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.

have time, it's best we make the most

months on our trip

had grossly underestimated something over here, and that was the fact that one day here wasn't actually the same as one day back

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

"It's perfect."

was, I originally thought there wasn't enough time, but given

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

"…I can only try."

of mana in the air... I no longer relied on mana

Demonic energy.

***

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

"Pftt…"

laughter broke the

face the human made when she rejected his request, Priscilla found herself unable to hold her

telling me he'd erase

the manner that he did, it would have been nice if he

past was the past, and

made the right bet in the

was on

at the thought of being on

strength extremely terrifying, but so

a single day, he managed to do what

looked at it from the sloth house point

Envy being the main target of everyone, the House

they were

the others, they weren't

more I think about it,

fool seven Prince ranked entities was enough to prove just how scary of

"Huh."

gazed at the moon outside. She then brought two fingers to her

"Huh?"

nothing

forgot to ask the other

***

world around him was devoid of any light as

his face and the only movement that

appeared before

"It's been a while."

similar to that of the

none

showed no reaction to his appearance, Ren

say anything and just stared at him

trying to check if

eventually let out a sigh

when are you going to

"…"

response.

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

"…"

because there's something wrong with

hand, several tubes

ahead,

that may potentially help you. I won't ask anything in return, but... if it truly helps you and your sanity returns, will you