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

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

would rather deal with, I would've

she wasn't as crazy as a

in a business relation with

was someone else rather than

say that things wouldn't

"ah..."

opened his mouth. No words came out of his

definitely

"See, even you agree!"

advantage of his

I don't want

his hand in dismissal, Kevin

muttered, whilst

Kevin knew

wasn't someone

'That aside...'

anger was

did make him take the

my defense, everything

than being angry at Kevin,

they say, all is

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

detested

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

for buying the

"Get in"

the window of the limousine

"Aye, aye"

Talk about the devil...

last look at the King's Crown hotel,

had officially come

*

from the others, I returned to

can

the air and Angelica's enchanting figure appeared

Angelica for a couple of seconds, I thanked

for your hard

going to

made her

"Aye"

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

to this new apartment, Angelica had been spending most

insulating system, Angelica could now

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

train all

"That aside..."

'”Shua!

my bracelet, a wooden

"The mask of Dolos..."

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

the mask in my hand, a lot of possibilities had opened

the future at

mask was so highly ranked, I could only use it for short periods

put a limit on the things I

was good

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

month's time, I wasn't planning on using

I did have plans for it, they were

"That reminds me..."

I

start making preparations for the upcoming

inter-academy tournament, I

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

event, the banquet, there were supposed to

However, they never occurred.

or are they planning something

the sofa in

knew that they wouldn't give up on such an important event just

be

figure out what the Monolith had in plan for

Even so...

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

the perfect

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

plan was could I come up with the

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

with proper countermeasures for when the

needed to spend the next month

who knows. Perhaps I can even benefit from

as I laid down

***

same time, in a

"dadadada, dum, dum dum"

scattered, Emma hummed to the tune of one of

"Hm?"

phone, Emma opened her calendar and

is coming up

she remembered asking Kevin for

when his birthday was, Emma remembered putting it

buy him

her

Why would I need to buy a

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

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

changed position. This time she was laying down

I

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

'Should I ask Ren?'

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

know,

a gift irked her a bit. If possible she didn't want

how much money do I

Emma suddenly recalled something.

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

check how much money she had available