Time in Stardew Valley always passes very slowly during the winter.
There is no other reason for this than the fact that when a person loses the pile of tasks they must do every day and becomes a salted fish lazing at home, they become quite sensitive to every minute and second of passing time.
Winter 9th: The last day of the Festival of Ice. Went to the newly opened Summit Spa.
I was dragged into the men's changing room by Tsukishiro Yuki and the others and went at it to our hearts' content (except for Boss Mabel). The hot spring experience was great, though the dark cloud hovering over Tripoka's forehead seems more serious. Will come again next time.
Winter 10th: Had nothing to do, so I strolled around the Aurora Vineyard. Didn't see any traces of Junimos (Aurora Vineyard was originally a Junimo "Apple" residence).
Simply dug up some Winter Roots. After returning to the Farm, I was dragged by Abigail and went at it to our hearts' content.
Winter 11th: Stelle came to the Farm holding a Holy Grail, saying she was looking for BB to exchange it for prizes.
It turns out that for the Holy Grail War they fought in the Honkai: Star Rail universe, they actually used a Holy Grail produced by Type-Moon. I don't know if it was given by BB or Aha.
During this time, Stelle kept muttering something about "smurfing matches being the best." Upon asking, I found out the Servant she summoned was Abigail.
I hope the other Holy Grail War participants competing on the same stage as her are okay.
Winter 12th: Nothing happened today. Went at it to our hearts' content.
Winter 13th, 14th, 15th... (Same as above)
Winter 20th: Suke, oh Suke, you cannot continue to be so licentious all day long! You should take this time to do some proper business!
That night, I discussed the wedding affairs to be arranged around the Feast of the Winter Star with Tsukishiro Yuki. Because we got into the mood while talking, I was forcibly pushed down by her and we went at it to our hearts' content.
Winter 21st.
"I've had enough of this life!"
Inside Mabel's General Store, Suke threw the diary in his hand and slammed the table as he stood up.
"Crop-planter, what kind of fit are you throwing? You gave Mabel-chan a huge fright!"
Mabel, who was sitting on the chair behind the counter with her legs crossed, was startled by Suke's sudden behavior. Her whole body jolted, and the beer she was holding nearly spilled.
Don't ask why Mabel has beer in her hand under the prohibition order; she discovered it by chance earlier and bought it directly from the Star Bar, a place Suke has no control over.
Although it isn't as potent as fruit Wine, as a lower-tier substitute, it can relieve Mabel's alcohol craving a bit—it's just that after buying it a few times, the cash flow of the General Store has been almost used up by her.
She was just worrying about how to earn some wealth that could be converted into Gold in this Stardew Valley, but she didn't expect Suke's sudden rise to nearly startle her into spilling her beer.
As for why Suke wasn't at his own Farm main residence but in Boss Mabel's General Store, the reason was self-evident—
With nothing to do in this dead of winter, those three at home were waiting to take turns sharing him. As long as he stepped through that door, he shouldn't dream of having any peace.
This seemed to be a tacit understanding reached between them: as long as they used this method, there would be no margin for a fourth party to intervene!
Thus, Suke could only use the excuse of going mining to take refuge here at Boss Mabel's, writing his diary while formulating plans for the winter.
"No, wait, you actually write a diary, crop-planter?"
Mabel leaned her head over. Having made an exception to take Suke in today, it was unknown what she was calculating in her heart.
"Scram, scram, scram." Suke closed the diary, obviously unwilling to let Boss Mabel see the content.
"Heh, you're actually getting embarrassed?"
"Who writes a diary these days? Serious people don't write diaries. Besides, diary entries are written for others to see. Letting Mabel-chan take a peek won't make you lose a piece of meat!"
Mabel revealed a look of disdain, seemingly quite dissatisfied with Suke's guard against her.
She had been in this place for so long, yet this crop-planter still guarded against her, intentionally or not. Could it be that those past events had really traumatized him into having PTSD carved into his soul?
Even though Mabel-chan is a tremendously good person!
"Respect other people's privacy—although I know the word 'privacy' is a joke to you outside, at least in here, you have to follow my rules."
Putting the diary back into his backpack, Suke rolled his eyes at Mabel.
Well, strictly speaking, these past two weeks hadn't been entirely fruitless. For instance, he could feel that he had completely digested the Stardrop he ate two weeks ago.
Aside from being able to judge people more accurately by pointing directly to their essence, the current Suke had also gained a brand-new ability—he could now manually reclaim land in the outside world similar to the "Greenhouse" soil of Stardew Valley.
Of course, the efficiency really wasn't high. Even though Suke carried an Iridium Hoe and an Iridium Pickaxe, taking turns hammering away for half a day, he had only tilled about two acres of land on the Island of Witches.
These weren't just two acres of land that could only be used for farming, but two acres that altered the world's rules and possessed the magic-forbidden characteristic of Stardew Valley—though, naturally, the utility seemed limited.
But going from 0 to 1 is always good.
Tsukishiro Yuki mentioned that they could expand on those two acres later and build a shelter, which might come in handy in the future.
Of course, before that, Suke had to go resolve Seele's matter first. Although being in Stardew Valley halted the deterioration of the famous 'Seele' condition, even after more than two weeks, she was still unwilling—or rather, unable—to converse with anyone other than Elysia.
It was as if she had contracted a mental illness. Although Boss Mabel kept saying there was no problem, judging by Seele's state, Suke didn't feel it looked like 'no problem' at all.
Given Boss Mabel's personality, Suke couldn't say what motive she harbored for always suggesting he delay resolving Seele's matter.
"40kg, 38kg, 36kg..."
"She clearly eats well enough, so why is she getting thinner day by day?"
Suke looked at the weight chart pasted on the wall of the General Store's back room. This was the record of Seele's weight he had asked Elysia and Sakuraba Emma to keep while caring for her.
She wasn't Tsukishiro Yuki; that delicate body didn't have much flesh to begin with. This continuous weight loss could, in a sense, be seen as Stardew Valley's most intuitive reaction to her physical condition.
After all, Suke had more or less figured out the nature of his world. It was the greatest common divisor of the myriad heavens and worlds; any complex matter within Stardew Valley would be transformed into the most simple and direct phenomenon.
Simply packing his gear, and after confirming that everything he should bring was in his backpack, Suke prepared to set off.
"Crop-planter, where are you going?"
"To resolve Seele's matter, before her condition gets any worse."
"...Are you sure you want to go?"
Mabel furrowed her brows. It was evident she wasn't very willing for Suke to go to the "Reincarnation" where Seele was.
But seeing the look in Suke's eyes that clearly held suspicion towards her, eventually, Mabel sighed lightly. She took out a necklace with a solid triangular pyramid hanging from it from her bosom and placed it in Suke's hand.
"Since you've decided to go, be careful. If you encounter any situation, stay alert and run back immediately."
"The most terrifying thing in the Mind Image World is not death, but getting lost. If you go missing again, I don't know how long it will take to find you again."
The necklace was made from a certain triangular corn chip that had intruded into the Farm a long time ago.
It was hard to imagine that such a high-level deity would be made into a talisman and worn on someone's body—but who asked his opponent to be The One in All?
"The way you say that..."
Suke looked at Mabel speechlessly.
Although the Mind Image Reincarnation where Seele resided was relatively special, the effect of entering with multiple people was the same as entering alone, because they would all play the same "role." This was the intelligence Elysia and Stelle brought out after volunteering to try it.
As for the method of bringing it out, naturally, it was "death." Unfortunately, after dying once, they could never enter it again. Otherwise, Suke could have used the resurrection characteristic of Stardew Valley to perform unlimited trial and error.
...Well, he ultimately didn't voice the thought that Boss Mabel was worrying too much.
"If there's nothing else, I'm setting off. By the way, don't let Little Yuki and the others follow me in; it's useless anyway."
"Wait, why does it feel like I'm raising a death flag? 'I'll try to return as quickly as possible...'"
"Anyway, don't worry. If I encounter something wrong, I'll use the Return Scepter to warp back."
Suke greeted Mabel. This time, he rarely didn't choke back at Mabel, perhaps feeling a trace of genuine care from this god who always silently acted as his strongest backing.
Mabel watched him walk out of the General Store, mount the pony shaking its tail outside the door, and gradually fade away amidst the sound of hooves.
Mother.
As the Heavens, and also the most primordial essence of humanity, she is naturally omnipresent.
She is the most affinitive thing, the origin of all gods, an existence that never betrays.
There was once a hypothetical joke: You are a maiden named Mary. When you become pregnant out of wedlock for some unknown reason, what choice will you make?
A. Claim you engaged in premarital sex and be punished as an immoral person.
B. Compile a theology that influences the entire world for thousands of years, claim what you carry is the One True God, and bring earth-shattering changes to human history.
Of course, such a joke naturally has exaggerated elements.
But one statement is not wrong: if gods have an origin, then Father and Mother are one of their initial essences.
Previously, when he was in the Deep Sea Cyber Paradise, Suke, whose consciousness was in a hazy state, could not yet concretely feel what the essence of "Mother" was.
But now, as he stepped into another's Reincarnation with a clear consciousness for the first time, he gradually began to understand the despairing helplessness of those trapped in the cycle—
"Seele."
"It's time for lunch. Don't forget to properly enjoy the food bestowed by the Lord. Do not waste a single bit."
A hoarse female voice came from outside the door. Through the crack in the door, a box of food that had already rotted and spoiled, with flies buzzing around it, was shoved into the room.
The figure outside the door did not appear, but merely by voice, she possessed absolute command over the girl trapped in the room.
A child cannot defy her mother, just as she was with her foster mother named Cocolia in the original plot. Children obeying their mothers is natural law, and it is made even more blatantly evident here.
"Yes, Mother..."
The girl, with dull, lifeless eyes, was draped only in a towel to cover her body. Having not eaten for a long time, she crawled weakly across the floor and retrieved the object called "lunch."
Flies circled the food; it was something no person with a normal mind would eat.
But the girl, who had been starving for a day and a night, had no choice. She picked up the foul-smelling food and began to dig it out with her hand, eating it in small bites—even so, she didn't forget to dig out a small piece and place it on the floor, which was already filthy beyond compare.
"Little Black... come here, Little Black~"
"Mom sent food. Quick, eat the food, and we can continue to live."
The girl called out softly to the corner of the wall, calling to her only spiritual sustenance.
Live... is it?
Suke felt the stiff, jerky movement of the cat body he controlled, which had already begun to dehydrate like a dried corpse. This sensation was quite uncomfortable.
He lifted his head and used those cat eyes that no longer saw light to look at the girl gazing expectantly into the shadows of his corner—in Suke's vision, her body was silently rotting just like his, and he didn't know when she would turn into a dried corpse like him.
This was already a Reincarnation that ended with the reincarnator's self-termination. Even if he entered it, he was merely struggling as much as possible in the worst-case scenario.
No wonder Elysia looked like she wanted to say something but stopped when she came out of here. Asking the pink elf lady, who loves cleanliness and beauty, to play the role of a cat's corpse talking to the corpse of a girl who was also dead—that really was making things difficult for her.
However, although Suke was manipulating the corpse of this cat named "Little Black" in this Reincarnation, there were some things that continued to exist even after entering the cycle.
For instance, the energy bar and health bar in the bottom left corner of his vision—
The situation is better than I thought. Although the items in the backpack don't seem retrievable for now, at least my own traits remain.
Lifting a cat claw, Suke lightly bit himself. He felt his health bar drop a sliver and entered a brief state of invincibility frames.
This was his first time being a cat, and a dead cat at that—well, he wasn't sure if it was truly the first time, given the way Tripoka looked at him made him suspect he might have been a cat before.
But it was also because of this that Suke sensed why Mabel said "Reincarnation" was a very dangerous thing, especially this Reincarnation of Seele's.
Judging by that figure outside the door as the enemy—where all supernatural powers are banned, and he plays the corpse of a cat that sways even when taking two steps—assuming the condition to clear the Reincarnation is to kill her, that is simply impossible.
It is like asking a snail to attempt to kill a T-Rex.
Even if given an Infinite Resurrection trait, Suke wouldn't be willing, as the probability of success approaches zero infinitely, to the point it can be ignored; it would be pure torture.
So Suke speculated that the key point was related to "Seele" herself—that is, this already dead girl before his eyes.
The cat twisted its head to observe the room it was in. The room was furnished only with a carpet, a toy chest, a bookshelf, and a small bed.
The layout was very simple, simple to the point that Suke felt a sense of déjà vu, though this layout was indeed one that existed within the Azure Waters plot.
"Little Black~"
"Little Black, come quickly, it's time to eat..."
The girl urged the cat with her intermittent voice.
She extended a hand that was pale and devoid of blood, even bearing some purplish-grey corpse spots. Her stiff facial skin was pulled by the corners of her mouth, and her palm waved at Suke.
It is no exaggeration to say that this scene could be called a horror scenario.
Fortunately, Suke was just a dead cat right now; otherwise, it would truly be psychological torture.
____
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