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"

that only Kevin

isn't. Who would you rather

someone asked me who I would rather deal

a truly angered Melissa. I'd rather deal with

that I was in a business relation with Melissa, things

someone

just say that things wouldn't really be

"ah..."

of his mouth. Deep in his heart he also shared the same sentiment

definitely worse

"See, even you agree!"

his

want to talk about it

hand in dismissal,

muttered, whilst following him

Kevin knew that I

Melissa wasn't someone anyone could

'That aside...'

anger was somewhat

did make him take the fall for

my defense, everything

angry at Kevin, Monica was quite grateful for

is

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

person she detested with all her

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

she made for buying the sword

"Get in"

she rolled the window of the limousine

"Aye, aye"

Talk about the devil...

last look at the King's Crown hotel,

auction had officially come

*

separating from the others,

you can come

the air

at Angelica for a couple of seconds, I

for your hard

to the

acknowledgment, Angelica made her way

"Aye"

indifferent figure moving towards the training grounds, I shook

had been spending most

Angelica could now train without

worry about her demonic energy being detected when training as the isolating

could train

"That aside..."

'”Shua!

into my bracelet, a wooden mask appeared

"The mask of Dolos..."

my hands on the mask of Dolos. An

lot of possibilities had opened up for me. Especially when planning future schemes

the future at

I could only use it for short periods

on the things I could do with

this was good

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

in a month's time, I

they were for way

"That reminds me..."

I stretched

should start making preparations for

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

supposed to be three big events orchestrated

first event, the banquet, there were supposed to

However, they never occurred.

give up or are they planning

sofa in

they wouldn't give up on such an important event just because one of

be something

not figure out

Even so...

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

was the perfect recipe

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

what their plan was could I come up with the

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

I could come up with

I needed to spend the next month

who knows. Perhaps I can even benefit from this

I laid down

***

time,

"dadadada, dum, dum dum"

Emma hummed to the

"Hm?"

on her phone, Emma opened her calendar and checked her

Kevin's birthday is coming up

remembered asking Kevin

birthday was, Emma remembered putting it on her calendar so

I buy

as her cheeks suddenly

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

Emma silently shrieked as a myriad of thoughts

I'm just thanking

no meaning behind her action, Emma changed position. This time she was laying down face

I buy

never bought a gift for a boy before, she had no clue on what

'Should I ask Ren?'

Kevin were, there was a chance he would know about what Kevin would

know, I'd rather

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

how much money do

Emma suddenly recalled something.

realized that she couldn't spend too much money on the gift

much money she