Regrouping With The Three Ladies

The delectable early breakfast along with the meaningful conversation they had soon came to an end. In his mind, Albrecht made a mental note to continue his information hunt regarding Ground Zero. 'In that case, I had to explore everything within the System and ask the other Albrechts about a couple of things.' He decided.

With that out of the way, it was time for Theresa to delegate her arduous tasks to her children as well as her subordinates. While everyone was saddened by her sudden journey, they were a bit overjoyed since Theresa could finally experience life once again.

They had mixed feelings, a bittersweet point of view when they saw Theresa saying her farewell to everyone.

"Well then, Claude, Anastasia, look after the village for me. Okay? Your mother will come back soon." She reminded them as she stroked their hair. "Ahhh~ I'm going to miss you, my dear children." She let out, teary-eyed.

Awkwardly, Albrecht turned her head away from the close-knit family. He let out a sigh as he was reminded of the past when he was still in the previous world. He couldn't imagine such a scene happening to him, and even if it did, it would resemble a nightmare more than a sweet dream.

'I couldn't care less. I don't care about their well-being.' He said to himself, pursing his lips in light frustration as he walked out of there.

Just then, he felt a tug on the hems of his shirt, which came as a surprise since he opted to walk out of there and wait by the entrance.

Apparently, Anastasia saw him leaving, and she just had to catch up to him since there were still unsaid words in her mind.

"Y-you're going to the Seventh Outerlayer, right?" She asked, her face reddening. The moment Albrecht turned around, she deliberately averted her gaze from him, too embarrassed to even look into his eyes while she addressed him.

"That's right." Albrecht simply asked as Anastasia tugged at his arm even more, to the point where she basically hugged it.

Two pairs of softness pressed against his arm, and Albrecht couldn't help but turn beet red when he felt it. As much as he wanted to ignore the feeling, thinking about ignoring it just made him feel it more.

"P-please come back safe, Albrecht. And please take care of our mother, the chieftess." She asked, fidgeting.

A gentle smile appeared on Albrecht's face as he came back to reality. 'How could I think about the past when I already have this world before me.? I shouldn't concern myself with that anymore. Instead, I should look forward, right?' He inwardly said before nodding at Anastasia,

"Of course, you know me. Don't worry, we'll be back before you know it." Albrecht said, showing off his teeth as he reassured Anastasia about her mother's safety.

Anastasia hung her head low. Unbeknownst to Albrecht, she was mustering her courage to do something before Albrecht and her mother left. For some reason, she thought she just had to leave an imprint, or else, Albrecht might get taken away.

Somehow, Albrecht felt like he said something wrong, so he leaned forward to get a better look at Anastasia. "Anastasia, are you all ri—mmph~!"

Just when Anastasia steeled herself into kissing Albrecht by the cheek, Albrecht just had to tilt his head and lean forward. It was supposed to be a kiss on the cheek, but Albrecht's sudden movement made Anastasia kiss him on the lips instead.

"Mph~!" Anastasia almost spat out an exhale when their kiss connected. Before three seconds had passed, she whipped her head away, letting go of the kiss and running away from Albrecht. She resolved herself to kiss Albrecht on the cheek, but she wasn't expecting to kiss him on the lips instead.

Her entire face flushed red, and she covered her face as she ran back to her mom, hiding behind her back.

"Ara~ you've become really assertive, Anastasia," Theresa's right brow twitched as she commented on her daughter's actions. It's as if she didn't do the exact same thing a couple of moments ago when Albrecht arrived at the village.

"Wuuuu~" Anastasia let out in embarrassment.

"I'll say the same thing, Albrecht, please keep our mother away from harm, and give her a nice talking to every once in a while. She tends to go out of control, especially when no one reprimands her." Claude bowed her head, overlooking the fact that both his sister and mother were infatuated with Albrecht.

"Ou, leave it to me," Albrecht plastered a smile on his face.

—

—

Now that their due farewell was over with, Albrecht and Theresa took one look at the village before jumping into a Zecian Portal that leads straight to the Sixth Outerlayer. It finally came to his mind that Yulie and the others were left in Hldrmir's Realm when he was teleported straight to the second gatekeeper.

"Ah— I somehow forgot about that. I wonder what they're doing to pass the time." Albrecht said to himself.

Without further ado, Albrecht and Theresa jumped into the portal, expecting Hldrmir to greet them the moment they passed to the other side.

But what they saw was something they didn't expect at all.

— — —

Sixth Outerlayer, Hldrmir's Realm,

"Sheila!" Yulie screamed, parrying one of the vines with her sword as she rushed at Sheila who had been trapped by the thorny vines.

However, Sheila didn't need any help. And instead of cutting the vines, she held it down with her iron grip, just so she could give Yukina an opening.

"Thanks, leave it to me." Yukina called out, spinning around as she delivered a kick right at the head of the Green Terra Golem.

The attack connected, but the Green Terra Golem merely took a step back before it glared at Yukina and delivered a huge blow with its clumped thorny vines.

Just then, Albrecht and Theresa arrived at the scene, wondering what the commotion was about. From afar, they immediately noticed the green cube afloat in the sky. Wondering what it was, they walked nearer towards it.

And on the way, they saw Hldrmir, briefly bowing his head to them in greeting.

"What exactly is going on here?" Albrecht asked, realizing that the three ladies were actually engaging a Green Terra Golem in a fight.