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"

head repeatedly, in a low voice that only Kevin and I

you rather

someone asked me who I would rather deal with, I

wasn't as crazy as a truly angered Melissa. I'd rather

now that I was in a business relation with Melissa, things

someone else rather

just say that things

"ah..."

out of his mouth. Deep in his heart he also

was definitely

"See, even you agree!"

advantage of his hesitation, I pointed

I don't want to talk about it

dismissal, Kevin entered the

away...', I muttered, whilst following him from

end, Kevin knew that

Melissa wasn't someone

'That aside...'

anger was somewhat

him take the

my defense, everything turned

Kevin, Monica was

say, all is well that

would've

detested with all

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

the

"Get in"

the

"Aye, aye"

Talk about the devil...

King's Crown hotel, I entered the

officially come

*

others, I returned to

can come

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

at Angelica for a couple

for your

to the training

acknowledgment, Angelica made her way towards the

"Aye"

Angelica's indifferent figure moving towards the training grounds,

this new apartment, Angelica had been

great insulating system, Angelica could now

training as the isolating system in

could train all

"That aside..."

'”Shua!

into my bracelet, a wooden mask appeared in my

"The mask of Dolos..."

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

my hand, a lot of possibilities had opened up for me. Especially when planning future

the

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

the things I could

this was good enough for

it wouldn't be long

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

I did have plans for it, they were for way later

"That reminds me..."

up, I

I should start making preparations for the

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

supposed to be three

the first event, the banquet, there

However, they never occurred.

up or

in

wouldn't give up on such an important

be something

Monolith watch, I could not figure out what the Monolith had in plan

Even so...

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

the perfect

was planning on doing a thorough investigation of everything that

their plan was could I come up with

able to escape from, I would much rather create holes in the

with proper countermeasures for

needed to spend the

I can

as I laid down on

***

the same time, in a different

"dadadada, dum, dum dum"

down on her bed with her hair scattered, Emma hummed to the

"Hm?"

Emma opened her calendar and

Kevin's birthday is coming up

ago she remembered asking Kevin

was, Emma remembered putting it on her calendar so that

buy

muttered as her cheeks suddenly

Why would I need to buy a

her dress, Emma silently

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

Emma changed position. This time she was laying down face flat on

I buy

gift for a boy before, she had no clue on

'Should I ask Ren?'

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

know, I'd rather

irked her a bit. If possible

much money

Emma suddenly recalled something.

Emma just realized that she couldn't spend too

needed to check how much