It was Miss Justice who had spoken. After finishing, the lively young woman turned to greet Mr. Hanged Man:
"Good afternoon, Mr. Hanged Man!"
Only then did she address Mr. Fool, her tone curious and tentative:
"Mr. Fool, this gentleman is...?"
"A new participant."
Mr. Fool chuckled softly:
"His code name is The Tower."
"Hello, Mr. Tower."
Miss Justice greeted Julian warmly.
Feeling the humming of the Colour Out of Space being suppressed by the gray fog once again, he nodded slightly and returned Miss Justice's greeting with a friendly smile.
Although this Mr. Tower sounds almost entirely like a native of Loen, there are still a few turns of phrase that suggest he isn't a native speaker... A foreigner living in Loen?
Mr. Hanged Man observed the newcomer's every move, trying to work out the pattern behind Mr. Fool's invitations to the Tarot Club.
It seems Mr. Fool has some special preference for people from Loen, but there's still a degree of randomness to whom he invites?
While Mr. Hanged Man was pondering this, Miss Justice suddenly spoke:
"Mr. Hanged Man, did you receive that box of ghost shark blood?"
"Thank you very much. It met all my expectations perfectly."
Alger, the Hanged Man, nodded:
"I really didn't expect you to send it over so quickly. Ghost shark blood isn't an ordinary supernatural item."
Alger answered candidly, excitement evident in his voice.
Ghost shark blood... An ingredient for the Sequence 7 Seafarer potion?
Right, Alger should have just advanced to Sequence 7, while Audrey should have just completed her transaction with him and be about to receive the Spectator potion formula.
Julian quickly aligned his understanding of the current timeline, then listened as Mr. Hanged Man dictated the Spectator potion formula to Audrey, Justice.
After Audrey finished writing it down, Mr. Hanged Man explained meditation techniques to her in detail, along with the key points of uncovering a potion's symbolism and thereby mastering its power.
Just then, however, Mr. Fool suddenly tapped lightly on the head of the Bronze Long Table.
The tapping drew the gazes of all three people seated below him.
The mysterious organizer of the Tarot Club spoke slowly:
"It's not mastering, but digesting.
"It's not uncovering, but acting."
Here comes the showing off...
Julian sighed faintly. He looked at Alger, the Hanged Man, who had shuddered before thanking Mr. Fool gratefully, and at Miss Justice, who was listening intently and committing the conversation to memory. He struggled to suppress his urge to laugh.
In fact, it wasn't just Mr. Hanged Man who had only a vague understanding of the Acting Method. Even Mr. Fool himself had no idea what those two sentences meant at this point.
He had simply pulled them out to show off because they had appeared in Emperor Roselle's Diary.
Alger soon noticed Julian's composure. With considerable curiosity, Mr. Hanged Man ventured:
"Mr. Tower, you seem to have your own understanding of the two sentences Mr. Fool just taught us?"
"Yes."
Julian, the Tower, did not deny it.
Even setting aside his knowledge as a transmigrator, the original owner of his body had been one of the few members who knew the Acting Method back when he belonged to the Church of the God of Knowledge and Wisdom.
This had mainly come from the Jacob Family's inherited teachings, and it was also why he had advanced so quickly within the Church of Knowledge-if not for that damned Colour Out of Space, he might well have become a high-ranking church scholar before turning thirty.
At those words, Mr. Hanged Man's heart tightened.
He asked tentatively:
"Would you be willing to explain those words to us?
"Of course, I can offer adequate compensation."
"So can I."
Audrey, Justice, hurriedly added.
She was very curious about what they would discuss next, but she also guessed that, in a setting like this, failing to offer something in return would certainly be improper.
Out of reverence, they were reluctant to question Mr. Fool further, so Mr. Tower, a fellow participant, had become an excellent person to consult.
In fact, even Mr. Fool had pricked up his ears. Outwardly, he feigned complete indifference, but in reality, he was listening with rapt attention to what Julian would say next.
"Compensation?"
Julian, the Tower, considered briefly, then nodded:
"As it happens, there's something I need your help with.
"I have a set of main ingredients for a Sequence 7 potion, ready to be brewed into a potion. I need to find a seller to sell them for me."
"Main ingredients for a Sequence 7 potion?"
Alger, the Hanged Man, was even more surprised.
He himself had only recently obtained the opportunity to advance to Sequence 7, and the process had been extremely difficult. Without Miss Justice's help, relying solely on the contributions he accumulated within the Church of the Lord of Storms would have taken at least another year or two.
Normally, a Beyonder would prioritize obtaining the main potion ingredients for their own pathway so they could advance. This meant that most people rarely ended up with "an extra set of main ingredients."
Thus, setting aside unlikely circumstances, there were only two possibilities.
The first was that Mr. Tower was at least a Sequence 7 Beyonder and quite powerful at that. Only then could he obtain Sequence 7 main ingredients from another pathway when the circumstances allowed.
The other possibility was that he had an extremely powerful family or organization behind him, much like Miss Justice. That would explain how he had obtained surplus potion ingredients.
At this thought, Mr. Hanged Man completely set aside his earlier wariness toward the new member, and his tone grew noticeably more respectful:
"May I ask which pathway these Sequence 7 main ingredients belong to?"
"Spectator."
Julian, the Tower, answered, while turning his smiling eyes toward Miss
Justice across the Bronze Long Table.
Sure enough, the noble young woman shuddered, then showed a very keen interest.
She asked:
"Well, if-and I mean if-I were to advance to Sequence 8 on the Spectator pathway, would these Sequence 7 main ingredients be useful to me?"
"Of course, provided your own condition meets the requirements for advancement."
Alger, the Hanged Man, nodded lightly, confirming Miss Justice's hypothesis.
"Then, Mr. Tower..."
Audrey, Justice, looked at Julian and asked in a rather nervous tone:
"Would you be willing to sell me that set of Sequence 7 main ingredients?
"If so, how much should I pay you?"