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 I could hear,

Who would you rather piss off, Monica or

who I would rather deal with,

a truly angered Melissa. I'd rather deal with her than

in a business relation with Melissa, things

it was someone else

that

"ah..."

his mouth. No words came out of his mouth.

definitely worse

"See, even you agree!"

his hesitation, I

I don't want to talk

in dismissal, Kevin

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

end, Kevin knew that I

wasn't someone

'That aside...'

anger was

make him take the fall

everything turned out just

Kevin, Monica was quite grateful

they say, all is well

she would've never have been

person she detested with

had caught him, she would be able to take back all

she made for buying the sword would quickly be

"Get in"

shouted as she rolled the window

"Aye, aye"

Talk about the devil...

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

auction had officially come to a

*

from the others,

can

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

for a couple

for your

going to the

made her way towards the training

"Aye"

indifferent figure moving towards the training grounds, I shook

Angelica had been spending

system, Angelica could now

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

could train

"That aside..."

'”Shua!

into my bracelet, a wooden mask appeared

"The mask of Dolos..."

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

mask in my hand, a lot of possibilities had opened up for me. Especially

the

only use it for short periods of time

on the things

good enough for

faster rate compared to others, it wouldn't be long till I would be able to fully

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

for it, they were for way later into the

"That reminds me..."

up, I stretched my

should start making

tournament, I knew that I had to

there were supposed to be three big events orchestrated

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

However, they never occurred.

they perhaps give up or are

the sofa in the living room,

give up on such

must be

not figure out

Even so...

going to just sit down and wait for everything to

was the

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

knew what their plan was could I

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 my

up with proper countermeasures for when

that, I needed to spend the

I can

laid down on my

***

time, in a

"dadadada, dum, dum dum"

on her bed with her hair scattered, Emma

"Hm?"

opened her calendar and

birthday is coming up

remembered asking Kevin for his

remembered putting it on her calendar so that she

buy him a

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 a

the helm of her dress, Emma silently

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

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

I buy

a boy before,

'Should I ask Ren?'

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

don't know,

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

money do I have

Emma suddenly recalled something.

account frozen, Emma just realized that she

how much money she had available