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.

make the most out of

about five months on our trip over here. While it wasn't long,

over here, and that was the fact that one day

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

"It's perfect."

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

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 relied on mana alone.

Demonic energy.

***

high in the night sky. There was complete silence in the room as the white curtains that led to the balcony ballooned outward like the sails of a ship and moved in an odd wavelike pattern as the breeze blew

"Pftt…"

sudden laughter broke the

rejected his request,

deserves it for not telling me

manner

past was the past, and what

made the right bet in

he was on my

thought of being on

his strength extremely terrifying, but

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

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

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

lose any of their forces, but they were also the house with the greatest advantage during

the others, they weren't

think about

fact that he had managed to fool seven Prince ranked entities was

"Huh."

the moon outside. She then brought two fingers

"Huh?"

that she had nothing in her hand. Immediately

forgot to ask the other human for

***

him was devoid of

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

appeared

"It's been a while."

that of the chained man. No, rather, they were

none

showed no reaction to

anything and just stared at

as though he was trying to check

out a sigh

you going to be

"…"

received no response. Nonetheless, he

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

"…"

because there's something wrong with

his hand, several tubes

ahead, he

but... if it truly helps you and