Assassin Crow Evolution

Chapter 47: "I brought a cow in the temple once"

"You smell him too?" Rogbeard said, "He stinks. More than other corpses. You see, during my many years of work, I prepared plenty of men and women who had stayed out in the sun for days. Warriors, adventurers, and even criminals. I prepared them for the afterlife the best way I knew how, but they did not smell as bad as he does, and he does not look like a man who spent days in the sun. The guards brought him in today, and a young alchemist confirmed that he saw this poor bloke as early as this morning, so I cannot understand why he smells so bad."

Passion and curiosity rang behind his words, but of course, Jimmy did not understand a thing.

The corpse on the table was the man he killed earlier on. It was the Fire Mage. He didn’t recognize his face, but the odds of finding another man with a hole in his head, only a few hours after the assassination he committed, was slim.

"This has to be him," Jimmy said.

The plan, and all the risks he took by walking into this temple, all boiled down to the fact that he wanted to loot the corpse.

"Animals have Beast Cores, and humans are also animals, technically." He said, "This bastard has to have a very powerful core."

Jimmy confirmed his target, but he did not want to get himself in trouble now. He made it far enough into this odd encounter already.

For that matter, he did not only avoid pecking at the corpse, but he barely looked at it either. He acted clueless, and uninterested.

Rogbeard bought his act. He just kept talking about the corpse.

Jimmy noticed that the man liked to talk. He figured that he was lonely, and this was no surprise. Humans may act weird around a mortician, likely because they were jealous of his bravery, and his tough stomach, which was a key requirement in this line of work.

Since the man liked to talk, Jimmy decided to humor him, so as to ensure that his visit in the temple wouldn’t be short. He didn’t want to get out of here before he got what he came for.

"Trupi," He parroted.

This was the one word Jimmy could pick up on. It was simple, and he heard Rogbeard repeat this word a lot.

"The body indeed," Rogbeard chuckled, "I have to say, you’re better than some jesters I’ve met by the King’s side."

Rogbeard was entertained, and when Jimmy set his hammer on the table, leaving it behind, he was not interrupted when he started walking across the table. Since he avoided touching the corpse by all means, he proved himself as a trustworthy bird.

A moment later, he gave the stained silver bowl a good look, and confirmed its importance. It was full of organs.

Most of the organs were static, apart from one. It was the only human organ he could not recognize, and it was moving, despite the fact that its host died nearly half a day now.

This organ thumped, it was almost beating like a heart, except the beats had no rhythm. He felt like he was looking at a lumpy, hemorrhaged heart.

"That has to be the core," He said, "Now how the fuck do I steal it without getting in trouble? I don’t want to kill this old fool. He’s very pleasant to be around."

Jimmy had been staring at the bowl for a second too long.

Rogbeard noticed, and in response, he grabbed Jimmy, cupping his chest with his old palms with little effort. Very gently, he moved Jimmy away from the bowl, but still kept him on the table.

"You don’t need any of that," Rogbeard said, "I fed you already, so don’t you even think about eating those organs, biggie."

Jimmy could guess what the man was saying. He just sat near his hammer, and didn’t cause any more trouble. He figured that his goals would have a better probability once the man stopped paying attention to every move he made.

To his surprise, the man grabbed Jimmy’s hammer, and started yammering again.

"Why aren’t you playing with your hammer?" He said, "Do you want me to have it? I don’t need it. Knives do the trick, and my knife is sharper than any sword."

Rogbeard put the hammer down afterwards. He did not want to upset his unique visitor.

As much fun as this encounter was, Rogbeard felt that he was wasting time, so he got back to working on the corpse. Since Jimmy hadn’t tampered with the corpse so far, Rogbeard was coaxed to let him hang around for a while.

"I suppose the city is too cold for you right now, biggie," He said, as he worked on the corpse, "You can stay here. Take a nap. You must leave at sunrise, though, because as well-behaved as you are, I’m sure the Priest won’t look kindly upon me having an animal in the temple. He never liked it when I did it before. I had a cow here once. Shat all over the floor she did."

Jimmy simply listened. He let the old man talk, and sometimes, he repeated words he could pick up on, just to humor him.

An hour into the ordeal, he waddled to the other end of the table again. The silver bowl was underneath him, on the floor.

Like a non-verbal pet, he avoided looking at the bowl directly, so as to not arouse suspicion. Rogbead didn’t move him this time, because he hesitated to wash his hands, for one thing, but he also came to trust Jimmy a little bit more.

Rogbeard continued to work.

Twenty minutes later, Jimmy decided to sneak a quick peek at the bowl.

This was when he discovered that the man across him was far more attentive than he initially figured.

The man immediately turned to him, and asked, "What is it that you want from old Rogbeard, son?"

Jimmy cawed, and then looked at the bowl. Sneaking around didn’t work so far, so he wanted to see where things would go if he hinted that he wanted the core in the bowl.

Rogbeard’s response was quick, "No no no no, no no. I fed you, biggie, so you can’t eat the corpse, or his organs. No, don’t make that face now, you can’t. You knew I wasn’t going to let you eat him, you knew that from the beginning, birdie! I’ll put his organs in salt as well, because that’s how Rotum wishes to meet the souls of his worshippers. If an organ ends up missing in the tombs, Rotum would refuse the souls. They’d be lost forever, and bug me, forever."