One hundred bottles of Ancient Fruit Wine were equivalent to about three hundred thousand Gold.
This was no small sum; these were solid gold coins, the kind that could cause gold prices to plummet overnight if taken to the outside world.
And now, just because of a momentary surge of sympathy, he had to give this three hundred thousand Gold away for free to a certain greedy and black-hearted Boss Mabel.
After all, even thinking with one's butt would lead to the conclusion that she was faking it. Who in the entire multiverse, aside from those few specific individuals, could possibly injure her?
"Brother, Abi knows she was wrong~"
"Don't hate Abi, okay~"
"Abi just wanted to get more power from Uncle so I could help Brother..."
Inside the bedroom of the Main House, Abigail, dressed like a 'bad girl' (which was approximately equivalent to wearing nothing), lay prone on top of Suke. Covered in fragrant sweat, she rubbed her cheek against his chest, seemingly trying to use this method to extinguish his fire.
Well, actually, the fire had already been extinguished.
Just moments ago, Abigail had been forced to leave the ground with both feet two or three times, her cries loud enough that BB, who had been rejected from joining and could only watch TV in the living room, angrily shouted at them to keep it down.
Well, Suke didn't consider himself a stingy person.
He just felt a bit annoyed at being extorted for so much money, especially since this shining silver was going to Mabel, a salted fish who slacked off and rotted away all day long.
What a sin!
Creak—
"I'm back, Animus~"
"Hmm, BB? Animus is in the room, right?"
The sound of the Main House's door being pushed open drifted in, accompanied by the Great Witch's crisp voice, which carried a cheerful emotion.
This voice caused Suke, who was currently in Sage Mode, to physically jolt. He hurriedly grabbed Abigail to get her dressed.
It wasn't that he was worried about Tsukishiro Yuki discovering the scene; it was simply that he felt it wasn't good for people to see such a lack of ambition in his life.
One must at least have an attitude, assuming he didn't want to waste the entire day in bed!
"Ah, you're back, Little Yuki."
Suke, now dressed, pushed the door open and stepped out, just in time to see Tsukishiro Yuki in the living room taking off her thick down jacket and placing it on the sofa.
Her pretty face was flushed red from the cold, evidently not quite used to the sudden temperature change in Stardew Valley either.
"Animus, are you only getting out of bed now? It's almost noon."
"Hmm? Wait, Animus, you..."
Seeing Suke walk out of the bedroom, Tsukishiro Yuki was still wondering if Suke's biological clock hadn't adjusted yet since it was just the beginning of winter.
However, when she smelled a sweet, fishy scent and saw Abigail following behind Suke, covered in sweat with unidentifiable hair still sticking to the corner of her mouth...
Her originally cheerful expression gradually cooled down.
Behind Tsukishiro Yuki, BB made a funny face at Suke, seemingly saying: This is what you get for not taking me along, serves you right, doesn't it?
"Animus really is leisurely when he doesn't need to do farm work~"
"Speaking of which, Little Emma was the one who harvested the last season of grapes yesterday. Animus, you really have stored up quite a lot of unvented energy, haven't you..."
Raising her hand to support her cheek, Tsukishiro Yuki sighed.
Sure enough, she still missed those six hundred years spent alone with Animus in the past.
After all, there were no thieving cats back then; everything about Animus was enjoyed by her alone.
"How about you tell me the good news you mentioned first, Little Yuki?" Suke tried to change the subject.
"Well, I'll forgive you for now, Animus. But you aren't allowed to make excuses and push me away tonight, okay?"
"The thing is, after sharing my essence with that [Witch of Vainglory] Pandora, I borrowed her power..."
Tsukishiro Yuki began to recount what she had gone out to do over the past two days.
From the Re:Zero world to her own world, Tsukishiro Yuki had successfully tested the upper limits of the authority of the [Witch of Vainglory] Pandora.
Borrowing her Authority, Tsukishiro Yuki first had Pandora resurrect the innocent people in the Re:Zero world whose deaths she had directly or indirectly caused over the past millennium.
The resurrection experiment was a complete success. Whether it was Emilia's parents or the Oni villagers of Rem and Ram, as long as their natural lifespan allowed them to live until now, they were successfully revived.
So, Tsukishiro Yuki impatiently took Pandora to her own world, wanting to resurrect her fellow Witch compatriots who had been killed by humans long ago.
"So, Little Yuki, all your compatriots have been resurrected?"
Hearing this news, Suke felt happiness for Tsukishiro Yuki from the bottom of his heart.
This way, she would no longer be the lonely, sole remaining Primordial Witch. Like him, she would gain more people to rely on besides just each other.
Loneliness would henceforth be nothing but fleeting clouds.
"No."
"Huh?"
Suke froze. Then what are you so happy about, Little Yuki?
"It's like this: when I took Pandora to the Island of Witches to use the Authority, I discovered that the souls of my past compatriots had all been taken away."
"Don't worry, they weren't taken by malicious people. It was three friends who were Great Witches just like me."
"Sigh, although I call them friends, I actually have quite a big opinion of them."
"The three of them quietly left the world without even notifying me. I thought they had all been killed by humans."
Tsukishiro Yuki appeared somewhat resigned.
"But it is also because they didn't notify me that I had the opportunity to meet you, Animus."
"In a sense, perhaps I should thank them~"
Tsukishiro Yuki came up to Suke. Even wearing 20cm platform shoes, she barely reached his neck, so she stood on her tiptoes.
She placed a light kiss on Suke's lips, the sensation soft and tender like jelly.
Suke's old face blushed. Of course, it wasn't because an old married couple like him and Tsukishiro Yuki would still blush from a kiss.
It was purely that he felt a bit awkward.
For instance, after discovering the restless BB and the unsatisfied bad child Abigail watching from the side.
"Yah~!" (Pink Puppy exclaims)
"Everyone... did I come at a bad time?"
Fortunately, the mysterious 'Ma'-headed figure relieved Suke of his predicament in time.
And this time, Tsukishiro Yuki didn't say, 'You came at just the right time.'
Her Animus had already been shared with two people; if another one came, she would really have to start guarding her food.
"No, you came at exactly the right time!"
Seizing the opportunity to escape the Shuraba, Suke hurriedly stepped forward and grabbed Emma's hand.
For Emma, the Model Worker who always complied with his wishes, he wanted to reward her heavily!
"Emma, do you have any wishes?"
"? Why so sudden..."
"Because our farm's financial report for autumn is out. I've already looked at it, and you are number one among everyone!"
In the farm panel's quarterly summary, which only Suke could see, out of the farmhands' total production value of 2 million Gold for the quarter, Sakuraba Emma alone had contributed more than half!
After all, Sakuraba Emma was solely responsible for the harvest of the grape fields and the production of wine and Raisins.
Unlike Old Yuki and the Pink Fatty—the former couldn't move to work, and the latter didn't want to work. They really treated this place as a retirement vacation spot!
"Is, is that so?"
Sakuraba Emma scratched her cheek, appearing somewhat embarrassed.
Although the farm work looked tiring, it was fine for her.
Perhaps credit belonged to the magic of Stardew Valley cuisine.
Whenever she felt slightly fatigued, she only needed to eat a Field Snack, which Suke mass-produced for her to carry, and she would recover.
"The me of today shouldn't have any urgent wishes..."
"If I had to say one, being able to take the specialties from the farm to share with everyone would count as one... An-An really liked the Raisins she tasted when she came to the farm during Spirit's Eve. She just asked me if I could bring her some?"
Sakuraba Emma looked at Suke with uneasy eyes. After all, in her view, the Raisins were the property of the farm; wouldn't it be bad to take them out privately?
Usually, when she brought things to share with everyone, she brought items she had gathered herself from locations outside the Stardew Valley farm.
Like Purple Mushrooms, Blackberries, and some pretty Sand Dollars and Rainbow Shells.
Sakuraba Emma still distinguished public and private matters very clearly, even though, in a sense, she herself counted as Suke's property.
"What kind of wish is that?"
"I don't plan to sell these thousands of packs of Raisins anyway. Emma, if you like them, feel free to take them to eat yourself or share with friends."
Suke glanced at Sakuraba Emma's character panel. She clearly had reached the level of eight hearts and could date him, yet she still behaved so reservedly.
Just look at that Nikaido Hiro—she wasn't polite at all, even actively asking him when the next team-building activity was.
He hadn't even settled the payment for her Zanpakuto yet!
But Sakuraba Emma was indeed... how to put it... quite 'lonely' right now.
Perhaps because Suke had experienced loneliness himself, he was extremely sensitive to the loneliness of others.
In Sakuraba Emma's original world, there was no longer a place for her. Although everything was the same, the parents of 'Sakuraba Emma' were ultimately not her parents; she could only secretly watch from afar.
That's right.
Previously, when he took Tsukishiro Yuki to get a manicure, Suke had also taken Sakuraba Emma to see the other 'her' and her parents in that world.
Although, with Suke's encouragement, she summoned the courage to meet 'her' parents once.
But to respect Sakuraba Emma's opinion and not let 'her' parents detect anything strange, Suke had left with her after a simple greeting.
After getting on that bus and coming to Stardew Valley, the past of the girl named Sakuraba Emma from the so-called 'First Playthrough' world was set in stone.
Even if they used mighty power to reverse time and go to that timeline, what they would see would be a brand new 'First Playthrough', which would contain yet another new 'Sakuraba Emma'.
Instead of Emma's 'First Playthrough'.
"How about this: I'll reserve this wish for you for now, Emma."
"If you need anything, just tell me. For others, I might have to consider it, but for you, Emma, I won't hesitate for a second!"
My poor Little Emma~
Suke couldn't help but feel a bit sentimental.
If it really didn't work out, maybe he should have Tsukishiro Yuki find a 'Second Playthrough' timeline that developed normally, and forcibly take The Great King Hiro away before her mother died and she committed suicide in despair in that world?
But this was also Suke indulging in wishful thinking.
After all, he didn't know what Emma truly wanted right now.
Under her shy gaze that occasionally dodged his while she worked hard.
That was why [Death Rewind] couldn't compare to a single finger of Return by Death.
Compared to the latter which could truly save everyone, like Natsuki Subaru, the former was just the wishful thinking of the rewinder.
So Suke was extremely supportive of Tsukishiro Yuki modding Nikaido Hiro's [Death Rewind] into [Death Simulation].
Otherwise, simply restarting into another world line whenever something happened—wouldn't that just be pure escapism?
"Oh, wait, Mister!"
"I forgot to mention something!"
Sakuraba Emma slapped her forehead, her words pulling Suke back from his attempt to empathize with her:
"Boss Mabel asked me to inform you that there was a 'car accident' in her room!"
"She said she has already 'transferred' ownership of that door to you and asked you to move the 'door' away as soon as possible!"
Car accident?
Suke didn't immediately understand the message Mabel had asked Sakuraba Emma to convey.
Wasn't it deep cosmic space outside the door? Where would a car accident come from?
Could it be the Astral Express?
"Oh, and also, when I passed by the bus stop just now, Miss Tripoka also stopped me and asked me to notify you of something."
"She said... the quarterly 'opportunity' is available to use?"
"It seems to be some kind of 'pick two out of four', and she asked you to go over and make the choice!"
Suke: "?"
So coincidental??
Could it be that they died in the car accident?
____
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