Rudy got up and prepared to jump in the air, but he remembered the ghosts who were around him before he time-traveled.

He looked at Jessica's grave and saw the old man standing there with a composed look on his face.

'For them, not even a minute should have passed.'

"Where are the others? Went to grab some coffee?" he joked while asking.

"No. They were bound to this world by a contract, and as of now, that contract is no longer valid."

"...?"

"In other words, they have passed to the afterlife."

"Ah... wait... what type of contract?"

The old man smiled at Rudy as his body began to fade away.

"Tell me! Who had tasked you to protect Jessica's grave!"

"Hahaha." The old man vanished into thin air while laughing, but it wasn't an arrogant laugh; it seemed a rather toned-down laugh of someone who simply found something funny.

"..." Rudy stood there with a dumbfounded expression on his face as he didn't get his answers.

"I would... could have known what exactly happened to Jessica. What the fuck, man... I feel so angry right now for some reason..."

At that moment, Rudy remembered something. He checked his pockets and found the old wallet he had picked up from Jessica's grave, but the new wallet was nowhere to be seen.

Just to make sure, he used his vision abilities to inspect the entire cemetery, but he couldn't find it.

"This is proof that I truly time-traveled. Two same objects can't exist in the same timeline. The wallet I got from Eric has already aged by 19 years."

Rudy didn't know what to do with the old wallet as it had nothing important inside it except the family picture taken from a polaroid camera-- which he could always make a copy of from a better and newer version of the image.

Regardless, Rudy felt attached to the wallet, so he kept it in his back pocket and flew away.

He was going to teleport to the girls, but he wanted to confirm something before that.

He flew to space to see if there were remains of his battle with Asura, but most of their battle happened billions of billions of light years away from the milky way.

"I cannot travel with the speed of light as I cannot turn my body into light. And I can't teleport there either, as I can't mark the space. And as for the things I had touched... they were all destroyed in our fight."

Rudy teleported back to the atmosphere and landed near the office room.

He casually walked inside while glancing around, while the girls looked at him with surprised looks on their faces.

"You just left a minute ago," Jane remarked.

The girls had surrounded Ruby and explained everything to her and Rudy, but she wasn't trying to listen.

When Rudy entered the room, she snapped at Rudy and took the chance to run away from there.

"...."

Rudy looked at the girls with a confused look on his face and asked, "What happened to her?"

"Well done," Angelica clapped her hands.

Of course, Rias and Vriti weren't present in the room. Otherwise, Jane, Alice, and Vriti wouldn't talk about harem, let alone discuss it.

"Where did Rias go?"

Jane shrugged her hands and responded, "She left as soon as you left. I thought maybe you gave her a secret signal and called her out to... you know..."

"No... I didn't. Where is Vriti, then? She shouldn't be out in the sun, right?"

"She is at the backside under the shade. Maybe she felt repulsed after seeing so many humans in one room?" Niti wondered.

"Perhaps..." Rudy looked at Angelica and smiled at her. 'I... I don't know how to feel after seeing her. I have mixed feelings.'

Maria nudged Rudy and asked, "Should we not go after Ruby?"

"I don't think there is any need to. She is an adult. You can't keep her here against her will, you know? And don't forget she was going to become the next leader of the syndicate."

"That's true, but... I..." Maria fidgeted while saying, "I wanted her to live with me. It's... I will be lonely without her among the other girls."

Rudy pointed his gaze at Ruby's bag and said, "Her stuff is still here, so she will return once she has calmed down. Give her some time."

"Okay..." she nodded.

Rudy patted Maria on the head and calmly said, "If she doesn't return by night, I will get her, okay?"

"Why are you here, though?" Jane asked curiously.

"You don't want me here?"

"That's not what I meant!" Jane squinted her eyes and said, "When you left, it seemed as though you had some really important thing to do. But you returned in less than five minutes."

Rudy chuckled softly with a distant smile on his face and muttered, "Those five minutes were the longest five minutes of my life."

"..."

"Hey, Rudy." Alice called out to Rudy and asked, "Is it okay if I call you to drop me off at my house?"

"Of course. But my service doesn't come for free," he grinned.

"What's your charge?"

"Hmm~" Rudy hummed in amusement and said, "Three kisses."

"Make it five."

"Deal."

Rudy then turned to Angelica, who was eagerly staring at Rudy for some reason.

"My service is free for you," Rudy scoffed softly. "You don't have to pay anything."

Angelica puffed her chest and smugly said, "I have a big heart, so I will pay you."

"Oh?"

"Is everything okay?" she asked. "You seem... tired."

"Yeah, I am a little tired." After a brief pause, he said, "I will go find Rias. You can call me anytime you need me, alright?"

Rudy kissed Angelica on the lips, then Alice, Jane, and Maria. Niti and Rudy looked at each other, but both of them knew they couldn't kiss in front of Jane.

"See you later."

After saying that, he left the office and flew away in search of Rias.