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

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

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

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 intended to stay

"It's perfect."

wasn't enough time, but given the time I had, maybe… just

hand and pulled out several bottles, each of which contained

"…I can only try."

able to rank up due to the lack of mana in the air... I no longer relied on mana alone. I could

Demonic energy.

***

the room as the white curtains that led to the balcony ballooned outward like the sails of a ship

"Pftt…"

the silence in the

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

not telling me he'd erase my

still bitter about it. Even though she did comprehend the reason he acted in the manner that he did, it would

past was the past, and what was done was

made the right

was on my

at the thought of being

his strength extremely terrifying,

a single day, he managed to do what she had

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

House of Envy being the main target of everyone, the House of Sloth was the one that gained

but they were also the house with

others, they weren't

about it, the scarier

to fool seven Prince ranked entities

"Huh."

exhaled and gazed at the moon outside. She then

"Huh?"

realize that she had nothing in

the other human

***

chains hung in the air. The world around him was devoid of any light as darkness restrained every inch of

face and the only movement that

figure appeared before

"It's been a while."

were strikingly similar to that of the chained man. No, rather,

none other than

at his other self, who showed no reaction to his appearance,

and just stared at him for an unknown period of

to check if he

let out a

you going to be like

"…"

received no response.

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

"…"

there's something

hand, several tubes

straight ahead,

in return, but... if it