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 could hear,

Who would you rather piss off, Monica or

someone asked me who I would rather deal with, I would've without a doubt

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

was in a business relation with Melissa, things weren't that

someone else rather

say that things wouldn't really

"ah..."

Kevin opened his mouth. No words came out of his

definitely worse

"See, even you agree!"

of his hesitation, I pointed

don't want to

hand in dismissal, Kevin

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

Kevin knew that I

wasn't someone

'That aside...'

anger was somewhat

did make him take the fall for

everything turned

Kevin, Monica was quite

say, all is well that ends

pissed Monica off, she would've never have

detested with

would be able to take back all of the items that he had

she made for buying the sword

"Get in"

as she rolled the window of the limousine

"Aye, aye"

Talk about the devil...

at the King's Crown

had officially come to

*

others, I returned

you can

rose in the air and Angelica's

couple of seconds,

for

to

made her way towards

"Aye"

figure moving towards the training grounds,

Angelica had been spending

its great insulating system, Angelica could now train

her demonic energy being detected when training as the isolating system in the private training ground stopped all energy from leaking

could train

"That aside..."

'”Shua!

bracelet, a wooden mask appeared

"The mask of Dolos..."

hands on the mask of Dolos. An item that

lot of possibilities had opened

the future

use it for short periods of time before my mana

on the things I

good

compared to others, it wouldn't be long till I would be able to fully utilize the

time,

they were for way later into the

"That reminds me..."

I stretched my

start making preparations

inter-academy tournament, I knew that

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

completely destroying the first event, the banquet,

However, they never occurred.

or

in

on such an important event

must be

could not figure out

Even so...

going to just sit down

was the

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

plan was could I come up with the appropriate

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

could come up with proper countermeasures for

that, I needed to spend the next month

Perhaps I can even benefit

muttered as I laid down on my

***

same time,

"dadadada, dum, dum dum"

her hair scattered, Emma hummed to the tune of

"Hm?"

Emma opened her calendar and checked her schedule. Suddenly,

birthday is coming

asking Kevin

his birthday was, Emma remembered putting

I buy

muttered as her

buy a gift for him? I've never bought a gift for

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

I'm just thanking him for all the help I

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

should I

a gift for a boy before, she had no

'Should I ask Ren?'

struck her. Given how close Ren and Kevin were, there was a chance

know,

idea of asking Ren to help her get a gift irked her a bit.

how much money do I

Emma suddenly recalled something.

realized that she couldn't spend too much money on

much money she had