The Black Swan Behind (Beauty of Fire)

Levi smiled kindly by reaching out his hand to the two people standing in front of him who had a slightly awkward faces.

“Of course, Emma’s friends are as nice and polite as she is. I’m sorry I thought you didn’t want to get to know us.” Lilian said with a chuckle as she accepted the handshake, “My name is Lilian Douglas. Nice to meet you, young gentleman,”

Levi shook his head with a small laugh, “People say I look a bit annoying. That’s why a lot of people misunderstood me.” He replied by shaking his hand lightly, “Levi Wargos. Nice to meet you too, Ma’am.” Then, he pointed his tattooed hand at the man who was the same height as himself, standing next to Lilian, “Then, what’s your name?”

Marcel stared at the hand that was still floating in front of his body, before eventually shaking it. Then, he raised his gaze to meet Levi’s piercing grey eyes. He returned the man’s friendly smile, “Marcel Douglas.”

Levi nodded once, “Levi Wargos. Nice to meet you, Marcel.” he said.

“Okay.. Looks like we can’t stay here too long since Levi has work to do.” Emma said with a small tug to the back of Levi’s coat.

“See you later..” Said Lilian which Emma waved as she walked out of the warm tavern into the cold outside air.

While chasing Levi’s steps towards his car, Emma continued to give a confused face, “Hey. Why did you suddenly want to know my friends? It seems that this is outside the agreement.”

.....

Then, Emma got into the passenger door as Levi pressed the button on his car keys, “Levi!” She called him again because he did not answer.

Levi turned to Emma with a lazy face. His long eyebrow raised in a question mark.

“What happened to you? Didn’t we promise not to know each other’s lives? Aren’t we just friends to mind exchange?” Emma asked seriously.

“That’s right,” Levi answered while starting the car engine.

“Then why did you do it?” Emma was starting to lose her temper.

“I like the crab soup, so I want to get to know the owner of the tavern. Don’t think too much into thinking I want to interfere in your life.” He said with both eyes focused on the road.

“Is.. is that so?” Emma mumbled, her eyes twinkling.

“What else do you wish for?” Levi chuckled a little teasingly.

“Are you kidding? What else can I expect from you?” Emma replied annoyed.

“You don’t understand what I am like or things that catch my eyes. So you don’t have to think too much about me. Because I will do whatever I want.” He mumbled.

Emma glanced sarcastically at the man who was still driving, “Don’t be so fussy. I didn’t ask you to explain that.”

Levi immediately chuckled when he realized Emma looked sulky, “I’ll drop you off at that time bus stop.” he said

“Um,” Emma answered.

***

Nicko fixed the glasses perched on the bridge of his long nose. His eyes were busy watching the laptop screen since three hours ago. Besides him, Frank was busy with several sheets of paper with lots of pictures and writing on them.

“Madness! This is really a thing!” Nicko mumbled.

“Marcel.. That kid. I didn’t expect him to be this clever,” Ian muttered as he shook his head.

“So, Underground Cave belongs to RJC. Not only does he rule Redvalley Road. He secretly holds Bluevalley Road as well.” Calvin said.

“That’s clever. That kid purposely cleared Bluevalley road so everyone thought it was a dead street. But he built an empire under it. That f*cking bastard,” Ian added.

“With that much territory, there’s no way he only has about two hundred members. I’m sure he still has many times of them. Even we haven’t found where their base is.” Troy looked deep in thought. “How could he hide such a big thing so easily?”

“Troy. The current Marcel is no longer the Marcel we used to know. This is a very different person.” Ian looked at his best friend.

“Actually, RJC’s main business is the Underground Cave. But he purposely shows Redvalley street openly so that everyone would think it was all he was doing all this time. Actually, the pattern he plays is the same as Hell Gate’s.” He continued.

Calvin shook his head, “But he really takes care of Redvalley as best he can. The street that used to look shabby has now become very nice and peaceful since the RJC came to hold it. At least, that’s the information I got from civilians who lived in the area for decades.”

“We should have been suspicious from the start. There’s no way he could make so much money to buy expensive things attached on his body with just the income from Redvalley Street that is filled with old people.” Ian said.

Frank nodded, “I estimate that the income he might earn from Redvalley alone is less than half the income from Underground Cave.”

“All the businesses on Bluevalley Street have gone bankrupt since RJC came to power. Besides, Redvalley Street has started to rise. It’s like a lopsided scale. Why would Marcel do that?” Nicko thought.

“We’ll find out all that in the end. You two are leaving tonight, right?” Troy asked Calvin and Ian.

“Hopefully we would get a gap to find out their weakness,” Calvin mumbled.

***

That night, although the temperature outside was freezing, the Underground Cave was totally a different world. There, many people seemed to be sweating. Their bodies burned with the desire to gamble with alcohol heated their internal organs.

Even though it was snowing heavily outside, it didn’t stop the people of the underworld from reducing their activities. As the night rose, the atmosphere got busier.

Two men with different styles were seen walking on a deserted street. The snow that had piled up in front of the shops on the street looked like it had never been cleaned at all. Yes, it was because all the shops on the street had been empty for a long time.

Calvin in his long dark grey coat, walked beside Ian who was wearing a black leather jacket. They stopped at a door made of iron bars. Previously, it took them several days to find the location. Hiding behind dirty shop walls, only to observe where the people who came into Bluevalley Street had disappeared.

Calvin opened the metal door which immediately gave a creaky sound. The two of them looked at each other once and nodded before walking down the small, steep staircase.

They didn’t expect that it turned out that the stairs led quite deep underground. Finally, they arrived at the end of the stairs which was another iron-barred door. But the difference was, there were two guards with large bodies full of tattoos in front of the door. Both have bald heads.

“You guys new?”

Calvin raised his eyebrows which were already dyed blonde, matching the colour of his hair which was covered in a knitted hat. Honestly, he really hated the tacky colour that had to pair with his oriental face. But for the sake of smoothing called disguise, he was willing to get rid of the jet black colour of his hair.

Meanwhile, Ian used a fake beard made by Nicko’s sister who was a make-up artist.

“Yeah, I hope you guys have a lot of good stuff here,” Calvin answered.

“Name?”

“Antonio and Luke,” Ian replied by pulling his wallet out of his coat and touching his ID that was pinned inside.

“No need.” The guard’s words made Ian stop his movements. “Eighty dollars each.”

Ian slid his finger from the card slot into the middle of the wallet and took out a few bucks and handed them to the man, “The treat is mine tonight.” He turned to Calvin with a smug look on his face.

“I hope you don’t charge me for a drink later.” Calvin hissed.

The big man guard wrote the names of the two new guests on the daily visitor log board, then moved his chin forward, “You can go straight in now.”

“Oh.. No ID needed? Fine then..” Ian muttered.

Then the two of them stepped inside with smiles on their lips. Calvin nodded at Ian’s shrewdness. It was not wrong that he became the No.2 in Jita Kyoei.

The music started to get louder and louder as the two of them walked further inside. It turned out that they found other stairs that were quite large. From there, they could see the appearance of the underground paradise. The two pairs of feet walked down the concrete staircase.

What they didn’t expect, it turned out that the place was really densely crowded and boisterous. Many women in skimpy clothes were walking here and there with men reeking of alcohol embracing them. Walking further in, the noise grew louder. Until Ian and Calvin found a busy location with lots of people shouting and jostling like they were at a rock music concert.

Apparently, these people were swarming three large rings that were showing a fierce battle in it. The fighters were seen wearing various make-up and costumes. They were really dressed up to entertain the audience. It was also seen that the spectators were busy placing bets on who they thought would be the winner.

After watching the situation there for a few minutes, Ian and Calvin went deeper which led them to a huge bar-like cavern with lots of tables and sofas around the sides. There could see many people dancing in the middle to the music rhythm.

Besides the ring matches location earlier, the bar-like place also had a deep elongated shape. At the end of the place, there was a large bar table. Ian and Calvin walked over to the bar and sat down on its high chairs.