6: Midas Hand

"Putting aside my lack of tact in talking to a lady" - Ren said while looking at Rea - "I would like to know the real reason for your presence in this place so far from the hand of god, and please don't try to lie to me, I have the ability to know if you lie or not".

Rea was silent for a few seconds as she thought about how to say what was going through her head - "I came because you are my best choice."

"Best choice?" - Ren asked with a frown because this didn't make sense, I mean, yes, he was the prince of the kingdom, but he was the jester of the royal family, in other words, he didn't have the papers to become anyone's best choice, unless this girl knew the truth, but that was impossible.

Ren was silent for a few seconds as he carefully analyzed the situation, though no matter how much he pondered, the end result was still strange, confusing, even to him who had the ability to get all the information in the world.

"Ren, they are not dangerous, they don't seem to be hostile to us either" - Elisabeth said as she folded her arms - "Not to mention that this girl brought the girl you like."

Ren blushed slightly before looking discreetly at the red-haired woman, who averted her gaze as their eyes met again. He gawked at such a beautiful sight as he felt his heart pounding.

Unable to do anything about it, he walked over to where the woman raised her cheek.

The woman's beautiful blue eyes seemed to be shining with embarrassment as she bit her delicate lip, which caused huge damage against the prince of the kingdom.

"Do you want to be left alone to have some quality time, little lovebirds?" - Elisabeth asked with a huge smile, one that Eric shared, Rhea, who was the one who had brought the two young adults together, was showing an expression that looked like a mixture of excitement and envy.

"Ahem! No need, I still have a lot of preparations to make before I can take a break..." - Ren said as he regained his sanity, after all, he couldn't keep acting like an idiot when there was too much on his shoulders - "Eric, you know what you have to do."

"Ok" - nodded Eric as he saw that his best friend had returned to normal.

Ren gave Erika one last look, before returning to his carriage.

Erika looked at him with regret because she could feel a strange sense of loss as she watched his silhouette disappear from her range of vision.

"If you want, you can accompany him" - Elisabeth said with a small smile - "After all, he needs a secretary."

"Me? But..." - Erika murmured as she bit her lip. She truly wished she could spend more time with the prince who had helped her fulfill her greatest dream, but she knew she didn't have the talent to help him with his goal, she was a simple slave who had been blessed with the kindness of the young monarch.

"I think we'll have to first work on that low self-esteem" - Elisabeth said as she looked at Erika with a frown, then looked at Rhea - "I also want to talk with you"

"Ok, I feel the same" - nodded Rea as she followed the brown-haired girl, after all, she had a lot of questions, especially the fact of the very different attitude this [NPC] was showing compared to the version she knew.

Erika looked around, until she noticed how Eric was looking at her with a little teasing smile -"!"

"Relax, you don't have to feel scared, I don't plan to do anything to you" - Eric replied while shaking his head - "I just wanted to ask you if you want to help Ren".

"But..." - muttered Erika as she shook her head - "I don't think it will work, I'm just a slave."

"You're wrong, you're a free woman, my friend made sure to help you with your little problem" - replied Eric as he put his hand on the girl's shoulder, only to see how she flinched when he did this - ". . ."

"I-I'm sorry!" - Erika exclaimed with tears in her eyes.

"No, you don't have to apologize, I should have known there would have to be traumas left from your time as a slave" - Eric replied as he shook his head and apologized for his tactlessness.

Erika bit her lip before nodding, after all, she could feel the honesty in the boy's words. Her time in the abyss, had gifted her with the ability to discern the truth in the words of the people she spoke to, all thanks to her sense of self-preservation, that was why she had sensed the prince's kindness.

"Back to my question, do you want to help him?" - Eric asked with a small smile.

"Y-Yes!" - Erika exclaimed as she nodded firmly.

"Ok, I'll tell you how when the tailor is done with his work" - replied Eric calmly as he left.

Erika began to look around apprehensively before walking in the direction where her former master had gone to apologize, after all, she had broken the contract without even talking to her.

* * * * *

"Ok, we're far enough away" - Elisabeth said as she looked at the girl who had followed her - "I'm sure you have a lot of questions, but first, I'd like to know what kind of innate ability you got"

"How do you know about that?!" - Rhea exclaimed in surprise, though after a few seconds she understood - "You're from my world, aren't you?"

"Yes, I reincarnated in this body with the memories of my previous life, like those Isekai story protagonists" - answered Elisabeth while shrugging her shoulders - "It was a bit strange at first, but after a few years I got used to it and started enjoying my new life."

"I see, although you don't seem to have a relationship with the prince" - Rhea said with a frown.

"Well, we are best friends, that's all I aspire to, after all, I don't plan to hurt my fiancé" - replied Elisabeth with a huge smile.

"But if you played your cards right, you could have had a relationship with both of them" - said Rhea with surprise.

"That's not possible, the two of them are best friends, not to mention that Ren is a prince, he can't allow people to find out about the fact that his princess is sleeping with another man" - replied Elisabeth while shaking her head - "It would be a hard hit against the royal pride, and it would ostracize, not only Ren, but also Eric and me."

Rea was silent before nodding because Elisabeth's words made sense.

"Mind you, it would have been different if the roles were reversed, I mean me being the princess, having two lovers wouldn't have affected my pride as a woman" - Elisabeth added while shaking her head - "Leaving that aside, you still don't answer me."

"Right, I chose [Midas Hand]" - Rhea answered honestly.

"Oh, I see, I guess that's how you got enough money to buy Erika" - Elisabeth said as she pondered.

[Midas Hand], it was a skill that increased the user's luck to the maximum, making monsters drop the most valuable [drop] they had more often, as well as the ability to detect treasures amidst the trash sold by the peddlers, in other words, it was the biggest "cheat" of the merchant job.

[Midas Hand] did not possess an offensive bonus, so it was basically a useless skill, unless the player knew where all the important secrets were located to increase the base power of their [Avatar]. Knowing about those rare consumables, the [Midas Hand] skill went from being regular, to one of the strongest skills in the game, because it allowed the player to get mid-range equipment at the start of the game if he was lucky enough, there was even the possibility to get a [Grimoire] with a good Skill, which made the game [GG] from the minute the player could start trading, that's why this skill was considered the best Speedrun skill in the game, despite being an RNG skill.

Oh, speaking of the [Grimoires], these were magic books that contained a skill inside, and they were extremely rare, to the point of appearing once every 20 games. There were [Grimoires] with predetermined locations, but these were either exclusive to the "heroes", or their abilities were useless, in fact, there were only two [Grimoires] with promising enough abilities, although these were near the end of the game, in the shrine of the fallen god, and the other was in Ren's castle on the route of the [Demon King]. As a final piece of information,to use the [Grimoires], the person needed to fulfill certain requirements, among these were to reach a certain level, have mastered a certain skill, or have a predetermined job.