Lifetime Gift Chapter 2: The Human Mage

Chapter 2: The Human Mage

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: UA

“What are you doing?” asked the Demon King.

“Your hands feel like human hands.” From his thumb to his little finger, the mage began to touch his fingernails and the back of his hand, “The texture of your nails is different from ours. Hey, don’t you have scales?”

“No…”

“That means you have no dragon in your bloodline. How many hands do you have?

“Four.”

“Oh. Four arms, two at the shoulders, two at the back of the shoulder?”

“No, two at the shoulders, two at the ribs.”

“Walking upright, with two feet? Are your feet clawed, hoofed, or humanoid?”

’Humanoid’ is a common word for human beings. There is no such word in Baku Purgatory, but the Demon King could understand it, “According to your words, humanoid.”

The mage plainly sighed, “Ah, I know. You are a demon burning spirit.”

“…A what?”

“Don’t mind. That’s what we call it. In short, your race is ancient and powerful; you are not the biggest among many demons, but you are quick in action and in mind. What’s more, demons like you are good at manipulating elements and are born as excellent warlocks.”

“Yes, but I’m not a pure warlock,” said the Demon King. “My enemy is.”

“Enemy? That’s why you summoned on humanity?”

“Yes.” So the Demon King started talking about the Demon Warlock.

As he said this, he also began to observe the human’s hands. The human’s hands were small and thin, with slender, nimble fingers and distinct bony joints. They were fragile and weak, just like the stems and branches of flowers and plants. Most demons could easily break them.

This human had a small cut on his hand, on the edge of his index fingernail, which was shallow and didn’t seem worrying.

The Demon King couldn’t help touching the wound, and the human immediately said, “Don’t touch my wound. Human bodies are fragile and timid. A little wound could kill us.”

“How did this happen?” asked the Demon King.

“I was not careful when doing experiments,” said the mage. “It’s quite common for a mage to have a little accident.”

“Then put out your hand in exchange for the one that is hurt.”

“I’m a human being. I only have two hands.”

“I know you have two hands,” the Demon King released and allowed the mage to retract his hands. “So I told you to extend the other one. Now it’s just your right hand, what about your left hand?”

“Oh, my left hand is splinted and bandaged. It’s even worse. It’s broken.”

The Demon King was silent for a moment and asked, “Also from an experiment?”

“No, I fell down the stairs.”

“It’s also common for mages to fall down stairs?”

“It’s not common. It’s just me.”

“Then you… Can you heal it?”

“Most can be healed, but some may not be convenient… It depends. Anyways, what do you want me to do?”

So the Demon King went on to introduce the enemy, the history of the lost dragon blood gem, and the importance of it. After hearing this, the mage thought for a moment and said that he hoped to know more about the gem. He must thoroughly understand its efficacy before analyzing the possible actions of the enemy.

The Demon King thought that would take too long. He hoped that the mage could help him do something immediately. The mage took back his hand and told the Demon King to wait a moment. After a while, he reached back and handed the Demon King a silver chain with a crystal ball the size of a pigeon egg at the bottom of the chain.

The mage introduced it, “This is a positioning crystal. As long as the target is familiar, you can use it to track the position of that target. No matter how the target moves, they can’t escape tracking even if they enter another plane. Besides, this crystal has a function of avoiding detection, so others won’t know you are tracking them.”

The Demon King took the crystal, “Great, I’m sure I can use it. You just said you need to know more about the dragon blood gem? I can go to the library in the city to get the literature…”

“Don’t give me the document,” said the mage, “You… you have to read it to me.”

“Why? Don’t you understand our language?”

“It’s not whether you understand it or not, it’s because…” The mage’s tone was hesitant, “only demon Dharma items can be submitted across planes like this, not paper and ordinary books. If I take the books by force, they may be damaged.”

In this way, he can only let the Demon King read to him. In fact, the Demon King could give this job to his subordinates. After all, it takes a lot of time to study. But he didn’t want to let other demons touch this human.

The Demon King got the crystal ball and stood up to go to the library. The mage waved to him and stopped him, “Wait a minute. We haven’t finished talking.”

“What else is there? Have you not begun to perform your duty of helping me?”

“No, not yet,” said the mage. “I just agreed to help you and give you a little convenient advice for free. We have to sign a contract for this summon to come into full force.”

The Demon King quickly went to look through the book. Sure enough, his summon had not yet been completed! If the mage wished, he could now close the connection with the purgatory of a hundred caves at any time. Only after signing the contract completely can the Demon King grasp the wrist of the summoned person at any time. This loophole was obviously beneficial to the human, and the human even took the initiative to bring it up? The Demon King couldn’t figure out the reason, he could only think that this human had a plan for purgatory, so he took the initiative to help.

“Mn, then we will complete the contract,” the Demon King took the human’s hand again, “The summoned human mage, your name?”

“Arlette Hope.”

The Demon King repeated the name, followed by his own. His original name was in a complex purgatory language, which was skillfully repeated by the human and followed by his own name at the end.

“Will be summoned upon, make a covenant with me, and be loyal to me until…”

The Demon King took the oath. He wanted to say ‘until I kill my old enemy and take back the jewel,’ but the human mage suddenly interrupted and said, “Until I die.”

The Demon King was surprised, “Are you sick? I haven’t heard of anyone offering to extend the service period! I don’t believe you want to help me so actively. What’s your purpose?”

“I didn’t do it because I’m willing,” said the mage Arlette. “There’s a reason. You can think, according to your understanding, aren’t humans very vulnerable?”

“Mn, it’s said that the best fighter in the human race are not as strong as a regular demon warrior.”

The mage said, “Yes, as you know, although humans have various abilities, there are limits to our bodies. In short – we die easily. Maybe one day, maybe because of something, we will all suddenly die. The contract will limit my soul. If I accidentally die before I can achieve your goal, then my soul will be judged as breaking the contract, and I may be imprisoned in the void and unable to return to the embrace of the gods. But if I do die, am I going to die on purpose? Did I break my contract on purpose? Obviously not. Therefore, let’s fix the term of the contract until the day of my death. It will be unfair to me if it is set on the day when you finish your purpose.”

But there seemed to be something wrong. The Demon King thought about it, although a human could really die easily, there are many people who die peacefully. If the mage lived his whole life well, wouldn’t he have to obey the contract and serve purgatory all his life? But it didn’t matter now, since the fool wanted to, let him. It was good for the Demon King.

So the Demon King repeated, “Be summoned upon by me, make a covenant with me, and be loyal to me until the end of your life. Arlette Hope, are you willing to sign a contract with me?”

“I have made a covenant of my own accord, and I will never go back on it.”

After hearing the answer, the Demon King bent down and kissed the human’s hand. The kiss fell in the palm of his hand and a small flame bloomed. The flame danced in the human’s hand, but it did not burn his skin. After a moment, the flame went out, leaving a coin-sized emblem on the palm of the human.

The Demon King looked at the mark and kissed the palm of the human’s hand again. The mage laughed, “The contract is completed, you don’t have to kiss me again.”

“Oh, done? Good…”

The Demon King didn’t want to admit it. He knew that the contract had been completed and that he didn’t need to kiss him a second time. But just now, he couldn’t help but want to kiss the human’s hand again, as if he didn’t kiss enough the first time. It was strange.

“Now I can make you do things,” said the Demon King, straightening his back.

“Yes,” the man replied respectfully. “But on the contrary, I will ask you for your due reward, which is also allowed by the contract spell.”

“I’m not stingy,” said the Demon King, “just say what you want. Gold is not valuable in Baku, but it is very popular in other aspects. If you want gold… “

“Can I ask for something later?” The mage asked, “I can’t think of anything at the moment. It’s better to give it to me in stages. I’ll ask you for anything I think of, if you can give it, you can change it. The price of the reward depends on the difficulty of the task, right?”

“Yes. What do you want now?” The Demon King weighed the crystal and estimated the reward that the human might ask for.

“I heard that there is a plant in Baku. We call it Cangshecao. In purgatory language, it is called…”

The mage Arlette read a word, and the Demon King knew of the grass, so he took a small bag out of his robe pocket. Everyone in purgatory carried it with them.

“Do you want this herb? This is the first-aid medicine we are proud of. It can stop bleeding and heal cuts in an instant.”

“Yes, I want this.”

The Demon King put the medicine bag in the palm of the mage’s palm and felt that the human’s skin was a little colder than before. After taking the medicine bag, the mage drew his hand back into the mirror. The Demon King got close to the mirror and called to the shaking glass, “What do you want this for? Are you going to die?” If you die, our contract will be wasted!

“I live a good life.” With no physical contact, the human’s voice sounded far away, “Our plane does not have this medicine, I want to prepare some for emergency use.”

“Well, I can give you more later.”

Next, the Demon King left the mirror for a while and went to the library to look for literature on the dragon blood gem. Before leaving, he used the demon method to carefully close the bedroom so as not to be intruded on or peeped at.

Strange to say, the legendary human mages are very insidious and cunning. They cheat demons and are insatiable. They don’t care about the fairness of the contract. The Demon King couldn’t help but wonder, what happened to this Arlette I met? Why is he so talkative? Was it because he was taking sick leave after rolling down the stairs, so he had nothing else to do but help demons? Or did he deliberately confuse me with a soft and harmless gesture to cover up his greater ambitions? In any case, the summon had been successful and the contract had been made, so he could only take it one step at a time.

The Demon King took out the discovery crystal and looked at it. No matter what kind of person Arlette was, at least he’s funny and his hands look good. Now I’ll ask of him, and he’ll ask of me, as long as I am more careful…Anyways, a cunning human would never be the rival of a demon.