The Author's POV

"Tsk."

Coming out of the Duchess's room, I clicked my tongue.

'I tried at least.'

Lowering my head, I looked at the three other tubes in my hand before putting them away.

Moments prior, I tried to negotiate for a devil fruit, but I was flat out rejected by her.

In the end, all I could do was leave with my head lowered.

'I can't be too impatient.'

I could've negotiated for a devil fruit before, but the Nectar was far more important to me. While I wasn't completely healed, I felt far more refreshed than I had in a very long time.

I even had a very good night's sleep for once.

Plus…

'It's not like there won't be an opportunity later.'

"You're back?"

"Yeah."

As I made my way back to our residence after secretly escaping the estate, I was greeted by the sight of Melissa tinkering with an odd substance. Nothing unusual.

Already used to this, I found a chair not so far from her and took a seat.

"Have you found what you've been looking for?"

"Not really."

Melissa shook the test tube in front of her and quietly observed it.

Though faint, I caught sight of a couple of bubbles on top.

…Just what sort of potion was she making?

"When are we going to leave?"

"When the time comes."

The only way back was through Kevin, so until the designated time, we'd be stuck here for a bit more.

"Thankfully, I'm already finished with what I needed to do, so I guess we can take it easy until the time is right if that's okay with you?"

"That's fine with me."

Melissa nodded her head without a change in expression.

It seems like she was enjoying her stay here.

"That's great."

I stood up from the seat.

we make the most out of it. We've got plenty

originally assumed that we'd only have about five months on our trip over here. While it wasn't

I had grossly underestimated something over here, and that was the fact that one

amount of time we had over here was

"It's perfect."

was, I originally thought there wasn't enough time, but given the time I had, maybe… just maybe—by the time

and pulled out several bottles, each of which

"…I can only try."

in the air... I no longer relied on

Demonic energy.

***

was tastefully decorated, lit up by the bright moon that hung high in the night sky. There was complete silence in the room as the white

"Pftt…"

broke the

face the human made when she rejected his request, Priscilla found

deserves it for not telling me he'd

manner that he

the past was the past, and what

made the right

was on

thought of being on

strength extremely

took him was a single day. In a single day, he

one looked at it from the sloth house point of view, then they were

war, and the House of Envy being the main target of everyone, the House of Sloth was the one

they not lose any of their forces, but they were also the house with the greatest advantage during

the others, they

think about it, the scarier this

ranked entities was enough to prove just how scary of an

"Huh."

the moon outside. She then brought two fingers

"Huh?"

nothing in her hand. Immediately her face

ask the other

***

in the air. The world around him was devoid of any light as darkness

had a lifeless look on his face and the only movement

figure appeared before

"It's been a while."

that of the

was none other than

reaction to his appearance, Ren calmly sat

and just stared at him for an unknown period

was trying to check if he was still

let out a sigh

are you going to be

"…"

no response.

to it? Do you have no goals that you want to achieve before dying… like, perhaps killing Jezebeth for

"…"

it because there's something

hand, several

straight ahead, he

in return, but... if it truly