However, things had come to this.
To complete the collection of 4/7 of Teyvat's authority, Jack was a place Jack couldn't avoid.
It was just that compared to the easy difficulty of the previous two countries, this one was slightly more challenging.
He just needed to put his heart into completing it.
"What, you're actually spacing out? That's rare."
"It's nothing. You'll know in a bit."
Jack led Lumine towards the Sacred Sakura Tree.
After winding through several paths, passing by a group of shrine maidens with curious or surprised gazes, he stood before the Sacred Sakura Tree.
"Huh? The Sacred Sakura Tree turned... into a Boss!" Lumine exclaimed, looking at the familiar MC panel before her.
"Hiss~ And it's a four-star, unspeakable monster! H-Husband! You have to protect your lovely wife!"
Lumine clutched Jack's sleeve, indicating she was a bit scared.
A Stage Three dragon could hurt her, but a four-star Boss was two tiers higher, directly on par with a Stage Five dragon.
Just thinking about it was terrifying.
"It's okay, this tree isn't aggressive, but precisely because of that, it possesses almost indestructible defenses and requires a special method to defeat."
"Special method?"
Lumine looked at Jack in confusion, then followed his gaze and saw the conditions for defeating the Sacred Sakura Tree.
"Oh, this... procreation activities are fine. Wait, why are you looking at me like that? You, you, you... We just did it a few tens of minutes ago, you don't want it again, do you?!"
"Hold on, darling, I just want to do a test."
"Only a ghost would believe that! I'm out of here!"
Lumine felt that his gaze was like a wolf that hadn't eaten for days seeing plump meat.
To avoid being caught, she fully activated her Anemo power to escape.
Boom!
A violent roar erupted.
No sooner said than done.
Jack pushed off with his right foot, and a large wooden stump appeared in Lumine's escape path.
This loud bang was the sound of Lumine's intimate contact with the wooden stump.
Then a large hand wrapped around her slender waist, and Jack pulled her into his embrace, healing her injuries while his hot breath brushed against Lumine's face.
"Darling, you're usually so enthusiastic about this kind of thing, why are you scared today?"
Lumine said with a tearful face, "You wanted it twice last night, once when I woke up this morning, and again on the way here. Day after day, even if I had a body of iron, I couldn't take it."
"Husband~ please let me go, okay?"
Seeing that she genuinely seemed a little scared, Jack chuckled and kissed her cheek.
"Alright, I won't tease you anymore. Take a good look at the other conditions. The love and marriage indicators recognized by the Sacred Sakura Tree are only for native Inazumans."
"Huh?"
So, Lumine was held by Jack and re-read the Sacred Sakura Tree Boss's description.
"It really is... Hmm, so you mean, Jack, to obtain Raiden Shogun's authority, you must bring Ayaka and the others here and 'do it' in front of everyone?"
"That last modifier is redundant."
Jack patted Lumine's head.
Lumine mischievously stuck out her tongue.
"I guess it's because of Inazuma's unique dual Raiden Shogun system. The true authority of the Raiden Shogun isn't with the shut-in Raiden Shogun, but with her older sister."
"The Sacred Sakura Tree is the will of Raiden Makoto in her dying moments, which is why it merges with Inazuma's authority. What puzzles me, though, is whether this task, which seems to involve conquering every woman in Inazuma connected to me, is a coincidence or if there's a deliberate influence behind it."
Jack leaned towards the latter guess.
After all, the Sacred Sakura Tree was formed from Raiden Makoto's will, so it's plausible that it could be influenced by others.
As Yae Miko had accompanied it for several hundred years and was full of schemes, Jack had no reason not to suspect that she had some way of influencing the Sacred Sakura Tree.
"So what do we do now? Go snatch them one by one and then have a party here?"
"I'm afraid not. The ritual requires both physical and spiritual approval. Forcibly taking them would only provoke their rebellious nature, unless they're masochists, of course."
"So?"
"So I have two things I'm preparing to do now."
First, continuing the previous goal, find someone to test it.
If Traveler doesn't meet the conditions, then find someone who does.
Near Mount Yougou, the only person who might have a marriage connection with him is Shirasagi Himegimi, Kamisato Ayaka, who is affiliated with Narukami Shrine under the Yashiro Commission.
It wouldn't be difficult to persuade Kamisato Ayaka; the difficulty lies in how to reasonably take the young lady out without offending her older brother.
Second, find Yae Miko. There's a high probability that this cunning Great Kitsune is involved in the Sacred Sakura Tree's anomaly. If she has a direct way to resolve the Sacred Sakura Tree's anomaly, then it doesn't matter whether the task is completed or not.
...
He arrived quickly, and left even faster.
Climbing the mountain took Jack nearly 40 minutes. He stayed at the shrine for about 10 minutes, then flew down from the summit in less than a minute.
"Why does it feel like we've been running this whole time? What if Ayaka isn't there when we go to find her later?"
"..."
Jack silently looked at the young lady in his arms.
"Wh-what's wrong? I was just making a reasonable guess."
"You guessed very well. Don't guess next time."
Then, Jack witnessed what Murphy's Law was.
That is, when you desperately hope something won't happen, it will definitely happen!
"Sorry, Traveler, the young lady has been out practicing her sword during the day these past few days. Since you've come all this way, why don't you rest here for a bit and wait for the young lady to return tonight?"
Thoma scratched the back of his head, speaking to Jack with a hint of apology.
"Do you know where she went to practice her sword?"
"Well... ever since the young lady met with the Guuji last week, she rarely takes me out with her, so... I'm not very sure either."
"That fox again?"
Jack felt like he had been following Yae Miko's rhythm ever since he entered Inazuma.
This can't go on.
If he couldn't break the situation Yae Miko had set up, how would he uphold his authority as a husband in the future?
"I don't need you to tell me exactly where she is. You should know which direction Ayaka went, right?"
"If you put it that way... this morning I saw the young lady heading north of the mansion. I think if she's not at some ruins, then she must be somewhere by the sea."
"Alright, thank you, Brother Thoma. I'll treat you to some wasabi hotpot later."
Jack patted Thoma's shoulder, then took Traveler and walked north.
Thoma's eyes twitched slightly: "Not that punishment hotpot again, right? Is Traveler playing so hard right after reuniting?"
...
About a few kilometers outside the Kamisato Family's sphere of influence.
Jack stopped on a hill.
Seeing him stop, Traveler asked, "Thoma only told us a direction. How exactly are you going to find her?"
"Finding people should be the first task Yae Miko assigned me. She probably wants me to deduce their possible locations based on the girls' hobbies and personalities, and then go find them one by one."
"But I don't want to go along with Yae Miko's wishes, so I'll just have to break the situation violently."
"Violently? How violently?"
Jack smiled slightly, then a hemispherical, pale green barrier spread out from his palm, and he declared confidently.
"It's just a slightly larger consumption, but I refuse to believe that after scanning the entire Narukami Island, I still can't find Ayaka, who's hiding and can return to the Kamisato Family in half a day's journey."
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