Scarlett idly eyed the flowers growing in tiny, cordoned-off patches as she walked through the small hedge garden at the back of the Freybrook estate. She was surprised these plants were still flowering, to be honest; November was fast approaching, and it had been getting colder for a while now.

If she wasn’t misremembering, there was only one gardener working here, and he was in charge of taking care of the whole estate by himself. It felt like a lot of work for a single person to do, but what did she know? She’d never even cultivated a tomato plant in her life, much less entire gardens.

When she reached the center of the enclosure, her eyes turned to a white stone bench situated under a small roofed alcove. Walking over, she sat down on the bench and took some time to relax and take in the cool morning air. The surrounding hedges hid most other parts of the estate—save for the large mansion nearby—and lent the space a surprisingly nice, almost idyllic atmosphere.

Their latest stay in Freymeadow had been relatively short. Only three days passed in there before Scarlett and Rosa were locked out of the village. That meant that, in this current loop they were on, there would only be one day left before the village was destroyed and things reset again. That was unfortunate, considering how well things had been going with Arlene. But there was nothing to be done about that. It was what it was. And taking a break from there now and then was also good.

As for what Scarlett had scheduled in front of her right now, later in the day, towards the evening, she and Evelyne were set to visit Livvi and Count Knottley for dinner. It wasn’t exactly how she would have preferred to spend her time, but Evelyne had made a decent argument for why they should go. The two of them had spent some time going over a bunch of dinner etiquette a couple of days earlier—most of which Scarlett had read about but not experienced herself—to ensure she hadn’t ‘forgotten’ anything important, so she wasn’t exactly nervous about making any major mistakes. But that didn’t mean she was likely to enjoy herself.

Letting her thoughts wander for a bit, she eventually pulled the [Pouch of Holding] loose from her waist and placed it beside her.

While it was nice, she wasn’t only here to enjoy the sights.

The [Obedience’s Solitude Loci] and a few other articles were removed from the pouch and arranged on the bench next to her. It had been her choice to delay going over these until she was back from Freymeadow, but now she was a bit excited.

[Tiara of Lost Benediction (Legendary)]{A tiara made for a forgotten muse, it holds the prayers that were lost to the world}

[Ring of the Soul harvest (Epic)]{Sustaining the life of one always sacrifices the life of another. Be it wheat from the field or animal for the slaughter, all eat from the reaper’s platter}

[Chromacloth (Epic)]{This silken cloth has been enchanted through a unique blend of schools, sharing familiarity with all}

[Charm of Expeditious Change (Unique)]{An artisan’s work requires dexterous fingers and sharp eyes, yet even they like to save time on occasion}

Of the items they had gathered during their time in Autumnwell, these were the ones she was interested in for herself. The rest would probably either go to members of her party or be sold off, though that was still up for change if some unknown effects were revealed under further examination.

Scarlett started by picking up the [Charm of Expeditious Change]. It was a thin silver ring with a bright blue crystal at its top and gold inlays running along its side. Placing it on one of her left-hand fingers, she immediately felt a connection form with the artifact.

She reached into the pouch of holding again and pulled out her [Garments of Form], as well as her usual travel attire. Holding both up in front of her, she then focused on the ring.

It took a few tries, but eventually, both pieces of clothing disappeared into thin air.

With a thought, they reappeared on her body, replacing the thick cyan dress she had been wearing. She nodded her head in satisfaction. This item worked exactly as she expected it to.

Focusing on the ring once more, the [Charms of Apperception] hanging from her ears disappeared along with the [Depraved Solitude’s Choker] around her neck.

To her, this was a godsend. It had always irked her slightly, having to go around wearing the same artifacts and clothes so often. While they didn’t exactly look bad, it went against some of her Scarlett-inherited fashion sensibilities. With this ring, she could avoid minor annoyances like that. Not to mention this would allow her to both get ready for battles a lot faster and switch items mid-combat whenever necessary.

The [Charm of Expeditious Change] had been handy in the game as well since there had been no macros or other ways that allowed you to change equipment immediately like that. That said, its uses were limited. You were limited to two ring slots, and changing equipment before a fight wasn’t hard, so it wasn’t unusual to prioritize other rings that had better stats. Only certain builds actually required the ring. Personally, Scarlett had mostly used it to switch between her actual combat sets and her more cosmetic sets that she used in cities and places like that.

But in this world, she didn’t have to bother with things like that. This wasn’t a game, and she had ten freely available fingers at her disposal. She didn’t mind giving one of them up for something like this, and she’d already checked that the two-ring limit didn’t apply here.

There was still the possibility that having too many rings meant they could somehow interfere with each other, but she hadn’t run into anything like that yet, at least.

Turning her attention from the [Charm of Expeditious Change], she looked at the [Chromacloth]. It was a piece of square cloth with a deep red color. Rather than being one of the items they had taken from Abelard’s Doll Mansion, this was part of the loot they had gotten from the other dungeons they cleared after that.

Picking the cloth up, she felt the connection with the artifact form and created a weak flame above her right hand. Then she gingerly moved her left hand closer to the fire, though not too close. The heat warmed her skin, but it wasn’t at a level where it was unbearable.

She put the cloth down, and once again tried the same action. This time, the heat was much warmer.

That confirmed that this item worked as she thought as well. She used the [Charm of Expeditious Change] to have the piece of cloth disappear as well.

From what she knew of [Chromacloth], as long as you had it somewhere on your body, it would give you a bonus in resistance against a certain school of magic. Which school was decided by the color, and it could be changed once a day. The options were pyromancy, hydromancy, terramancy, and aeromancy. The bonus wasn’t anything ridiculous, but it was a nice little item to have, regardless. She could use her pyromancy to a certain degree to protect herself from heat, but this would lower her mana cost related to it.

Next, she picked up the [Ring of the Soul Harvest]. It was a simple metal ring with a design of a sickle and wheat at the top.

The name sounded ominous, but Leon would probably have reacted back when they originally found it if it was really an item of unimaginable evil.

As for what the ring’s effects were…

She turned her eyes up, scanning over the area. She’d asked Marlon to convey a small request to the gardener before she left Freymeadow—which was technically the previous day, in normal time—so there should be something around here.

She stood up from the bench and walked over to a nearby flower patch, following it to one of the hedges as he looked around near the roots. Eventually, she found a spot where the dirt had recently been dug up. Next to the small mound, there was a bowl with dirt in it. With a frown, she walked back to the bench and pulled out a pair of gloves from the pouch. Then she returned to the bowl and kneeled down next to it, scooping up some of the dirt.

The worms hiding underneath made shivers run down her spine. She hadn’t minded worms too much before, but now…

She would have to take a bath later.

Fighting back the urge to retch, she pulled off her left glove and took out a short dinner knife she’d prepared. Using the blade of the knife, she made a tiny, barely visible cut on the tip of her index finger. Then she equipped the [Ring of the Soul Harvest] and looked down at the bowl of worms. A moment later, a flame appeared to swallow them, burning the creatures to cinders within a second.

Squinting her eyes, she inspected the cut she’d made on her finger. It closed on its own, leaving a thin red line where the wound had been.

A small smile wound itself onto her face. She hadn’t been sure that would work.

The [Ring of the Soul Harvest] was an item that healed you whenever a creature nearby died. That much she had known from the game. But since she couldn’t exactly go around killing things indiscriminately just to test the effect out, she had been trying to figure out how to confirm it. That’s when she’d thought of using something small, like worms, though she had been worried that creatures of this size wouldn’t work. However, clearly, they did.

It did raise the question of whether the ring actually reaped souls—and if so, if worms had them—but she honestly didn’t care too much, as long as it worked. The ring had a scary name, but she imagined it was more likely to be related to spirit magic rather than pure necromancy. Spirit magic dealt a lot more with the interaction of souls themselves than necromancy did, and since she knew Abelard dabbled in both, it wasn’t that much of a stretch either.

She stood up and returned to the center of the garden again. The [Ring of the Soul harvest] disappeared from her finger, transported to whatever spatial dimension the [Charm of Expeditious Change] stored items in.

Hopefully, she would never actually need the ring’s healing effects. But it was good to have backups for things like this, in case Rosa or healing potions weren’t an option.

She turned her attention to the last item remaining, resting on the marble bench.

The [Tiara of Lost Benediction] was a silver tiara of elaborate design that went over the forehead. There were three small rubies on its face, giving off a cold, lonely air. Of the items she’d chosen to keep for herself, it was the one whose effects she was most uncertain about. But since it was also the first legendary item she had gotten her hands on, she didn’t simply want to let it out of her grasp.

Its appearance was a bit over the top, yes, and she couldn’t say she enjoyed the idea of others seeing her—a grown woman—walking around with something like this. But with the [Charm of Expeditious Change], she could at the very least make sure she only wore it when she actually needed it.

If she had anything to say about it, that would never be in Rosa’s presence.

She brought the tiara up and placed it on her head. A moment later, things were suddenly clearer, for lack of a better word. It was similar to the effect of some of Rosa’s magic that helped with focus, although perhaps not quite as potent.

She summoned several Aqua Mines, more than she usually could. The ease with which they formed was surprising. Especially taking into account that a lot of power was put into these. If she were to guess, this was a result of the ‘stat boost’ that the item gave as a legendary-tier piece of equipment. She assumed it didn’t have any special effect or the sort—that would explain why her memory of it wasn’t as good as with the other items—but this much wasn’t anything to scoff at either.

She was curious how far she could go if she had this equipped along with Rosa’s supporting magic. Perhaps that was something to try next time they visited Freymeadow. If she could convince the woman to wear a blindfold.

The tiara disappeared from her head. Then she looked at the last item lying next to her. It was the [Obedience’s Solitude Loci]. She had left the hardest for last, but now it was time to figure this thing out.