Chapter 461: The Man in the Dark Red Trench Coat
“Igor, how’s this pressure?”
“Need more water? Let me help! Want some fries? Open your mouth, ah~”
In the canteen on the first floor of the inn, the Con Artist watched Ashe, who was being unusually attentive early in the morning. He turned away from the offered fries and let out a long sigh. “Spill it, what do you want this time to humiliate me again? Do you want me to hypnotize someone to find you a girlfriend? Or help you rebuild the Four Pillars Cult?”
“No way!” Ashe replied firmly. “I just realized I haven’t properly thanked you before, so I want to strengthen our relationship… purely academic, of course. How long does your hypnosis last, and how effective is it?”
“No ulterior motives?”
“None! But Igor, how old are you this year? What are your plans after the Weaving Festival? Have you thought about settling down…”
“Oh~~~,” Igor said meaningfully. “But why are you only concerned about me? Harvey isn’t any younger than me. You don’t ask him?”
“What’s there to ask? His answer is sure to be ‘dig up all the ancestors in Gospel’.”
Harvey swallowed the sandwich in his mouth and shook his head. “An outsider’s prejudice—it’s like flowers. Only at full bloom are they most strikingly beautiful; afterward, they’re just withered remains. I’m not interested in ancestral graves. In necromancy, the 48 hours after death are called ‘Ephemeral Time’. Livor mortis gradually forms, internal organs autolyze, and the corpse can produce super-reactions to external stimuli, making it the best period for appreciation. Over in Blood Moon, they never keep a corpse longer than 48 hours for similar reasons…”