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"I actually still have some premium strawberries right here! Let's share them with everyone to celebrate."
Under Leo's completely shocked, wide-eyed gaze, Aya Shameimaru didn't pull the fruit from her pockets. Instead, she flew gracefully up to the second-floor wooden balcony of the ruined Farmhouse. With a mischievous grin, she reached into a large, decorative ceramic flowerpot that Nitori Kawashiro had previously given Leo as a housewarming gift. She aggressively pulled up the blooming decorative flowers by the roots, along with a massive clump of damp soil, revealing dozens of perfectly pristine, glowing Gold-star strawberries meticulously wrapped in waterproof lotus leaves hidden deep inside the dirt.
"The most dangerous place is always the safest place," Aya declared proudly, flying back down and presenting the muddy bundle. "Lord Megumu's nose is far too sharp; no matter where I hide them on Youkai Mountain or in the forest, they'll inevitably be sniffed out and confiscated. So, I secretly hid my private stash directly inside your own house, young man! This way, even if Lord Megumu physically smells them from afar, she absolutely wouldn't dare to rudely rummage through the World Lord's personal home."
(The Moriya Shrine goddesses, whose sacred temple had been violently broken into and ransacked by Megumu just earlier that week looking for fruit: Are you absolutely serious right now?!)
"The few strawberries she violently found in my tree vault yesterday were just cheap, non-star decoys I put out on purpose as a sacrifice. That way, Lord Megumu wouldn't suspect I was still hoarding the good stuff."
Aya triumphantly plucked a glowing strawberry from the muddy leaves, wiped it on her shirt, and tossed it high into her mouth. Tasting the intense, magical sweet and sour flavor bursting on her tongue, she squinted her red eyes in absolute, smug comfort.
Seriously, I'm genuinely impressed, Leo thought, his jaw slack. These Tengu have actually learned complex, Sun Tzu-level military deception tactics entirely for the sake of hoarding some magical Stardew Valley strawberries.
Leo quickly stepped forward and physically stopped the swarming Fairy Swarm and the drooling Flandres, who were aggressively crowding around Aya to eat the raw strawberries. These were literally the absolute last of the precious crop stock from before the farm's total reconstruction; just eating them raw and unbuffed directly would be far too much of a culinary waste.
"Flandre, bring out your Lævateinn and get a steady, low fire going. Cirno, get ready to freeze things on my mark. I'm going to make something incredibly delicious for you all today to celebrate our survival."
Leo walked over to his salvaged outdoor kitchen setup. He took out a small, heavy-bottomed copper milk pot, poured in half a bag of refined white sugar, added just a splash of fresh spring water, and carefully held it over the magical, controlled flames of Flandre's greatsword. He kept stirring the slurry constantly with wooden chopsticks to prevent burning.
Soon, an incredibly thick, intoxicatingly sweet caramel aroma wafted out over the smoking craters. The Little Fairies, who had been pouting and kicking the dirt unhappily at being denied the raw fruit, immediately stopped and put on wide-eyed expressions of intense, drooling anticipation, their translucent wings buzzing rapidly.
Once the bubbling sugar in the copper pot had turned into a rich, golden syrup that could be pulled into fine, glassy threads with the chopsticks, Leo moved quickly. He took a clean piece of leftover cedar wood, tapped it sharply with his Gold Axe to instantly splinter it into a pile of smooth wooden skewers, carefully skewered a string of five bright red strawberries, and expertly ladled a thick, glistening spoonful of hot syrup over the fruit, coating them evenly.
"Cirno, quick! Use Icy Wind!"
"Got it!"
A sudden, freezing blast of wind heavily mixed with biting bits of snowflakes immediately hit Leo's face, perfectly enveloping the skewered strawberries in his hand. The still-steaming, dripping golden syrup instantly flash-froze into a flawless, glass-like hard sugar shell.
"Achoo!"
Sneezing violently from the sudden cold and completely ignoring the dozens of tiny, grabbing fairy hands desperately reaching out in front of his knees, Leo brought the glistening Strawberry Tanghulu to his mouth and bit one off the stick.
CRUNCH.
The thin, perfectly crispy sugar shell shattered into delicious, glassy pieces in his mouth with a loud, satisfying crunch. Chewing the caramel together with the juicy, magical strawberry flesh, the intense sweetness perfectly balanced and overpowered the strawberry's natural tartness. Combined with the icy-cold, refreshing texture from Cirno's magic, it was an absolute, undisputed culinary delight.
"Not bad at all. Ah— open wide."
The little ones all instinctively opened their mouths wide like starving baby birds waiting to be fed, their eyes fixed on the skewer. But Leo smiled mischievously and still didn't give the second candied strawberry to the Fairy Swarm. Instead, he made a smooth pivot and gently sent the skewer directly to Ran Yakumo's soft lips.
Ran completely froze for a moment, her fox ears standing straight up, and then her beautiful face immediately turned a furious, burning shade of red. This was the absolute first time in her long life someone had romantically hand-fed her. As for Lady Yukari... forget it. It was already a massive, miraculous blessing if Lady Yukari didn't aggressively squeeze in to snatch a bite off Ran's plate when she was eating her own meals.
"Thank... thank you, Lord Leo. It's delicious," Ran murmured, taking a delicate bite, her tails wagging slightly behind her in happiness.
The third candied strawberry went to the black cat, Chen, who was aggressively climbing up Leo's pants leg. The fourth went to Kogasa Tatara sitting heavily on his shoulder, who looked completely indifferent but was actively, impatiently tugging at his earlobe with her small hand to get his attention.
The fifth went to Cirno, who had provided the crucial freezing magic. As for the very last, perfect strawberry on the skewer...
The three Flandre clones all looked hungrily at the final treat in the Main Body's hand. Intense, murderous malice rose simultaneously in their vampiric hearts, and they instantly broke into a violent, rolling scuffle in the dirt, biting and pulling each other's hair.
"Lord Leo, good morning! ...Mmph! Munch, munch, munch... oh wow, this is incredibly delicious!"
During the chaotic, tumbling fight, that last remaining candied strawberry accidentally slipped out of Flandre's hand and flew high into the air. It soared gracefully over the heads of the countless Little Fairies jumping up to catch it, and landed with absolute, terrifying geometric precision directly into the open mouth of Hong Meiling, who had literally just stepped out of the glowing dimensional passage to cheerfully say hello.
"Patchouli Knowledge! Waaaah! Give me back my strawberry you thief!"
The four Flandres immediately stopped fighting each other and all pounced violently on the confused Hong Meiling, tackling the tall martial artist to the dirt.
It was exactly like this every single time back home; the asthmatic librarian Patchouli Knowledge's mouth seemed to have some kind of terrifying, underlying cosmic logic attached to it. Every single time Flandre violently fought with her sister Remilia over the last cupcake or rare snacks, those sweet things would inevitably fly up into the air due to various mysterious, chaotic AOE blasts and eventually land precisely, defying all physics, directly into Patchouli's waiting mouth.
"My mistake! My mistake! Be good, Second Miss, please stop biting my arm! I'm actually here for serious, official business today!"
Meiling desperately comforted the crying, biting Flandres while frantically explaining the formal reason for her visit to Leo.
The Eldest Miss, Remilia, had also secretly come to the Stardew scene yesterday evening to help magically block the meteorites from a distance. Seeing the beautiful farm reduced to a smoking, cratered wasteland because of her sister's actions, she felt a rare twinge of aristocratic guilt. She officially sent her strongest physical laborer, Meiling, over today to help rebuild.
She was supposed to arrive bright and early in the morning, but the notoriously lazy Gatekeeper had accidentally overslept her alarm. Right now, Meiling still had three of Miss Sakuya's lethal silver throwing knives deeply stuck in her forehead as punishment for her tardiness.
"Alright, alright! The second massive skewer is ready! Who wants it?! If you want to eat, go grab a clean wooden skewer from the pile and carefully skewer the raw strawberries yourselves! Line up and come to me for the hot syrup!"
Handing the second finished skewer to Aya—who had actually contributed the stolen strawberries in the first place—Leo gave a loud, cheerful shout.
The pile of wooden skewers was snatched up instantly by the swarming fairies. The Little Fairies crowded together happily to skewer their own strawberries, chattering excitedly. Even the terrifying Yuuka Kazami, who had silently followed the sweet smell from the roof, wordlessly walked over, elegantly took a wooden skewer, and got in line with the fairies.
Lunch lasted for a full, chaotic two hours of sugar highs and sticky fingers. Only after absolutely everyone was completely satisfied, their faces sticky with sugar and full of energy, did the grueling afternoon reconstruction work officially begin.
Leo's heavy physical tilling work was immediately, forcefully replaced by Hong Meiling. As the absolute physical benchmark of raw martial strength in Gensokyo, the physically powerful Meiling had a completely different, brutal working style compared to the other Youkai who delicately played with magic and ranged abilities.
Hong Meiling Race: Youkai Ability: Ability to manipulate Qi and martial arts. Occupation: Gatekeeper of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, Gardener. Residence: Scarlet Devil Mansion, Scarlet Devil Mansion Gate. Unlock Condition: Second Miss Flandre has been away from home for a total of 20 days (Achieved).
Rolling up the sleeves of her green qipao to reveal toned muscles, Meiling cheerfully picked up a heavy iron hoe and began tilling the ruined, compacted soil at a terrifying speed far exceeding a modern diesel tractor. The scorched ground, which had been smashed incredibly hard into solid rock by the kinetic force of the meteorites, was absolutely no different from soft beach sand in Meiling's Qi-infused hands. She quickly and perfectly tilled all the massive agricultural land according to the precise blueprints marked out by the Kappa engineers.
Leo was gently but firmly shooed over to the Kappa's side of the farm to manually strike the smaller, leftover ores with his pickaxe. Mingling physically with these overpowered Youkai in the main fields, Leo's pitiful, mortal stamina and working speed was absolutely no different from a toddler getting in the way of heavy machinery.
Beside him, Nitori Kawashiro looked at the massive piles of glowing Iridium and Gold ores littering the ground, her lips curling up uncontrollably into a greedy, capitalist grin. If it weren't for the fact that laughing out loud might maliciously touch the Boss Leo's sore spot regarding his destroyed crops, Nitori would have already burst out laughing like a cartoon villain.
This massive reconstruction help today was completely, 100% free! Rebuilding the shattered Farmhouse, including digging the massive, complex canal from the Fairy Lake all the way to the farm—Nitori absolutely wouldn't charge Leo a single cent for the labor! All free!
Because the Boss physically wouldn't be able to use or store all these thousands of Fallen Meteorite ores himself. What about the massive excess? They'd still have to be sold directly to Kappa Heavy Industries at a wholesale discount! Moreover, the rare mineral scraps left over from the industrial processing would also earn her company an absolute fortune on the black market. If she weren't deeply, fundamentally afraid of catching the lingering aura of misfortune from Ishin Shion, Nitori would really want to run over, hug the Poverty God, and give her a massive kiss for bringing this lucrative disaster.
After a quick, profitable trip back to Gensokyo to finalize the subcontracting, Nitori officially invited Suwako Moriya over to the valley. Although the ancient Goddess in charge of the Earth had lost much of her original faith in the modern era, Leo's continuous, sincere, daily agricultural faith over the past month had allowed Suwako's divine terraforming abilities to recover quite a bit. Not to her absolute peak, but more than enough for this job.
With a wave of Suwako's small hand and a croak of a frog, the ground automatically sank and parted like the Red Sea to form a massive, perfectly smooth trench. It extended effortlessly all the way from the glowing Fairy Lake deep in the Secret Forest, straight through the farm for irrigation, and then connected safely to the main river over by Pelican Town to prevent flooding. They just needed to patiently wait for Kappa Heavy Industries to finish building a massive, functional waterwheel at the Fairy Lake for the new canal to have flowing water.
The Little Kappa interns, who were already prepared with tools and hardhats, took their waterproof materials and immediately began to work on lining the canal. Since the farm's surface had been completely, brutally wiped clean by the meteors this time, there was absolutely no need to worry about accidentally trampling or damaging delicate crops during the heavy construction. Nitori planned to efficiently do it all in one massive go, completing the initial, high-end landscaping and water-slide features directly while the ground was clear.