The Author's POV

"Did you manage to retrieve all of the stolen goods?"

Asked Amber as she sat on a large leather chair. Before her, a female secretary politely nodded her head.

"Yes, we have Madam"

"Mhm, how much would we have lost if Ivan had succeeded?"

"That..."

The secretary hesitated.

Brushing her hair to the side, Amber's brows knit and her tone became stern.

"I want a clear answer"

Instantly the atmosphere turned sullen.

"2.7 b-billion U"

Closing her eyes, the secretary mustered up her courage and revealed everything that she knew.

"huuu..."

Hearing the sum, Amber took a deep breath.

She then looked at her assistant and asked once again. She wanted to make sure she didn't mishear.

Unfortunately for her, she did not mishear as her secretary shook her head.

"2.7 billion U, am I hearing incorrectly?"

"U-unfortunately not, Madam. After investigating we found a lot of the auctioned items to have been replaced with fakes. Excluding the sword, the last item, everything that was stolen had an accumulated value of 2.7 billion U"

"Haaa...alright, you may leave"

Letting out a long sigh, Amber dismissed her secretary.

'2.7 billion...'

Although this was within her estimation, hearing the number still threw Amber off. This was a lot of money.

Even she, a ranked hero as well as the owner of multiple businesses would need at least a couple of decades to be able to save up that much money.

"Thank you, Madam, I hope you have a good night"

"Yes, yes"

Dismissed, the secretary bowed her head. Amber casually waved her hand in response. She needed to be left alone.

'”Clank!

Closing the door behind her, the servant left the room.

Silence prevailed over the room as Amber quietly picked up some papers and looked through them.

'”Flip! '”Flip!

For the next thirty minutes, Amber skimmed through the stack of papers.

Written on them were the details of the incident as well as other information regarding the times retrieved from Ivan's dimensional storage space.

'Sigh, I can't seem to be able to concentrate...'

After a while, Amber put the papers down.

Just thinking about the whole situation gave her a headache. In fact, her head was already starting to hurt.

Opening her desk drawer, Amber took a small cylindrical bottle and took out a pill.

"If not for Monica, things would've turned out disastrous..."

Taking a glass of water, Amber downed the pill and muttered.

Had it not been for Monica, her night would've been a sleepless one.

Most of the responsibility for the incident would've been put on her, and in all likelihood, she was going to be the one who would have to pay a large portion of the damages.

"To think that there was a day where I would have to thank Monica. The world is truly something..."

Bitterly laughing, Amber leaned back on her chair and covered her eyes with her arm.

She was tired.

...

Outside the King's Crown hotel...

"See, everything worked out just fine"

With a smile on my face, I patted Kevin on the shoulder.

All in all, everything worked out just fine.

Rather than remaining angry at Kevin, Monica actually thanked him and completely forgave him.

Everything worked out just fine. There was no need for Kevin to remain angry at me.

"Don't touch me!"

Smacking my hand away, Kevin grumpily made his way towards the limousine that was a few blocks ahead.

"Oh, come on! It wasn't that bad. Monica is not even angry at you!"

"It doesn't matter. You backstabbed me"

"Tsk, if we're talking about selling out shouldn't we be talking about you?"

Clicking my tongue, I rebutted.

"What about me?"

"Did you forget about the fact that you literally exposed our conversation to everyone a couple of hours ago?"

"What? that's different"

In response to my argument, Kevin's brows knit.

"Is it though?"

"Yes, it is"

that only Kevin and I could hear, I softly

it isn't. Who would you rather piss off, Monica or

asked me who I would rather deal with, I would've without a doubt have

as crazy as a truly angered Melissa. I'd rather deal with

was in a business relation with Melissa, things

if it was someone else rather

that things wouldn't really

"ah..."

his mouth. Deep in

was definitely worse

"See, even you agree!"

of his hesitation, I pointed

I don't want

his hand in dismissal, Kevin

running away...', I muttered, whilst following him from

knew that

wasn't someone anyone could

'That aside...'

was somewhat

take the fall for

my defense, everything turned out

than being angry at Kevin, Monica was quite grateful for

all is well that ends

would've never

detested

from that, now that she had caught him, she would be able to take back all of the items that he had stolen from her.

made for buying the

"Get in"

rolled the window

"Aye, aye"

Talk about the devil...

King's Crown

officially come

*

from the others, I returned to

can

smoke rose in the air and Angelica's

couple

for your hard

going to

her head in acknowledgment, Angelica made her

"Aye"

Angelica's indifferent figure moving towards the training grounds, I

been spending most of her time

its great insulating system, Angelica

when training as the isolating system in the private training ground stopped all

could train all

"That aside..."

'”Shua!

into my bracelet, a wooden mask appeared in

"The mask of Dolos..."

hands on the mask of Dolos. An item that would

mask in my hand, a lot of possibilities had opened up for me.

in the future at

so highly ranked, I could only use it for short

a limit on the things I could

good enough

my strength progressing at a much faster rate compared to others, it wouldn't be long till I

month's time,

they were

"That reminds me..."

up, I stretched my

guess I should start making preparations for

till the start of the inter-academy tournament, I knew that I had to start making preparations

supposed to be three big events orchestrated by the

event, the banquet, there were supposed to be another

However, they never occurred.

they perhaps give up or are

down on the sofa in the

well, I knew that they wouldn't give up on such an important

be

figure out what

Even so...

to just sit

that was the

thorough investigation of everything that was happening

plan was could I come up with the

a net that I wouldn't be able to escape from,

come up with

that, I needed to

Perhaps I can even

muttered as I laid down on my

***

the same time, in

"dadadada, dum, dum dum"

with her hair scattered, Emma hummed to the tune of one of her favorite

"Hm?"

her phone, Emma opened her calendar and

is coming

asking Kevin for his

was, Emma remembered putting it

buy him a

her cheeks

What am I even thinking? Why would I need to buy a gift for him? I've never bought a gift for

onto the helm of her dress, Emma silently shrieked as a myriad of thoughts entered

gift. I'm just thanking him for all the help

no meaning behind her action, Emma changed position. This time she was

I

was stumped. Having never bought a gift for a boy

'Should I ask Ren?'

and Kevin were, there was a chance he would know about what Kevin would

don't know,

to help her get a gift irked her a

much money do I have

Emma suddenly recalled something.

realized that she couldn't

needed to check how much money she had available