Neol grabbed the nearest guild member before muttering in his ears, “Go to the cabin at the top and simply say, ‘it’s an N-level emergency’. Tell them to gather as quickly as possible and even call leaders from the other guilds if they can. They cannot waste even a single second.”

The subordinate’s eyes widened at this, looking at Neol for a second, before nodding hurriedly. “I-I shall do so!”

Smiling, Neol then said, “Also, call Elno.”

—

Sel, the guild member, walked out of the building hurriedly. He hid the pouch within his shirt, at least as best as he could, cupping his hands around it so that no one could see it protruding.

None of the members recognized him. His friends, who usually greeted him if they saw him out and about, looked at him indifferently, probably thinking he was one of the customers. It pierced his heart and made him feel a barrage of emotions he could not explain.

But it was fine.

It was fine.

It had to be.

Luckily, just like Neol had said, since he hadn’t enraged the black mage, he had given him the hundred gold coins he had promised. Sel was rich now. Yes, he was old. Yes, his wife would probably not recognize him. And if she did recognize him, she probably would not be able to come to terms with the fact that her husband was an old man now.

But…

He could buy a house now, maybe even in one of the main districts. Give himself and his mother good medical care, give his kids access to an academy education even, and buy his wife everything she’d ever wanted.

He’d struck on a fortune.

Sure, he’d only live for five more years, according to what the black mage had said, but he could probably live for longer if he consulted the healers regularly. He was only old, not dead.

Not yet.

And anything can be cured as long as the healers poured enough light magic into him, except for death itself.

It was fine. It was all fine. It was okay.

He hurriedly ran outside the building into an alleyway, not daring to turn back even once. This alleyway was a shortcut. His home was indeed a bit deep into the slums, but as long as he traversed through these alleys and jumped across a few walls—which, could he even do that with this body?

Even walking fast was making him tired—

He suddenly felt someone grasp onto his shoulder. Forcefully.

Unable to walk forward, pain radiating from his shoulder. God, his body had become truly brittle. Sel turned around.

A masked, hooded person stood behind him, their blue eyes the only visible thing.

“E—Elno…?” Sel muttered, as soon as he recognized the person in front of him. He could recognize those blue eyes anywhere.

At his words, Elno’s eyes twitched, but he did not say anything. Instead, Sel felt pain radiate through his stomach.

Looking down, Elno had… stabbed him.

Sel felt his hands quiver as the gold pouch fell down from within his shirt, but he couldn't care less at that moment. He grasped onto the hilt of the knife that Elno had made sure to embed fully.

“Sorry,” Elno said, with his gruff voice. “A hundred gold coins was too much of a temptation, even for us.”

Saying so, Elno drew out the knife before stabbing it into him again, kicking Sel in the shin. Sel fell onto the ground, his vision blurry and pain blurring his mind enough that he could not quite understand what was happening.

A member of his guild, someone he knew, someone he trusted, was killing him right now.

He looked around. Even though he was in an alleyway and it was deep in the night, it wasn’t completely empty. A few people had been traversing through it. Mostly other guild members or slum residents who needed to reach their location quickly.

However, none of them met his gaze. They didn’t even dare to look in his general direction.

Sel could understand why. He was a slum rat too, in the end. The number one rule in this place was to never interfere, after all.

Especially in a murder.

Murders usually only happened with careful planning and to specific targets… As long as it wasn’t someone you knew and cared for, trying to help or save a target was not worth it. Nobody would make such a suicidal decision.

He felt a chuckle leak out of his lips. He did not know why. Nothing about the situation was funny, yet he felt like laughing, laughing until his throat went hoarse, until his neck snapped.

But before he could even descend into full blown laughter, Elno stomped on his neck. Sel couldn’t even breathe, let alone laugh.

He should’ve known. Sel should have thought it through. Greed never led to a good ending. No, not to someone like him who did not have the necessary strength—

It was only after Sel died did Elno leave with the pouch of gold coins.

—

Ivor looked at the door in front of him. It looked so… ordinary. A plain brown, clearly wooden door. If he didn’t know beforehand that he would be meeting with the leaders of Magnus, he wouldn’t have thought this door would lead him to some place where ‘important figures’ were gathered.

Then again, perhaps Magnus didn’t see any reason to spend money on useless things like decorating the doors or the rooms. It wasn’t like any of the nobles that came as customers would respect them more if they decorated this place a bit more, and it wasn’t like the other customers really cared about the general appearance of the guild’s residence as long as the members within could give them the information they needed.

Neol opened the door for him, letting Ivor enter before he entered. The room Ivor entered was, as he’d expected, plain, but the people sitting around the center circular table were certainly not.

Almost all of them had their faces covered, even if none of them had covered their hair. Their hairs were of all kinds of colors, and some of them donned themselves with accessories—fancy earrings or wristwatches—while some of them had decided to stay fully plain and minimal.

There were a total of fifteen members present in the room. A number that made Ivor surprised. That seemed like a lot of members for a single guild.

“These people are the decision makers of Magnus,” Neol introduced. “Also, some leaders of the other information guilds have gathered here, too.”

Ivor raised an eyebrow at this, looking at Neol with confusion. Why had the leaders of the other guilds gathered here…?

“All of us maintain connections with each other in case a situation comes up, dear customer,” one of the seated members explained. “The ones available from the other guilds showed up too since they were curious about… the deal, honored customer.”

Ivor nodded. He didn’t really care. It was all the same to him. None of them exuded particularly threatening auras, so he was confident he could fight his way out of here, even without Violet. He could escape to her. Then, with both of their forces combined, they could undoubtedly escape out of here with their lives.

In case they couldn’t, they were overwhelmed, and defeated with sheer numbers, he could just reveal his identity as the third prince and escape. He was sure members of an information guild would not fail to recognize a prince. If they were that bad, they would not have such large amounts of business.

Once he escaped, he could just sneak back into the castle, sleep, and deal with the fallout later. Of course, there definitely will be fallout, which is why he wanted to avoid revealing his identity unless he absolutely had to.

He wasn’t even factoring in the fact that, to their eyes, he was a ‘black mage’. Very few dared to resist black mages… and those few could wield light attributed mana more than proficiently.

Ivor couldn’t help but wonder if it would have been better to bring Violet along to the meeting too. But she had been heavily shaken, so he told her to take a break. Neol had gotten his subordinates to serve her some juice and confectionaries while they waited. They weren’t poisoned or dosed with some form of sedative. One of the first basic spells Ivor  and all royal family members had learnt was related to poison recognition, after all. 

“Let me explain what this meeting is for.” Neol took control of the assembled members’ attention as soon as Ivor had nodded and launched into an explanation of what Ivor had proposed, what had happened to the member who accepted his deal—both the five year and the fifty year one—and finally, that Ivor needed more lifespan.

A lot more.

For a few seconds after Neol finished narrating, there was only silence. The leaders seemed to be processing what Neol was saying—not that they didn’t trust him, just that what he’d said was far too outrageous.

“Could you display it to us live, dear customer?” one of the members finally asked, looking at him with eager eyes. “Of course, not as big of a deal as fifty years. Rather, simply one year would serve to convince us that…” She trailed off, unable to imply that what Neol, as Ivor’s representative, was speaking about was false directly.

Ivor nodded and muttered ‘lifespan’ under his breath.

Almost all of the members present had anywhere from thirty to fifty years left in terms of lifespan. Only a few had below and near ten.

Ivor gestured at a specific member who had forty-nine years left. “You have forty-nine years of lifespan. Are you willing to give me one year?”

“Yes,” the member said, surprisingly decisive. A thin golden thread appeared, faded, and silence once more took over their surroundings.

It was only a minute later did a member propose. “So do you want us to find a few children?”

“...children?” Ivor instinctively muttered, and the member nodded.

“Amidst the residents of the slum, the ones with the highest lifespans are naturally going to be the kids. Well, mostly, at least.” The member paused, leaning forward. “Find a few kids, maybe orphans… Give them or to their orphanages a lot of money and we should get you some lifespan, no?”

To Ivor’s surprise, none of the members seemed to disagree. They all stared at Ivor, waiting to see how he’d respond.

Kids… would indeed be an optimal solution.

They were probably the most… gullible and easy targets to extract lifespan from. However, that kid would suddenly possess the body of a fifty to sixty something year old if they agreed to his deal. How would they even process that change…?

Besides, would their consent even count? He was sure it would, since the guild member’s did, despite him not fully realizing what selling his lifespan entailed.

Ivor gulped. But… kids.

To use kids…

That felt wrong.

But… if it meant he could ascend to the throne…

He was far less bloodthirsty than his brothers. If he gained the strength of a level seven mage—a dual attributed one at that—it would not only allow him to ascend the throne. His presence would act as a deterrent to other kingdoms. Many lives would be saved, all because a level seven mage, especially one so firmly attached and loyal to a specific kingdom, was not very common.

And if the being was satisfied with how quickly he was able to gather the lifespan and was willing to make more deals with him… Then…

Then would it not mean he could even conquer the world?

He would be a good emperor. He would take care of his citizens well. If he had absolute power, he could correct many things. Besides, the process wouldn’t hurt for the kids. The guild member had made no indications that it physically hurt. Besides, they’d have a lot of gold. They could live well.

It… was for the greater good.

Letting out a trembling sigh, Ivor looked at the assembled members. “How many kids can you gather right now who will consent to this?”

Neol was the one who answered, “Honored customer… are you okay with just… taking all of their lifespan instead?”

Ivor turned to Neol, mildly confused by what he was trying to say. Killing them? But why?

He wasn’t the only one shocked either. Neol’s words caused a ripple, even amidst the members. They stared at Neol, and one of them asked, “What do you mean, Neol?”

Neol stared at the woman who’d questioned him and replied, “Let us not pretend we’re doing them some mercy by leaving them alive if they do agree to the trade. Either way, I am assuming we will be targeting orphans instead, yes? What if they are unable to cope with the change and spread rumors about our honored customer? I cannot let that happen when the honored customer is paying so well, yes?”

Ivor gulped and looked at Neol. Contrary to what he’d told Violet, even he hadn’t fully been sure that the information guild would assist black mages. He was confident they wouldn’t call the city guards, but to go this far…

Would it truly be a problem if they spread rumors about him?

Not really, it wasn’t like his identity was exposed. If that was something he had been worried about, he would have to make plans on how he could exterminate the Magnus guild. Or at least, the ones who saw him and knew what he was doing, too.

But if he took their complete lifespan, assuming some of them might even live for another sixty to seventy years… It would mean he would need fewer kids to fulfill his lifespan requirements.

But how would he convince them? It needed to be with their consent, yes?

“The city guards—” a member began, only to be immediately shot down by Neol.

“The city guards will only intercede if someone from our slum reports it, and even then, only if they find traces of black magic.” Neol grinned viciously. “Do you guys sense traces of black magic from what our honored customer is doing?”

Silence. No, they did not.

“How will you convince them?” Ivor asked, and Neol tilted his head, seemingly confused.

“I require for them to consent, Neol,” Ivor explained. “If I want to extract their lifespan, I will need them to understand exactly what their lifespan being absorbed means—may it be losing a year or dying directly. They need to at least process this on a basic level.”

Neol paused, stroking his chin. A few seconds later, he proposed, “Then you can simply take all of their lifespan except for a single day. Or a single hour. Or perhaps a minute. I’m sure they’ll be more receptive to something that does not include terms such as ‘death’ or ‘dying’.”

Ivor bit his lip. But that was basically cheating them, was it not? Also, it seemed awfully pointless, telling them they had a ‘minute’ to live instead of dying instantly—

Suddenly, it struck him. The reason why Neol was trying to kill them. The reason why all the assembled leaders were so hesitant.

If the kids were alive and they spread the news about what happened, true, he would not be impacted much, but the information guilds definitely will. If the kids told the other residents that they were taken by guild members, ‘experimented’ against their will, and they lost all their youth, the slum residents would be terrified.

They could manage their parents or the orphanage staff, but the kids being alive was a threat to them anyway. A threat to their reputation, a threat to their credibility, a threat against their very foundation.

Ivor felt himself chuckling. They would have no choice but to kill the kids, so Neol, instead of dirtying his own hands or the hands of his guild, wanted Ivor to do it.

“Why bother with leaving them a minute, Neol?” he stated, looking at Neol. “That seems rather pointless and awfully cruel. It’d be better to simply kill them, yes? Make them receptive to dying?”

It was probably for the best if the kids agreed to give all of their lifespan – at least they would die painlessly and suddenly. Otherwise they’d have to come to terms with their ‘new body’ for a full minute and deal with the fact that they would, in fact, die in a minute.

“That is true. We can find a way to make them receptive, yes,” Neol said. Seeing that the other members weren’t all that enthusiastic about it, he continued, “Oh, did I mention that our honored customer is willing to offer a hundred gold coins for every fifty years of lifespan he is able to extract?”

All of a sudden, the previous hesitation they seemed to display vanished and the leaders launched into a heated discussion. What orphanages existed. Who would… sell… their kids, and, not even caring Ivor was present, discussing the profit they could get. True, some gold coins would be used to buy off the kids or shut the mouths of the orphanage staff, but the rest…

This was a windfall to them. With the amount of money they were looking at, they could buy off an entire district— something only a noble could do before.

Ivor felt his eyebrows rise as he finally realized why Neol hadn’t mentioned the price Ivor was offering beforehand. Yes, he’d mentioned that Ivor was offering one gold coin per year but skimmed over his other price offerings.

It was all intentional.

Neol wanted this exact effect.

It was only after a full minute of discussion did they seem to realize that their customer was still present. They calmed down. 

One of the members apologized to Ivor, “We showed you an unsightly display, honored customer. However, I do have a question. How do we know which kids have the most lifespan?”

“I can check. You guys narrow down the orphanages and I will select the kids,” Ivor replied. “However, I still do not know how you’ll make the kids verbally agree to give all of their lifespan to me.”

Neol smiled at him, and so did some of the other members.

“Don’t worry, honored customer. We’ll find a way.”