As a new dawn arrived, the gentle warmth of sunlight touched my face, as I was waking up. My eyelids slowly opened, accompanied by a sharp pain from the wound on my flank, now covered in clear, high-quality bandages, and a heavy feeling pressing against my chest.
I found myself lying on a gigantic king-sized bed with pure white sheets and a gold silk embroidered blanket, surrounded by pillows and body pillows of pristine white. As I looked around, a bedroom so luxurious it made my own room look like a mud hut came into view.
Elegant wallpapers patterned in white and gold adorned the walls, lined with oil paintings of various landscapes and mythical animals.
Above me hung a grand chandelier of gold and glass, shining a light so bright yet majestic it made my eyes ache.
The walnut wooden floor was paved with cream-colored carpets, perfectly contrasting with a gilded, light brown ornate olive-wood table and chairs set in the center of the room.
"Oh, you're finally awake! How do you feel, my dear friend?" a cheerful voice spoke out.
Valeria sat on one of the chairs, dressed in her usual silk garments embroidered with golden thread. She closed the thick leather-bound financial ledger in her hands, then looked at me with a warm yet mischievous smile.
"Hurt like hell…" I answered weakly as I tried to sit up, only to be stopped by something heavy pressing against my chest.
Looking down, I found the source of that weight, a the doll-like enchanted beauty called Elena.
The upper half of her body rested on my chest, her mouth slightly open as a thin line of drool ran down onto me. She was clearly in deep sleep.
"She's been there since you collapsed," Valeria said with a serpentine grin. "Calling you a true noble and begging me to heal you for an entire day. What an annoying woman."
She stood and approached, holding a glass of white wine.
"Riesling. To wake you up."
I reached out, took the glass, and downed it in one gulp. Warmth spread through my body, reinvigorating me.
"Thanks," I said with a faint smile. "My flank still hurts, though."
"Oh? Would you like some poppy milk for that?" she asked, grinning.
"No thanks," I refused quickly, knowing exactly what it was.
She shrugged, then gently and carefully slid Elena's sleeping body off my chest.
"Can you stand?" she asked, extending her hand.
"Yes," I replied quietly. I took her hand and rose from the bed. As I stood, Elena's body slid off the mattress and dropped onto the floor with a dull thud, the impact producing a sharp *creak* as the floor cracked slightly, Yet she remained fast asleep.
"Let her sleep a bit longer. She's exhausted," Valeria said with a bitter smile as she eagerly led me toward the sceneric view outside bedroom window.
Before me stretched a bustling port city built along the shores of a lake so vast it could be mistaken for a small sea.
On land, the city was a chaotic blend of grand marble Renaissance-era structures, gray stone medieval buildings, and endless clusters of wooden houses and colorful market bazaars stretching as far as the eye could see.
The waters were just as lively. A massive port extended into the lake like a landmass of its own, filled with river ships of countless sizes, origins and designs, loading and unloading cargo in a scene of organized chaos of sailors and port workers.
"Welcome to my land, Welcome to Venetia!" she said, her smile warm and proud.
----
"This is my ledger storage room, and this is my workroom," she said excitedly as she led me around her residence, the so-called "Riverside Palace". It was a strange fusion of a Renaissance-era mansion and a high Gothic castle. She spoke proudly and endlessly about the place, like a child eager to show off a new toy to a friend.
As I walked beside her, a question began to form in my mind.
"What happened to the village after I lost consciousness? Where are Arina and her men? How are the villagers now?"
I had meant to keep the thoughts to myself, but my mouth betrayed me, muttering the questions aloud.
"Arina loaded everyone into her enormous caravan of carriages and wagons, villagers included," she answered calmly. "They're resting in the hotel just across the street."
She pointed toward a large hotel building visible outside.
"Good to know," I replied.
"I'm proud to say that the villagers' hotel expenses will be covered by me until I can find them a new "work" to do" she added with a grin.
"Wow… how kind," I said, looking at her with sparkling eyes. It seemed that beyond being a financial mastermind, she was also something of a philanthropist.
"Indeed. And by the way, our talk is scheduled for tonight here in my palace. The daytime is free. Is there anywhere you'd like to go sightseeing in particular? A market? A riverside restaurant?" she asked with a warm smile.
"I want to see the bank!" I blurted out immediately.
She froze for a moment, stunned by my answer. Then she broke into a slow, venomous grin, like that of a delighted villainess.
"Ah… what an interesting man." She thought silently.
----
An enormous yet majestic building of ornate marble, sturdy brick, and terracotta roof tiles stood tall like a mountain at the center of the city, not far from Valeria's little palace. Around it gathered a mob of commoners, merchants, and even nobles from foreign lands, their eyes filled with either hope or the despair of debt and loans.
"Welcome to my bank. Want to see inside?" she asked proudly.
"Of course," I answered.
Surrounded by a group of her personal bodyguards, we carved a path through the crowd like Moses splitting the Red Sea. Anyone who saw the sigil of the great House Conti immediately bowed their head and stepped aside, commoner and noble alike.
At last, we stepped beyond the great reinforced steel gate at the front door and into the building, which was decorated with two oxidized copper statues of knights in aquatic, serpentine-style armor, each holding a trident coiled with a sea serpent.
The bank hall was vast, circular, and tiered like an amphitheater. Sunlight poured down from a glass-domed ceiling framed in iron and gilded brass, scattering across polished marble floors and rows of oak counters arranged in concentric rings, with clerks tirelessly handling finances. The air buzzed with motion and murmurs, like a living organism made of ink and coin.
"How beautiful," I couldn't help but mutter, completely engulfed by its architectural beauty.
"Of course. Would you like me to explain the banking system while we walk around sightseeing?" she asked proudly.
I nodded in response.
So we spent many hours walking through the bank hall, the staff-only zones, and even the vaults filled to the brim with gold coins and bars, as she explained how everything worked.
How to deposit and withdraw coins.
How to use a check, a contract, an agreement, and a charter.
How to take control of any organization through bribes, financial pressure, and sometimes illegal actions.
How to talk people into a mountain of debt, then use it as a casus belli to hire mercenaries and confiscate their entire land.
As she spoke, I diligently took notes and raised my hand whenever I needed to ask about something I didn't understand in this world's financial system.
She answered all of it with simple examples, comparisons, and metaphors, to the point where I could understand anything she said in a single back-and-forth conversation.
If she were my high school teacher, I might have grown fond of math and finance because of her way of teaching.
And so we stayed at the bank, walking around, sightseeing, eating lunch, and losing track of time, until we found ourselves at the end of the day as the sun turned red and the sky shifted to the orange of twilight, piercing through the glass-domed ceiling.
"Well, I had so much fun talking with you," she said to me with a surprisingly warm smile.
"Me too. I learned a lot today," I replied with an equally warm smile, slipping my small notebook back into my pocket.
After that, we decided to head back to her little palace to check on Elena and Arina before having the planned political dinner.