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"

repeatedly, in a low voice that only Kevin and I could hear,

would you rather piss off, Monica

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

a truly

in a business

it was someone else rather

let's just say that things wouldn't

"ah..."

statement, Kevin opened his mouth. No words came out of his mouth. Deep in his

was definitely worse

"See, even you agree!"

of his

I don't want to talk

dismissal, Kevin entered

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

Kevin knew

Melissa wasn't someone anyone

'That aside...'

anger was somewhat

did make him take

defense, everything turned out

angry at Kevin, Monica

all is

Monica off, she would've never have been

person she detested with

that she had caught him, she would be able to take

made for buying the sword would

"Get in"

rolled the window of the

"Aye, aye"

Talk about the devil...

at the King's Crown

auction had officially come to a

*

separating from the others, I

can

words, black smoke rose in the air

a couple of

you for

going to the training

head in acknowledgment, Angelica made her

"Aye"

Angelica's indifferent figure moving towards the training grounds, I shook my

apartment, Angelica had been spending most of her time in

its great insulating system, Angelica could now train

worry about 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!

into my bracelet, a wooden mask appeared

"The mask of Dolos..."

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

lot of possibilities had opened up

in the future at

I could only use it for short periods of time before my

things I could

this was good

it wouldn't be long till

coming up in a month's time, I wasn't planning

it, they were for way later

"That reminds me..."

up, I

making preparations for the upcoming

inter-academy tournament, I knew that I had

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

the first event, the banquet, there were supposed to be another two

However, they never occurred.

they perhaps give up or

sofa in the living room, I

well, I knew that they wouldn't give up on such an important event just

be something

I could not figure out what

Even so...

doing, I wasn't going to just sit down and

the perfect recipe

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

knew what their plan was

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

with proper countermeasures for when

needed to spend the next

can even benefit

laid down on my

***

the same time, in a different

"dadadada, dum, dum dum"

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

"Hm?"

her calendar and checked her schedule. Suddenly, something

is coming

remembered asking

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

I buy

muttered as her cheeks suddenly

would I need to buy a gift for

onto the helm of her dress, Emma silently

I'm just thanking him for all

meaning behind her action, Emma changed

I

bought a gift for a boy before, she had no clue

'Should I ask Ren?'

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

don't know, I'd

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

money do I have

Emma suddenly recalled something.

her bank account frozen, Emma just realized that she couldn't spend too

how much money she had