Manipulating the cat's body to walk over, Suke took a glance at the rotting, fly-blown food, and ultimately couldn't bring himself to eat it.
It wasn't just that his palate had long been spoiled by the food of Stardew Valley; even if it were normal food, he would probably have to force himself to scratch up a few bites.
After all, he felt the girl's gaze upon him carried a trace of abnormality, as if something terrible would happen if he didn't eat this food.
"Little Black..."
"Why won't you eat, Little Black?"
The girl stared tightly at Suke, her hollow eyes carrying a trace of scrutiny, as if trying to pierce through the soul behind this shriveled cat.
Suke finally understood why Mabel said this Reincarnation was shady beyond belief. It was a "Member's Only Restaurant" right off the bat; no wonder Elysia and Stelle looked like they had a hard time describing it after coming out.
Based on his experience with horror stories, to avoid letting the girl discover his anomaly, Suke lowered his head and took two licks.
Well, Suke had actually forgotten that his Trait allowed him not to taste the flavor of food.
Moreover, this lunch actually posed no harm to his body; for instance, Suke found that his energy bar hadn't decreased in the slightest. This at least indicated the food was non-toxic.
As for why it looked so rotten, Suke had no way of knowing.
"Just like that, Little Black..."
"As long as we are always obedient like this, Mother will always love us..."
The girl's cold hand stroked the cat's head. In this narrow, enclosed room, only this cat could keep her company.
Her cold fingers slid down Suke's withered spine again and again. That sensation didn't feel like petting a pet; it was more like carefully wiping a burial object being prepared for the coffin.
Suke lay on the musty, pungent carpet, feeling the sluggishness brought by this feline body.
Although the rotten food he had just forced down while suppressing his nausea didn't drop his energy bar, this kind of psychological, physiological rejection still made him feel waves of chills.
Taking advantage of Seele falling into some kind of hysterical trance, Suke gently broke free from those cold hands.
He shook his stiff body and began a final search within this tiny space.
He knew very well that in a Reincarnation with such strong symbolic meaning, the clues would definitely not stop at superficial horror.
Among a pile of old dolls under the bed, Suke's cloudy cat eyes caught an unusual color.
It was a leather notebook with a cover whose color had almost worn off, repeatedly pasted together with tape—Seele's diary.
Suke laboriously pawed it open.
Due to his limbs being extremely stiff in this "dead cat" state, turning every page was like moving a heavy lead plate.
[Day 1: Mother said outside is dangerous. She locked Seele in the room and won't let Seele go out.]
[Seele believes Mother's words. After all, Mother won't harm Seele; she is trustworthy.]
The very first sentence of the diary gave Suke the illusion of reading a "Rules of Horror" story, but he continued reading.
[Day 2: Mother is responsible for taking care of Seele's three meals a day. Seele is taken care of very well.]
[Day 3, Day 4, Day 5...]
Suke flipped through five or six pages of the diary in a row. They contained trivial daily content with no value for reading.
[Day 21: Seele misses her sisters, but Mother says Seele cannot go see them.]
[Seele doesn't know what she did wrong. Do the sisters hate Seele now?]
The diary continued, recording the bits and pieces after the young girl was locked in the room.
Although filled with loneliness, the overall narrative was still rational, until a certain day.
[Day 32: Seele saw what happened outside, which Mother never let Seele look at.]
[It turns out Seele is an abandoned existence. Only Mother can accept Seele.]
[Seele hates it so much. Hates why it had to be Seele.]
[Day 33: See... don't want to die...]
[What did Seele do wr...ong... Why is it See... See... hate Seele...]
[Mother saved Seele... She protected Seele very well, even if no one needs Seele anymore...]
[Seele wants to stay with Mother forever.]
On the last few pages of the diary, the handwriting had become completely twisted, turning into clusters of pitch-black spirals.
Combining the reference prototype of Seele's story in Azure Waters, a story flashed through Suke's mind like a spark—The Binding of Isaac.
In the background of that work, the reason the mother wanted to kill Isaac wasn't because she herself was a lunatic, but because she heard the will of "God," believing the child was a sin that must be sacrificed.
And that voice which initially instigated from behind the scenes, utilizing "maternal love" as a weapon for murder, was the true mastermind.
Combining Seele's diary and the information previously obtained from Tripoka, Suke formed a bold hypothesis.
He speculated that there existed another existence acting as "God," or rather, the mastermind, who was very similar to Seele.
Mabel had already said that the world of the Azure Waters arc was a Singularity similar to a divergent world path.
Just like Solomon in Fuyuki City who agonized over whether to win the Holy Grail War, the future of the entire macro-universe would change because of their choices—and Seele was the same.
When Seele makes a choice, the world will branch towards the trajectory of Honkai Impact 3rd or Houkai Gakuen 2. Since the timeline of Honkai Impact 3rd is currently intact, it indicates the result is already destined.
"This is getting interesting. Who is 'The Lost' acting as the mastermind?"
Suke was deep in thought. If the mastermind really was another Seele, he would definitely have to make her cry out in hunger.
But now, there was something more important to clarify. What exactly is this "Mother"?
Is she trustworthy as described in Seele's diary?
If she isn't trustworthy, the credibility of the information in the diary would likely be greatly discounted.
"Seele."
"Lunchtime is over. Mommy is here to collect the dishes..."
The hoarse voice sounded from outside the door again. This time, it was accompanied by the piercing friction of some sharp metal scraping across the floor.
Creak—
The room door opened a crack.
A thick aura, a mixture of formalin and the smell of stale milk, lunged at his face.
The colossus known as "Mother" walked in.
Its body had the obesity of a middle-aged woman, and its hairstyle and appearance were seventy to eighty percent similar to a grown-up Seele, but where the face should have been was a smooth membrane, showing no signs of any facial features.
It was like a blank program with no data entered.
It extended that cold hand, reaching for the porcelain bowl on the ground, picking it up to verify.
After ensuring the food inside had been eaten clean, she turned her head soundlessly, preparing to close the door and leave the scene.
Suke shrank into the shadows, staring dead at that opening door crack.
He knew this was one of his few opportunities.
He needed to confirm where that "voice" was coming from.
Suke planned to leverage his health bar advantage, manipulating this dead cat body to rush out and see what the situation was outside the room.
"Wrong."
"Seele, you gave the food to the Impurity again... You cannot do this..."
Seemingly having discovered something, "Mother's" voice suddenly became shrill. Its smooth "face" abruptly turned toward Suke huddled in the corner.
Like discovering a foreign object existing in the room, her aura suddenly became dangerous and terrifying.
"Impurity, you are harming her... Do not harm her..."
"You profit-seeking fellows should all go to die...!"
That giant hand covered in wrinkles abruptly grabbed at Suke, so fast it allowed no reaction time at all!
"Little Black...!"
Seele let out a miserable scream. She instinctively wanted to pounce over to protect the black cat.
But Suke was faster than "Mother".
Or rather, Suke was waiting for this very moment.
Compared to letting "Mother" not find him and thus close the room door, facing this heavy door that his dead cat body couldn't open, he would naturally rather take a hit to go see what the outside looked like!
[HP -1]
Boom!
The immense force slapped directly onto the spine of Suke's dead cat body, but before that, he had already bitten himself, buying one second of invincibility frames.
If it were anyone else, the dead cat's corpse would likely have had its bones shattered by now, instantly slapped into fragments under "Mother's" large hand, flesh and blood turning to powder.
But Suke was different. Borrowing this one second of invincibility frames, he was no longer a stiff dead cat.
Borrowing the force of that adult woman's slap, Suke allowed the momentum to send him flying backward.
He was incredibly close to the ajar door!
Suke's figure darted, accurately drilling into the crack of the door that hadn't had time to close yet!
"Impurity... escaped..."
"Mother" whispered to herself, but she did not chase after him, merely watching Suke head out the door.
Suke didn't look back either, because he needed to get outside to confirm intelligence.
Reincarnations are usually the mental image transformation of psychological trauma; he had to determine exactly what kind of psychological trauma could make Seele give up on herself.
And the moment he rushed out the door, the scene before his eyes changed abruptly.
The Siberian cold wind rolled with ice crystals, tirelessly beating against the heavy stained glass of the Cocolia Orphanage. The lights in the corridor shone down, elongating the shadow of Sin Mal, who was leaning against the wall with twin ponytails.
The girl named Sin Mal felt something was wrong recently.
But she couldn't put her finger on it. Clearly, the people around her had always looked the same, but she felt an illusion as if she had entered a parallel world after waking up in bed one night.
"Whether it's that woman Cocolia, or Bronya and Seele, I feel they've all been a bit strange lately."
"Clearly I've always been like this, so why are they shocked by my recent behavior? Especially Bronya..."
Sin Mal pondered, thinking about the scene where she walked out the door after waking up in the orphanage room one morning, only to be gazed at by Bronya with disgust.
That look seemed to say "You deserve to die," which made Sin Mal quite unhappy. After all, Bronya was just a servant left by her Farmer Brother to watch the house for her.
That Cocolia who was responsible for taking care of them was the same. Originally, Cocolia would come to welcome her like a maid every day, but today she heard from the servants in the orphanage that she went out to work.
This made Sin Mal feel very disappointed, and she couldn't help but miss that gentle man who had promised to one day come pick her up to live permanently at the farm—the "Farmer Brother" who beat away her hated foster parents.
"Bronya."
Walking in the corridor, Sin Mal, lifting her skirt hem, called out to Bronya ahead.
"Do you have time to chat? I have some words I want to discuss with you."
Bronya stopped in the corridor ahead.
She turned around slowly, her movements precise and stable, even the arc of her flying skirt hem looking like it had been strictly calculated.
Those grey eyes were so calm there wasn't a single ripple. She spoke without any emotion:
"Sin Mal, put away your petty thoughts. The same methods won't work on Bronya a second time."
"And don't think about targeting Seele again. I suggest you go back to your room to complete today's physical training before Mother returns."
That was Bronya's voice, yet it wasn't the girl with a hint of ruffianism and sloppiness in Sin's memory.
The Bronya before her eyes was more like someone who only had a similar shell, but whose inside was completely different from Sin's memory.
And the girl named Seele standing behind Bronya made Sin feel even more uncomfortable.
Seele always kept her head down, a smile that was docile to a fault hanging on the corners of her mouth, her hands tightly clasping each other in front of her belly.
Whenever Sin's gaze swept over her, Seele would bow slightly, her movements so standard one couldn't pick out a single flaw.
"Seele thinks so too, Sister Sin."
"Sister Sin had better do her own things. Seele will leave with Sister Bronya first."
Seele spoke softly, her voice sweet like poison coated in honey, while her eyes seemed to be saying, "Be as jealous as you want."
Her pupils were different from Sin Mal's memory; they were red.
"...Self-absorbed psycho."
Sin narrowed her eyes, ignoring them, and brushed straight past.
Sin Mal wasn't stupid.
After meeting that Farmer Brother she admired in the past, she knew there were worlds beyond worlds.
She felt her current situation might be that she had fallen into some parallel world. Just like how everyone around her had completely changed in temperament, this dissonance, as if she didn't belong here, made her feel uncomfortable all over.
And most importantly, she didn't know when she had entered this "parallel world," and she couldn't even find a way to return to her own world—
"Brother..."
"You haven't come to visit Sin for so long. Do you hate Sin now?"
Sin Mal lowered her head, looking at a purple metal ring on her finger. This was a gift that Farmer sent her after the Spirit's Eve festival ended.
He also gave Bronya one, saying this kind of ring could improve a person's combat ability and had a night lighting effect, for them to use for self-protection.
Although Sin hadn't had any combat encounters after that, that is.
Turning the corner, Sin's thoughts unconsciously drifted to that man.
"Farmer Brother... and Little Starfruit, Sin misses you guys..."
Sin didn't really care what parallel world she had come to. After all, she had nothing in her own world anyway, merely a slightly better friendship with the girls named Bronya and Seele.
But with her personality, that "slightly better" was just that. To say she would care about them immensely... that wasn't necessarily true.
Sin unconsciously rubbed the Iridium Band on her fingertip.
And just then, a highly jarring smell drilled into Sin's nasal cavity.
"...?"
That wasn't the smell of Siberian snow, but a complex scent of rot and dryness that felt familiar to Sin.
This smell guided Sin to the dark storage room in the corner of the courtyard where old equipment was piled up.
With a bang, Sin pushed open the crumbling wooden door.
In the dusty and moldy shadows, she saw that thing.
It was a black cat.
Or rather, it was a dried corpse of a cat that had already begun to dehydrate, its spine presenting a grotesquely snapped angle.
Its fur had lost its luster, withered like fallen leaves crushed in autumn.
The most terrifying thing was that on its back, there was a clear depression shaped like an adult woman's palm.
According to common sense, such a creature should have been dead through and through.
But the moment Sin approached, this "dead cat" actually struggled to lift its head.
In its cat eyes, which were already cloudy and even beginning to fester, there was no slackening of a dying animal; instead, they revealed a kind of humanized light of astonishment and helplessness.
The cat opened its mouth. What came from its throat wasn't a meow, but a hoarse sound like a broken bellows pumping air.
Its broken body trembled slightly from the severe pain, but its gaze was locked dead on Sin's face.
In that second, Sin Mal felt as if her heartbeat had stopped.
"...Farmer Brother?"
____
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