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"

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

isn't. Who would you

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

a truly angered Melissa. I'd rather deal with her than

business relation with Melissa,

someone else

let's just say that things wouldn't really

"ah..."

opened his mouth. No words came out of his mouth. Deep in his

definitely

"See, even you agree!"

of his hesitation, I

don't want to talk

hand in dismissal, Kevin

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

knew that I

angry Melissa wasn't someone anyone

'That aside...'

was

did make him take the fall

defense, everything

angry at Kevin, Monica

is well that

Monica off, she would've never have

detested with

she would be able to take back all of the

buying the sword would quickly

"Get in"

she rolled the window of the limousine

"Aye, aye"

Talk about the devil...

look at the King's Crown hotel, I entered the

had officially come to a

*

from the others, I returned

can come out

in the air and Angelica's enchanting figure

for a couple of seconds,

you for

going to the

made her way

"Aye"

towards the training

Angelica had been

Angelica could now train without

detected when training as

train all she

"That aside..."

'”Shua!

my bracelet, a wooden mask appeared

"The mask of Dolos..."

hands on the mask of Dolos. An item that would prove extremely

had opened up for me. Especially

in the future

so highly ranked, I could only use

on the things

good

progressing at a much faster rate compared to others, it wouldn't be long till I would be able

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

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

"That reminds me..."

up, I stretched my

start making

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

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

first event, the banquet, there were supposed

However, they never occurred.

up or are

in

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

must be

I could not figure out what the Monolith had in plan for

Even so...

were planning on doing, I wasn't going to just sit down

was the perfect

the next month or so I was planning on doing a thorough investigation of everything that was happening in and

plan was

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

with proper countermeasures

I needed to

knows. Perhaps I can even benefit from this

as I laid down on

***

time,

"dadadada, dum, dum dum"

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

"Hm?"

calendar and checked her schedule. Suddenly, something caught

Kevin's birthday is

she remembered asking Kevin for

her when his birthday was, Emma remembered putting it on her calendar so that she

buy him a

muttered as her cheeks

to buy a gift for him? I've

Emma silently shrieked as a myriad

right! There's no meaning behind the gift. I'm just thanking him for all the help I received from

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

I buy

gift for a boy before, she had no clue

'Should I ask Ren?'

Kevin were, there was a chance he would know about

know,

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

how much money

Emma suddenly recalled something.

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

how much money she