212 – Devils Spice

‘Devils Spice’ was the wealthiest and most powerful organization inside Batley City—aside, of course, from the City Lord's Mansion, as the City Lord Gideon was the only Master Rank. But if he were to be removed from the equation, then Devils Spice was by far the strongest force in the entire region.

Currently, Eric stood in the middle of a crossroad, and in front of him was the main gate of Devils Spice.

The emblem of Devils Spice was unique and interesting. It consisted only of a pair of curved horns in the shape of a woman’s hairband clip. The horns were bright red, and one of them was shorter in length than the other. It wasn't cut, just shorter. Some golden, dust-like specks were sprinkled across the red background—not too many, just enough for it to glitter during both day and nighttime.

The large gate in front of him had that design, almost as if the gate were the entrance to a pretty devil's mouth.

The sole skyscraper building beyond the gate was fully visible; it also bore that emblem, much bigger in size. It was positioned on the upper region of the building so people didn't get lost and could easily find the Devil.

'They are all good people.' Eric nodded to himself.

Guiding people was an honorable thing to do. It was always people's free will to take the guidance or not.

When Eric first found the place mentioned in the library book, he thought it was just some restaurant; however, it was not entirely so. It indeed had a restaurant, but that was not the only thing this skyscraper provided.

Gambling, prostitution, and various such activities were offered—only to the worthy people, of course!

Basically, it was a vibrant tapestry of hedonism and illicit desires within Batley City, specifically made for the wealthy and the nobles.

There were a few similar, smaller organizations or gangs spread across Batley City, but ‘Devils Spice’ was undisputedly the big boss, far surpassing the others. Other such mob organizations would try to hide and operate in the shadows, yet, because Devils Spice had the support of countless nobles, it was unshakable and operated right in broad daylight. That much Eric had managed to gather by listening to various conversations of people coming and going out of the large gate.

Everyone around was wealthy, their outfits top-notch, and even the guards, who were Rank 2 and 3, wore well-ironed black suits. Those black suits also had a small insignia of Devils Spice over the right chest. And these guards were even wearing sunglasses during nighttime!

Eric could understand why they had sunglasses on, as the area was brightly lit with street lamps and various other colorful decorative lights hanging from the walls.

In his past life, Eric had learned from a trusted source that the true reason guards and soldiers wore sunglasses was to not let others know which body part of the opposite gender they were staring at.

It seemed the creator was an ingenious pervert! Ahem.

Eric was currently standing right in the center of the three-way road. In front of him was the wide-open Devils Spice gate. Behind him, on both sides of the road, were parking spots for all the nobles' carriages, which also provided spicy services for both the horse and the driver; of course, the carriages themselves could also receive services with some extra payment.

Beyond the main entrance of Devils Spice, the main building was a huge, nearly fifteen-story tall skyscraper. But if Eric's guess was correct, it only had maybe six or eight floors; similar to the Guild Library, each level had high ceilings, though this structure was even taller than the library. It was hard to guess the number of floors, as the entire Devils Spice skyscraper was completely sealed; there were not even windows visible on any of its sides, as Eric had checked previously. Nonetheless, the building was well-decorated from the outside.

The width and depth of the building were also quite monstrous, and without a doubt, this was the largest man-made structure Eric had seen since coming to this world.

The ground coverage of Devils Spice was not as huge as Brunhild’s Pierce estate; however, this establishment was countless times more powerful and wealthier than the Pierce family or anyone else in Batley City.

Even Eric was quite amazed by the strength this organization held. All the nobles and wealthy people walking toward the Devils Spice gates were mostly Mana Wielders, though he could see clearly that they were very weak, poorly trained, and lacked experience; perhaps even a newborn-stage Rank 1 Beast would scare them into pissing their pants. Other than these good-for-nothing Mana Wielders, there were also guild members looking strong and experienced.

Eric had been standing there in the middle of the road for quite some time using his disappearance ability. His hands were within his dark robe's pockets, and his long cloak waved along with the night breeze.

He had noticed in the past that his ability would get canceled if his clothes disturbed other people, yet it didn’t get canceled if it was just pushed around by natural forces such as the wind, dust, air, and so on. After his recent level-up, he even felt his clothes wouldn’t disable disappearance if they were only brushing past people and things; everyone also seemed to ignore these light touches, as if it were just the wind brushing past them.

Eric wasn’t just standing and doing nothing; he had been listening to all sorts of conversations among the passing nobles and guests who were coming in or out of the gate. By now, he had learned of many spicy things, from being able to eat ‘tasty’ and ‘exotic’ human flesh—though to be able to order those high-quality dishes, they needed to know the ‘secret password’—to various other pleasure and intoxication rooms, beating and killing floors, and even an underground wrestling arena. Most of these things were secrets, unknown to the general public.

Though Eric was silently learning and secretly scribing away those details in his secret ‘How to be an Evil Gang Leader’ book, he was not here for that.

He was here to see if he could find his old target—Rudin the Scroll Maker, who had provided Jack Eldridge with the binding scrolls—and whether he was here or not.

Eric wasn't sure, as it obviously wouldn't be mentioned in library books, but he could guess that since such a talent was rare, if that guy was still present in Batley City and running his successful business, he should have sought protection from a powerful gang like Devils Spice and definitely not from some 'good' organization.

He could also be wrong, and the guy might be staying with other gangs. He would just have to search as many places as he could tonight and try again tomorrow if he failed.

Unfortunately, for the last ten or so minutes since Eric appeared, not a single person had uttered the name 'Rudin' or that of any scroll maker.

Just when he was thinking of grabbing a ‘cultured’ noble to interrogate ‘kindly’ with a devil’s spice taste, he heard something interesting from a couple heading toward the gate from the left parking spot.

“Hey, can you really get me the thing from here? I don’t remember Devils Spice providing such a service,” a young, beautiful girl dressed completely in red asked the middle-aged man in a white and golden suit, her tone seductive yet doubtful.

The middle-aged man chuckled and wrapped his left hand around the woman's lithe waist. Pulling her closer, he whispered, “Of course, my dear. You need to have the ‘connection’ to know about it, and you also need the ‘connection’ to enter.”

The woman’s eyes brightened. She quickly kissed the middle-aged man on his cheek and remarked, “You really are too useful! Where do we need to go to find this unique scroll maker?”

The middle-aged man laughed with satisfaction. “Fine. I will not keep the suspense from you, sweetheart. There’s a small room on one side of the underground arena; you need to have a card to enter, which I have the privilege of holding.” He puffed out his chest with pride.

The woman hugged the man's arm tightly and stared at him with shining eyes. “You really are my charming prince, aren’t you?”

“That I am. But who do you want to make your slave with a binding scroll, my dear?”

“Hehe, I will tell you when I get the scroll.” The woman giggled as they confidently entered through the Devils Spice gate.

Eric’s eyes lit up. This middle-aged man was definitely his charming prin... Ahem, it seemed he was right after all! This was the place!

Eric slowly raised his head, gazed upon the huge emblem of Devils Spice on the skyscraper, and grinned. “I am coming, brother Devils Spice. I hope you have the necessary strength to receive me.”

Eric then confidently walked through the wide-open gate, while the guards completely ignored him.

The scenery inside was impressive. The courtyard was big, with plenty of places to sit and stand; there were also many small fountains and a big one on the path toward the building.

There were also a few dark corners with barely any light reaching them, and some couples were doing things in secret in those places.

Nothing new, but Eric, who could see in such dim light, was disheartened. He was expecting to see something new—like maybe kissing with ears or something—but people were still using their mouths just like on Earth; what a disappointment.

He ignored the dark corners' activities, glanced around, and noticed quite a few guards wearing black suits patrolling without interfering or even coming near anyone's vision; they seemed well-trained on how to exist in plain sight while staying out of people’s way.

What impressed Eric the most was that he hadn’t found a single mortal among the guards, not even Rank 1s; all were Rank 2 and 3 Mana Wielders. He was especially impressed by the number of Rank 3s, and this was just upfront; who knew how many were hiding.

He noticed the ‘Prince and Sweetheart’ couple entering the main building, so he followed. The door was broad enough, but not too big either.

From outside, he had noticed the ground floor only had a few small windows, all closed; they seemed more like decoration than having any real purpose.

With great enthusiasm, Eric walked in, nodding at the two ignorant female guards on both sides of the door.

As soon as he entered, his eyes brightened, then sparkled.

It was one of the most gorgeous halls he had ever seen, even counting his past life.

The hall was huge—or rather, massive—supported only by countless elegantly decorated, long pillars. The entire place was as bright as daylight, with beautiful chandeliers hanging from the tall ceilings; the pillars also had some enchanted mana lamps producing soft golden hues. Overall, the hall was a stunning visual.

There were countless well-dressed men and women playing various games on different tables; there were even bar counters.

It was a huge casino hall, with various sorts of games.

Eric’s eyes were as bright as the hall itself.

He noticed the previous couple moving toward the center of the hall, where a huge, thick, golden pillar was standing tall. It was probably the sole main pillar.

Just below that pillar was a small, odd room sticking out. The couple was heading toward the double doors of that room, which seemed to have been made out of pure gold.

Above the golden door, a similar red devil horns symbol of Devils Spice was present, covering the entire top of the door frame. From the sides of this room were also two beautifully crafted, long curved stairs heading toward the upper floors.

The couple went and showed something to the two black-suited guards; soon after, the guards opened the door for the couple to enter.

Eric hesitated. After thinking for a second, he decided to abandon his mission. Ahem, just for a short while.

He would just cast some sweeping glances at the games and then try to infiltrate the golden door. He had to become smarter by understanding these games so that, in the future, no one could ever suspect he was just a countryside villager.