The door opened and a tall woman stepped into the room. She opened her mouth as soon as she saw the young man inside.

“How did this year’s exam go?”

A man entered the room after her and closed the door.

“Oh? You guys are also interested in that?”

A young man looked away from the monitor and welcomed them with a smile.

“Well, who wouldn’t be? We always look forward to talented newbies joining our unit.”

“You say that every year, but don’t accept anyone in the end!”

The woman walked to his desk. She placed her hand on the desk and leaned forward a little bit.

“Our team leader is really strict, you know.”

The young man sighed and turned towards his desk again. He rummaged through a bunch of papers and took a file out of them.

“Here. This is the list of participants and their scores.”

The woman grabbed the papers and walked to the man that was standing by the door with his arms folded.

“Here, team leader Dains.”

The man took the papers and looked at them. He raised his head after a minute and opened his mouth.

“I want to see the practical exam’s recorded video.”

“Yes.”

The young man stood up from his seat and walked to a monitor.

Clack

The door opened again at that moment and this time, four people came in. Three men and one woman froze for a moment after seeing the ones that were already in the room.

“Hello there, captain Neal.”

“Hello.”

The woman that just came in nodded her head in greetings.

“Team leader Dains is also here!”

One of the men that just came in laughed awkwardly after staring at team leader Dains. He coughed a few times and hurriedly walked to the young man’s desk.

The others also greeted each other and all walked towards the desk.

“I want a list.”

“Give me one as well.”

The young man pressed a few buttons and a big screen turned on.

“Alright alright. I’ll give you all a list but let me play the records first.”

A video started being displayed on the screen after the man pressed a few more buttons.

“….”

“….”

Everyone silently watched the video. They could see different teams fighting monsters. Then after a few moments, the teams started fighting each other. It wasn’t something surprising for them, they had seen similar tests every year after all.

“Look. Isn’t he the one who has failed the exam three years in a row?”

One of them pointed at a boy that was wearing an orange ribbon on his forehead.

“Yeah, it’s him.”

“Tch. Why doesn’t he find another job for himself?”

“I know right? Why keep coming here if you have failed for three years already?”

The people in the room observed and discussed the people taking the exam. Some pointed out the talented ones and some shook their heads at their mistakes.

“Those three.”

Everyone turned silent after hearing a man’s voice. They all turned to team leader Dains who had started talking all of a sudden.

“I want those three in my unit. Add it to their file and send a request to them.”

“….”

“….”

“….”

Everyone turned to look at the three people that team leader Dains was pointing at. They were three cadets, no, they were young graduates from the academy.

“WOW! We are going to have some new members in our unit after 5 years!”

The woman that had come with team leader Dains exclaimed in a happy and surprised voice. Everyone in the room seemed surprised as well.

Team leader Dains was known to be really strict, especially in finding new members for his unit. He was so hard-to-persuade that it was nearly impossible to enter his unit through the entrance exam.

People in the room turned towards the screen once more. ‘What do these guys have in themselves that even this man wants them.’ They all thought while observing the young graduates.

“Hmm?”

Among the confused people, someone was even more puzzled.

‘I’m sure I have seen that boy before…’

Captain Neal narrowed her eyes and stared at a boy with a pink ribbon on his arm. His face was kinda familiar. She thought about the faces that she has seen in the last few days one by one.

‘I don’t know.’

But in the end, she couldn’t remember who he was.

“Then, I’ll take my leave.”

Team leader Dains said that and left the room alongside the woman as if his business was done there.

“I… I want those three as well. Send them a request to join unit 6.”

‘If they are that team leader’s choices, then they must be really good.’

The team leader of unit 6 who had such a thought on his mind, asked the young man to send the three people a request as soon as team leader Dains left the room.

“Me too.”

“I want them as well.”

“….”

Captain Neal looked at the other three people that were in the room. She bit her lips and hesitantly opened his mouth.

“I… also want them.”

She didn’t really know who they were, but it felt uncomfortable to be the only one who didn’t want those guys.

.

.

.

“NO! That’s too small, give me a larger one.”

Ariyan pointed at the caked with his tiny finger and protested.

“You can eat the rest later. It isn’t good for your health to eat so much cake.”

Alessia gave him a small piece of the cake and a fork.

“But… it’s my birthday cake…”

The kid pouted his lips and looked at the cake with sad eyes. He picked up his fork and started eating the small piece of cake that was given to him.

Kain picked his and Kairen’s cakes as well and sat down on the sofa next to Kairen.

“Here.”

“Thanks.”

Kairen put a small piece of the chocolate cake in his mouth while looking at Ariyan who was eating his cake with a pout.

“Oh, but we forgot about the birthday gifts!”

The kid’s face brightened up in an instant. He jumped up and ran to Alessia with sparkling eyes.

“Gifts? I want gifts. I wannntt giftss.”

He jumped up and down with excitement while repeating “Gifts. Gifts.”

Alessia went to her room and came back with two boxes in her hands. She put them down on the table in front of the excited kid.

Ariyan didn’t wait even for a moment. He attacked the gifts and unwrapped the beautiful paper around them.

“WOOOWW!”

He grabbed his new toys and held them up in the air. He seemed more than happy to receive some new toys.

“Do you like them?”

“Yes. A lot!”

“That’s good.”

“Hehe!”

Kairen looked at the family that was happily chattering and hesitantly placed something on the table.

“Um… Here is my gift.”

He looked down and hurriedly got back to his seat.

“Another gift!”

Ariyan jumped and grabbed the thing that was wrapped in a gift wrap in a messy way.

“Ah? You really didn’t need to buy a gift…”

Kain mumbled that under his lips and also looked at the gift on his son’s hands.

“…A doll?”

Ariyan tilted his head and looked at the doll in his hands.

“Ahem!”

Kairen kinda felt awkward for buying a doll for him after seeing his new car and motorcycle toys. He thought it might not be appropriate to give a doll to a boy when he wanted to buy a gift, but he couldn’t resist buying it.

The medium-sized light brown bear doll was so cute and fluffy that he couldn’t stop himself from buying it.

Ariyan hugged the doll toughly and rubbed his face against it.

“It is soft and fluffy! I like it!”

“That’s cute.”

“You should thank your uncle.”

“Thank you!”

Kairen smiled and continued to eat his cake with a grin on his lips.