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

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

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

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

"It's perfect."

enough time, but given the time I had, maybe… just

motion with my hand and pulled out several bottles, each of

"…I can only try."

I might not be able to rank up due to the lack of mana in the air... I no

Demonic energy.

***

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

"Pftt…"

laughter broke the silence in the

his request, Priscilla found herself unable to

not telling

acted in the manner that he did, it would have been nice if he had informed

and what was done

had made the right bet in the

was on

thought of being

strength extremely

a single day. In a single day, he managed to

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

and the House of Envy being the main target of everyone, the House

they were also the house with the

the others,

I think about it, the scarier

Prince ranked entities was enough

"Huh."

outside. She then brought two fingers to

"Huh?"

to realize that she had nothing in her

to ask the other

***

the air. The world around him

movement that could be seen was the very slight contraction

appeared

"It's been a while."

of the chained man. No, rather,

none other

to his appearance, Ren calmly sat down in

and just stared at him for an unknown

he was trying to check if

eventually let out a sigh

are you going to

"…"

received no response.

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

"…"

it because there's something wrong with

his hand, several tubes

straight ahead, he

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