...

When Shin got back inside their house, he immediately heard the group laughing merrily inside.

"Looks like these guys immediately become close with each other," muttered Shin before entering. "I'm back!"

Hearing him, the four sitting in the living room simultaneously turned their heads towards his direction while also throwing him some meaningful look on their faces.

"Oh! You back already? That was quite fast," said Arthur sneeringly.

Not being able to understand the hidden meaning of Arthur's words, Shin just shrugged his shoulders before saying. "She seems to be fine now, so I give her some time to be alone to relax."

The four wanted to say something to tease Shin a little more, but the latter immediately turned his head towards Jerimiah and Vincent while asking. "So, what are your plans? Already decided to stay in the villa across ours?"

Hearing that, the two immediately shook their heads before Vincent replied. "The real estate agent is still not here, so we are still not sure."

"That is not what Shin was talking about. He is asking you if you want to stay with us," chimed Arthur while chuckling a little.

"He didn't ask you to come in earlier just to chat but also to invite you to stay here since there are still two empty rooms upstairs," seconded Leonard while nodding his head.

Jerimiah was about to tear up for their kindness but Shin suddenly added a little more which made him really cry. "Of course, it is not free. You guys need to pay the monthly rent alongside the shares for the meals."

Though, it was tears made for the opposite reason.

"On top of that, we also need to divide all of the monthly bills that we need to pay," he added, putting the nail in the coffin.

Ugh!

Jerimiah was unable to stop himself to release some painful groans as Shin started pointing out the things that they needed to pay.

Meanwhile, Vincent started chuckling softly when he saw that scene before replying. "Then we are going to accept your offer."

"But our allowance is quite limited, so we are only renting a single room since we only need a place to stay and where we can sleep properly," he added grinningly.

Hearing that, Shin couldn't help but chuckle as he could see that Vincent was able to see through him. Then he sat on the sofa before asking. "So, what about we talk about your purpose for coming here?"

"We already told you about it before. We are exchange students from our country," replied Jerimiah right after he recovered himself.

"I heard there are quite a lot of talented individuals in that so-called exchange program – do you guys have any information about those guys?" asked Shin curiously.

Hearing that, Jerimiah just smirked at Shin before saying. "Heh! Just tell us the truth and say that you want to spy some information regarding those people."

"Unfortunately, we can't give you any new information since most of the informant data regarding them are tightly guarded. After all, all of us can be considered as National Treasures of our respective countries," he added while proudly crossing his arms in front of his chest.

Meanwhile, Shin suddenly fell into deep thought and unconsciously ignored Jerimiah as if he forgot that he was not the only one present inside the room.

Seeing that, the other four chose to remain quiet and waited for Shin to finish thinking. And when they saw that the latter finally collected his thoughts, the four immediately gathered together in front of him, demanding him to share what he was thinking earlier with their meaningful eyes.

Shin was suddenly taken aback by their actions and looked at them confusedly. "What?"

But the four remained quiet and just stared at him with a questioning look on their face. And even if they didn't say anything, Shin could read from the expression on their faces what they wanted to know.

He took a helpless sigh before raising his hands in the air while saying. "Alright, alright. I'll tell you about it, but stop looking at me like that first."

Hearing that, that group immediately went back to their respective seats while waiting for him.

Shin cleared his throat before starting to talk with a serious face. "Actually-… I got a special mission from my masters."

The others didn't say anything once again but the expression on their faces was more than enough for Shin to read what was running inside their heads. – "And that is?" –

Shin gulped a mouthful of saliva for a moment before forcing the words from his mouth. "Th-they asked me… to challenge all of those representatives at least once and put up a good fight."

The face of the four started twitching uncontrollably as they didn't know how to react to his words. And after a long time of silence, they started laughing out loud while making fun of Shin.

"Such a ruthless form of training," muttered Vincent as he couldn't hide the huge grin that he was wearing.

"That was way too brutal!" said Jerimiah sneeringly.

Hearing that, Arthur started grinning from ear to ear before saying. "Your master is still crazy as always."

Leonard remained silent as he could somewhat understand what Shin was currently feeling since his own master was practically the same. But he still nodded his head since he agreed that Shin's masters were way too cruel to give him such a merciless task.

Sigh~!

Shin could only release a helpless sigh as he remembered the faces of those two old men when giving him this troublesome task.

And as if rubbing some salt on his wounds, Jerimiah suddenly added sneeringly. "Then it means that you need to challenge us too?"

Ugh!

Shin couldn't help but release a painful groan when heard that since he could sense how strong these two were just by looking at the auras that they were emitting.

Seeing that look that Shin was currently making, Jerimiah started suggesting. "How about we do it now? And let's also make a bet when we are at it."

Ding~ ♪ Dong!~ ♪

While Jerimiah was currently making some cracking sounds with his fists, someone suddenly rang the doorbell of their house.

"Eh!?"

The group couldn't help but turned their heads towards the door simultaneously as Shin asked his brothers. "Are you two expecting some guests?"

"Nope!" – answered the two at the same time which made Shin knit his eyebrows a little.

Regardless, he still stood up from his seat and walked towards the door to see who it was. And when right after he opened it, he immediately recognized this unexpected visitor.

"Eh!? Senior Brother? What are you doing here? And why are you carrying some luggage with you?" asked Shin the moment he saw David standing outside with a huge bag hanging on his back.

"Tsk!" David suddenly clicked his tongue when heard that and said with full of bitterness. "I see that those crazy old men still haven't told you about it yet. I am going to be the 'administrator' of your matches against the representatives that you are going to challenge."

"I'm quite acquainted with most of them, so you can challenge them much easier when I'm around," he added while entering the house. "With that being the case, I'm going to stay with you guys for the time being."

"Eh!? David Solomon!"

Right after David suddenly heard a pair of familiar voices saying his name. And when he turned his head towards the owners of those voices, he suddenly started smiling widely while greeting them.

"Oh! Jerimiah Smithson and Vincent Valentine? What are you guys doing here?" he asked as he exchanged a unique handshake with the two.

"You guys know each other?" asked Shin when he saw the three acting so close with each other.

Hearing that, David suddenly turned his head towards Shin's direction before replying. "Yeah! I've met them when I'm staying at the Lost Soul Empire. And we become friends after I challenge them with a match – I even joined forces with them to do some special missions."

Then he put his arms around the shoulders of the two before adding. "These guys are quite a bigshot there. And both of them are insanely strong – they belong to the famous Young Ghosts of their country."

"Young Ghosts? Isn't it the counterpart of the Junior Monsters of our continent?" asked Leonard innocently.

"Then they must be at least as strong as Big Sis?" added Arthur.

On the other hand, David nodded his head without any hesitation and said. "Yeah. I'm not even confident that I can defeat these two in a one-on-one battle. Though, the odds are at least 50-50."

When Leonard and Arthur heard that, both of them turned their heads towards Shin at the same time before giving some pitying looks.

"Such a poor boy." – "That is what you get for being too lucky." – Said the two respectively as if they were enjoying Shin's misery.

Meanwhile, Shin could only release yet another helpless sigh as he could already see how troublesome those challenges were going to be given that he fought David for quite a lot of times already.

"I guess that Old Geezer and Old Fatty are really trying to kill me."

...