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.

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

had originally assumed that we'd only have about five months on

realized later that I had grossly underestimated something over here, and that was the fact that one day here wasn't actually

on this world was significantly different from that on earth; consequently, the amount of time we had over here was significantly greater

"It's perfect."

there wasn't enough time, but given the time I

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

"…I can only try."

lack of mana in the air... I no longer relied on mana alone. I could use my

Demonic energy.

***

moon that hung high in the night sky. There was complete silence in the room as the white

"Pftt…"

the silence

rejected his request, Priscilla found herself unable to hold her

deserves it for not telling me he'd

the reason he acted in the manner that he did, it would

past, and what was done was already

made the right

he was

the thought of being on the opposite side

only was his strength extremely terrifying, but so were

day, he managed to do what she had deemed

from the sloth house point of view, then they were

the House of Envy being the main target of everyone, the House of Sloth

their forces, but they were also the house with the

others, they

think about it,

ranked entities was enough to prove just how scary

"Huh."

moon outside. She then

"Huh?"

to realize that she had nothing

forgot to ask the other human

***

hung in the air. The world around him

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

appeared before

"It's been a while."

similar to that of

was none other than

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

anything and just stared at him for an unknown period of

though he was trying to check if he was still

let out a

going to be

"…"

response. Nonetheless, he

know you want to die, but is that really all there is to it? Do you have no goals that you want to achieve before dying… like, perhaps killing Jezebeth

"…"

it because there's something wrong with your

hand, several tubes

straight ahead, he

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