“T-that…” Violet mumbled. “So… what you said was all true, Ivor?”

“Yes.” Ivor confirmed, feeling shocked himself. He opened his mouth to continue speaking but stopped when golden letters appeared in front of his eyes, in front of Violet’s face.

One out of seven thousand one hundred.

He let out a gentle gasp and pointed in front of him, muttering to Violet, “You can’t see these letters, I’m assuming.”

Violet shook her head. “No, I can’t see any letters in front of me, unless you’re pointing to behind me, in which case—” She turned her head, thoroughly taking in her surroundings before turning back to Ivor once more. “No, I can’t see any letters or anything odd behind me, or anywhere around me.”

“I see.” Ivor nodded. So it seemed the letters couldn’t be seen by anyone but him, just like how it was for the lifespan. Violet couldn’t see her own lifespan, but he could. However, even Violet could see the gold thread that appeared once the deal had been sealed.

He hummed under his breath. That worked just fine with him. He felt a burst of motivation surge through his heart. He’d not hallucinated the shop, nor did he hallucinate the being. All he had to do was accumulate the lifespan from others and he’d have his wishes granted…

He would be able to wield light attributed mana, and he’d have the strength of a seventh level mage.

“Violet, could you sneak me out of the palace?” he asked his friend, and she tilted her head. 

“In the night, yes. But where do you want to go?”

“To one of the underground guilds.”

—

Ivor couldn’t really leave the palace whenever he wanted. He was the third prince, after all. Well, he could leave the palace, but he couldn’t roam freely; couldn’t visit the underground guilds; couldn’t visit the slums. Not without multiple royal knights tailing him—some to protect him, some set up by his brothers to track his movements.

True, they could try and lose them from their tail, but… why bother when sneaking out was simpler?

The reason Violet was only able to sneak him out at night was simple. Some of the knights left the palace at night time, and none of the maids would enter his room nor dare disturb the third prince once the sky became darker. Partially because he slept rather early, partially because the princes were usually in… questionable moods once the sun disappeared.

The maids would only brave the risk if there was an emergency, at which point, it’d definitely be discovered that he’d snuck out.

But hey, they could hardly punish him for it, even if his brothers and father got to know about it.

He wanted to avoid that if possible, but it was not a major issue if they got to know he’d snuck out, they’d make it harder for him in the future.

But that was all they could do.

Sneaking out of the palace when you had a somewhat well known royal knight as a loyal friend was rather easy. Just dress up as a knight. Armor was brought by a trustable maid or his friend herself, sneak out from behind the window and into another corridor, walk out acting like a decent, diligent knight, meet up with his friend, and, acting as her subordinate, exit the castle.

Then they went to her house, changed into civilian clothes, and, of course, made sure to don ones that covered their faces well enough. Next, they sneaked out of the windows, making sure to move through the city in obscure and sometimes empty alleyways and locations…

All just to make sure, with complete certainty, that there was no knight tailing them.

Finally, once they felt completely safe and secure, they accessed the contact point for the information guilds—or the underground guilds, as people preferred to call them.

Which was… surprisingly easy.

Selling information was legal, after all, so they all had branches set out in the open within the slums. What was harder was meeting the branch leader, or someone of status… Ivor wanted to make a big deal with the guild, after all.

Ivor placed three gold coins on the wooden desk – they were in one of the small, soundproofed rooms within the headquarters of one of the bigger information guilds in the slums. There was nothing within the room except for the desk and two chairs – not that anything else could fit.

Perhaps Ivor would have been reminded of the shop if the walls of this room were painted black. However, they were not. Instead, they were painted a soothing light brown, a color similar to that of the desks and chairs.

“Does this express my sincerity?” Ivor asked, placing one more gold coin on the desk.

The guild member stared at the gold coins blankly, seemingly very, very confused, before nodding. “Y—yes. Of course. I see that you are here to make a very big deal indeed, honored customer. I shall go fetch the branch leader immediately.”

Violet muttered to him as soon as the member left, “What do you even plan to do, Ivor? Ask them to trade lifespan for gold? They’ll think we’re black mages, Ivor!”

“Let them,” Ivor replied, looking at her curiously. “What does that change, exactly?”

This caused his friend to splutter, seemingly not knowing how to respond. “They’ll—they’ll call the guards, Ivor! Do you truly expect them to do business with a black mage—”

“Yes,” Ivor interrupted her. “I expect them to do business with a black mage, as long as we do not ask for anything too illegal. such as slaves to experiment on or organs. Even then, I would not put it past them to even go as far as trading slaves.”

Violet blinked, her eyes widening. His friend, being a sheltered noble, was not exposed to the cruelties of poverty, and the lack of care both the nobility and the city guards had towards the slums residents.

True, perhaps the underground guilds would not go as far as openly selling off the slum residents, only because they thrived here with the slum residents’ support. But, if they could sneakily ship off a few people who had no one to care about them, the lowest even within the slums… for an exorbitant amount of gold?

They definitely would.

A minute passed before the door was opened and two people walked in. A new man accompanied the guild member. However, unlike the guild member, who put his features to full display by not covering his face at all, the higher up of the underground guild had wrapped his face up in cloth.

The man was practically mummified. Except for his eyes, nose, and mouth, all required to operate, the man had even covered up his hair with the cloth. Which he further engulfed with a hood.

The new man sat in the chair previously occupied by the guild member, and the guild member stood respectfully next to him.

“I’m one of the leaders of the Magnus,” the man announced, his demeanor polite but stern. “You can call me Neol. I hear from my subordinate that you have a… very big deal for us. May I know what it is?”

Ivor smiled and replied, “Lifespan.”

Golden numbers appeared on top of both the people in front of him. Neol had a hearty forty-five years left to live, while the guild member, probably because he was still a young man, had a sixty on top of his head.

Neol smiled—or at least attempted to. His mouth’s movement resembled more of a grimace than a smile. “Dear customers, none of our members would be willing to participate in experiments, no matter how… lucrative your pricing for their assistance may be. Most of them prioritize their lives and not suffering just a bit more than money, sadly.”

Ivor chuckled at that. “What if I said this ‘experiment’ would not hurt at all and be over in a second?”

“Many mages have promised that, honored customer, and that is why our members have become jaded—”

“Let me explain.” Ivor stopped Neol before he could continue. “You, Neol, have forty-five more years to live. Your guild member—” he pointed to the young man, “—has sixty. Say I told you that, for every year of your lifespan you give me, I shall give you one gold coin, would you agree to that deal?”

“A yearly pay of a gold coin is indeed lucrative,” Neol said patiently, his tone laced with caution. “But, honored customers, no one would be willing to work for a full year with any mages, especially since we are but slum rats who can not use mana—”

“You misunderstand once more.” Ivor smiled kindly. Then again, he doubted Neol could see his smile, he’d covered up his face after all. “All you will have to do is verbally hand over your lifespan to me.”

Neol blinked, his expression turning blank. “Verbally… hand over our lifespans?”

“Indeed. Let me explain.” Ivor turned towards the guild member. “Say, if I were to give you five gold coins right now in exchange for you handing over five years of your lifespan to me—that is, you will only live for fifty-five more years, would you be willing?”

The guild member gulped, looking at Ivor silently for a few seconds, seemingly thinking through it, before nodding. “Y—yes, I would be willing.”

“Then do you hand over your lifespan to me?”

The guild member hesitated, looking at his higher up before looking back at Ivor. “Yes.”

Suddenly, a gold thread appeared connecting the guild member’s forehead to Ivor’s own. It was significantly larger than the one that had appeared between him and Violet previously and lasted for a few more seconds. The guild member tried to grasp at it, his expression panicked, but his hands simply passed through it.

As soon as it faded, Ivor put his hand into his gold pouch and put out five gold coins. “There you go. These five gold coins are for you.”

The guild member blinked. “Just… Just like that…? So that means I’ll live for five less years now?”

The guild member looked highly unconvinced, and Ivor could understand why. He probably didn’t feel any change to his body, and the gold thread was the only evidence something had even happened.

Neol narrowed his eyes, taking in the entire situation with both undisguised curiosity and thinly veiled confusion. He turned towards Ivor before saying, “Just a second. I wish to confirm something.”

Ivor tilted his head. “Confirm what?”

“What will happen if someone offers their entire life span? Say they were to live for thirty years, and they pledge all thirty… Do they die? Simply collapse?”

“I am not fully sure myself,” Ivor confessed, not bothering to hide that fact. There were multiple possibilities… The being had talked of the lifespan as a form of ‘energy’, so it was very probable that that energy was being extracted from the people themselves…

Someone who did so could wither, turn old, before dying right on the spot.

He could not confirm it so far. He’d only taken a year from Violet and five years from the guild member. His body would still be in its youth even after five years, so it was no surprise that they could not notice any major, key changes.

Either way, Ivor only really needed a few years from each person, anyway. Even if it was slow and time consuming, it would add up, and quick. He could probably gather the lifespan he needed in a month, max. But, in that scenario, he would need to take lifespan from practically everyone in the slums…

He needed more than seven thousand years, after all, and that was no small number.

However, if he could get people to pledge fifty years of their lifespan to him. Then he’d not only be done much quicker, but there would be far less complexity to the whole situation.

“Can you wait here for a few minutes, honored customer?” Neol asked, his tone much more respectful and polite now. “This is a deal that cannot be fulfilled with merely me and my subordinate. I shall talk to the leaders about it, and…” The man paused, seemingly thinking through something, before nodding to Ivor. “Instead, we might as well go talk to the leaders together. I just wish to confirm something before that. How much is your budget?”

Neol leaned forward. “How much lifespan do you require?”

“My budget is endless, Neol,” Ivor replied. “I’m willing to pay extra if people are willing to pledge decades to me. For ten years, I’ll pay fifteen coins. For twenty years, I’ll pay thirty gold coins. For thirty, I’ll pay forty five gold coins. And for fifty years… I’ll give them a hundred gold coins.”

Neol’s eyes widened at his last statement. A hundred gold coins was no small number, after all. It was probably the Magnus guild’s annual income.

At his words, even the guild member’s eyes turned greedy. “T—then you’d give me a hundred gold coins if I were to pledge fifty years of my lifespan?”

“Yes.” Ivor nodded. “However, I shall tell you this beforehand, I do not know how it will affect you. If you’ll simply live for a shorter period of time or whether your body will actually age—”

“It is fine!” the guild member interrupted him hastily. “I’m willing to pledge fifty years of my lifespan to you!”

A blinding gold light filled the room for a minute at the guild member’s words for a solid dozen seconds. Ivor had to close his eyes and shield himself from the light, physically recoiling back. He opened his eyes as soon as it disappeared, and what he saw made him gasp lightly.

The guild member, who was previously young, was now wrinkled.

Visibly so.

The guild member’s face and hands were wrinkled, and his body had shrunk in size lightly. The young—old man looked at his hands with an expression of horror, taking in his wrinkles with wide eyes. Tears formed at the edges of his eyes as he looked at Ivor with shock.

Ivor blanched at that too. Perhaps, just like the guild member, he’d not quite truly processed the implications of someone giving their lifespan to him until now. They were, quite literally, giving him their lifespan. This man… he’d lost fifty five years of his life. Just like that.

Next to him, Violet had stiffened too, looking at the guild member with wide eyes.

“You—you, what did you do? What did you do to me—”

In the end, Ivor was a prince, after all. He quickly recovered his composure and was ready to console the man, give him the gold, tell him that this was something he’d warned him of, when Neol stood up and held the guild member’s shoulder, leaning in to whisper. 

A few seconds passed as Neol told the man something, during which the guild member’s complexion turned paler and paler. By the time Neol finally stopped whispering, the guild member looked like he was about to faint.

“H—honored customer.” The guild member bowed to Ivor. “I—if you can give me the agreed upon gold, I shall leave. I thank you for your mercy.”

Ivor blinked, confused by the sudden change, but the confusion only lasted for a second. He had a few ideas about what Neol could have told the man to force the sudden change of heart, but it was fine.

It did not matter.

This worked out fine for him. Ivor had prepared for a situation like this and had brought multiple gold pouches—one magically expanding in size, the rest to hand over the actual gold.

He removed a hundred gold coins from the main pouch with his hands under the table. He didn’t quite feel comfortable with letting Neol know which pouch had the gold, even though Neol could do nothing to him.

If he even attempted to try and steal the gold or harm Ivor, Violet would skin the man alive.

Not that he needed Violet to do so. Really, he could do it himself.

A minute passed in silence, after which another minute passed. It was only then did Ivor finish assembling the hundred gold coins into one of the empty pouches. It was not magically expanded, so it was bulging, giving away its value to anyone who had eyes.

He handed it to the guild member and watched as the old man shakily walked out. Whether his tremors were due to Neol’s words or because of not quite adapting to his new body, Ivor did not know.

A few seconds passed silently after the man left, Neol staring at Ivor silently.

Then, finally, Neol said, “Give me a minute. I shall… go tell a subordinate to pass a message to the leaders… for a meeting to convene. Would… Would you like anything to drink? Water or perhaps some fine wine? Any confectionaries…? I apologize for conversing with you in such a room. We must move to the VIP room immediately—”

Ivor interrupted the man before he could ramble more. It was clear that Neol was scared, anxious.

And Ivor could understand why, but it was an emotion that slowed things down.

“We do not wish for any of those futilities, Neol,” he said, not unkindly. “I’m a practical man, and I know you are too. People such as us, we like getting down directly to business, no?”

Neol nodded, shakily. Then he left the room.

As soon as he did so, Ivor turned to Violet. “Are you… okay?”

She turned to him, looking at him with a shaky gaze. “I’m… I’m fine,” she mustered after a few seconds of trying. “It’s just… What kind of a being did you make a deal with, Ivor?”

Ivor grimaced, not quite sure how to reply to that. “I thought I told you that it wasn’t the nicest, no?”

“But… It…”

“See, V,” Ivor whispered, grasping onto her hand and rubbing on it gently, “I know it was rather unnerving to look at, but the guild member did not lose out, you know? A hundred gold coins, you know its value…”

“It’s… But is it worth your lifespan, Ivor…?”

“It is, V, it is. For them, they won’t be able to make ten gold coins even if they slaved away all their life, and these information guild members are of the upper class amidst the slums. You’re a noble, and I understand why you might not process it, but a hundred gold coins will buy them the most comfortable of lives.”

Ivor paused, inching closer to his friend. “He can buy a house, move with his family, give them comfortable, luxurious lives. He can truly live, V. And because of him, so can his family.”

Violet looked into his eyes hesitantly before nodding. “R—right.”