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.

it's best we make the most

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

here, and that was the fact that one day here wasn't actually

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."

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

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

"…I can only try."

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

Demonic energy.

***

decorated, lit up by the bright moon that 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

"Pftt…"

laughter broke the silence

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

for not telling me he'd erase my

was still bitter about it. Even though she did comprehend the reason he acted in the manner that he did, it would have been nice if he had informed her of it in

was the past, and what was done was

had made the right

he was on

of being on the opposite side of

extremely terrifying, but so

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

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

the main target of everyone, the House of Sloth was the

they were also the house with the

others, they

more I think about it, the scarier

entities was

"Huh."

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

"Huh?"

realize that she had nothing in

forgot to ask the other human for another

***

The world around him was devoid of any

and the only movement that could be seen was the very slight contraction of

appeared

"It's been a while."

were strikingly similar to that of the

was none

to his appearance, Ren calmly sat down in

at him

as though he was trying to check if

let out a

when are you going to be like

"…"

response.

Do you have no

"…"

something wrong with

hand,

straight ahead, he

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