Chapter 17: Money & Business
The market at the centre of the Walled City was hot and crowded and full of life, yet for once, Misha was not enthralled by the spectacle of it all. More than once Bran found himself backtracking through the crowd to find the lost lad.
"Something bothering you?" he asked. Misha was looking at the glass window in front of a real estate agent. In it were displays of all the places on the market for sale or rent.
"Mm? Oh, no, just..."
Bran waited.
"It’s all quite expensive, isn’t it?" Misha said finally.
Bran looked at the adverts and all the zeroes. "You need to remember the currencies. I think the currency of Pretan right now is..."
"It’s twelve, and I am."
"And you still think it’s expensive?"
Misha looked incredulously at him. He pointed at the properties. "Even in the biggest city in Pretan you can buy a flat for less than some of these. And that’s not even going into the rent..."
"Oh." Having grown up in Pearl City, Bran didn’t have a good sense for what was expensive or not expensive when it came to property prices. These were just the prices he’d seen most his life.
Misha sighed. "The thing is..." He glanced warily at Bran, "I don’t have any money. You know those hundreds in my wallet? That’s it. If they were Pounds then it wouldn’t be so bad, but once you divide it by twelve..." Misha sighed. "My father told me to pack light, so most of what I have’s still in the bank and even then, it’s not a lot, just saved up pocket money and the money that was supposed to pay for my school fees."