Yet Jayard actually smiled in delight. “Thank you so much. This is exactly what we need right now.”

There was some junk in this cave—a battered old iron pot, chipped porcelain bowls, and a few quilts. Who knew how many hands all this trash had passed through? And dead people had used it, too. I just couldn’t stomach that.

“Mm, no need to thank me. Just remember to pay your tribute on time.” Bartholomew seemed quite pleased to be generous with someone else’s belongings, and reminded him as much.

I could guess why the boss had welcomed Jayard to settle here. Jayard had probably been paying him tribute for the past few months in exchange for the promise of a place to live.

As an outsider, paying protection money upfront earned you a little show of generosity and goodwill from Bartholomew. But even that was far better than Mackduff’s treatment.

Mackduff treated all the children as his property, so everything the children had belonged to him too. He’d take it all, then beat and berate them whenever he felt like it. They never had enough to eat or warm clothes to wear. The difference was night and day. No wonder Jayard wanted to run.

But then I thought about it. So Jayard had managed to pay protection money to Bartholomew while still meeting Mackduff’s demands—and from what Jayard had said, he’d even saved up some food.

It seemed Mackduff had underestimated Jayard’s thieving skills. Or maybe Jayard had been getting better all along, and Mackduff was simply too clueless to notice. That was about the extent of the man’s brains—he couldn’t even understand his own cash cow.

“Well, I won’t keep you any longer. Hope you enjoy your first night here.” Bartholomew said it meaningfully, then turned to leave.

“Wait. This body...” I struggled to speak, managing only a weak murmur. But was Bartholomew really going to leave us with this corpse—and the room that came with it?

“Huh? So you can talk after all. You’d been quiet so long, I thought you were mute. Are you asking how that poor bastard died? I don’t know either. Seems he was sitting by the fire and just dropped dead.” Bartholomew completely misunderstood what I meant.

“That sort of thing happens all the time. Eating something poisonous, getting sick, working yourself to death in a factory, getting into a fight... Someone dies every day. It’s nothing unusual. Maybe when you come back tomorrow, Jayard, an even better room will have opened up.”

I could at least tell what had happened. The dead man’s face was purplish-blue, while his lips were cherry red. Combined with the charcoal brazier that had burned in the middle of the cave, it looked like he’d died of carbon monoxide poisoning. You mustn’t sit by a fire in an enclosed space, but how would poor people know that? This poor fellow had died just like that, for no apparent reason.

Jayard smiled. “No need for a new room. I’m quite happy here. I’ll take care of the body myself. No need to trouble you, boss.”

He’d switched to calling Bartholomew “boss” so quickly. He’d clearly decided to make a life here. Bartholomew nodded at that, said nothing more, and left.

Jayard immediately set me down on a flat patch of ground, then turned to deal with the corpse. With a trace of a smile I’d never seen before, he began stripping the body with practiced ease.

“W-what are you doing?” I couldn’t help feeling afraid. The body had only been there for a day and hadn’t started to rot, but I still instinctively recoiled from it. And the way he searched the corpse so expertly made it clear this wasn’t his first time.

“These clothes aren’t bad. Oh, there are even a few copper coins in here! Score! Bartholomew really is generous. He’s nothing like that bastard Mackduff. I was right to come here.” Jayard was overjoyed as he neatly folded the clothes he’d taken off the dead man and set them aside.

“You’re keeping the dead man’s clothes?” I asked in shock. Wasn’t that disrespectful to the dead? And could anyone really wear clothes a corpse had worn?

“Of course. This way, Parula will have new clothes too. At least they’ll help keep out the cold. Cheer up a little.” Jayard had stripped the dead man by then, taking everything of value—or no value at all—from his body.

He even checked places like the man’s fingers and ears for rings or earrings, though it was obvious this poor guy wouldn’t have owned anything like that.

“What? You want me to wear clothes a dead person wore? No, I won’t!” I protested, gripping the rags and tattered blanket wrapped around me.

“But, Parula, you’re already sick. If you don’t keep warm, you could freeze to death!” Jayard said, getting worked up too. It seemed my reaction had doused all the joy he’d been feeling a moment ago.

“Even so... I still won’t!” I understood why he wanted me to wear them, but I absolutely couldn’t put on a dead person’s clothes. I just couldn’t accept it. “Please, Jayard. Get rid of those clothes, and the poor dead man too.”

He frowned, but didn’t throw the clothes away. Still, he listened to me and dealt with the body first. He was only a boy, and the corpse seemed to be an adult, yet he dragged it without much effort.

The dead man was emaciated and light, of course, but Jayard also didn’t seem to mind touching a corpse. He simply grabbed hold of it and dragged it all the way outside.

Then I suddenly thought of something. He was only a boy. Even if he could drag a corpse, how far could he get? Surely he wasn’t going to drag it up the stairs?

And even if he managed to get it up to the river channel, anyone who saw him would think he was a murderer. He’d definitely be arrested.

But it turned out I’d been worrying for nothing. As I fretted, I watched him drag the corpse straight to the riverbank and toss it down. It dropped into the channel with barely a splash.

“Ah! Y-you just threw him down there?!” I asked in shock again. I hadn’t expected him to dispose of the body like that—just toss it in.

“Of course. They handled bodies the same way back at Mackduff’s place. The current carries them out of the city.” Jayard said it like it was nothing, as if he’d just thrown away a bag of trash instead of a corpse.

“But won’t the river channel end up full of bodies? How are we supposed to drink the water?” I said anxiously. Jayard couldn’t be the only one doing this. He must think it was normal because everyone did it.

“Oh, someone takes care of them. There are people who fish out the bodies—the ones in black robes. I’ve heard some people make a living collecting corpses. Supposedly, there are folks who pay a lot for them. Too bad I don’t know the business. Maybe I should ask around sometime?”

Jayard looked full of anticipation, as if he wouldn’t mind switching to corpse collecting himself—as long as the pay was good enough.