"So how are we going to find it now?" Reina asked, brushing bits of broken tree bark from her shoulder.

Her voice sounded like a mildly irritated young nobleman because she was going to be forced to stay with him until they found the Unique Item... which didn’t exist.

She had overheard her father and Rowan talking yesterday and there was one thing she could understand: their fathers had obviously planned this as an excuse to dump their sons in the wilderness so they could drink beer and soak in hot water like oversized babies but she didn’t know for sure... and Ren wasn’t exactly someone she trusted yet.

He had practically told her she belonged to him now, just like that, in the middle of a forest, as casually as someone ordering food.

Who in the fuck said that? Who did that? She had half a mind to walk in a completely different direction and let him find the nonexistent item alone.

The other half reminded her that he knew her secret and could ruin everything she had built with a single sentence to the wrong person.

"The others should be far ahead of us."

"Well," Ren said as he stretched his neck until it cracked, "just because they’re ahead doesn’t mean they’ll find it."

"That doesn’t make me feel better."

Ren shrugged. "Even if they find it first, there’s two of us. We can just beat them and take the item."

Reina blinked. Beat them? As in, fight the strongest heirs of the ten noble clans? She had barely managed to beat Jerry, how was she going to fight the others?

She rubbed her forehead. "That honestly sounds like the most Crowhurst strategy possible."

"That means it’ll work." Ren replied confidently.

Despite how stupid it sounded... It wasn’t the worst idea. Considering how competitive these rich idiots were, most of them would probably fight each other instead of working together anyway.

Reina let out a long sigh. "...Okay."

Then she looked at him...

"What?" Ren asked. "Start walking."

She froze, then slowly her eyes darkened with a look that said she was three seconds from biting him.

"What do you want to do? Stare at my ass?" she snapped, pulling her clothes tight around her hips. Even though she looked like a man right now, it didn’t help her feel better.

Ren didn’t even blink. "Your ass is as flat as mine right now."

She clutched her chest in horror. "H-HOW DARE—?!"

Ren walked past her. "Don’t get mad. It’s true."

『"Reina Dawnlarke"’s affection points have decreased to 13.』

Reina puffed her cheeks and stomped forward after him, muttering threats under her breath about castration that she absolutely could not follow through on and they both knew it.

Ren ignored her and opened his System tab while walking.

’I wonder if I can use the shop feature...’ he thought.

What he really needed was a tracking skill, but the problem was that you needed to know what you were tracking. He didn’t even know what the Unique Item looked like.

’It’s not like it’s going to pop up right beside us—’

They passed a strange tree. It had a white trunk and pink petals scattered around its base... that was not how any normal tree in this forest looked, and it made Reina stop abruptly mid-stride.

"Doesn’t this tree look weird to you?" she asked, tilting her head at it.

Ren stopped and turned toward it, furrowing his brows as he looked it over properly.

The bark was too pale and the petals were too uniform. Even the way it sat in the ground felt slightly off. "...Yes, it looks really weird."

"It seems fake," she said, stepping closer and pressing her palm flat against the trunk. She knocked on it with two knuckles and a short hollow sound answered back.

"Ah. I forgot you don’t study trees..." she said with a dramatic sigh that suggested she found this personally offensive. "My hobbies are reading about trees, how they grow, and magical creatures."

She knocked again in a different spot. "But this thing’s completely hollow inside."

Ren stared at her for a moment.

’Who on earth has tree-studying as a hobby? Who wakes up one morning and decides that’s what they’re going to dedicate themselves to?’

"I think that’s a nice way to pass the time," Ren said, genuinely meaning it and a chime sounded.

『"Reina Dawnlarke"’s affection points have decreased to 12. She thinks you’re being sarcastic』

’How? I was being NICE.’ Ren thought. ’She doesn’t even appreciate nice things?’

Reina reared her fist back and... BANG!! punched straight through the tree’s trunk like it was wet paper.

The hollow inside cracked open immediately with splinters flying outward in a small burst.

Ren stared. "...Nice punch, it could use much more force on it though."

She ignored him completely and reached inside, yanking something out from the hollow: a small carved box adorned with six beads, each one giving off a significant pulse of mana that Ren could feel from where he stood.

Reina turned it over in her hands slowly and eyebrows climbed up. "This... this looks expensive."

"That’s one word for it," Ren said, stepping closer.

The mana radiating off those six beads was no joke. Whatever was inside that box had been sitting in that tree for a long time and probably waiting for someone to find it.

"Should I open it? Or take it back to the springs for appraisal?" Reina asked, and for once her voice dropped into something that wasn’t irritated or guarded.

She held the box delicately. "It genuinely feels too valuable to just crack open out here."

"Open it," Ren said immediately. He wanted to test whether the System would auto-appraise items the way it did for every overpowered protagonist in every novel he had ever read.

Reina opened the box.

Inside sat a necklace with six luminous beads arranged on a delicate chain, it looked very simple in design but radiating the kind of elegance that made cheap things look embarrassed to exist nearby.

Ren’s vision flashed.

『The Item is being appraised...』

『Item Name: Necklace of Beauty』

『Rank: Unique』

『Description: Automatically maxes out the Charm stat of the wearer upon wearing.』

Ren stared at the description for a long moment.

’That’s it?’ He read it again. ’That’s the entire Unique effect? My charm stat is already maxed at one hundred. This thing is completely, utterly, spectacularly useless to me.’

He sighed through his nose. ’I could give it to Stella... or Alina... or maybe her.’

He glanced sideways at Reina, who was still looking at the necklace with an expression she was clearly trying to make look neutral and failing at entirely.

No. Absolutely not. If he gave it to her she would immediately decide he was making a comment about her natural appearance and the affection points would crater into negative numbers he hadn’t even seen yet.

"Alright, give it here," Ren said, holding out his hand.

Reina tightened her grip on the box instinctively. She actually didn’t want to give it up. She liked it... the design, the beads, the craftsmanship but she also knew Ren could ruin her secret with a single sentence.

"...Fine," she muttered and tossed it to him.

Ren caught it easily, closing his fist around it but the moment he did...

FWIP!

A thread shot from the bushes and wrapped around the box, yanking it hard. Ren’s grip tightened instantly, stopping it dead.

He jerked backward, pulling the thread’s owner stumbling out of the treeline and straight into view like a fish dragged out of water.

Several more nobles stepped out from between the trees behind him. They had clearly been watching and waiting for exactly this moment.

Ren looked at all of them slowly.

"Oh wow," he said dryly. "The circus has arrived."

The Whitelocke heir stepped forward with his arms crossed. "Just stand down and it doesn’t have to be bloody. We can even let you two walk away afterward, there are a lot of us and only two of you."

Ren looked at the thread still connecting the box to the noble who had tried to steal it then he looked at the Whitelocke heir and back at the thread.

He tightened his grip and yanked hard, pulling the noble straight toward him like a hooked fish reeling in on instinct.

Before the guy could even open his mouth...

CRACK!

Ren’s fist connected clean with his face and launched him backward like a fired projectile, straight into the Whitelocke heir behind him.

They crashed together into a mound of wet leaves in a heap of expensive ruined clothing.

Ren lowered his fist and looked at the rest of them pleasantly.

"There’s one less of you."