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

you rather piss

rather deal with, I would've without

was weird, she wasn't as crazy as a truly angered

now that I was in a business relation with Melissa,

it was someone else rather than

let's just say that things wouldn't really be

"ah..."

came out of his mouth. Deep in

definitely worse

"See, even you agree!"

of his

whatever, I don't want to talk

dismissal, Kevin entered the

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

knew that I was

angry Melissa wasn't someone anyone could

'That aside...'

was

make him take

everything turned out just

angry at Kevin, Monica was quite

is well that

not pissed Monica off, she would've never have been able to discover

detested with all her

she would be able to take back all

she made for buying the sword would quickly be

"Get in"

as she rolled the window of

"Aye, aye"

Talk about the devil...

one last look at the King's

auction had officially come to a

*

from the others,

can come out

the air

for a couple

for your hard

going to the training

made her way towards the

"Aye"

figure moving towards

had been spending most of her

insulating system, Angelica could

had to worry about her demonic energy being detected when training as the

train all

"That aside..."

'”Shua!

my bracelet, a wooden

"The mask of Dolos..."

hands on the mask of Dolos. An item that would

mask in my hand, a lot of possibilities had opened

in the

was so highly ranked, I could only use it for

a limit on the things I

good enough for

it wouldn't be long till I would be able

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

it, they were for way later

"That reminds me..."

I stretched

start making preparations for

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

supposed to be three big

banquet, there were supposed to be another

However, they never occurred.

give up or are

the sofa in

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

must be

the Monolith watch, I could not figure

Even so...

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

was the perfect recipe

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

once I knew what their plan was could I

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

with proper countermeasures for

needed to spend the

who knows. Perhaps I can even benefit

muttered as I laid down on my

***

the same time, in a different

"dadadada, dum, dum dum"

on her bed with her hair scattered, Emma hummed to the tune of one of her favorite

"Hm?"

Emma opened her calendar and checked her

is coming

she remembered asking Kevin for his

he had told her when his birthday was, Emma remembered putting it

I buy him a

her cheeks suddenly

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

silently

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

her action, Emma changed position. This time she was

should I

a

'Should I ask Ren?'

Ren and Kevin were, there was a

don't know, I'd

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

how much money do I have

Emma suddenly recalled something.

realized that she couldn't spend too much money on

how much money she had