Once Eric went down the elevators to the ground level of the building where his penthouse was located in, he walked out into the cold streets and started heading towards the direction of a certain loan shark office.
As someone who was born into one of the wealthiest families in the entire city, Eric had never ever once needed to worry about any financial problems whatsoever.
But in order for him to better prepare himself against Aurora however, he needed more information about her.
Informations such as her current activies, who Aurora was targetting next, how much time he has left, and most important of them all, the amount of times she's currently regressed so far.
Now, if Eric recalled the novel properly, he was the 10th villain in the novel to have ever killed Aurora.
That meant that there was 9 other villains she had already previously killed and died to before him, and since he has also died to her 18 times, it was safe to assume that Aurora was at least on her 30th regression as of right now.
But not all villains in the novel died to her in just one regression however, as many had managed to outsmart Aurora and even kill her multiple times despite her future knowledge of them.
Not to mention that Eric wasn't even sure if he had died more than 19 times already and that he just didn't remember his other previous lives for whatever reason.
As such, even with all his memories of the novel and his previous lives intact, there was no telling what regression she was currently on, and he needed that answer the most before making a single move.
After arriving to a surprisingly neat and modern looking office building with no name attached to the front of it, Eric walked into the lobby and was greeted by a receptionist behind the counter.
"Good morning, sir. How may I assist you today?" The receptionist, who had a bobbed haircut, brown eyes, and tidy navy blue jacket over a white top, smiled at Eric professionally.
"Morning, is there a company by the name of Black Lumis currently operating here at this office building? I'd like to speak to them if possible."
"Let me check that for you, sir. Please give me a moment." The receptionist smiled politely then started typed on the computer in front of her for a couple seconds.
"Yes, there does seem to be a company by the name of Black Lumis operating here in this building with us, do you have an appointment with them?"
"I don't. Do I need to have one?" Eric calmly gazed at the receptionist and asked.
"You don't. The company allows walk-ins, so you don't need an appointment with them. I just asked just in case if they were expecting you." The receptionist explained with a professional smile on her face, "If you'd like, I can let them know that you're coming up to meet with them."
"You don't need to do that for me, thank you though."
"You're certainly welcome. The elevator's to your left, and the company's on the 8th floor at room number 805. Have a good rest of your day."
Eric nodded and thanked her back.
Afterwards, he took the elevator up, and soon quickly arrived at room 805.
When he got there, he saw that the door was wide open, and that there was a somewhat chubby and bald headed man frantically sorting out the stacks of document on his desk at his small office space like he was trying to look for something.
So Eric patiently waited for a few minutes outside of the door for the chubby man to notice him, but when the chubby man didn't notice him, Eric politely knocked on the door twice.
Knock.
Knock.
"Huh, who in the hell is disturbing me so early on in the morning? You better have-" The bald man then saw that it was Eric who was at his office door, and he changed his attitude immediately.
"Holy... it's Mr. Porter, what a surprise and an honor it is for you to personally come visit me here! Please, come in." The bald man quickly stood up from his chair and awkwardly gestured Eric to enter his office.
While not many people knew about Eric and his family publicly, those who operated mostly in shady and underground business definitely did, and so he didn't want to offend Eric by any means necessary.
"Thank you." Eric didn't hestitate to come into the small office unreserved and sat down on the guest seat opposite to the bald man's desk, "Please, don't just stand there. Have a seat as well."
The bald man, who clearly had a nervous look plastered all over his face, quickly obeyed him and sat back down in his chair.
"So what brings you here to my office, Mr. Porter? If you didn't know already, we're uhm, a private lending firm that specializes in quick solutions for debtors who can't go through normal traditional banking methods." The bald man rubbed his bald head out of nervousness and explained.
"I'm aware, also please just call me Eric for now. I'm not too fond of the formalities." Eric gave a faint smile and then continued, "Anyways, I'll get straight to the point. The reason why I'm here is because I've heard from somewhere that your people tried abducting one of your debtor's daughter not too long ago. Someone by the name Aurora Scarlett. Is that correct?"
The bald man, hearing Eric ask something like that, immediately stiffened at once and did not dare to respond back.
Since he knew that all members of the Porter family were very often hot-headed at times, he was worried that the slightest wrong reply could end up costing him his entire life.
As such, the bald man kept his mouth shut and just simply stared at Eric nervously.
"Please don't be so nervous. I honestly don't really care if you tried kidnapping her or not, nor do I care about how shady your company really is. Seriously, I just want some information on her, that's all." Eric knew why the bald man was acting this way, especially considering how Eric had behaved before he had regained his memories back, and he tried his best to reassure the man.
"Oh, you don't? Ahahaha... that's a relief. I was getting worried there for a second." The bald man sighed in relief and then asked in a more relaxed tone, "What would you like to know about her then?"
"Well let's start off with the 'enforcers' you sent out to abduct her first. Did they succeed or not?" Eric leaned one of his hand on the side of his chin to make himself comfortable.
"To be honest with you, I'm not entirely sure myself. I haven't been able to get into contact with them since the moment I sent them out about a week ago to capture her. Sorry." The bald man shook his head and apologized.
"Don't be, it's not your fault. What about your partners?" Eric wasn't surprised about the man's answer and moved on.
"Uh, what about them?"
"Like, have you got into contact with them recently at all? I know you and your partners like to hand collaterals off to whoever's best suited for it the most, so I imagine that you guys are always in touch with each other." Eric elaborated.
While Eric shouldn't know about this since he has never once cared about the details of the loan shark industry before, he vaguely remembered the novel explaining a lot about the inner workings of these loan sharking businesses and how certain collaterals like cars, houses, and jewelries are often handled and transferred over to different underground businesses that specializes in working with items like that.
This operating method was also fundamentally the primary reason why Aurora had gotten kidnapped to begin with, as the bald man in front of him right now had originally planned to give her off to one of his partners, who had connections with a human trafficking business, once he had successfully captured her.
"Wow, I'm surprised that you know how our operation works, Eric. I'm honestly flattered... but to answer your question, no. I tried contacting them earlier this morning to let them know about the Aurora situation that has been going on and keep them updated, but I wasn't able to get into communications with any of them or even the people closest to them at all. That's why you saw me with such an awful mood earlier, and I apologize for that." The bald man slightly bowed his head down and apologized.
"Again, it's not your fault whatsoever, however, let's think about it for a second. You sent out your enforcers to kidnap Aurora just recently, and now all of a sudden you can't even get into contact with them or anyone else in your circle anymore as though they just poofed into the air. That's oddly suspicious, don't you think?" Eric raised one of his eyebrows and pointed out.
"...Are you implying that one of business partners suddenly stabbed me in the back all of a sudden after all of these years, Eric?" The bald man slightly raised his voice and tone upon hearing what Eric was saying.
"No, what I'm saying is that all your hired muscles and your business partners could potentially be dead and six feet under the ground right now." Eric gazed at the bald man and replied back with an ominous look on his face.
"What?! But how could that possibly be? Who would have the gall to go after them like that?" The bald man shouted in fury, but he had his doubts.
Him and his partners might have been operating in the underground business for quite some time now, and might not have the cleanest hands out there, but they were always cautious around others and knew who to offend and who to not.
So the thought of them all suddenly dying by someone else's hands just like that without him even knowing about it beforehand was almost inconceivable to the bald man.
"Maybe perhaps it was Aurora who went after them?" Despite knowing the answer already, Eric still suggested anyways.
"Hah, no way. An absolute nobody like that? It couldn't possibly be her. Her family's absolutely dirt poor with almost no money to their name, and she's not like a trained fighter or anything. Besides, I seriously doubt that she could kill everyone as easily even if she were one." The bald man wanted to laugh out loud at how absurd Eric's suggestion was, but he managed keep his composure and just chuckled.
"Well, I wouldn't rule that out completely, but I won't push the issue further if you are absolutely certain of it." Eric shrugged and then glanced at the clock on the wall and said, "Anyways, it looks like I've taken up too much of your time for today, so I'll be on my way now. Thank you for the incredibly valuable information you have provided for me today, and I look forward to talking with you again when I get the chance to."
Eric stood up from the chair and extended one of his arms out to the bald man.
"Oh, don't even mention it. It's been my pleasure as well. Please feel free to come back again if I can further assist you with anything, and have a good rest of your day." The bald man quickly stood up and grabbed hold of Eric's hand and firmly shook it.
Eric nodded and then began walking out of the bald man's office room.
But before he completely left, Eric turned and spoke to the bald man one last time.
"Just a word of advice, but you should arm yourself properly and prepare for the worst. Considering what most likely happened to all the people around you, you might be next."
Then Eric finally closed the door and left, leaving the bald man completely all alone with his thoughts.