration or such mechanism existed but village chief was not beneficiary of such payment. 

Matt finally replied, "We village chiefs do assemble entire yield from villagers and it's up to us to take whatever for our personal use."

"What?" Hiro almost raised his voice after listening to such madness but  he instinctively cut his words short. 

"But we make sure to take little so our lord can take more of them."

Hiro started to understand. The land was owned by Sraffa family. The produces from this land also belonged to Sraffa. Village chiefs were the custodians and for that, they were entitled to discretionary commission but they knew very well to take only little so the Sraffa family could maximize their share.

Hiro tried to connect the dots by mentioning Matt's trading job,

"Did you take a portion of that yield to trade them for other place's goods?"

Matt nodded, "Lord Maestro would leave some to me, if we need to trade for outside goods. But usually our yields were not enough for that."

Hiro asked, "Did you exchange our goods with foreign tools?"

"No. Exchange only happens if we bring our goods to other villages as they don't have money. Usually, we sell it for money in town. Part of the money is used to buy tools."

Hiro almost stood up excitedly when he heard the word "money" and "town". These concepts could be related to the mechanism in his original world. 

"I assume the village must be the same as your village, but it was in other lord'd territory.."

Matt and Ema nodded as Hiro resumed,

"The town..must be the nearest town. Why doesn't my estate have a town?" 

"My lord. The noble family that could have a town must be at least Viscount level. To have a city, a noble must be at least a Count. A city is a lot bigger than a town."

As everything started making sense, Hiro asked further,

"You sell our goods for money..."

Hiro desperately wanted to learn about the monetary mechanism as without that knowledge, things would be hard in the future. However, not knowing about local money was very suspicious as even a prodigal son like Piero would have spent money.

While he was thinking about that, Matt strode to  a room and returned. He dropped various coins on the table. Hiro fought back the urge to sign in relief.

"We received these." Matt said before Hiro inspected each coin. 

There were two different orange coloured coins and two different white coins. A white coin and an orange coin had the same symbol that looked like a palm.

"A gold coin and a silver coin issued by Marquis Orsini of Taragona Kingdom."

Then, he pointed at a thicker gold coin with a bird-like symbol in it.

"This gold coin is issued by the Moldavia Kingdom."

He then pointed at a thinner silver coin with a logo that resembled two swords.

"This is a silver coin issued by our King, Taragona Kingdom. Our King also had gold coins but I don't have it here."

"Marquis is beneath our King, but he also issued own coins? Why do you have Moldavia coins?" Hiro couldn't refrain from his curiosity.

"Coins from our neighbouring country, Moldavia Kingdom is widely used in our country. Coins from our Marquis are used in both countries. Our King's coin is only used in our country."

Matt dropped a square shaped wooden object with an unrecognisable symbol on it. Upon touching, Hiro felt it was a lot harder and sturdier than average wood. 

"This is ligneous coin from Margrave Carrara. It is the most used money in our kingdom. Its value is the cheapest. The second cheapest above Carrara coin is the copper coin from Marquis Orsini."

Matt dropped a dark coin with the symbol similar to Orsini gold and silver coin.

He then compared the Orsini gold coin with the Moldavia gold coin. 

"Moldavia gold coin is worth triple the value compared to Orsini. Both gold coins I received from your father, Lord Maestro. I kept it as memento. My lord you could take it back."

Ignoring Matt's words, Hiro pointed to silver coins and Matt immediately answered,

"Orsini silver coin is worth double compared to Taragona Kingdom silver coin. Taragona silver is worth ten times the Orsini bronze coin. Orsini copper coin is worth ten times the Carrara wooden coin."

"What can we buy with the cheapest coin? Copper and wood coin?" 

Matt pondered for a while before answering,

"One man can eat one time at any restaurant in town or city by spending the most, 5 wood coins. The average booze could be bought with another 3 wooden coins per bottle."

Matt added, "Cheap clothes our villagers usually wear cost 1 copper coin. Farming equipment costs between 5 copper to 10 copper, depending on the size."

"Matt..are these all coins you have?"

"Forgive me, my lord. That's all I have."

"It's fine. You keep these coins. Please bring them when you accompany me to the town."

"Yes, my lord!"

Matt and Ema nodded, with steadfast looks on their faces. 

Hiro secretly clinched his fist in satisfaction after he gained a lot of useful knowledge.