"Clink, clink." After taking the silver coin, the ferryman on the Styx weighed it in his bandage-wrapped hand, then put it in his mouth and swallowed it.
"This is the first time I've received money without being asked to take someone across. Ask whatever you want." The ferryman spoke in English.
"You can speak English?" Severus asked strangely.
"If you were Italian, I'd speak Italian. Ask your questions already!" the ferryman said impatiently. As he spoke, a tiny snake crawled out through a gap in his bandages, then slipped into another gap.
Spiders, centipedes, and other insects occasionally crawled over him as well, making the sight horrifying.
"Where is Napoleon Bonaparte's palace?" Gong Saiyi asked.
"I don't know exactly where it is, but I've heard such a place exists," said the ferryman. "When he was alive, he was a soldier. He was good at hiding."
Severus cursed again, and Gong Saiyi continued, "Then do you know about the Reaper's sacrifice?"
"I don't understand what you mean," the ferryman asked in confusion.
"The living dead man who appeared at the Louvre Museum tonight," Severus said slowly and distinctly. "Where does he live?"
"How would I know about matters in your world of the living?"
"He knows nothing," Severus said to Gong Saiyi. "He's just a boatman."
"You think rowing a boat is easy?" The ferryman raised his foot. "Look, my big toe is gone. And my skin—do you think dealing with those arrogant gods is easy?"
"Because he accepted gold, some god took away his skin," Gong Saiyi told Severus. "After that, gold was forbidden from appearing in his city."
"Now that you mention it, I remember. Someone once asked me if I knew where Set-Maat was," the ferryman said at once, perhaps wanting to prove he was not so useless.