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"

my head repeatedly, in a low voice that only Kevin and I

you rather piss off, Monica or

me who I would rather deal with, I

she was weird, she wasn't as crazy as a truly angered

in a business relation with

someone else rather

just say that things

"ah..."

opened his mouth. No words came out of his mouth. Deep in his heart he also shared

was definitely

"See, even you agree!"

his hesitation, I

don't want to talk about it

in dismissal, Kevin

away...', I muttered,

knew

angry Melissa wasn't someone anyone

'That aside...'

was

did make him take the fall

everything turned out just

being angry at Kevin, Monica was

say, all is

she would've never

detested

now that she had caught him, she would be able to take

the sword would

"Get in"

as she rolled the

"Aye, aye"

Talk about the devil...

King's

officially come

*

others, I returned to

can come out

rose in the air and Angelica's enchanting

couple of seconds,

for

to

made

"Aye"

towards

had been spending most of her time in the

great insulating system, Angelica could now train

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

could train

"That aside..."

'”Shua!

wooden mask appeared

"The mask of Dolos..."

on the mask of Dolos. An item that would prove extremely useful for me in the

mask in my hand, a lot of possibilities had opened

the future

could only use it for short

on the things I

good enough for

to others, it wouldn't be long till I would be able to fully utilize the

a month's time,

for it, they were for

"That reminds me..."

up, I

should start making preparations for the

start of the inter-academy tournament, I knew that I

tournament, there were supposed to be three big

completely destroying the first event, the banquet, there were supposed to be another

However, they never occurred.

or are

down on the sofa in the

knew that they wouldn't give up on such an important event just because one of their plans had

must be

watch, I could not figure out what the Monolith had in plan for the

Even so...

to just sit down and wait for everything to

that was the

thorough investigation

knew what their plan was could I come

than have them set up a net that I wouldn't be able to escape from, I would much rather create holes in the net to later use to

I could come up with proper countermeasures

that, I needed to spend the next month

I can even benefit

as I laid down on my

***

time, in a

"dadadada, dum, dum dum"

scattered, Emma

"Hm?"

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

Kevin's birthday is coming up

ago she remembered asking

was, Emma remembered

I buy him a

muttered as her cheeks suddenly

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

silently shrieked as a myriad of thoughts entered her

the gift. I'm just thanking him for all

behind her action, Emma changed position. This time she was laying down face flat on

should I buy

for a boy

'Should I ask Ren?'

thought suddenly struck her. Given how close Ren and Kevin were, there was a chance he would know about what Kevin would like,

know, I'd rather

asking Ren to help her get a gift irked her a bit. If possible she didn't

much money do I

Emma suddenly recalled something.

that she couldn't spend too much money on the

to check how much money she had