Organ rental company in another world

Who?

Who is calling me?

Norn opened his eyes a crack, and in his blurry vision stood two people, one fat and one thin.

The skinny man opened the cell door, while the fat man entered the cell, repeatedly calling Norn's name.

"Damn it, is he dead?" The fat man raised his hand and slapped Norn.

The blow wasn't strong, but it successfully woke him up.

Norn recognized the face; the fat man was the one who had rented his place several times, and was also his first client: Duke Angre.

"Lord Angre? What are you doing here?"

Angre narrowed his eyes to slits and said kindly, "I've come to save you."

"Really?!" Norn sat up abruptly.

"But I took the risk to come here, you can't expect me to save you for nothing, can you?"

"What...what do you want?" Now that Norn has nothing, even a fool could tell what Angre was up to.

"Your style, transfer your treasures to me, irreversibly, and I'll help you escape."

Angre's eyes gleamed with greed as he eagerly awaited Norn's reply.

The deal was very tempting: hand over your brother and you could live, but you'd have to be a eunuch for the rest of your life...

Norn pondered for a long time, and Angre, growing impatient, continued:

"I have arranged boats on the coast below the prison. As long as you nod, I can get you on board tonight and take you to the Plain of Proncia, far away from Basel."

I'll also give you a bag of money, so you can continue doing your old job there, and your carefree life can continue!

"Alright... but what if I change my mind after I leave? I can reclaim organs anytime."

"Don't worry about that!" Angre's face lit up with a smile. "Just pack my things first!"

Norn did as instructed, and feeling his renewed vigor, Angre gave him a hard squeeze and nodded in satisfaction.

He stood up and tilted his head at the skinny man behind him.

The skinny man took out a crimson crystal from his pocket and walked up to Norn.

Norn had a bad feeling about the man; he was pale, dressed in a black robe, and looked like a cultist from a movie.

The crimson crystal emitted a red glow, and an unknown power surged from it, gathering at the back of Norn's neck.

Nourishes—

Norn felt a sharp pain as a brand appeared on the back of his neck.

At the same time, the crimson crystal lost its color and turned grayish-white.

"Alright, Mr. Norn, the deal is done. I just had this dark sorcerer cast a 'Killing Curse' on you."

"From now on, if you take your treasure back without permission, I will trigger the spell, and your body will burst like a bubble. This is the insurance I've set up for our transaction."

Norn touched the brand on the back of his neck, a sight that reminded him of Guts, the protagonist of Berserk.

"Can I leave now?" Norn asked.

"Put this on first."

After Angre finished speaking, the skinny man pulled out a set of clothes from somewhere; it was the uniform of a prison guard.

Using this disguise, Norn swaggered out of the prison with the two men, crossed a rugged path, and arrived at the coast below the prison.

A thick fog blanketed the sea, and the waves crashed against the shore with a mournful roar.

A small to medium-sized wooden boat with a triangular sail was moored on the shore, and crew members could be seen lighting a fire to keep warm on the deck.

After saying a few words to the crew, Angre called Norn to board the ship.

Before going up, Angre gave Norn one last piece of advice:

"After you leave here, never come back. If I ever run into you near Baserun, I'll turn you into a bloody mess!"

After saying this, Angre handed a bag of coins to Norn:

"There are about ten gold coins in here. Don't think I'm stingy. It's not safe for a little kid like you to carry too much money outside."

Norn did not respond, silently accepted the money bag and boarded the ship. The crew busied themselves, lowered the sails, and the wooden boat slowly departed.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

The following morning, the jailers found the bodies of Gicarson and Norn in the dungeon; both had died from having their throats slit with bread.

Norn's corpse was faked by Angre; he had a dark sorcerer bring in a male corpse of similar age to Norn and then used a shapeshifting spell on it.

Such a rudimentary form of transformation wouldn't fool a professional coroner, but in the damp environment of the dungeon, the body decomposed rapidly.

When the coroner slowly approached, Norn had already become a stinking giant, his face unrecognizable. The matter ended with Norn committing suicide out of guilt.

Norn's days on the wooden boat were not going well either.

Most of these crew members were scoundrels involved in smuggling and piracy, so their moral character was naturally not very high.

After they discovered that Norn was naked, he became the object of their dirty jokes and teasing, and some even made unwanted advances towards him in the middle of the night.

After being repeatedly offended, Norn became enraged.

He knew that Angre wouldn't let himself die easily in order to keep that stick, and that he must have warned or even threatened them to protect him before boarding the ship, which gave Norn the confidence to resist.

Once, a crew member, bored, casually pinched Norn's buttocks. Norn suddenly turned around and pushed him overboard, then used an oar to repeatedly push the crew member's head into the water, drowning him in full view of everyone.

After that, the crew members behaved much better; they weren't really afraid of Norn.

The ship was neither too big nor too small, and everyone ate and slept together. Angell had also given the kid a get-out-of-jail-free card, so if he really angered him, none of them would be able to sleep well at night.

Two days later, Norn's wooden boat arrived at the port.

The crew left immediately after dropping Norn off; they needed to hurry back to get the money from Angre.

Norn hung the bag of coins around his waist, covered it with his cloak, and planned to find something to eat first.

He found a slightly run-down tavern, filled almost entirely with boatmen and laborers. Cheap drinks and a lingering, unpleasant stench of sweat filled the air, but Norn surprisingly adapted quickly.

Presumably because most of the customers couldn't afford meat, the menu didn't include any meat dishes: boiled beans, ale, bread, and vegetable soup.

The prices were incredibly cheap; even the most expensive mixed vegetable soup cost only 5 copper coins a bowl.

From this, Norn gained a general understanding of the cost of living here, which was incomparable to that of Basel.

Even if someone is willing to pay to rent their organs, this group is unlikely to be large, and it is completely unsuitable for them to develop their original profession.

Therefore, Norn must find a more developed place.

While eating at the bar, Norn took the opportunity to ask the bar owner:

"Uncle, are there any slightly more developed towns around here?"

"The only town around here is Rotten River Town, which is close to the underground city and is considered a relatively wealthy place," the tavern owner replied.

Dungeon?

Did this world actually have such a setting?

Norn had never heard of this place before in Basel, but he silently made a note of it and decided to try his luck there.