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.

best we make the most out of

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

had grossly underestimated something over here, and that was the fact that one day here wasn't actually the same as one day back on

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

"It's perfect."

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

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

"…I can only try."

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

Demonic energy.

***

tastefully 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

"Pftt…"

sudden laughter broke the silence

his request,

not telling me he'd

it. Even though she did comprehend the reason he acted in the manner that he did, it would have been nice if he

and what was done was

right bet in

was

the thought of being on the opposite side of

strength extremely terrifying,

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

the sloth house point of view, then they were the

busy with the succession war, and the House of Envy being the main target of everyone, the House

but they were also the house with the greatest advantage during the upcoming

others,

about

managed to fool seven Prince ranked entities was enough to

"Huh."

outside. She then brought two

"Huh?"

realize that she had nothing in her hand. Immediately her face

to ask the other human for

***

around him was devoid of any light as darkness restrained every inch of his

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

figure appeared

"It's been a while."

that of

none other

at his other self, who showed no reaction to his appearance, Ren calmly sat down in front

say anything and just stared at

as though he was trying to check if he was still

out a sigh and spoke

are you going

"…"

no response.

is that really all there is to it? Do you

"…"

something wrong

his hand,

ahead,

won't ask anything in return, but... if it truly helps you and