"Ohm!" she yawned groggily as she stretched her arms while sitting on top of the thick mattress.
Calista wriggled her body as she scanned around the familiar room looking for nothing in particular.
"It's a good thing to be alive!" she exclaimed, smilingly, as she lifted the fluffy pillow from the mattress.
'Oh! Aren't we a bit too generous today?' her brows rose as she looked fascinatedly at the shining coins which were at the place where her pillow was before.
"Let's see how rich we are today!" she rubbed her hands expectantly as she picked the coins with sparkles in her eyes.
"1 .. 2 … 3 …. 10 …. 15 …. 40. Um, 40 silver coins. Hehe, does the heavens also know that I will be getting married again and that it sent me so much money as a gift?" she jokingly said as she weighed the coins in her hands.
"If it's not like that, why would they send me such money?" she mused as she recalled how much money she had been getting daily in the past ten years.
Calista grew up in a kingdom named Razzia, which was under the collateral rule of the Kaneria Empire.
There were currently four empires in this particular world of hers. Kaneria, Azov, Lottera and Sama. They could also be considered continents as well.
Decades ago, wars erupted, blood was shed, and kingdoms were united to form these four empires.
Under each empire, several kingdoms pledged allegiance to the empires and Razzia happened to be one such kingdom.
All the empires used three types of currency. Mainly gold, silver and copper coins. However, depending on which empire, the coins would carry the symbol of that empire.
So, by looking at the coins, it was easy to discern where a certain coin came from and whether to exchange it for the local currency if one wanted to use it.
One Kaneria silver coin was equivalent to one thousand Kaneria copper coins. One Kaneria gold coin was equivalent to one hundred Kaneria silver coins.
For households in Cropville, a family of four would require one hundred copper coins or less to survive for a few months.
Life in backward places like hers didn't cost anything, or at least that much for someone like Calista who earned money daily without doing anything.
However, when one upgrades and moves to towns and cities, the cost of living would also increase. Making it very difficult for peasants and slaves to integrate and live well there.
However, Calista wasn't a person who would make herself suffer, especially when she was living by herself. Everything she eats, wears and uses should be always the best.
That was why once every month, she would travel all the way to the nearby city, which would take two days on the road from Silverbroke town, which was five hours away from the village.
Silverbroke town, for most villagers, was a haven where all necessities would be found. However, as someone who had traveled the way, Calista also knew that the town with a few shops, one restaurant and without a bank was more of a growth point in the eyes of city folks who spent silver coins as if there were nothing in a day for fun.
Getting the forty silver coins was a lot since she wasn't a city folk at the moment. And that money could be stored sparingly for the big day in a couple of days once everything was settled.
Calista climbed down the bed with the money in hand before walking to the cabinet where she took the medicine from the other time.
She pulled a different drawer this time and inside there lay a closed box with four partitions.
Calista opened the third partition and smiled brightly when she saw the small mountain of silver coins. She added the forty coins to the small mountain before closing the lid.
After doing so, she closed the drawer altogether before walking back to the bed.
Calista began to spread the bed, a daily ritual she always does every day. When she was done, she opened the windows to allow fresh air to circulate.
Calista walked to her wardrobe where she picked a black dress and changed the nightwear she was wearing.
The sleeping wear was taken to the bathroom, where she also took the bucket she used for bathing and carried it out of the tree house to the kitchen.
Calista was busy for the next thirty minutes. When the water boiled, she went to take a bath before changing into the black dress. When she was done, she went back to the kitchen, where she poured the boiling water into the bucket before carrying it to the outside bathroom.
Calista took several trips until everything was in place before calling Orson out of the house for a bath.
Since he was awake and well, why should she wipe him again?
If he was still asleep, she wouldn't mind taking advantage of him. However, with how she loved cleanliness, there was no way she would allow a grown-up man to lie in the house without moving and without a bath, too.
When Orson saw Calista that morning, he couldn't help but size her up seriously.
However, he didn't ask anything but simply answered docilely without causing a fuss.
His body was already well, which was very surprising considering how long it would have taken him to get healed properly.
Calista took him to the outside bathroom, where he found everything already sorted for him.
Looking at the advanced buildings he had seen only in big cities and where he came from, his interest towards her kept on increasing.
With Orson taking a bath, Calista dedicated her time to preparing breakfast and lunch altogether. Although she loved cooking, it didn't mean spending the whole day in the kitchen cooking as if there wasn't anything fun to do outside.
After an hour or so, she was done with both meals and served the plates for breakfast first while the pots for lunch were set aside near the fireplace to keep warm.
Orson didn't return to the tree house but was busy checking around.
It was also his first time to see for himself where exactly he landed when he left his home the previous day.
Since he popped up in the evening, he was unconscious, so he was unable to see where he was. He didn't dare leave the room yesterday, afraid of triggering any hidden arrays Calista might have set in her house.
He had faced one when he arrived, and it nearly took his life. However, as he walked around, he couldn't sense any array at all, making him wonder if he was hallucinating or what.