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 of it. We've got plenty of

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

later that I had grossly underestimated something over here, and that was the fact that

amount of time we had over here was significantly greater than

"It's perfect."

originally thought there wasn't enough time, but given the time I had, maybe… just maybe—by the time I returned, I'd be strong enough to defeat

bottles, each of which contained a substance I was familiar with, then I took several deep

"…I can only try."

to rank up due to the lack of mana in the air... I

Demonic energy.

***

hung 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

"Pftt…"

sudden laughter broke the silence in the

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

deserves it for not telling

he acted in the manner that he did, it

was the past, and what was done

had made the right

he was

the thought of being on the opposite

only was his strength extremely terrifying,

day, he managed to do what she had deemed

looked at it from the sloth house point of view,

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

their forces, but they were also the house with the greatest advantage during the upcoming World

the others, they

I think about

he had managed to fool seven Prince ranked entities was enough to prove just how

"Huh."

the moon outside. She then brought two fingers to

"Huh?"

she had nothing

to ask the other human

***

around him was devoid of any light as darkness

only movement that could be

appeared

"It's been a while."

of the chained man.

was none other

no reaction to his appearance, Ren calmly sat

anything and just stared at him

though he was trying to check if he

a sigh and

going

"…"

response.

Do you have no goals that you want to achieve before dying… like, perhaps killing

"…"

there's something

hand,

straight ahead, he

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