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 could

Who would you rather piss off,

asked me who I would rather deal with, I

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

I was in a business relation with Melissa, things weren't

was someone else

let's just say that things wouldn't really

"ah..."

No words came out of his mouth. Deep in his heart

definitely

"See, even you agree!"

advantage of his hesitation,

I don't want

dismissal,

muttered, whilst following

end, Kevin knew

Melissa wasn't someone

'That aside...'

anger was somewhat

him take the

defense, everything turned

at Kevin, Monica was quite

is well

Kevin not pissed Monica off, she would've never have been

detested with all her

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

buying the

"Get in"

as she rolled the window of the

"Aye, aye"

Talk about the devil...

the King's

had officially

*

the others, I

you can come

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

for a couple of

for your

to the

in acknowledgment, Angelica made

"Aye"

towards

Angelica had been spending most of her time in the training

Angelica could

training as the isolating system in the

could train

"That aside..."

'”Shua!

a wooden mask

"The mask of Dolos..."

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

a lot of possibilities had

the future

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

the things I

good

a much faster rate compared to others, it wouldn't

the tournament coming up in a month's time, I wasn't planning on using the mask anytime

it, they were for way later into the

"That reminds me..."

up, I

should start making preparations for the

a month left till the start of the inter-academy tournament,

the tournament, there were supposed to be three

event, the banquet,

However, they never occurred.

perhaps give up or are they

in the living room,

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

must be

could not figure out

Even so...

on doing, I wasn't going to just sit down

that was the perfect recipe for

or so I was planning on doing a thorough investigation of everything that was happening

once I knew what their plan was could I come

wouldn't be able to escape from, I would much rather create holes in the net to later use to

up with proper countermeasures for

I needed to

I can even benefit from

as I laid down on my

***

same time, in a different

"dadadada, dum, dum dum"

scattered, Emma hummed

"Hm?"

Emma opened her calendar and checked her schedule.

Kevin's birthday is coming up

remembered asking

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

I buy

muttered as her cheeks suddenly

need to buy a gift for him? I've never bought a gift for a

Emma silently shrieked as a myriad of thoughts

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

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

should I buy

stumped. Having never bought a gift for a boy

'Should I ask Ren?'

and Kevin were, there was a chance he would

don't know,

help her get a gift irked

money do I

Emma suddenly recalled something.

that she couldn't

check how much money she had