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 of it. We've got plenty

months on our trip over here. While it wasn't long, it wasn't

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

length 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 the five

"It's perfect."

time, but given the time I had, maybe… just maybe—by the time I returned, I'd be strong enough to

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

"…I can only try."

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

Demonic energy.

***

in the night sky. There was complete silence in the room as the white curtains that led to the balcony ballooned outward

"Pftt…"

the

his request, Priscilla found herself unable to hold

deserves it for not telling me

in the manner that he did, it would have

the past was the past, and what was done was already

the right bet in the

he was

at the thought of being on the

only was his strength extremely terrifying, but so were his

single day, he managed to do what

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

of Envy being the main target of everyone, the House of Sloth was the one that

but they were also the house with the greatest advantage

others, they

more I think about it, the scarier

ranked entities

"Huh."

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

"Huh?"

nothing

to ask the other human for another

***

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

the only movement that could be seen was the very

figure appeared before

"It's been a while."

of the chained man. No, rather,

none other

to his appearance, Ren calmly

anything and just stared at

trying to check

a sigh

you going to be

"…"

no response.

it? Do you have no

"…"

there's something

hand, several tubes

ahead,

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