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"

low voice that only Kevin and I could hear, I softly

isn't. Who would you rather

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

was weird, she wasn't as crazy as a truly angered Melissa. I'd rather deal with her

that I was in a business relation with Melissa, things

someone else

just say that things wouldn't really

"ah..."

No words came out of his mouth.

was definitely worse

"See, even you agree!"

of his hesitation,

whatever, I don't want

dismissal, Kevin

you're running away...', I muttered, whilst

Kevin knew that I was

angry Melissa wasn't someone anyone

'That aside...'

was

take

everything turned

at Kevin, Monica was

is well that

Monica off, she would've

detested

him, she would be able to take back

for buying the

"Get in"

rolled the

"Aye, aye"

Talk about the devil...

last look at the King's Crown

auction had officially come to

*

separating from the others, I returned to my

can

in the air and Angelica's

a couple

for your hard

to

made her way

"Aye"

figure moving towards the training grounds, I shook my

moving to this new apartment, Angelica had been

system, Angelica could now train

had to worry about her demonic energy being detected when training as the isolating system in the private training ground stopped all energy

train all she

"That aside..."

'”Shua!

my bracelet, a wooden mask appeared in my

"The mask of Dolos..."

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

hand, a lot of possibilities had

the

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

the things I could do

this was good enough

much faster rate compared to others, it wouldn't

in a month's time, I wasn't planning on

have plans for it, they were for way later into the

"That reminds me..."

up, I stretched my

start making preparations

a month left till the start of the inter-academy tournament, I knew that I had

there were supposed to be

completely destroying the first event, the banquet, there

However, they never occurred.

give up or are they planning something

down on the sofa in the living

that they wouldn't give up on such an

must be

Monolith watch, I could not figure out what the

Even so...

were planning on doing, I wasn't going to just sit down and wait for everything to

was the perfect recipe for

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

was could I come

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

with proper countermeasures for when the

to spend the next month

who knows. Perhaps I can even benefit

laid down on

***

the same time, in a different

"dadadada, dum, dum dum"

her hair scattered, Emma hummed to the tune of one of

"Hm?"

and

Kevin's birthday is coming up

ago she remembered asking Kevin for

her when his birthday was, Emma remembered putting it on

I buy him a

her cheeks

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

the helm of her dress, Emma silently shrieked as a

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

her action, Emma changed position. This time she was laying

should I buy

bought a gift for a boy before, she had no clue on what to

'Should I ask Ren?'

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

know,

gift irked her a

how much money do I have

Emma suddenly recalled something.

just realized that she

needed to check how much