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 make the most out

had originally assumed that we'd only have about five months on our trip

here, and that was

the amount of time we had over here

"It's perfect."

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

made a motion with my hand and pulled out several bottles, each of which contained a substance I was familiar with, then I took several deep

"…I can only try."

in the air... I no longer relied on mana alone. I could use my time to train with my newfound

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

"Pftt…"

sudden laughter broke the silence

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

not telling me he'd

acted in the manner that he did,

past was the past, and what was done was

the right bet in the

he was on

being on the opposite

his strength extremely terrifying, but so were his

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

from the sloth house point of view, then they were

target of everyone, the House of Sloth was

but they were also the

others, they

more I think about it, the

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

"Huh."

gazed at the moon outside. She then brought

"Huh?"

realize that she had nothing in

I forgot to ask the other human

***

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

lifeless look on his face and the only movement that could be seen was the

figure appeared before

"It's been a while."

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

was none other

to his appearance, Ren

and just stared at him for an unknown

to

eventually let out a

when are you going to be like

"…"

no response. Nonetheless,

you want to die, 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

"…"

because there's something wrong with your

his hand, several

straight ahead, he

anything in return, but... if it