"Mr. Courier, what's going on?" Shaan's face filled with curiosity curious look at him. "Have you found the key?"

The courier didn't say anything and slowly nodded."Yes, Miss Chelsie was right. The key really lies under this doormat. Now we can enter the house."

"Oh, that's great." Shaan smiled with satisfaction.

"Wow, Chelsie, you're amazing! How did you figure out that Dr. Marshal hid the key under the mat?"

Hearing the compliment, Chelsie's face turned red, and she quickly covered it with her purple hair. "Uhm... that's... that's because..."

"Elsie, don't cover your mouth when you speak. It's impolite, and we can't hear you properly."

"Uhm... okay, Lira. I'm sorry." Chelsie nodded her head and slowly took a breath. "Uhm... It's because my father told me that when I was little."

"Oh... interesting," Mr Courierr stated with a smile. "Miss Chelsie's father sounds like a practical and cautious man."

"Uhm.. you could say that."

Mr. Courier then inserted the key he had obtained and slowly turned it clockwise until finally a "click" sounded from the door. "I've unlocked the door, and now we can go inside." Mr. Courier pushed the door open and invited them all in. "Hurry up, I need to get everything ready before Sir. Marshal gets home."

A deep silence greeted Shaan and the others as they stepped into the house. There was no sign of Dr. Marshal's presence in the house, and all the lights were off.

'It turns out what Mr. Courier said was true. Dr. Marshall does not seem to be at home at all.'

"I will tidy up the house first before Mr. Marshall arrives."

"Mr. Courier, let us help you."

"Yes, we don't mind helping you at all."

"Miss Nalira and Miss Chelsie, thank you for your offer, but you two should rest," Mr Courier advised gently. "I'm sure you're still exhausted after the social work you did earlier."

"Uhm... but are you sure you're okay doing this alone?"

"Don't worry, I'm a Homunculus. My physical endurance is far stronger than a human's, and I'm used to cleaning this house by myself."

"…Alright, we'll both go back to our rooms to rest. Thank you." Nalira walked away from Mr courier and Shaan toward her room.

"Mr. Courier, uh... I'd like to thank you again," Chelsie nodded her head and walked faster to catch up with Nalira.

"Shaan, I'm going downstairs to tidy up and check on the lab," said Mr. Courier. "Now, get some rest. You must feel just as tired as Miss Chelsie and Miss Nalira."

"Ah, okay. I understand."

"Have a good rest, Shaan." Mr Courier walked toward the next room.

A short moment later, the sound of a door opening came from that room. Shaan could clearly hear the courier's footsteps descending the stairs one by one until the sound slowly faded away.

'I should follow his advice and get some rest to recover my energy,' Shaan thought while gently rubbing his neck. 'Damn, using the ArcGear for so long really made my neck stiff.'

He walked to the sofa facing the door and rested his head against the backrest. 'This feels so much better,' he murmured, yawning and rubbing his eyes again and again. 'Today has been a tiring day for me, and I should—'

His drowsiness instantly disappeared when he saw the door in front of him suddenly open. It was Dr. Marshal. He entered the house, carrying several brown paper bags in both hands,

"Dr. Marshal?" Shaan stood up abruptly. "Where have you been?"

"Shaan, I'm sorry for waking you up." Dr. Marshal closed the door with his foot. "I was passing by the grocery store and decided to buy some groceries."

"Alright, I understand." Shaan nodded, listening to Dr. Marshal's explanation. "Dr. Marshal, it seems like you're having trouble carrying those items. Let me help you."

"Ah, don't worry, I can—" Dr. Marshal suddenly lost his balance. "W–woah…"

"Oh no, Dr. Marshal!" Shaan quickly ran toward him and caught the brown paper bags before they slipped from his hands. "Phew... that was close."

"Thank you, Shaan. You're a big help."

"Glad to help, Dr. Marshal." Shaan smiled and helped Dr. Marshal carry the bag to the kitchen table. "Wow, Dr. Marshal, it looks like you bought quite a lot of groceries. Are you planning a party or something?"

Dr. Marshal shook his head. "No. I actually just wanted to buy a few ingredients we were running out of. But I forgot which ones, so I decided to buy everything instead."

'Gosh, how could he forget something as simple as this?'

"Okay, now where is courier 020?" Dr. Marshal looked around. "I'd like to ask for help organizing all these groceries."

"Let me help you," Shaan offered as he started taking out the items one by one from the bags. "Mr. Courier's probably still cleaning downstairs. He hasn't come up since earlier."

"Oh... I see. Well, if you don't mind."

Shaan and Dr. Marshal started arranging the groceries together. At first, Shaan almost lost his patience because Dr. Marshal couldn't remember where each ingredient belonged. Fortunately, he found a small note that listed the exact positions of all the items in each cabinet.

"And this is the last one." Shaan placed two cans of mushrooms in a small box next to the refrigerator. "Done. We've finally tidied everything up," he said, wiping the sweat from his forehead. "Luckily, there was this memo; otherwise, we wouldn't have been able to tidy everything up."

"Ah, Courier 020 must have written that note. He knows how forgetful I can be," Dr. Marshal smiled as he handed Shaan a canned drink. "Nice teamwork. Here, drink this—you'll like it."

Shaan slowly took the drink from Dr. Marshal's hand with hesitation. "Uh, thank you. But what kind of drink is this, Dr. Marshal?"

"Don't worry. It doesn't contain alcohol or caffeine," Dr. Marshal replied. "It's called VitaJuice. It's a blend of fresh fruits from the Twilight Sanctum, packed in a can."

"Oh, so it's like regular fruit juice."

"Yeah, you could say that. This juice can also help boost a daemonist's vitality and restore lost stamina."

"Ah, that sounds interesting. I'll try it now." Shaan quickly opened the bottle cap and immediately took a sip. "Hmm... It tastes good. I never expected to find such a delicious drink here."

"Haha, I'll take you to buy this drink later," said Dr. Marshall, sipping his juice slowly. "So, how was your first social punishment? Did you run into any problems?"

"Yes, there were a few minor obstacles, but... everything was handled thanks to the help of the officers there."

"That's good to hear."

"It's just that..." Shaan slowly placed his drink can on the table. "When I was in the forest, I saw a mysterious figure wearing a white mask without a mouth."

Dr. Marshall was silent for a moment. "A mask with no mouth?"

"Yes, but strangely, he didn't attack me at all and just disappeared," Shaan whispered as he leaned closer to Dr. Marshall. "I don't know, but I suspect he might be a member of the Resistance."

"...."

"Dr. Marshall? Is everything okay?"

"The person you saw… was indeed one of the Resistance members."

"

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