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 have time, it's best we make the most out

that we'd only have about five months on our trip

something over here, and that was the

length of a day on this world was significantly different from that on earth; consequently, the amount of time we had over here was significantly greater than the five months we had originally

"It's perfect."

there wasn't enough time, but given

a motion with my hand and pulled out several bottles, each of which contained a substance I was familiar with, then I

"…I can only try."

rank up due to the lack of mana in the air... I no longer

Demonic energy.

***

moon that hung high in the night sky. There was complete silence in the room as the white curtains that led to the balcony ballooned

"Pftt…"

laughter broke the

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

it for not telling me he'd erase my

in the manner that he did, it would have been

the past was the past, and what was

made the right bet in

he was on my

being on

was his strength extremely terrifying, but so were his

a single day, he managed to do what she had deemed to be

from the sloth house

other houses busy with the succession war, and the House of Envy being the main target of everyone, the House of Sloth was

lose any of their forces, but they were

the others,

I think about it, the scarier

Prince ranked entities was enough to prove just how scary

"Huh."

exhaled and gazed at the moon outside. She then brought

"Huh?"

she had nothing in her

I forgot to ask the other human for

***

by chains hung in the air. The world around him was devoid of any

look on his face and the only movement that could be seen was

figure appeared

"It's been a while."

strikingly similar to that of

was none other

his other self, who showed no reaction to his appearance, Ren calmly sat down in

just stared at him for an

to check if he was still

eventually let out a sigh and spoke

when are you going to

"…"

received no response. Nonetheless, he

know you want to die, but is that really all there is to it? Do you have no

"…"

because there's something wrong with

hand, several

ahead,

you. I won't ask anything in return, but... if it truly helps you and your sanity returns, will you listen to my