Getting Familiar

"Sigh. Anyway, thank you for letting me stay here. I'd still be walking around the city randomly if not for you to be honest." Stella said to Anne.

"Mmm, it's alright. But why would you stay out? I think there are quite a lot of reputable inns that'll let you stay safe. Even if you're alone." Anne was puzzled.

"I.... sigh. I don't have any money. I'm not even familiar with the currency. I don't even know where I am actually. I only know the name of the city, and not anything else." Stella grumbled.

"How do you not know the name of the empire you live in? You're not even familiar with the money? Did you pop out of thin air?"

Anne was vexed with the ignorance of this little girl.

"...I'm just not familiar with these things, okay?!" Stella was embarrassed.

"Okay, okay I'll explain everything properly." Anne giggled.

"We're in the Avelon Empire. It's one of the biggest empires on the Western Continent and has over a hundred kingdoms under it. The Avelon Empire is situated fairly in the middle of the continent. And as you know, this is Stargate City, the capital of the empire."

Anne took out a copper coin, a silver coin, and a gold coin from a chest in her house.

"Look at this. This is a copper coin." She showed her a small round copper coin.

"One hundred of the copper coins equals a silver coin." Anne showed her a silver coin.

"And one hundred of the silver coins equals a gold coin." Then she showed her the shiny gold coin.

"Fairly simple, huh?"

"Hmm. It's very straightforward. And what about their value?" Stella asked.

"You're a smart girl, aren't you?

A hundred copper coins or a silver coin is enough to feed a normal family of 3 comfortably for the day. Common people who work as farmers, carpenters, blacksmiths, or so on usually earn anywhere from 10 to 40 silver coins a month.

40 silver coins are enough for a person to live in a good place and eat delicious foods for a whole month.

And a gold coin is enough to live and eat lavishly without any worry.

My salary is actually a gold coin per month." Anne puffed her chest.

"Wow, you actually earn that much?" What kind of work do you do at the Church?" Stella was shocked. 'Are Churches really this exorbitant? Is it because there are Gods in this world and the power of the Churches is quite high?'

"I work as a cleaner." Anne replied.

"....."

"....."

"Really?" Stella looked at her suspiciously. 'She is telling the truth though. But there's more to it than that.'

"Even though I work as a cleaner, that's kind of a temporary job. I'm more of a priestess-in-training.

I have to study under the Saints and Saintess with a couple of others every day. And then I clean a part of the Church like the others that study with me."

"Actually, everyone that joins the Church either has to train to become either a Holy Knight or a priest. Some can even become Saints if they abstain from marriage." Anne explained.

"Holy Knights? Who are they? Are they any different from normal knights?" Stella asked.

"Yes, the Holy Knights are much more powerful. Each of them is granted God's blessing after all.

One Holy Knight can fight fifteen of the Empire's elite Knights or two Magic Knights head-on at the same time. Holy Knights also have many magical abilities to heal and strengthen themselves further.

So the Churches and the Empires maintain a harmonious relationship with each other." Anne explained.

"The Empires don't get involved in Church matters, and the Churches also keep to themselves, being absolutely neutral to any forces that acknowledge the Church. However, they do help each other out. As Churches have the biggest influence on the general populace and provide powerful healing and defensive magic in times of war and conflict."

Anne finally completed her explanation.

"I see. It's quite complex, huh?" Stella didn't know Churches held this much power in this world.

"So what's the name of your Church?" She asked.

"It's the Church of Healing. We worship the Goddess of Vitality and Prosperity." Anne replied.

"Oh, Is she called Vena?" Stella asked.

"Eeek! Why are you calling her by the name directly? It's disrespectful. What if she hears you?!" Anne scolded her.

"So what? I'm not afraid of anything." Stella puffed her chest.

"You actually have her blessing."

"Really? I don't think so. Whenever you get a blessing from a God, you get much stronger immediately. You can also get stronger faster. None of them happened to me though. If I did get her blessing, I would finally be able to be a priestess.

But why did you say I had her blessing?" Anne was puzzled.

"Yeah, about that.... never mind. I'll explain it to you later. Yawn.... I'll go to the Church with you tomorrow. The cathedral looks impressive." Stella said as she rubbed her eyes. She didn't forget her reason to visit this part of the city.

"Well, the outer part of the Church is open to outsiders. But getting you to the inner part where I study will be troublesome. I'll ask for permission from a saintess I know. She's the one who bought the house for me."

"Alright, we'll talk about this later. You seem quite sleepy." Anne took Stella to a medium-sized room. "Here, you can stay in this room."

It was decorated quite nicely with bright colors. There was a big bed in the middle of the room, a study table with an armchair and a bookshelf with some books.

"This is the guest room. Hope it's to your liking. The toilet is further down on the left of the dining room. Don't worry, there's a magic lamp in it to see in the dark." Anne explained to Stella.

"Honestly, it's more than I could ask for. Your house is really nice." Stella was impressed with the facilities and planning that went into this house.

'This world is a little bit advanced in some ways. They've at least managed to incorporate magic and technology. But they're nowhere near what I've seen.' She thought to herself as she examined a magic lamp.

But her eyelids started to feel heavy.

'I'm feeling a bit too sleepy. I guess I'll examine them in detail later.'

Stella laid down on the bed and tried to sleep.

But she felt something was missing.

'I feel a bit uneasy. Wonder why.'

She took a pillow to her side and hugged it.

'It feels a bit better now.'

Her eyelids finally started to drop.

"Good night.....Sigh.

I can't remember... I can't remember the name....." Stella muttered in her sleepy state.

She subconsciously tried to say good night to someone, but couldn't remember that person's name.

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'Good Night, Stella.'

Suddenly a mysterious voice entered her consciousness to soothe her soul.

'I'm always right beside you.'

As soon as she heard this voice, her entire body and mind relaxed and the uneasiness she was feeling vanished.

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"Mmm. Good night....Love you." Stella muttered subconsciously as she finally fell asleep.