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Leo carefully cut a thin, translucent piece of pink tuna sashimi, spread a tiny dab of potent green Wasabi paste on it with his chopsticks, and put it in his mouth.
He chewed thoughtfully. How should he describe it? It was a bit like eating flavorless meat jelly with a sharp, spicy Wasabi kick that cleared his sinuses. The expensive bluefin tuna itself didn't have much of a special, inherent taste to his unrefined palate, and the texture was even a bit uncomfortably oily from the high fat content. Plus, he fundamentally didn't like eating raw food; the cold, slick texture always felt inherently strange and primitive to him.
"How did Miss Sakuya do it last time?"
Leo swallowed the sashimi, wanting to ask how the perfectionist Head Maid had supposedly ruined such a premium ingredient back then. Eating it raw was possible, but he was a working-class commoner and vastly preferred hot, cooked food. Humans had invented fire and the Maillard reaction specifically so they didn't have to eat cold, raw meat.
"She made soup!" Flandre declared, sitting cross-legged on the chair. "Sakuya cut the big fish into thick pieces and boiled them in a huge pot of plain water. Not only did the broth have absolutely no taste, but the texture of the boiled meat was also terrible—like chewing old boots. Even Patchouli didn't want to eat it! But Sakuya, to strictly avoid wasting expensive food, still stood over her and forced Patchouli to eat her entire bowl."
Flandre opened her mouth wide like a baby bird, and Leo obligingly fed her a slice of tuna sashimi with his chopsticks. It wasn't mind-blowingly delicious to the vampire, but it was at least edible compared to boiled fish leather.
The cat, Chen, however, ate with absolute, carnivorous relish. Such a massive, fatty fish was right in her feline wheelhouse, and she was currently sitting on the floor, happily gnawing the remaining meat off the giant, severed fish head.
Leo sighed and carefully wrapped the remaining massive blocks of tuna in plastic film, putting them away in the freezer. Miss Ran hadn't returned from Gensokyo today; it was the second consecutive day he missed the comforting, warm presence of the Great Fox sleeping curled up beside him.
6:00 AM.
After a long night of four heavy Flandres aggressively pressing down on the bed... accompanied by the distant, cheerful laughter of the Little Fairies outside organizing the new animals for the day, Leo struggled to open his heavy eyelids.
He groaned, his chest aching. He physically lifted Flandre #1, who was sprawled entirely over his face and chest, and unceremoniously rolled her to the side, finally able to catch his breath.
Last night, he had dreamt he went to a luxurious underground massage parlor for an intense back stomp. At first in the dream, it was light, little kids like Flandre, Remilia, and Chen doing the stomping, and their cool, tiny bare feet felt very comfortable and relaxing on his sore muscles.
But he didn't know exactly when the dream shifted, and the masseuse suddenly turned into the terrifying Mountain Demon, Suika Ibuki, in her giant, building-sized form. The sweet dream instantly became a crushing nightmare. Leo wanted to sit up and escape the crushing weight, but no matter how much he physically struggled in his sleep, it was useless. He only finally woke up when he was legitimately about to suffocate.
Sitting up, he picked up the sleeping black cat from the foot of the bed and took a deep, comforting sniff of her sun-baked fur, forcibly dispelling the lingering nightmare memories from his groggy mind.
Leo then methodically stacked the four Flandres, who were currently sleeping like boneless sables, one directly on top of the other in a chaotic blonde pile on the mattress. Ghost pressing on the bed, huh? He was very petty. He was actively inheriting the Lost Home's ancient, ancestral pettiness. Hmph. See how you like being crushed.
After washing his face with cold water and leaving the cabin, he saw Kagerou Imaizumi trudging wearily toward the Secret Forest. She was heading to the large, magical lake—which Leo had creatively officially named 'Fairy Spring'—to fetch the glowing water for the high-yield crops.
This walking distance was indeed a bit too far and physically grueling for daily chores. Leo rubbed his chin, seriously considering whether he needed to hire Robin to build a massive wooden water tower, or hire the Kappa to divert a physical canal. Otherwise, running this exhausting marathon distance every single day carrying heavy metal watering cans... Leo felt his conscience ache. He felt a little uneasy, like he'd be cursed by karma if he didn't literally kowtow to Kagerou a couple of times in apology for the labor abuse.
After efficiently harvesting today's mature parsnips and potatoes, Leo left the farm boundaries with a heavy sense of capitalist guilt. Looking up at the quaint, flickering streetlights in Pelican Town, he suddenly felt a strange, phantom itch on his neck, as if someone was watching him.
He strolled up the mountain path to the Kappa Heavy Industries office. The Kappa crew were currently taking a break on the porch, having a bizarre traditional breakfast: raw, crunchy cucumbers dipped aggressively in sweet strawberry jam, paired with salty pickled vegetables and spicy Wasabi paste.
Leo curiously took a bite offered by a worker, and the horrific, clashing, strange mixed taste immediately made him shiver violently. He politely didn't dip his cucumber again, quickly ate two refreshing, plain cucumbers to cleanse his palate, and then followed Nitori Kawashiro into the newly finished, elegant main office.
"Boss, what's the grand order for today?" Nitori slammed her hands on the polished wooden desk, her eyes practically shaped like gold coins. "The main office building is 100% complete, and the Little Kappa interns have been entirely freed up from their graduation projects. The Livestock Shed upgrades, the Granary, the Yakumo Residence, and the Hot Springs—which were unfortunately delayed—can now proceed at absolute full throttle! Plus, with the integration of the former Yamawaro Heavy Industries personnel, we can now double our Town Center output and mass-produce cheap workers!"
A glass of refreshing, iced cucumber juice was smoothly pushed across the desk in front of Leo. Nitori was now absolutely full of corporate vigor, having completely unleashed the company's total production capacity. Kappa Heavy Industries could now comfortably undertake any massive commission.
"Dig a canal," Leo stated firmly, taking a sip of the green juice. "From the Fairy Spring deep in the Secret Forest, all the way to the main farm for automated irrigation. At the same time, the trenching must absolutely not negatively affect the farm's natural aesthetics. And... it should also be designed to allow for recreational water slides."
Leo had thought hard about the logistics for a long time on the walk over here and finally decided to build a flowing canal. A lonely, towering wooden water tower was just too ugly and industrial for his idyllic farm. A wide, flowing canal could not only be used for infinite, automated crop irrigation, but also for raising freshwater fish, and even serve as a massive entertainment facility for an exciting, high-speed water slide, running all the way from the Fairy Spring in the Secret Forest directly to the farmhouse door.
As for managing the extreme topographical height difference down the mountain? The almighty, engineering geniuses of Kappa Heavy Industries surely had a technological solution.
"Hiss, I need to stand up for this."
Nitori's greedy expression instantly vanished, replaced by dead serious, professional calculation. She stood up from her chair, unrolling a topographic map of the valley.
This proposed canal project was not much smaller in physical scale than building the entire office complex. However, the overall engineering difficulty was extremely low—it was just digging a ditch—so they couldn't justify charging a massive premium for it; it wouldn't make much pure profit. It was purely exhausting, brute-force manual labor. She had to figure out how to complete this massive commission with the absolute least internal cost to her company.
"We'll take this commission. I'll go for an immediate site inspection and then give you a formal quote, Boss."
After politely seeing Leo out of the beautiful office doors, Nitori immediately strapped on her heavy, waterproof engineering backpack and jogged all the way down the mountain, through the woods, arriving breathless at the Hero's Hut.
"This... this is a bit ridiculous."
Standing inside the hut and looking at the crayon-drawn map hanging on the wall, Nitori's mouth fell slightly agape. She looked at the sheer, terrifying physical distance from the lake to the farm with a slight, phantom chest pain.
A canal was just about digging dirt channels, installing wooden waterwheels, and managing water pressure and height differences. Was it technologically difficult? Not at all. There was absolutely no high-level technical content involved. If Leo had asked for intricate stone carvings or magical protective paintings lining the canal, they could have heavily upcharged and made a lot of money. But this pure, endless manual labor of moving tons of dirt was quite exhausting and highly unprofitable for her skilled workforce.
After taking the Little Fairies' glowing teleportation array to inspect the actual lake site and taking some quick measurements, Nitori formed a ruthless corporate plan. She took out her glowing ID Card, swiped it, and returned directly to Gensokyo.
Youkai Mountain, the absolute largest Youkai gathering place in all of Gensokyo, has an extremely complex, rigid social and political composition.
At the watery foot of the mountain is the bustling, industrialized headquarters of the Kappa. Halfway up the treacherous slopes is the territory of the Tengu Tribe, who act as the police and officially manage Youkai Mountain. At the very peak, touching the clouds, is the Moriya Shrine, a faction of outsider gods which aggressively dares to compete with the Hakurei Shrine for human faith. The Lost Home of the Sage of Youkai, Yukari Yakumo, is also hidden somewhere deep within the mountain's distorted boundaries. From time to time, one can also see minor local gods—like the Aki Sisters of autumn or Hina Kagiyama of misfortune—appearing in the mountain forests, as well as various terrifying Great Youkai living in deep seclusion.
A random, blind Magic Cannon shot fired into the trees might easily hit some strange, ancient person; on Youkai Mountain, the Sage of Youkai is not even as common as a stray dog, and literal gods are everywhere.
Nitori maliciously planned to completely outsource this grueling ditch-digging commission. If Kappa Heavy Industries did the manual labor themselves, they would earn very little profit and tie up all their skilled workers for weeks. It was infinitely better corporate strategy to outsource the raw labor to others, collect a finder's fee, and even gain a political favor in the process.
Mountain Peak, Moriya Shrine.
"So that's the topographical situation. I'll trouble you with this commission." Nitori sat confidently on the tatami mats, sipping green tea. "You want to spread your Shrine's faith to a new world, right? Now is the absolute best time to seize the Stardew market before Reimu does. No need for financial thanks; just consider it a massive favor owed to me."
A truly good, ruthless merchant can profit heavily from both ends of a deal. Nitori seamlessly outsourced this backbreaking labor commission to the gods of the Moriya Shrine, who desperately wanted to spread their faith and show off their miracles to Leo. Not only would Leo's side pay Kappa Heavy Industries a hefty management commission fee, but the Moriya Shrine would also sincerely thank Nitori for the golden diplomatic opportunity.
It was a win-win; which meant Kappa Heavy Industries won twice.
"Alright, consider it a favor. I'll take this."
The small, blonde native goddess, Suwako Moriya, happily accepted this commission, her frog-themed hat bobbing. Minor, massive-scale terrain modifications and moving earth were an absolute piece of cake for her divine earth-manipulation authority. She knew exactly what that cunning, greedy merchant Nitori was thinking. However, being able to directly interact with and owe a favor to the Lord of that new, incredibly resource-rich world was easily worth the physical effort, so owing the Kappa this favor was perfectly fine.
Meanwhile, completely unaware of the divine, corporate outsourcing happening behind his back, Leo was on his way walking through Pelican Town to the Seaside.
Passing a house, he habitually, instinctively reached out and flipped the lid to rummage through a nearby metal trash can. This was a deeply ingrained, subconscious gamer action.
But just as he found nothing and was about to let the heavy metal lid clang shut without even looking inside, exactly as usual, his hand was abruptly stopped by a weak, pathetic voice echoing from the smelly depths of the bin.
"Wait... cough... I'm sunbathing for a bit. Don't close it yet."