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"

a low voice that only Kevin and I could hear,

isn't. Who would you

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

a

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

if it was someone else rather

just say that things wouldn't really be

"ah..."

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

definitely

"See, even you agree!"

of his hesitation,

want to talk about

in dismissal, Kevin entered

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

the end, Kevin knew

angry Melissa wasn't someone anyone could

'That aside...'

anger was somewhat

take

defense, everything turned

angry at Kevin, Monica was quite

they say, all is well

Monica off, she would've never have

she detested with all her

now that she had caught him, she would be able to take back all of the items that he had stolen from

loss she made for buying the sword would quickly

"Get in"

the window of the limousine

"Aye, aye"

Talk about the devil...

look at the King's Crown hotel, I entered

auction had officially come

*

others, I returned

you can come

the air and Angelica's enchanting figure appeared

a couple

you for your

to

acknowledgment, Angelica made her way towards the

"Aye"

figure moving towards the training grounds, I shook

had been spending most of her time

great insulating system, Angelica could now

longer had to worry about her demonic energy being detected when training as the isolating system in the private training ground stopped

train all

"That aside..."

'”Shua!

my bracelet, a wooden mask appeared

"The mask of Dolos..."

laid my hands on the mask of Dolos. An item that would prove extremely useful for me in the

had opened up for me. Especially

in the

ranked, I could only use it for short

a limit on the things I could

good enough

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

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

for it, they were for way later into the

"That reminds me..."

up, I stretched my

start making preparations

tournament, I knew that I had to

to be three big

destroying the first event, the banquet,

However, they never occurred.

up or are they planning something

down on the sofa in the living room, I

on such an important

must be something

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

Even so...

to just sit down and wait for everything to

that was the perfect recipe for

the next month or so I was planning on doing a thorough investigation of everything

what their plan was could I

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

up with proper countermeasures

I needed to spend

who knows. Perhaps I can even benefit

as I laid down on my

***

same time,

"dadadada, dum, dum dum"

Emma hummed to the tune of one of her

"Hm?"

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

Kevin's birthday is coming up

asking Kevin for

his birthday was, Emma remembered putting it

I buy

muttered as her cheeks

wait. What am I even thinking? Why would I need to buy a gift

dress, Emma silently shrieked as

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

no meaning behind her action, Emma changed position. This

should I

stumped. Having never bought a gift for a boy

'Should I ask Ren?'

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

don't know, I'd rather

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

money do I

Emma suddenly recalled something.

her bank account frozen, Emma just realized that she

how much money she had