"I suppose but people rarely think their own cooking is bad. Finish the coffee then I'll make you a proper breakfast"
She said and had him gulp down the coffee before taking the cup away from him, surprising Arthur as she practically forced him to drink all of it, he was lucky it had cooled down significantly. Her current attitude was quite removed from the one he saw yesterday.
"I'm actually quite full already, plus, I have something to show you before we go to the guard house."
She was about to walk past him to make him breakfast however his arm blocked her from moving forward and it coiled around her stomach
"I doubt that you're full, bread isn't something that's filling"
She protested and made attempts to remove the arm that kept her from moving forward. Unfortunately, she couldn't, he was far stronger than her.
"It is if you eat enough of it, now come on"
He quickly pulled her towards himself and had a body face towards the door before he led her out of the kitchen.
They then went up the stairs once again, this time he made his way towards the second door in the middle, one that led to the study.
"What are we doing in the study? Making you a proper breakfast is more important"
Her tone did not appear to be pleased by his sudden action but she asked more out of curiosity than actual displeasure.
"Yes but like I said I'm full already, plus this is about your safety, which is more important than breakfast"
He explained and she found it hard to rebuttal against his point.
After having entered the bare study which had only a desk and chair, there was a shelf but there were no books.
The only thing of note in the room was three treasure chests placed near the wall on the side of the room. She also took note of how dusty it looked, it was clear no one used it much.
Arthur walked towards the three chests and picked the one in the middle before carrying it to the desk and then pried it open revealing the multitude of magic items inside.
"Arthur, are those magic items?!"
Esme quickly got closer and stood beside him, looking with fascination at the literal treasure chest of magic items. This was the first time she's seen them all in one place.
Magic items were a rarity for most people, the only people who tend to see them on the regular are military personnel, they were like guns.
The average person doesn't interact with or see a firearm unless they regularly interact with law enforcement. Aside from that, you'll see a gun every once in a while either on a passing policeman or on that one friend who believes a gun will keep them safe.
The chest was filled with a plethora of items, rings, bracelets, necklaces, daggers, magic gemstones as well as enchanted pieces of cloth. The chest was practically overflowing with items of all kinds.
"Yes, as an Explorer magic items are important, especially when I can't activate my skills due to a cooldown so I need items to compensate"
He answered as he began rummaging through the chest. Magic items were last resort life savers, as an Explorer he has the magic skills to help in battle however skills have a cool down period after each use, meaning they can't be active all the time, and unfortunately, when fighting a monster it won't wait for the cool down period to end.
"What's a cool down? The term makes me think about putting something hot in the fridge"
She guessed and Arthur let out a chuckle before he explained the term, her thoughts essentially figured out what a cooldown is.
"Basically the stretch of time between the first use of your skill and the second use of your skill. It's like a waiting period, use a skill once then you have to wait a few seconds or a minute before using it again"
She hummed in understanding before responding.
"Oh! Like having to wait for the food to cool down after serving and before eating"
She said demonstrating her understanding of what a cool down should be, Arthur gave her a nod confirming her example.
"There it is"
He announced while pulling out a single pair of spectacles from the chest and putting them on. He saw the curious look on her face so he decided to explain before she could ask.
"These are appraisal spectacles, they help identify the items, as you can see I don't really organise these"
He gestured to the chest filled with magic items as he explained. It was a mess of items piled on top of each other
"I think I've seen… his majesty use something like that"
She had paused mid-sentence and considered how to refer to the king before she settled on calling him his Majesty, even if she called him her father, he was only his father by blood and had never made attempts to be anything but just that.
"I wouldn't be surprised if the royal family had such treasures, these aren't cheap and I'm sure the king has the money for a thousand of these."
He concluded and he fished out a few more items from the treasure chest, it was some rings, a gold necklace as well and a pair of small earrings.
"I doubt it, the royal family certainly has funds and has some magic items but the family that would probably buy the same item a thousand times is the Bearheart family, which is a Marquis house"
She corrected, her finger placed on her chin, The Bearheart family was the most wealthy, with Marquis Bearheart being obsessed with magic items, it was to the point that his wife and several members of his family worried he just might bankrupt the family due to his obsession.
"I see, you're a princess after all, I suppose you'd know about such things, anyway try these on"
He said and he meant the part about being a princess as a compliment, however, Esme did not like it.
To everyone in the palace, she was a commoner, she was never a princess to anyone, although she said nothing to Arthur and simply gave him her hand.
Arthur fitted one of the rings on her pinky finger, it was a plain silver ring with small enchantment writing on the outer side of its surface, Esme couldn't read what the enchantment said as it was both small and she didn't really understand the language.
"What is it?"
"It's a ring of shielding, it's a
middle tier item, but since you probably won't need much protection from monsters or battle so it should do its job well."
"Oh! Was it expensive?"
Arthur raised a brow at her question, he had not expected her to ask about question like that.
"That's not the first question people ask when given an item to protect them, you know."
A small chuckle escaped his lips, he supposed her priorities were somewhere else, or perhaps it was because she knew that she wasn't royalty anymore and thus felt it important to be frugal with money.
If it was the latter then it made it obvious that she was not as spoiled as he had expected, although the fact that she said she didn't need any new clothes should have been an obvious sign of that.
"I don't want you to spend too much money on things for me, The money can be used for other things, don't forget we need to hire maids and guards"
She explained while fiddling with the ring on her finger and looking at it almost as if judging if it fit well or looked good on her hand, the silver was a good contrast to her dark skin tone.
Arthur smiled as he heard her explain.
'Cute'
He thought inwardly. She pretends to be against it yet seems to like the ring, thinking about it, aside from her necklace she didn't seem to have any jewellery with her at all.
"No need for that kind of worry, as I said being an Explorer pays well, so I have amassed a small fortune."
Her worries about being frugal were not unwarranted in fact he thought they were perfectly reasonable. Money was an important resource, You cannot accomplish anything without it and you quite possibly cannot live without it.
He let out a snort as he thought about the fact that he could not escape capitalism even after leaving his old world. Although whether that fact was something sad or not he couldn't say.