Regulus continued to accompany the Witches for a while, sitting on the grassy plains of the Castle of Dreams.
However, during the time he spent with them, he mostly listened. He listened to them recount or complain about various trivial matters from their lives, and the endless boredom of the past four hundred years.
This allowed Regulus to roughly understand some crucial information.
Firstly, their relationships were quite good. Even Satella, the Witch of Envy, had a relatively peaceful and intimate bond with the others in this space.
Secondly, besides the changes in their personal fates, basically all the major historical events that were supposed to happen in this world did happen. This even included the outcome for each of them—though, in this timeline, none of them had actually died. They were merely sealed or slumbering.
'What I have to do now is awaken them in the real world one by one, and then claim them,' Regulus planned internally.
As for the possibility of taking them down here and now?
Impossible. Even if their relationships were good, when it came to a man, they showed a terrifyingly fierce competitive drive. No one wanted to back down, and absolutely no one was going to allow another Witch to take the final step first.
However, as the casual conversation continued...
A thick string of saliva suddenly drooled from the mouth of Daphne, the Witch of Gluttony, who was sitting opposite Regulus.
"I smell food..."
As she spoke, she took a sharp, loud gulp and crawled out of her coffin-like restraint, approaching Regulus on all fours like a starving beast.
This situation confused everyone—except Regulus, Satella, Sekhmet, and a furiously blushing Carmilla.
Where was the food?
Daphne, as the Witch of Gluttony, had an absolute, terrifying obsession with consumption. This strong obsession meant that as long as something she identified as "food" appeared within her range, she would instantly zero in on it. If she said there was food, then there definitely was.
And the situation was glaringly obvious: Daphne's target was Regulus's lap.
"You're hiding something... no, that shouldn't be right," Minerva, the Witch of Wrath, muttered, falling into confusion.
If Regulus was really hiding snacks in his pockets, Daphne would have discovered it from the very start. It wouldn't have taken until now for her to notice. This meant that the "food" Daphne smelled had only just been produced.
With a head full of questions, Minerva couldn't understand what was going on.
Just as the others were confused, Echidna, the absolute mistress of the Castle of Dreams, suddenly narrowed her eyes at the black skirt covering Regulus's lower half.
If she wanted to, she knew everything that happened in her domain.
And unfortunately for her blood pressure, she realized exactly what was happening.
Her dissatisfied, venomous gaze glared at Regulus, and then snapped to Satella and Sekhmet, who were sitting innocently by his sides.
A flash of intense, hypocritical anger ignited in Echidna's eyes.
'They forbade me from touching him, yet those two conspired to sneak a handjob under the table?!' she screamed internally.
At the same time, Regulus was feeling incredibly embarrassed, but more importantly, he felt a spike of genuine terror facing the drooling Daphne.
'She wouldn't just pounce on me, would she?' Regulus thought, sweating.
Actually, pouncing wouldn't be a big deal; what he feared was her directly opening her mouth and taking a literal bite out of him.
Ever since her arrival, Daphne had managed to slip out of her restrictive device. She was completely unrestrained. He had initially thought his future self had done something to cure her endless hunger, making her relatively normal.
But judging by her current, feral behavior, that was not the case at all. Before, her appetite simply hadn't been piqued. But now, smelling the fresh "fluids" soaking into the fabric over Regulus's lap, she had become dangerously abnormal.
"Echidna," Regulus said tightly, shifting backward. "I think it's about time for me to go."
"About time?" Echidna smiled maliciously, crossing her arms. "The flow of time here and in the outside world are not connected, Regulus, so there's absolutely no need to rush. You can completely stay here for a while longer until Daphne is full, you know."
"..."
Regulus's mouth twitched uncontrollably. Unlike before, Echidna was genuinely angry about being left out, and she was throwing him to the wolves as punishment.
Seeing Daphne adopt a predatory stance, preparing to lunge, Regulus frantically prepared to use his Authority to disconnect his soul from the dreamscape.
His Authority could still be used here. The only problem was that the terrifying Witches in front of him did not seem to be recognized as his wives yet, meaning his absolute defense might act unpredictably.
This was exactly why he was timid. If Daphne really pounced and bit him indiscriminately—especially at that specific, targeted location—he would definitely develop an extremely severe psychological trauma!
"FOOD!!!" Daphne shrieked, launching herself through the air.
But just as her jaws were about to snap shut over Regulus's lap, her target suddenly vanished.
Regulus had successfully pulled his consciousness out of the dream, causing Daphne to pounce on thin air.
Well, she didn't completely miss.
Because her original target, besides the man carrying the food, also included the food that had been left behind. She crashed directly into the black fabric of Sekhmet's long skirt, which was rapidly falling to the grass due to Regulus's disappearance.
Sekhmet, watching this scene unfold with half-lidded eyes, immediately used her Unseen Hand to grab the hem of her own skirt and ripped it fiercely.
Riiip!
The beautiful black fabric tore, and the specific section stained with Regulus's fluids fell directly into Daphne's waiting hands.
Sekhmet's reasoning was simple: Daphne wouldn't treat Sekhmet herself as food, but in her feral state of appetite, the Gluttonous Witch would completely devour the stained clothes she was wearing. Sekhmet had absolutely no interest in sitting around naked, even if there were no outsiders around.
At this moment, Daphne had already begun to enjoy the long-awaited prize.
Licking, chewing, and devouring—she quickly finished the piece of stained fabric, swallowing it whole. Satiated, she collapsed happily onto the grass, rubbing her belly.
The remaining Witches watched this bizarre scene in stunned silence.
"Satella," Typhon asked innocently, tilting her green-haired head. "What is Daphne eating?"
"That is..." Satella hesitated, hiding behind her veil. For a moment, she was completely unable to answer the loli's question.
She couldn't just tell the truth, could she? That was still a bit too early for Typhon's pure mind.
Just as Satella was struggling, Sekhmet leaned over and lazily ruffled Typhon's hair.
"That's the same kind of thing as Echidna's Dona Tea," Sekhmet explained smoothly. "Only, it wasn't Echidna who made this batch. It was Regulus. If you really have to give it a name... you can think of it as Rus Tea."
"Rus Tea?" Typhon echoed, her eyes sparkling.
"Mhm."
Sekhmet perfectly resolved the problem that had puzzled Satella.
But her answer left a very specific opening.
"Rus Tea... your description is quite interesting," Echidna said meaningfully, her sharp gaze shifting between Sekhmet and Satella. "However, compared to the tea itself, the process of making the tea should be even more interesting, shouldn't it?"
"You have more authority than us when it comes to brewing tea, Echidna," Sekhmet retorted lazily. "There's no need to specifically ask us about the manual labor."
"Heh heh~ You're right," Echidna smirked, a competitive fire burning in her dark eyes. "Then next time, I'll do it. I'll make the Rus Tea myself."
Just then—
"Hey! It's a very simple biological matter! Why do you have to make it sound so complicated with all these tea metaphors?!"
Minerva clutched her forehead, her face flushed crimson but her expression utterly depressed. "Listening to you degenerates talk is starting to make my head hurt!"
In her opinion, it was better to end such an embarrassingly lewd topic as soon as possible.
.....
.....
.....
Support me and read advance chapters on patreon.com/ImmortalDaoWriter