Mummy Powder

Neph smiled and looked at Klein. She deliberately avoided using such an obvious body part as hair and used a more ambiguous term instead-after all, it was actually rather strange for a deity to have such obvious and normal parts.

This request was not difficult at all for Klein. He readily nodded and agreed to Neph's request: "Alright."

This time, even Derrick perceived something from the interaction, and he silently elevated the status of Miss Pure White in his mind.

"Do you require a private exchange?" Neph glanced at the others and asked.

"No need," Klein replied.

So Neph cleared her throat and began to recite the information she knew about the Secret Order:

"The Secret Order was born in the Fourth Epoch, founded by Zaratul, a noble of that era. They master the Seer pathway, and their current leader is Young Zaratul, a descendant of that founder.

"More than a hundred years ago, Young Zaratul was already a Sequence 2 Miracle Invoker. He is currently an Attendant of Mysteries, but he has fallen into madness-you seem to already know this news? I know the reason for his madness, but this involves even more secrets. Your price is not high enough; I can only tell you that it was man-made.

"At present, the Secret Order has certain connections with Intis."

More than a hundred years ago? Miracle Invoker? This timeline... It seems this Young Zaratul was the one in Roselle's Diary? So he wasn't the first founder after all... Zaratul's madness was man-made? Who could drive a Sequence 1 to madness?

Klein's heart tightened. He knew this question was not suitable to be asked openly; relatively speaking, the matter of the Secret Order currently having ties to Intis was more worthy of his attention.

"Very well." He smiled, nodded, and asked no further questions.

Neph lowered her eyes. Since Klein did not ask, she swallowed back the excuse she had prepared-if Klein had asked about the matter of Zaratul's madness, she had originally intended to tell him that it was a gift.

As for who gave it to whom... Let them guess.

Yet since he didn't ask, Neph turned her head to look at the other three, blinked, and said, "I also have news about adjacent sequences, you know?"

Alger didn't speak, nor did Derrick. Only Audrey asked with some caution:

"Do you... also need a certain part of my body?"

She recalled the gaze this Miss Pure White had cast toward her.

Neph gave her a surprised look and hurriedly denied, "No, no, no, I don't need that... If it's you, Miss Justice, I hope you can prepare some food for me. I imagine that won't be difficult for you."

"Food?" Audrey paused slightly.

"It's not very convenient to obtain food where I am," Neph replied, "And you'd better prepare the kind that can be eaten directly after heating, or eaten directly without heating... I might not find it very convenient to cook, either."

Audrey nodded hesitatingly, then asked again, "Then... about how much food do you need?"

Neph paused at this point. She recalled the plot of the original work and remembered that the price the young Sun used to trade for this information seemed to be... the price difference between the Sequence 8 potion formula and the Sequence 9 potion formula? Um, a little over two hundred pounds?

"How much food can two hundred pounds buy?" Neph asked after a brief reflection, "If one person eats it, about how long will it last?"

Audrey was stunned for a moment, looking somewhat hesitant, when the Hanged Man Alger chimed in:

"That depends on your appetite and the level of luxury in your diet. If you eat very thriftily and only consider food, this is almost enough for you to sit idle and eat through your wealth for decades."

"Uh..." Neph gave a light cough, "There's really no need to be that thrifty... and it shouldn't need to be that much either? Just... a normal standard will do. Prepare for me... half a year, and... um, do you noble ladies need to go on diets?"

She looked at Audrey.

"No..." Audrey shook her head, "If I accidentally eat too many desserts, rather than dieting, I prefer to run a few laps in places like the hunting grounds."

Neph was reassured and replied, "Then let's just go with your appetite. Half a year's worth of food, with a fairly rich variety, but there's no need to deliberately lean toward luxury or thrift."

"What should we do with the extra money, then?" Audrey inquired.

"I actually just casually threw out a number..." Neph rubbed her fingers against the table, "However, if it's really far short of the two-hundred-pound mark, you can prepare some mummy powder for me."

"...What?" Audrey was stunned.

"Mummy powder," Neph repeated.

Audrey looked at Alger, who was likewise frowning in thought, so Audrey looked back at Neph and tentatively asked:

"May I ask what you want this for?"

To eat, of course... Neph wore a polite smile and answered sincerely:

"For male vitality."

"..." Klein struggled to keep his expression under control.

He was the only one who knew the true function of mummy powder, since he already knew beforehand that Miss Pure White's Sequence 9 was called Ghoul.

--His fellow countrywoman clearly intended to make an attempt at acting using mummy powder.

Male vitality was naturally Neph's nonsense, which Klein knew very well, but Neph's demeanor was too deceptive. Alger subconsciously looked Miss Pure White up and down, a brief trace of doubt appearing in his gaze. Audrey, however, went with the flow:

"...You really have a sense of humor."

Neph chuckled and said, "Fine, not for male vitality... However, I really do use it to eat."

Alger stopped wondering, but Audrey's expression grew puzzled and apprehensive. Neph thought about it, feeling that the Spectator's feedback might actually help with the acting of a Ghoul, so she smiled slightly and lowered her voice:

"Corpses hide secrets that ordinary people cannot see. I like those secrets. What a pity-although the place I am currently in indeed has quite a few corpses, they have all been polluted and aren't clean enough. I find them a bit dirty, and as for you... I imagine that if I asked you to go to a cemetery and dig up corpses for me, you certainly wouldn't agree."

Audrey nodded emphatically.

"You see," Neph shrugged, "so I have no choice but to ask you to find some mummy powder instead. I suppose you won't find that too repulsive."

Before Audrey could make any reaction, the Sun Derrick, whose eyes had grown bright, chimed in:

"Miss 'Pure White', must they be human corpses? Can monster corpses work? I assure you, those monsters used to be humans, too."

"..." Neph's smile froze. She turned to look at Derrick, her tone turning grindingly through clenched teeth: "Take a guess-just what kind of place am I trapped in that would have me facing a bunch of polluted human corpses while unable to obtain food?"