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

you rather

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

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

a business relation with Melissa, things

was someone else rather than

that things wouldn't

"ah..."

No words came out of his mouth. Deep in his

was definitely

"See, even you agree!"

of his hesitation,

don't want to talk about it

hand in dismissal, Kevin entered the

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

knew that I was

wasn't someone anyone

'That aside...'

was

make him take the fall for

my defense, everything

being angry at Kevin, Monica was

say, all is well that

she would've never

she detested with

to take back all of

the sword would

"Get in"

rolled the window of

"Aye, aye"

Talk about the devil...

last look at the King's Crown hotel, I

auction had officially

*

the others, I

can come out

black smoke rose in the air and Angelica's enchanting figure appeared before

a couple of seconds,

for

to the

her head in acknowledgment, Angelica made her way towards

"Aye"

towards the training grounds,

Angelica had been spending most

great insulating system, Angelica could

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

train

"That aside..."

'”Shua!

a wooden mask appeared

"The mask of Dolos..."

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

a lot of possibilities had opened up for me. Especially when planning future

the future

was so highly ranked, I could only use it for

the things I could do

good enough for

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

tournament coming up in a month's time,

plans for it, they were for

"That reminds me..."

I stretched

making preparations

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

supposed to be three

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

However, they never occurred.

or are they planning something

on the sofa in the

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

must be something

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

Even so...

doing, I wasn't going to just sit down and wait for

the perfect recipe for

I was planning on doing a thorough investigation of everything that was happening in and

knew what their plan was could I come up with the

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

way I could come up with proper countermeasures for

I needed to spend the next month

can even benefit from

laid down on

***

same time, in a

"dadadada, dum, dum dum"

Emma hummed

"Hm?"

her calendar and checked her

Kevin's birthday is coming up

remembered asking Kevin for his

her when his birthday was, Emma remembered putting it on her calendar so that she wouldn't

I buy him

muttered as her cheeks

I need to buy a

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

meaning behind the gift. I'm just thanking him for all the help I received from

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

should I buy

gift for a boy before, she had no

'Should I ask Ren?'

Ren and Kevin were, there was a

know, I'd

asking Ren to help her get a gift irked her

much money do

Emma suddenly recalled something.

her bank account frozen, Emma just realized that she couldn't spend too much money on the gift for

much money she had available before