The Law of the Silent Gentleman

A sudden knock on the door in the middle of the night awakened Petro. He got up cursing, and from the bottom of his heart, he had the idea of ​​picking up the urinal and falling through the window. He was sleeping on the attic of his shop, and he had just lay down for a while, and just felt a little sleepy. Alchemists hate being disturbed sleep.

"Why are there so many people looking for trouble tonight?" The disturbed shop owner hastily put on a bird's beak mask, picked up an alchemy lampstand, lit the lamp, and went downstairs cursing. He had already decided that if the visitors didn't have any urgent matters, he would stab the candlestick in the face of the visitors so that they would never dare to disturb an alchemist's rest in the middle of the night.

He unfastened the three locks on the shop door, but did not loosen the chain that fastened the bolt. He only opened the door a crack, in case the person who came was a robber who robbed at night.

"Open the door." The person outside said.

The alchemist squinted his eyes and raised the lampstand to illuminate the faces of those who came.

"Oh! Enzo! Why are you back? You...are you alive?" the alchemist muttered. His assassin friends came and went, taking his little friend with him.

"If I am a ghost, do I still need to knock on the door?"

"Hush! Keep your voice down! Your voice is so loud that you can hear it on the other side of the city!" Petro hurriedly unchained and let the assassin and his little friend through the door. "You were not seen on the way here, were you?"

Enzo shrugged: "Since when is shopping at an alchemist's shop considered a crime?"

"You frequent my shop, it's too suspicious! I don't want to be reported for harboring fugitives!"

"I think you are suspicious. You are wearing pajamas but wearing a mask. You have good taste."

Petro leaned half his body out of the door, looked around, and after making sure that no one was following him, he quickly closed the door. "Didn't you go to find Mrs. Manlei? Why did you come back? There is no urgent matter, I will stab the lampstand in your face!"

It's a pity that he didn't have a chance to show his skills. Enzo took out a letter from his pocket and slapped the alchemist on the face. The alchemist cursed, grabbed the letter paper, and the foul language in his mouth was immediately transformed into a hymn praising the gift of the gods.

"A letter of recommendation to the Black Boatmen's Guild?!" He brought the lampstand close to the letter paper to prevent himself from looking away, "This wax...is Mrs. Manlei? You go to that old witch...cough cough, go visit that Noble madam, just for the letter of recommendation? I thought you were asking her to ask her concubine to issue a pass!"

"The pass is too risky, it's easy to expose, and it will involve Mrs. Manley. The black boatman is safer. Besides, haven't you been clamoring for a dead body to study anatomy?"

Giuliano tugged on the assassin's sleeve in confusion: "What are you talking about? What corpse?"

Petro kissed the letter of recommendation ecstatically, and explained to the young man: "With the letter of recommendation, I can get a corpse from the boatman in black!"

"What is the Black Boatmen's Guild?"

The assassin and the alchemist watched him silently at the same time. Giuliano thought he had said something wrong, and shrugged his shoulders tremblingly.

"You don't even know the boatman in black? Are you really from Vanessa?" Petro could not believe it.

"Um... I guess they're just... the boatmen in black?" Giuliano asked tentatively.

Enzo covered his eyes weakly. "Don't be surprised," he said to the alchemist, "this guy is a noble young master from a rich family. He doesn't know the sufferings of the people, so he doesn't know about the boatman in black... Well, it should be like this." In the end, he also Not sure anymore.

"The young master of a rich family" puffed up his cheeks: "I really don't know, is it that strange?"

The alchemist and assassin nodded at the same time.

"Then tell me, what exactly is the boatman in black?"

"You should know about the three-year plague, right?"

"Of course I know!"

When the three years plague broke out, Giuliano was seven years old, living in a country house, and escaped unharmed. Many yords aren't so lucky, though. In three years, tens of thousands of people died of the plague, and there were so many corpses that there were not enough funeral pyres. Giuliano still remembered his governess. His mother said that she had returned to her hometown, but he knew in his heart that she must also be dead, and his mother told such a white lie to comfort him.

"Even the Governor was not immune to the plague. The new Governor - oh, Boniwell - came to power and issued a new decree: All the dead in Vanessa, young and old, young and old, old and sick , Accidental death or murder, the body must be transported out of the city within a day and night, otherwise the relatives of the deceased will have to pay a high "plague tax". Rich people can hire gorgeous funeral carriages, while poor people can only rely on black Clothes boatmen—people who specialize in transporting corpses. They load the corpses together on a boat and send them to the cemetery outside the city at night. Relatives of the deceased will wait at the cemetery in advance.”

"Oh, so the boatman in black is the one who transports the corpses," Giuliano said. "But why the boatman in black? Why the...alchemist?"

"The living can't leave the city, but the dead can." Enzo said, "The alchemists, pharmacists, and doctors in the city need corpses to study medicine, but there are not many people who voluntarily donate their remains. There is no choice but to walk slowly." A legal and decent way. People with connections find the Black Boatmen’s Guild, find a dead body that no one cares about, and no one will be surprised even if it disappears, such as a poor dead beggar, and then smuggle it Let's go. The black-clothed boatman will get a big thank you gift. Both sides get what they need, and it can be said that everyone is happy."

"So, Mrs. Manley is a 'well-connected person'. No wonder you asked her for a letter of recommendation... But," said Giuliano, "there is no reason for a dead body to be missing. Has no one noticed?"

Petro smiled: "Ah, the young master underestimates us too much. To prevent this from happening, we naturally have a way to deal with it. Sometimes the reticent needs to deal with some 'trouble', well, you know, one day It's not good to make corpses in the city at night, isn't it? The Reticents give the corpses they make to the boatman in black, and take a corpse from the boatman, give it to the doctors, and swap it, so that the corpse The numbers always remain correct. Only this time instead of two dead bodies, the exchange is one dead body and one large living person."

Having said that, Giuliano understood Enzo's plan. He was born and raised in this city, but he never knew that there is such a delicate ecology in the underground world of the city. People engaged in various legal or illegal, decent or dirty professions cooperate with each other to make the dark side of the city operate as usual. No, rather to make the whole city work as usual. The glamorous and beautiful Vanessa under the sun is built on this endless dark river.

"I understand. You want me to dress up as a dead person and exchange it with a corpse, and then Mr. Alchemist will take the corpse away, and I will be transported out of the city by the boatman in black?"

"exactly."

"Is this okay? I...I pretend to be a dead person?" Giuliano moved his feet uncomfortably, "No matter how much you pretend, the living and the dead are still different! Just a little inspection will reveal the truth!"

"That's why an alchemist is needed." Enzo turned his head to look at Petro, "Do you have the fake death medicine here?"

"What kind of fake death medicine? It's really ugly! It has a name, it's called 'Sigh of Flowers'! There's a beautiful allusion in it, it's about the sons and daughters of two feuding families in Dorosinia..."

"Whether it's the sigh of flowers or the sigh of grass, it's right to use it."

Petro turned around and went upstairs to get the fake death pill, and muttered: "Hmph, I'm going to say it. This young couple loves each other regardless of family feuds, but..."

When he came back, he had a vial in his hand, which contained a dark liquid. He is still saying: "...When the medicine wears off, the girl wakes up, but finds that her lover is dead, so she commits suicide in grief. Ah, what a beautiful story!"

"What an ominous story." The assassin commented coldly. He took the vial from the alchemist and gave it to Giuliano.

"Just say it first, I won't give you money this time. I've already got the corpse for you."

"It's okay, as long as you don't implicate me when you die." Petro was rare and generous.

The assassin urged Giuliano: "Drink, don't waste time."

Giuliano uncorked the bottle and sniffed it. The liquid in the bottle was dark in color, but tasteless. "What happens if you drink it?" he asked the alchemist.

"Your breathing and heartbeat will stop, and your body temperature will drop. It's no different from a newly dead ordinary corpse. When the medicine wears off, you will wake up. Don't be afraid, it's like sleeping for a long time."

"What if I don't wake up?"

"You're out of luck."

Giuliano had a bitter face. If he could, he would never take such a risk. But he had no other choice. If the feigned death poison killed him, it could only mean that he deserved it, and the Sacon family deserved it.

He drank the liquid in the bottle in one gulp. The fake death pill has no taste, like clear water.

"...I don't feel any change." Giuliano shook the empty bottle suspiciously, "It's not like falling asleep..."

thump! The young man fell face down on the ground.

Enzo picked up Giuliano's body, checked his pulse and breath. Sure enough, heartbeat and breathing stopped. The young man's face was as white as paper, and anyone who saw him would think he was a poor man who died young.

"You must have a trolley here, right?"

"Yes. You push it." Petro said.

"I'm just in charge of pushing it. You come back by yourself."

"You're not with me?"

"I'm going outside the city to pick up."

"Hmm. That's right." The alchemist nodded, his bird's beak mask dangling up and down, "Where do you go after you leave the city? Do you have a place to hide?"

Enzo thought about it. "Yes. In the one near Lorjan..."

"Stop, stop! Don't tell me! If I'm captured and tortured by the city guards, I can't help but confess to you!"

Enzo smiled.

Together they carried Giuliano's "body" onto a trolley in the store's warehouse. Petro lends Enzo a beak mask. The assassin pushed the cart, and the alchemist led the way.

"By the way, why are you helping this kid?" Petro asked. "He must have no money to pay you, and I know you never pay on credit."

"I have my reasons."

"Ha, is it possible that you have taken a fancy to him?"

"…none of your business."

"It's just to persuade you as a friend. If you get involved in this matter, it will definitely not end well."

"I didn't intend to get involved," the assassin said, "but I went to the temple that day. I swore that I was going to…" He stopped. After a long while, I spoke again: "Then I met him. I think this must be the arrangement of the God of Truth. He is the only 'reality', the only 'death', and he dominates my life in the dark. Destiny, appointed my way forward. And mortals cannot resist this kind of fate. No matter how much you try to avoid it, it will find you one day. Just like..." His voice lowered, "Just like me. No matter what Take this path. Because I am destined to serve Him."

The alchemist looked at his friend, but said nothing.