Life and Death

The day of the final arrived. Jorgen woke up amid the noise and looked out the window to see crowds pouring out from everywhere, traversing the huge and complex wooden structure of Booty Bay until the exit, like blood flowing rapidly through veins. Only the lower area and near the docks were relatively quiet. Some gnomes were temporarily selling telescopes in the aisles. The final competition venue was the Gurubashi Arena, and the crowds going forward were mostly not locals of Booty Bay.

Jorgen did not intend to watch the game, he had no reason to, although the final tickets presented by Silversnap were still on the table. Brego Bloodthroat's room was right above his room. He was very strange that this terrifyingly huge orc, after entering the room, was always silent.

Last night he had a dream. He accompanied a person with an invisible face sitting in a closed small room, wiping a long sword full of rust spots with bony fingers. Many broken boxes were placed around the long sword. Jorgen opened these boxes one by one until he found a gold key in one of them. He wanted to pick it up, but the person wiping the sword closed the boxes again one by one. Jorgen had a strong urge to hold down the person's hand, but in the dream he couldn't reach out, he could only watch quietly. After waking up, he recalled what the golden key meant.

How much did Silversnap really know about him? Thinking of the possibilities, Jorgen felt disgusted. In any case, the mad goblin businessman traded his past as a commodity in exchange for his loyalty. Even the old man had never done that. Silversnap's behavior crossed the line. Jorgen looked up and saw Silversnap's loft towering at the top of Booty Bay, like a sauropod skull hung from a cliff.

He did not have breakfast, went out of the inn, and followed the last wave of people to observe the crowds. A man in a hurry bumped into him, and he saw the man's profile, immediately stepping forward to grab his shoulder.

The man turned around impatiently, like a gambler about to throw dice but stopped. But seeing Jorgen, he was stunned for a moment.

"Jorgen?"

Jorgen's reaction was not much different from the other's.

"How are you here?"

"Oh, long time no see."

"Explain to me, Elin."

Elin Tias in front of him was dressed like a tourist with travel expenses depleted, with a simple telescope around his neck, staring at Jorgen with wide eyes. Three years ago, after Jorgen became Mardias's teacher, Elin took over his work in Auberdine.

"Does it need explaining? I'm back, that's it. Don't stare at me, you're still so good at staring at people. Four years without seeing each other, is this how you treat an old friend?"

"You have not reported back to MI7. Your name is not on the list of returning overseas personnel."

"Hey, that's a problem with the clerical work efficiency. Or maybe to save the cost of the welcome banquet, who knows. Do you know, before I left, the Sunflowers Coast toured back to Auberdine temporarily, Katrina and Senoni asked me about you, and told me to say hello to them for them. Tut tut, you guy. "

While speaking, Elin looked back at the crowd two or three times, wanting to know if he was already left behind at the end.

"Are you going to watch the game?" Jorgen asked.

"Of course. You see, I got up a little late today. If I move a little slower, I won't get a good spot ..."

"Wait. You came to Booty Bay to watch the arena fights?"

"Yes, is there anything wrong?"

"You didn't report back to Stormwind, you just took a boat straight here?"

"Reporting is inevitable, but the time for the final waits for no one. You know, once I get back to the old man, I certainly won't have free time for a while, so I wanted to relax first and spend the vacation I earned doing hard work in Auberdine. My work and rest have always been clearly divided. Haven't you forgotten this biggest advantage of mine in three years?"

"Your meaning is 'you participated in gambling.'"

"I choose the word 'investment' ... our work regulations clearly state 'no participation in gambling activities'. So, investment."

"Okay, how much did you invest?"

"Not much, just experimental ... it's some of my usual savings ..."

Elin held up the middle three fingers of his right hand.

"... three gold coins?"

"No," Elin slowly bent his middle finger and ring finger, "a hundred."

"A ... that's your whole year's salary."

"Yes, so you can see how bitter my daily life is, otherwise I wouldn't have saved so ... much. Okay, I know what you're going to say, Jorgen. But you just promised not to judge my actions. I want to know if Vossuva won as soon as possible. Either winning or losing, my days to come will certainly be greatly affected, so I have to prepare in advance. Where are you staying?"

"The Sailor's Rest."

"Oh, good place. Their shark liver there is not bad. When my investment pays off, I'll come back to treat you. Goodbye."

Elin immediately turned around and jogged to catch up with the end of the crowd, squeezing forward as much as possible through the gaps in the crowd.

Although such a reunion was strange, Jorgen was glad to meet him. After all, they were still the most familiar friends, even if Elin's saying that they had lived and died together was perhaps an exaggeration. Although Jorgen did not intend to involve Elin in how to deal with Silversnap, meeting a trustworthy person at a time when difficult choices had to be made was always good.

From the conversation just now, Jorgen heard that Elin had bet on Vossuva. Although that ogre was my enemy, I hope he can win this time.

He walked to the docks. Compared to a year ago, the number of guards protecting Silversnap's freighters had increased again, and they were all wearing brand new equipment. The inherent expressions of goblins made them always seem to be mocking everything. The guards who had pointed their guns at him before, and the waitress at the Sailor's Rest who urged customers to order more food, had no different expressions. Jorgen felt that even genuinely friendly goblins calculated precisely the cost and return of their kindness. But on second thought, as a member of MI7, he was constantly deceiving, threatening and calculating, and really had no qualification to despise the goblins.

In front of the boarding planks of a small boat, he saw Glocara. The Lady Death in daylight, with her long hair wrapped in a headscarf, sweat on her temples and neck, was trying to push a wheeled stretcher onto the deck. There were a pile of blocky objects covered with white cloth on the stretcher.

Glocara noticed him.

"Hi," she said, "what are you doing there?"

"Nothing."

"Are you following me?"

"No. If I did, you wouldn't find out."

Glocara looked him up and down, seeming not to believe these words. After a while, she said, "I see you have nothing to do. Don't stand there staring stupidly, come and help."

Nothing to do? Jorgen almost laughed bitterly. No one had ever described him that way. He walked over and put his hands on the other side of the stretcher, a little surprised at its heaviness. What was under the white cloth was definitely not a human corpse. For Glocara's arms, this burden was too heavy.

"Where's Tusa? Why isn't he here to help you."

"Oh, he went to the arena."

"To watch the game?"

"He can really watch the game at close range and not pay for tickets."

"I don't understand."

"This game recruited on-site emergency physicians who understand how to diagnose and treat ogres and orcs. He went to sign up and was selected."

"I always thought that this game didn't care about life and death."

"The final cares about it for some reason."

Silversnap does not want either of them to die, Jorgen thought.

They worked together to push the stretcher onto the deck, then entered the lowest hold. Under the name of MI7, there was no way to get on the ship, but now casually pushing the corpse in, Jorgen couldn't help feeling that this was a ridiculous irony.

"Your new assistant?" The goblin guard at the hold door looked up and down at Jorgen and said to Glocara.

"That's right, new assistant. Right?" She elbowed Jorgen's arm.

"I didn't hear that Mr. Silversnap allowed you to hire a new assistant." Said the guard.

"Who said it was hired? Tusa is not here today, I found someone temporarily. Otherwise, do you see this thing I can bring in by myself?"

The goblin lifted the white cloth and looked at what was underneath, squinting.

"Oh, I see. Go ahead in."

Glocara and Jorgen entered the deepest part of the hold, where dozens of corpses were haphazardly placed in a barred area in the corner.

"This is their great invention," Glocara said, "the board connected to these bars can be opened. Once the ship sails into the open sea, the corpses will fall directly from here into the sea. Quite convenient, isn't it?"

They lifted the white cloth. It was a burly tauren corpse. The horns had been removed, and little brown fur remained. The two worked together to lift one side of the stretcher so that the corpse slid down into the iron bars.

"Why are the corpses like this?" Jorgen said.

Glocara did not answer. She wiped sweat with the back of her right hand.

Jorgen looked at the corpses originally in the bars again. They were missing parts to varying degrees, regardless of race. He turned around and looked at Glocara.

"Why are you looking at me like that."

"Did you do all this?"

"Yes, all of it. There are too many useful parts of the dead. Anyway, they're dead. Wigs, blankets, utensils, even cosmetics, can be made from their leftover parts. Do you know why they call me 'Lady Death'? Not just because I sent them their last trip."

"Did you sell the parts you removed?"

"Yes."

"I didn't expect that."

"What, do you look down on me? Just now I complained about the goblins disposing of corpses in this way, you think I'm very hypocritical, don't you? Do you want to handcuff me and take me back to your Stormwind court?"

"I can only say that Stormwind would not allow goods made from the dead to circulate in the market."

"Oh, how clean! Can't be helped, whoever made Stormwind the largest human city. You should look down on me, it's okay."

"I didn't say that, Glocara."

Glocara turned around, leaning forward, her left hand gripping the edge of the stretcher tightly.

"Your expression says so. 'This filthy woman, exchanging money for corpses.' Don't cover it up, you're all looking at me like that. I'm used to it. Do you know what kind of people I deal with?"

"Lower-level residents?" Jorgen said.

"Right, you're very smart. Everyone knows these are made from corpses, I'm not charging them as good goods. Only lower-level residents use them, and that's all they can afford. And these corpses were once lower-level residents too. Do you understand? They were born there, and even after they died, part of them had to stay there to help the living continue their days. That's my job. Look at your expression! Don't come to work for me as a 'new assistant' next time."

Jorgen was at a loss for words. Glocara's pupils flickered uncertainly, and her left hand clenched tighter.