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"

voice that only Kevin and

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

rather deal with, I would've without

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

that I was in a business

it was someone else rather

just say that things wouldn't really

"ah..."

of his

was definitely

"See, even you agree!"

advantage of his

don't want to

hand in dismissal, Kevin entered

I muttered,

Kevin knew

Melissa wasn't someone anyone could

'That aside...'

anger was somewhat

make him take the fall

everything turned out just

than being angry at Kevin, Monica was

they say, all is well that ends

she would've never have been able to discover

one person she detested with

him, she would be able to

for buying the sword would

"Get in"

the window

"Aye, aye"

Talk about the devil...

last look at the King's Crown hotel, I entered the

officially come to a

*

others, I

you can come out

rose in the air and Angelica's enchanting figure

a couple of seconds, I

you for your hard

to the

in acknowledgment, Angelica made her

"Aye"

moving towards the training

been

system, Angelica could now train without

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

could train

"That aside..."

'”Shua!

wooden mask

"The mask of Dolos..."

An item that would prove extremely useful for me in the

of possibilities had opened up for me. Especially when

in the

because the mask was so highly ranked, I could only use it for short periods of time before

limit on the things

good enough

to others, it wouldn't be

tournament coming up in a month's time,

they were for way

"That reminds me..."

I stretched my

guess I should start making preparations for the upcoming

the inter-academy tournament, I knew that I had

to the tournament, there were supposed to be three big events orchestrated

first event, the banquet, there were supposed to

However, they never occurred.

give up or are they planning something

the sofa in the living room,

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

be

checking on the Monolith watch, I could not figure out what

Even so...

doing, I wasn't going to just sit

that was the perfect recipe

or so I was planning on doing a thorough

knew what their plan was could I come up with

able to escape from, I would much rather create holes in the

I could come up with proper countermeasures for when the situation

that, I needed to spend the next month

who knows. Perhaps I can even benefit from this

muttered as I laid

***

time, in

"dadadada, dum, dum dum"

with her hair scattered, Emma

"Hm?"

phone, Emma opened her calendar and checked her schedule. Suddenly, something caught her

is coming

she remembered asking Kevin for his

remembered putting it on her calendar so that

buy him a

muttered as her cheeks suddenly

to buy a gift for him? I've

dress, Emma silently shrieked as a myriad of thoughts

There's no meaning behind the gift. I'm just thanking

action, Emma changed position. This time she

should I

was stumped. Having never bought a gift for a boy before, she had no clue

'Should I ask Ren?'

and Kevin were, there was a chance he

know,

idea of asking Ren to help her get a gift irked her a bit. If

much money do I have

Emma suddenly recalled something.

frozen, Emma just realized that she couldn't spend too

much money she had