Saplings and A Letter

Elaina woke up to a brand new day, but not in a good way as she felt the morning sickness kicking in once more. She felt so bad that she didn't have time to wash her face and run straight to the toilet and puked there. Fortunately, the house still has a functioning bathroom despite being abandoned for long. And although it is not in modern standards, the toilet still functions normally and she can still do what she needs to do. She still needed to upgrade it later on to have the modern utilities of the bathroom but for now, without any money to afford the upgrades, she will have to stay in this kind of toilet.

Back to what she was currently feeling. It took a few minutes before Elaina's morning sickness alleviated a bit. She felt bad, but she had to endure it as this is a normal thing to happen whenever someone is pregnant. After trying her best to return to her bedroom, she managed to find the medicine that was given by the doctor to her but when she was about to drink the medicine, the god that was granted her the Almanac started to make a conversation with her.

"[Shouldn't you just ignore the feeling for a bit? Drinking a suppressant might even affect your babies in the process.]"

"Ugh...I know you are a deity of some sort but try going into my shoes and then let's see what you have to say again, let's see who will try to find a way to reduce the pain..."

Then, Elaina frowned as she suddenly realized something that the god just said to her.

"...Wait...what do you mean 'babies'?"

"[I mean how many would you call two fetuses that are still developing inside you? Despite not being born just yet, aren't humans calling them babies already? Since you carry two kids in your body, saying it in plural form makes more sense, doesn't it?]"

"Huh? This is news to me..." Elaina was confused and wanted to know more.

"[Oh, you didn't know about it? Well, now you know. So be mindful of your body, okay?]"

Elaina wanted to ask some more about this information but it seems the god decided to stop communicating with her. She can't help but rub her belly for a bit, even if it is still not big. Hearing it as twins, she was happy that she fled to the Darcero Kingdom instead of the nearby kingdoms that are part of her husband's jurisdiction.

Compared to the Luminiera Kingdom, the Darcero Kingdom is free from the church's grasp. It was one of the only places where having twins was safe and tolerated. If not for this fact, many twin babies might have to suffer due to the beliefs of some people who have some outdated mindset. It is also one of the reasons why she moved to this kingdom, whoever you are, you are welcome as long as you didn't do anything nefarious like being a serial killer or any sort of criminal.

Now that the morning sickness had finally subsided after she was distracted by the god from drinking the pain reliever, she decided to tuck the pills back into her bag and started preparing for her day.

After a thorough preparation, she headed straight to the Coin Chest and opened it, revealing 320 gold coins inside. It's not much, but this is a good amount of money she received just by gathering those herbs. She shipped all of the items last night to the shipping bin and went to sleep. Since the items in the shipping bin will only be converted into money once midnight strikes, the money will not be in the coin chest until midnight. The guild does it this way so that the farmers who want to retrieve something from their shipping bin while they are not yet shipped can still take things until midnight. 

Even though she only gathered a small quantity since the sun was already setting, getting this much gold from those is enough for her to say that she won't be worried about money if she keeps this up.

"Good, if I keep up on gathering those stuff in the forest and taking care of the crops, then it won't be long before I will earn much more money than I should have," Elaina smiled as she put the generated money into her coin purse.

Dressed with new casual clothes this time around, Elaina grabbed the watering can and checked the contents to see if the water was enough.

"Alright, water, just the right amount, let's tend to our little plants and see how they are doing."

Elaina is slightly worried that there would be monsters prowling at night and trampling her crops in the process but she trusts the little fences she made to keep anything away from the crops.

The moment she opened the door and headed straight to her crops, Elaina was shocked to see the Parsnip that she had just planted yesterday was indeed growing now. It wasn't just growing slightly but the sapling has already shown signs that it will be growing more later on. The leaves are also quite green, which makes it pretty fresh even as a sapling.

"It seems those growth rates of the saplings are indeed correct..." Elaina still has a hard time believing it.

Elaina thought the god would make a proud response but this time, it was quiet so she decided to just proceed with her work. Despite knowing the growth rate of the parsnip is real just as it was intended by the gods, the work is not yet over just like that.

After watering the newly grown saplings of the Parsnip and the seeds of the radishes, she also got rid of the insects and some weeds that started to grow around the crops. For non-farmers, removing the weeds growing around the crops is necessary as they will be stealing the nutrients of the soil that were meant for the growing crops. If Elaina wanted a high-quality crop harvest, good care, and proper weeding would help a lot.

It took a few hours for Elaina to do all of the tasks. It is much shorter compared to yesterday but it is still a lot of work. With the crops already taken care of, she checked the fences next, and seeing no signs of damage, she sighed with relief, knowing nothing was prowling last night, or else, she would be forced to stay up at night and perform a night watch.

As Elaina is finishing her job, Elaina notices the little overgrown mailbox beside her new house. She didn't notice it before but now, she can't unsee it. After all, the vine that was crawling on the mailbox was something else.

"I didn't notice this mailbox before. And this flower-bearing vine? Why does it blend perfectly into this mailbox? I like it," Elaina smiled after seeing it. She finds it cute even though it was a natural response to nature, but seeing the mailbox helping the vine as a signpost which then in return, decorates it with some beautiful pink flowers, she won't complain.

While Elaina is appreciating nature's work, she notices that the mailbox has some mail inside. Based on the paper, this is a recent letter sent to her.

"Wait...does that mean Alfred has already found me?"

Elaina shook as her hands tighten the grasp of the letter. Although her wish was simple, she hoped that this letter is not from her husband.