The mass wedding proceeded smoothly. Aside from the absurdly large number of brides standing side-by-side in white gowns, everything else was no different from a traditional, lavish noble ceremony.
After the banquet concluded, the guests dispersed into the night. Once a pleasant, exhausting evening passed, the grand entourage embarked on their multi-month journey across Lugnica exactly as planned.
This journey served a dual purpose: it was a grand honeymoon trip for his wives, and an exploration tour for Regulus to test whether he could discover the hidden triggers to unlock new capabilities within his cheat system.
The single capability he yearned for most right now was not some temporal power to freely traverse space and time, but rather an ability that could significantly increase human lifespan—or grant immortality.
Of course, this desire wasn't for himself.
'Possessing the Authority of Greed, I certainly can't die as long as I maintain my wives' hearts,' Regulus mused internally. 'So the first priority I need to consider is their mortality.'
Among his hundreds of wives, aside from Beatrice and Anileni—who had zero reason to worry about physical aging—and Sphinx and Shion, who possessed naturally long lifespans as an artificial clone and an elf, virtually all the others were ordinary humans.
A human's natural lifespan in this world was well under a century. A hundred years from now—no, even sooner than that—most of them would wither, grow old, and leave his side forever. Such a tragic reality was utterly unacceptable to a man as possessively greedy as Regulus. He could never allow it.
The very first stop of their grand tour was the colossal landmark planted by the Great Sage over four hundred years ago: Flugel's Tree.
Whether any planar secrets or cheat triggers were buried beneath its roots was something Regulus intended to thoroughly explore.
However, upon seeing the true scale of the colossal tree with his own eyes, even with prior mental preparation from his meta-knowledge, Regulus was still left stunned.
Even from dozens of miles away across the flat plains, one could see a green silhouette so massive it physically blotted out the horizon. The closer the dragon carriages drove, the more staggering its majestic, impossible proportions became.
One had to realize that this towering behemoth was only the result of four hundred years of growth. If given a few more centuries to continuously expand, no one would doubt if it were officially reclassified as a World Tree.
"This... this is truly an unbelievable sight," Theresia gasped, leaning out of the carriage window.
"I didn't expect the rumors to actually understate its size," Carol added, her eyes wide. "I originally assumed the bard tales were mostly hyperbolic exaggeration."
"It is indeed absurd," Shion noted, analyzing the trunk with her merchant's eye. "I'm far more curious about what species of tree this could possibly be. To continuously absorb nutrients from the earth and grow without an apparent biological limit..."
"Logically speaking," Kisaragi Naoko chimed in, "a normal tree of this scale should have borne seeds or shed fruit after four centuries."
The wives inside the carriages immediately began animatedly discussing the botanical anomaly before them. Listening to their theories, Regulus's own curiosity was piqued.
'Honestly, what kind of tree is this?' Regulus wondered. 'Even if magical plants grow rapidly in this world, this size is far too exaggerated.'
"Hey, hey~ dear," Ine purred, nudging his shoulder. "What do you think?"
"Regarding its species, rather than asking me, it would be far better to ask Betty or Sphinx," Regulus deflected smoothly, throwing the question to the two maidens who had actually existed during the era it was planted.
"Unfortunately, Betty doesn't know the tree's species either, I suppose," Beatrice huffed, crossing her arms.
"I do not possess data on its botanical origin either," Sphinx stated flatly.
"Eh?! Even you two don't know?!" The surrounding wives were even more surprised.
By now, the miraculous origins of Beatrice and Sphinx were no longer secrets among the inner household.
"This question can probably only be answered by the Great Sage who planted it himself," Beatrice noted casually, turning her dark eyes to lock onto Regulus. "He would know, I suppose."
Facing Beatrice's sharp, meaningful gaze, Regulus felt entirely helpless.
'Why are you staring at me so intently?' Regulus complained internally. 'If I knew the answer, I wouldn't have thrown the question to you in the first place!'
"That's true," Regulus agreed aloud with a straight face. "Probably only the Sage himself would know."
His non-answer left the girls a bit disappointed, but they quickly dismissed the mystery and began excitedly discussing whether they should set up camp directly beneath the giant tree for the night.
Setting up camp under a sky-obscuring canopy in the dead of night?
It sounded romantic on paper, but to Regulus, it felt thoroughly impractical. With a giant tree of that scale, it would be pleasant during the sunlit day, but once night fell, moonlight wouldn't be able to penetrate the dense foliage at all. The atmosphere beneath the trunk would likely be pitch-black and eerie.
However, if his wives truly wanted to camp there, he wouldn't object. During this honeymoon tour, they were the absolute protagonists; whatever they wished to experience, he would indulge them.
Of course, that indulgent promise only applied during the day. Once night fell, he would be the protagonist, and they would all have to follow his commands behind closed tent flaps.
After some time, the caravan finally arrived at the massive root network forming the base of Flugel's Tree.
The very first thing the girls did upon stepping out of the carriages was hunt for the legendary 'graffiti' left behind by the Great Sage, as described in popular folk tales. Regulus was naturally dragged along by his enthusiastic wives to search the bark.
After walking along the perimeter of the giant trunk for a short while, they successfully located the ancient carvings. The wives gathered around, marveling at the historical relic.
However, Regulus, Beatrice, Sphinx, and Naoko—the small circle who understood what those carvings truly represented—had entirely different reactions.
Regulus could already feel Naoko's intense, burning gaze fixing on his side profile.
The reason for her shock was simple: the main carving consisted of a simple, stylized drawing of a group of people, and beneath the central figure, a name was clearly etched in bold Kanji.
It was his name: Regulus Corneas.
Surrounding his central figure were simple stick-figure depictions holding hands in a wide circle. But what caused Regulus's brow to twitch were the names written beneath those stick figures.
Although a few of the names had been violently scratched out by someone long ago—likely by a jealous Witch—the carved strokes of the defaced ones could still be deciphered by someone who knew the lore.
They were the names of the Seven Witches of Sin: Satella, Echidna, Sekhmet, Typhon, Daphne, Minerva, Camilla...
And alongside the Witches were several currently unfamiliar names, likely belonging to maidens his future or past self had claimed over four hundred years ago.
'Besides the historical graffiti...' Regulus frowned slightly, secretly pulling his cheat ledger from his jacket.
There was zero reaction or system prompt from the book. That meant there was no active trigger point here, or perhaps he was simply too far from the tree's core mana nexus and needed to investigate closer.
'In that case,' Regulus thought, 'I'll find time to climb this giant tree tonight and check the upper branches.'
Just as Regulus was finalizing his plan, Beatrice stepped forward to the front of the carved bark. She pulled out a small, ornate silver knife that looked as though she had prepared it weeks in advance.
Faced with Beatrice's sudden action, the surrounding wives were all deeply confused.
"Betty, what are you doing with a knife?" Carol asked.
"As long as a maiden carves her name alongside her lover's on this bark," Beatrice announced with complete, solemn gravity, "the ancient spirit of the tree will bestow an eternal blessing, ensuring that you and your beloved will love each other forever, I suppose."
"Eh?! This ancient tree possesses such a romantic ability?!" Ine gasped, her eyes sparkling. "The bards never mentioned that legend in the Capital!"
"This is a secret message passed down through high spirits," Beatrice lied seamlessly, not flinching under Regulus's incredulous stare. "Only a very select few know of its existence, I suppose."
"In that case... Betty, can I borrow your knife after you finish carving your name?!" Ine asked eagerly.
"I want to borrow it too! Lend it to me next!"
As Beatrice's blatant, romantic lie rapidly spread among the impressionable brides, the atmosphere beneath the giant tree became exponentially livelier, with over a hundred girls lining up to carve their names beside Regulus's Kanji.
Regulus stood to the side, utterly speechless at the Great Spirit's shameless trickery.
'Carving names for eternal love?' Regulus chuckled internally, watching Beatrice smugly engrave her own name into the ancient bark. 'If what Betty said were true, this tree would be an divine artifact. It's obviously an urban legend she made up on the spot to play with the girls... but I suppose I'll let her have her fun.'