The Author's POV

Chapter 183: The one [1]

Passing through the membranes in front of the door, I entered the room and took a moment to look at my surroundings.

The room was quite big, measuring about 50 x 50 ft. As I walked in, my nostrils instantly picked up the smell of a mixture of two very distinct smells, old wood, and burning hair.

The room was lit by only the glow of a small, unshaded lamp found on a moderately sized oak writing desk in the middle of the room. Behind the desk stood a large window with bronze handles that led to the balcony outside where you could overlook the garden that was on the ground floor.

"…not bad"

Glancing at the room, my eyes instantly drifted towards the balcony of the room, behind the desk, where a large potted plant stood.

With its branches intersecting with one another, the sharp tips of the branches pointed towards the sky. The plant had no leaves, and hanging from a couple of branches were four pale green fruits that had a red hue pulsating from them.

'Xurin'

That was the name of the fruit that hung from the plant.

…and also the plant that could cure the mind breaker curse. In fact, not only the mind-breaker curse but most curses out there.

The fruit before me was had an extremely potent effect against curses, with the mind-breaker curse being one of the curses it could cure.

Therefore, although I came here primarily for curing the curse on my parents, I was also enticed by the fact that the fruit could prove useful for me in the future.

…it's worth was immense.

"Come here…"

Opening the balcony door, I quickly arrived before the potted plant. Touching one of the fruits with my hand, I softly muttered.

"This looks pretty tasty"

Admiring the fruits before me, I was almost tempted to just take one and eat it right off the bat, but I refrained from doing so.

…I wasn't that stupid.

After admiring the fruits for a couple of seconds, I immediately placed the whole plant into my dimensional space.

Staring at the now empty spot where the plant used to be, I softly muttered.

"If only I could grow these fruits"

Ideally, I would've loved to have grown the plant back on earth.

Unfortunately, I couldn't.

Unless I could replicate the demonic environment around here, any hopes in growing the plant were basically nonexistent. Moreover, it took a couple of years for the fruit to grow so the thought of mass-producing the fruit could only be scrapped.

'Oh well, it's not like there won't be a chance in the future

Even if I couldn't grow the plant now, that didn't mean I couldn't find a solution in the near future.

Nothing was set in stone, and knowing this, I decided to take the whole thing with me.

"What next…"

Done taking care of the plant, I looked around for a moment. Soon, a smile appeared on my face.

"I guess it's about time I start plundering no?"

Going back into the room, arriving before the desk, I quickly took anything that I thought was useful. From every nook and cranny of the room, I just took everything that seemed to contain any worth.

Having spent basically everything that I had just to come here, I was now dirt poor.

I also still owed Smallsnake money, so if there was anything that looked remotely valuable I just took it.

As I stole, I couldn't help but think to myself.

"…is this how thieves feel when they steal?"

I didn't hate this feeling

…it felt exhilarating

As my thoughts paused there, my hand froze for a split second just as I was about to pick up another object.

"…Although it is nice, I should definitely not get addicted to this feeling"

Nothing good would come out of me getting addicted to stealing.

Well, though I said that I continued to plunder the area freely.

As I took most of the items I also made sure to be careful when taking some of the stuff.

I didn't take everything.

Just because something looked valuable, it didn't mean that it contained no thorns. There were definitely items that I couldn't take else the consequences could become disastrous.

I made sure to stay away from anything that looked like an artifact or emanated strong demonic energy.

There was definitely a chance that Marquess Azeroth could trace the item, and if such a thing happened, I was in for a whole world of trouble.

…this was even if I returned back on earth.

Although it took quite a lot of materials to travel to earth as portals required the usage of expensive and rare ingredients, if Marquess Azeroth was hell-bent on taking revenge, which seemed likely given the fact that I was pretty much taking everything he owned, I could kiss my sorry ass goodbye.

Having a blood feud with a Marquess ranked demon when you were only rank yourself wasn't something that I could handle.

Sorry but no thank you.

"Bingo!"

As I was plundering, opening the drawer of the desk, my eyes were instantly drawn towards a couple of items. More specifically towards a grey metallic cube and a couple of black-looking fruits.

…apart from the Xurin fruit, these items were what I was looking for.

Without hesitation, I took everything.

"This should be everything"

With everything gathered, checking every nook and cranny of the office, and making sure that I took everything that I could possibly take, I nodded my head in satisfaction.

"Four hours?"

Glancing at my watch and seeing that I only had four hours left, I decided to quickly leave the place.

It was about time I reunited with Kevin.

"Hmmm…It wouldn't be nice of me if I just left without leaving behind a present"

Just before I left, recalling something, I placed a small black box on the wooden table.

…it was a small present that I wanted to give to the demons.

After all, I did take quite a lot of stuff from them, it would've been impolite of me to just come and go without leaving anything in return.

"Hopefully it'll be appreciated"

Having taken everything that I wanted, I comfortably left the room by once bypassing the two membranes at the entrance.

Glancing at the translucent membranes at the front of the building, a chuckle involuntarily escaped from my lips.

'I wonder how Marquess Azeroth would react once he finds out about how I raided his whole place'

…well, sadly for me, I wouldn't be able to tell as I would be long gone.

However, once Marquess Azeroth did indeed find out about what had happened, if he was still alive by the time the war ended, I could already imagine the scenery outside.

Spotting Angelica warily glancing towards her surroundings to make sure that no one was coming, smiling, I casually threw an item at her.

"Here, catch"

Raising her hand and catching the item, Angelica skeptically looked at the item in her hand. Not even a second after glancing at the time, opening her eyes wide, Angelica's voice raised a few pitches.

"Hm, what's this? wait!"

Seeing Angelica's shocked expression, smiling, I nodded my head in confirmation.

"Yeah, it's a devil fruit…a highly concentrated one at that"

Elves, dwarves, and humans all shared one thing in common.

They used mana.

Orcs on the other hand utilized Aura, and demons utilized demonic energy.

As I've mentioned before, devil fruits were fruits that improved a demon's bloodline.

Although ranks were what assessed someone's strength, for demons their strength was assessed from the purity of their bloodline

The greater the purity of their bloodline the stronger they were.

A devil fruit improved bloodline purity, and this was exactly why it was extremely coveted by the demon.

It was a catalyst that enabled demons to drastically improve their strength. Moreover, the better the quality of the fruit, the greater the benefits.

…and with the fruit being one that I had taken from a Marquess ranked demon, there was no question about the quality of it.

Breaking Viscount rank with it shouldn't be difficult.

Glancing one last time at the room behind me, turning my attention back to Angelica who was looking at the fruit in her hand with shining eyes, I smiled.

"As I've promised, I've now held my end of the deal. See, I'm a man of my words"

Staring at the fruit in her hand, Angelica closed her eyes slightly as a soft voice escaped from her lips.

"…thank you"

Her long-cherished dream of finally reaching the viscount rank was within an arm's reach.

She had tried countless times to break through this rank to no avail as she miserably failed each time.

…she had originally thought that she would still take another five years before breaking through, but now with the fruit in her hands, she could now be able to quickly break through to Viscount rank without a hitch.

Something that she had longed for a very long time.

Staring at my watch and seeing the time, my brows knit for a split second before I turned to Angelica and said.

"Alright let's go back, we don't have much time to spare"

Taking her eyes off of the fruit, Angelica nodded her head.

"Okay"

"Ah, almost forgot"

Just as we were about to leave, recalling something, my footsteps paused.

"Angelica before we go down I have another deal to propose to you"

Tilting her head, Angelica's delicate brows knit slightly.

"A deal?"

Seeing the look of confusion on Angelica's face, a large smile appeared on my face as I softly said.

"yeah, a deal"

…

"Hey, I'm back!"

Walking towards the bottom floor wasn't that hard, although things have quieted down in the prison area indicating to me that things have been sorted there, most of the remaining demons inside of the mansion were still most likely there trying to figure out what had happened.

Thus, just like before, my path was fairly unobstructed. Although there were a couple of occasions in which a demon passed by near me, with their focus being on either the war outside or the incident in the prison, I was somehow able to avoid being detected.

…and so thanks to that, I was able to quickly reach Kevin's location.

Obviously, before reuniting with Kevin and Silug I had asked Angelica to turn back into a ring. Her presence was something that couldn't be revealed.

Turning his head and spotting me in the distance, Kevin asked.

"Have you sorted out everything?"

"Yup"

Nodding my head and looking around the area we were in, I was soon able to spot a large metallic golden door in the distance with fine patterns covering the whole door. In the middle of the door was a small slot the size of a cube.

Pointing towards the door, I asked.

"So what's the situation here?"

Similarly glancing at the door in the distance, Kevin had an odd look on his face.

"Actually it's surprisingly quiet here"

"Meaning?"

"Meaning that there are not that many demons here protecting the treasury. In fact, there's barely anyone here"

Pausing and turning his attention back to me, Kevin continued.

"Apart from the area that leads to the door, there's practically no demon in here. From what I've figured, the demons are confident in the door's durability hence why they don't pay too much attention to the place"

Hearing Kevin's evaluation and placing my hand on my chin, I nodded my head as I softly mumbled.

"…well I can't say I'm too surprised by this info"

From what I remembered writing in the novel, the door before us was something that even Marquess Azeroth couldn't forcibly break open.

Made with special metal alloys and materials, the door was practically impenetrable. Unless you had the key to the place, you practically stood no chance at breaking in.

This also explained why the security here was lax.

They were just that confident in the fact that no one could enter the place.

…fortunately, this made things a lot easier for me.

With barely any demon present, I could comfortably open the treasury without any obstructions.

Plus, if a demon really did come here, glancing at Silug who was standing upright next to Kevin, I knew that I could count on him.

Thus, turning around and glancing at the door in the distance, I confidently said

"Leave the matter of breaking into the treasury to me"

Weirdly looking at me, Kevin asked.

"Was the reason you were missing because of the door?"

Nodding my head, I didn't deny what Kevin said.

"Yup"

Although it was only part of the reason as to why I went to Marquess Azerorth's living space, I did in fact go there with the intention of getting the key to the treasury.

After all, aside from the Xurin fruit, there were a lot of other things that I wanted.

…like the flute of Artemis, and a couple of other things that would drastically boost my strength.

"Alright, it's about time we entered the treasury"

Taking out the cube-like object that I had gotten from Marquess Azeroth's living space, I calmly walked towards the large golden door and placed the cube in the small slot in the middle of the door.

Shortly after inserting the cube inside of the slot, the door suddenly glowed in a golden light and the metallic sound of the door opening rang across the space.

Glancing at Silug to make sure he was guarding the entrance, a smile appeared on my face as the contents that were on the other side of the door was revealed.

"…finally, it was time that I reaped the rewards of my trip"