The Place Where Everything Begins

Upon entering the house, and didn't see the one who opened the door that initially should be standing right in front of it.

As a result, Charlotte was speaking-cum-yelling at the same time with her high-pitched voice in all directions.

Once again, she made noises that would be heard by even the security guards of the community standing several tens of meters away from the house to inspect the various dwellings and visitors.

Upon hearing that, Jeremy's face became a tad bit darker.

Annoyed by the pandemonium-like voice of hers, Jeremy conjured a total of 3 runes using his right index finger to write into the air in front of him. Then he mumbled-cum-whispered some almost inaudible words in a strange language.

Right after that, the runes vanished into thin air like they had never existed before.

[Hush Spell]

Then...

There was no then; it was just that the sounds that had been produced by Charlotte and everyone within the house wouldn't be heard by the outsiders anymore.

Right now, the noise from a ruckus that Charlotte was making could only travel inside the house.

Just like that, inside and outside of the house were like two separate worlds.

Upon seeing that the spell had successfully taken its effect, Jeremy said lightly into the air like talking to himself.

"I'm in the living room."

That was not an ordinary speech, though. In fact, it was a speech infused with mana techniques capable of causing Jeremy's voice to be conveyed to the targeted distance.

And amazingly, his voice was heard by the trio, who were considerably at a far distance from him.

Subsequently, that made them quite astonished when they had heard Jeremy's voice up-close like he was beside them.

But at the moment, their feet were already leading them on the way to the living room.

While walking, the three of them were still a bit muddled and didn't think much about the previous situations. They were only walking instinctively to the living room as in the first place; their goal was to meet with Jeremy.

Slowly, the trio entered the living room, and then they spotted Jeremy sitting on the sofa while watching Attack on Giant.

When Charlotte was going to call out to Jeremy, she suddenly stopped... it was like she had just realized that she forgot something.

In fact, the three of them stopped at once altogether...

Because only now that they had finally realized something vital...

And that was, Jeremy was sitting on a sofa in the living room...

"..."

The three pairs of eyes of the trio went wide open.

They thought...

Then who the f*ck was the one who had unlocked the door for them before they came into the house!!

And then who the f*ck was the one that had talked to them a moment ago!!

Furthermore, they also felt that the air temperature was suddenly so cold... albeit not knowing that it was because of an air conditioner in the living room.

The trio started to shiver and have goosebumps all over their bodies.

At this moment, they were feeling more and more terrified with every passing second after thinking about the previous events.

They kept trembling and terrified like that for a short while until someone spoke up...

"Ja... Ja... Je... rem, A... A... Are you Ja... Ja... Je... rem? Or...?"

The ever stoic and solemn Owen decided to be the first person who opened his mouth after realizing that the other two were not coming to their senses yet.

Charlotte was standing blankly with her mouth gaping wide open, looking at Jeremy, whom was watching the TV with his back facing them.

Meanwhile, Samuel was trembling from head to toe with a pale face as white as a sheet of paper together with clucking noises coming from his teeth clattering against one another nonstop.

And the one who had caused all of these effects, Jeremy, after hearing Owen's questions, he turned his head and body slowly, very, very slowly to the back.

"..."

*Gulp*

*Huuk!*

With three different reactions from three different people, Charlotte was still blank like before, Owen gulped his saliva loudly, and Sam flinched with a scared expression written all over his face; he almost pissed his pants.

Upon turning his head and half of his body to face the trio, Jeremy smiled warmly and talked mildly to them.

"Hi, guys. How are you guys doing lately?"

"..."

"..."

"..."

*Fwuuuu...* x3

This time the trio's reactions were the same.

They exhaled in relief loudly; they were relieved that Jeremy was not a ghost, still alive and kicking as always.

Soon after, they reached and sat down on the sofas around Jeremy.

Their purpose of coming here was to talk and keep in touch with Jeremy as in college, the 4 of them were very close to one another.

They always studied together, ate together, and went on many trips and places together. In that period of 3 years that they spent together at the university had made them closer and closer.

And from the bonds they had made in all those years, it was not wrong at all for them to call one another brothers and sister.

That was... until the accident happened to Jeremy's parents.

Alright, come back to the current situations...

"Hi!! Jeremy, it's been a longgggg time. How are you doing?"

"Wassup, bro, you are doing good?"

After the trio had sat down, not waiting for anyone else to open their mouse. Charlotte greeted Jeremy energetically, following by the greetings from Sam, and the last one, Owen, who had made eye contact with Jeremy and only nodded in understanding to him without saying a single word.

"Well, I am actually doing very well nowadays. My moods have been at the highest since last week. How about you guys?"

Jeremy answered and asked them back with a usual easygoing smile of his.

...

...

4 hours later...

They had been talking nonstop about their recent days' activities, including their progress in works, relationships, and many other things.

Right now, after graduating from university, Charlotte was also doing nothing at home like Jeremy.

Well, that's actually guessable by anyone who truly knew about her natures, though. After all, she was raised up as a little missy in a very wealthy family.

That was one of the main reasons that had caused her to become a lazy bum.

The other main reason was that her parents loved and doted on her so much that they didn't want any speck of dust to dirty her skin, hair, and clothes.

Even in university, she was carried and helped immensely by Jeremy, who was akin to a brain of the group in study-related kinds of stuff.

And her duties back then were to splurge her family's money and laid back lazily, waiting for others to take care of her.

As for the enthusiastic Sam, he was actually a model with occasional modeling the fashion clothing and rarely walking in fashion shows. He was indeed doing quite good in those model stuff ever since his fresher year in university.

As a result of his family's business going bankrupt back when he had just enrolled in college, he had to struggle with his own abilities to earn the tuition fees and pay the daily expenses by himself.

That's also the reason why he and Jeremy became close friends in the first place.

Because Sam didn't have enough time to join all of the classes, and he could not acquire good grades by reading and learning by himself. So, he relied heavily on Jeremy about those study things.

Lastly, for Owen, the ever stoic man, at the moment, he was a master chef in a five stars hotel. Even though his major in university was not anything near or related to foods, he still chose to become a chef.

And surprisingly, he was doing quite well too.

It might be that his passions for food led him into the road of a true chef.

Owen was also like the other two guys; that was, he also relied heavily on Jeremy to barely graduate from the university.

Even though Jeremy had quit college in the 1st semester of his senior year, the accumulated result of regularly studying with Jeremy had enough boons to send him until the end of the university's road.

That's why...

The 3 of them felt indebted heavily to Jeremy, who was like a divine light of pillar shining from heaven upon them in their university's lives, albeit Jeremy didn't feel like it at all. He just helped them because he could help them with nothing to lose. That's all.

However, the trio didn't think the same as Jeremy. They were determined... determined that they would also never abandon Jeremy when he was at his lowest too.

Like when Jeremy never abandoned them when they needed him...

Just like that, they talked for a long time; simultaneously, they also watched Attack on Giant together.

As a matter of fact, more than 80% of the conversations were initiated by Charlotte, and the other part was from Sam with occasionally some essential questions from Owen.

Even after talking continuously for 4 hours, drinking several cans of cola, and eating tons of snacks, Charlotte didn't seem to be stopping anytime soon.

However, Sam and Owen were showing signs of weariness and spent. They had already wanted to go home and took a rest for quite some time already.

Meanwhile, Jeremy was thinking about other things completely unrelated to the topics that Charlotte was talking about.

Those things were...