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.

make the most

on our trip over here.

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

the amount of time we had

"It's perfect."

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

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

"…I can only try."

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

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

"Pftt…"

sudden laughter broke the silence

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

not telling me he'd erase my

the manner that he did, it would

past was the past, and

had made the right

he was on my

shuddered at the thought of being

his strength extremely

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

the sloth house point of view,

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

lose any of their forces, but they were also the house with the greatest

the others, they weren't

I think about it, the

that he had managed to fool seven Prince ranked entities was

"Huh."

gazed at the moon outside. She then brought

"Huh?"

had nothing in her

ask the

***

in the air. The world around him was devoid

only movement that could be seen was

figure appeared

"It's been a while."

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

none other

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

and just stared at him for an unknown

he was trying to

out a

going to

"…"

received no response. Nonetheless,

Do you have no goals that you want to achieve before

"…"

because there's something wrong with

hand, several tubes

straight ahead, he

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