When Gelman stepped into the room, he caught a complex smell of smoke and dust before noticing an old-fashioned incense burner on the square table.
"Cough, cough."
Someone was coughing behind a screen patterned with strange designs, and Gelman walked around it.
"Cough, cough, cough..."
The sound came from the balcony, whose doors stood open. The warm sunlight outside seemed to slip into the room's dim shadows like a peculiar geometric shape.
"Gelman... cough... come over here... to the balcony... Sorry, it would be quite a hassle for me to come to you, so it's easier if you come to me."
Gelman took off his tricorne hat and held it in his hand. As he walked toward the balcony, he carefully made his way around the stacks of books piled across the floor.
Some of the books had old covers, others new, but the corners of their pages were all worn and curled.
On the balcony, Gelman saw a gaunt, limbless old man sitting in a wheelchair.
Curiously, this was the second person with missing limbs he had seen in a wheelchair in recent times.
Jeggo Zoldyck lifted a bony right hand, pressed a handkerchief to his wrinkled mouth, and coughed violently several times before lowering it.
"Sorry you have to see me like this. You must be terribly disappointed, right? The man who once accompanied Chairman Netero is now in such a sorry state..."
Jeggo gave a self-deprecating wave with his right hand, showing the body he was left with after losing his left hand and right leg.
Old age had its grip around his throat. As he spoke, something in his chest seemed to block the words, making them rasp.
However, Gelman noticed something strange.
The stumps of Jeggo's limbs were completely different from Chrollo's. There were no