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"

low voice that only Kevin and I could hear, I

Who would you rather piss off,

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

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

that I was in a business relation with Melissa,

it was someone else

that things wouldn't really

"ah..."

statement, Kevin opened his mouth. No words came out of his mouth. Deep in his heart he also shared the same sentiment as

definitely worse

"See, even you agree!"

advantage of his hesitation,

whatever, I don't want

dismissal,

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

end, Kevin knew that I was

Melissa wasn't someone anyone

'That aside...'

was somewhat

did make him take the fall for

defense, everything

being angry at Kevin, Monica was

all is well that ends

she would've never have been able to

she detested with all

caught him, she would be able to take back

for buying the sword

"Get in"

the

"Aye, aye"

Talk about the devil...

at the King's Crown hotel, I entered the

had officially come to a

*

others, I

can come

rose in the air and Angelica's

at Angelica for a couple of seconds,

for your hard

going to

her head in acknowledgment, Angelica made her

"Aye"

towards the training

since moving to this new apartment, Angelica had been spending most

its great insulating system, Angelica could now

training as the isolating system in the private training

could train all she

"That aside..."

'”Shua!

bracelet, a wooden mask appeared in

"The mask of Dolos..."

Dolos. An item that would prove extremely useful for me

lot of possibilities had opened

the future

highly ranked, I could only use it for short periods of time before my mana would

the things I could do with

was good enough for

it wouldn't be long till I would be able

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

it, they were for

"That reminds me..."

I stretched

guess I should start making

left till the start of the inter-academy tournament, I

there were supposed to be

the banquet, there were supposed to be another

However, they never occurred.

perhaps give up or are they

down on the sofa in the

Monolith well, I knew that they wouldn't give up on such

be

not figure out what the Monolith had in plan for

Even so...

to just sit

was the perfect

next month or so I was planning on doing a thorough

their plan was could I come up with the appropriate

them set up a net that I wouldn't be able to escape from, I would much

with proper countermeasures for when

that, I needed to

Perhaps I can even

laid down on my

***

same time,

"dadadada, dum, dum dum"

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

"Hm?"

Emma opened her calendar and checked her schedule. Suddenly, something caught

is coming

she remembered asking Kevin for his

his birthday was, Emma remembered

I buy him a

muttered as her cheeks suddenly

I need to buy a gift

her dress, Emma silently shrieked as a

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

was no meaning behind her action, Emma changed

should I buy

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

'Should I ask Ren?'

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

don't know,

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

how much money do I

Emma suddenly recalled something.

Emma just realized that she couldn't spend

to check how much