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"Let's do it exactly right here. In such a small, completely remote place, surely absolutely no one will accidentally come by to bother me."
Emerging cautiously from the thick Cindersap woods, Aya Shameimaru walked silently into this incredibly small, modest wooden cabin near the rushing river. She had meticulously scouted this abandoned place long ago as a backup darkroom; it was located safely directly below the forest lake, far south of the main farm. Usually, even hyperactive explorers like Flandre and Hong Meiling rarely ever came this far down river, and there were absolutely no other useful facilities around, making it absolutely perfect for her to safely hide here and work in peace.
"Honestly, thinking about it now, the massive Community Center really wasn't physically suitable for my work anyway. It's far too huge and incredibly conspicuous, sitting right on top of a hill with the entire town directly below it. Absolutely all Youkai can effortlessly fly; if any of them simply got bored one day and magically decided to take a slow stroll around the roof, my entire hidden operation would be instantly exposed."
After setting her heavy canvas camera bags down on the dusty floorboards, Aya Shameimaru immediately took out a thick piece of opaque, black darkroom cloth and began meticulously tacking it up to completely cover the single window.
Once she professionally ensured the room was completely, tightly sealed from any outside light, she struck a match, lit a single, thick wax candle on the small wooden desk, and began writing furiously by the flickering, dim yellow light, her pen scratching loudly against the paper.
Eirin Yagokoro had already officially, completely wiped her massive financial debt and trespassing charges clean, but Aya Shameimaru genuinely felt a bit psychologically awkward and completely lacked any journalistic inspiration if she didn't actively write secretively exactly like this. Only the terrifying, adrenaline-pumping tension of being violently discovered at any moment—imagining with dread the heavy footsteps of those powerful targets seeking bloody revenge wandering just outside her thin door, and the massive thrill of absolutely not knowing when someone might violently burst in for a brutal 'door-opening kill'—could successfully make her creative inspiration explode onto the page!
On the other side of the valley, at the farm.
"Big Brother! Big Brother! Is Sister Remilia officially moving here too?!"
After awkwardly seeing off Remilia and her battered group into the night, Flandre immediately, excitedly ran out from her hiding spot at the corner of the stairs, her crystal wings chiming. If that were actually the case, she could happily play with Meiling in the mud every single day from now on! It was simply a wonderful, exciting prospect!
"Yeah, temporarily," Leo yawned, rubbing his eyes. "By the way, Miss Hong Meiling officially won a full month of fresh milk delivery as the grand prize, didn't she? You'll absolutely be the one to reliably deliver it tomorrow morning as rent. Remember, you must strictly set off at 7:00 AM sharp every single morning to the Community Center on the hill. Absolutely don't be late or your sister will complain."
Roughly, affectionately ruffling Flandre's blonde head, Leo hurriedly rushed back to the master bedroom, carried the sleeping cat Chen and Kogasa outside to the nursery, and then aggressively slammed the front door shut with a loud bang, locking it tight. It absolutely hadn't been physically or politically easy to successfully settle things with Yukari Yakumo on the floor earlier, so he had to aggressively make the most of these precious few days of privacy.
In particular, he genuinely felt frighteningly, impossibly strong right now. When the absolute first Bandit King event ended, a massive, glowing second Stardrop fruit had miraculously appeared in his hand from the system. After eagerly eating this sweet, magical fruit, his raw physical fitness had skyrocketed and officially reached the terrifying baseline level of a Great Youkai.
Although he mathematically still absolutely couldn't safely go toe-to-toe with martial arts masters like Hong Meiling or terrifying powerhouses like Yuuka Kazami in a real fight, he could now effortlessly, safely pin the ancient Yukari Yakumo completely down on the floor for a humiliating round of Ansai Waist Drumming (spanking) without even needing to use a single drop of magic!
The quiet night passed with much passionate business left unsaid behind locked doors.
Just as the tropical sky began to slowly brighten with dawn the next morning, Flandre enthusiastically jumped out of bed. After quickly getting dressed in her frilly clothes, she immediately ran outside to the massive Livestock Shed to patiently wait for Youmu Konpaku to come and officially open the heavy wooden door.
For easy, organized differentiation, the heavy wooden crates for the delivery milk were placed strictly separately inside the Livestock Shed, which massively facilitated both the morning sorting and the complex dairy production process. There was a long row of heavy wooden cheese presses specifically located at the entrance of the Livestock Shed; one only needed to simply pour the fresh, warm milk directly in. Harvesting massive wheels of aged cheese every morning and putting in new fresh milk resulted in an incredibly high, profitable output for Leo.
"Sister Youmu! Hurry up and open the heavy door! I urgently need to go deliver the premium milk to my Sister!"
Seeing the silver-haired Youmu slowly walking over through the morning dew while heavily yawning, Flandre immediately followed her closely holding a sturdy bamboo basket. This specific, high-quality basket had been meticulously woven by Kagerou Imaizumi using tough wolf hair and contained fixed, padded supports inside specifically designed for the heavy glass milk bottles to completely prevent any tragic breaking accidents during transport.
Absolutely only Youmu Konpaku had the metal key to the Livestock Shed. Leo was strictly guarding against the massive swarm of little ones sneaking in for midnight snacks; absolutely no one in this house could ever willingly refuse fresh dairy products unless they had a severe protein allergy.
Leo himself absolutely loved aggressively eating dry milk powder straight from the can. If a massive, open bag of premium milk powder was placed directly in front of him on the table, he genuinely didn't even need any water to mix it; he could happily finish the whole entire bag just by greedily eating the dry powder with a spoon. It was just a massive pity that today's modern milk powder on Earth wasn't nearly as fragrant and rich as it was before, tasting as bland and thin as tap water.
"Here. Exactly five bottles of premium pure milk for the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Please be very careful on the dirt road, don't accidentally break the glass bottles. Starting exactly tomorrow morning, remember to diligently collect the empty bottles from them. No empty bottle returned, no new milk given. Got it?"
Youmu carefully took out the freezing, heavy glass milk bottles with crisp Stardew Valley labels directly from the crate and loaded them into the basket. This specific batch of durable bottles was custom-made by Kappa Heavy Industries and could be easily sterilized and recycled; otherwise, it would be far too financially wasteful and create massive amounts of unmanageable glass trash on the farm.
"Got it! We're leaving right now!"
Happily carrying the heavy bamboo basket, the four identical Flandres synchronously jogged away from the peaceful farm. As they cheerfully walked along the dirt road toward the town, four massive, aggressive stomach growls suddenly echoed loudly on the quiet path...
"Wait... have we... absolutely not eaten any breakfast yet?" "Yeah..." "Did absolutely any of you clones smartly bring any food with us?!"
The three Flandre clones stopped and discussed worriedly while rubbing their rumbling bellies, and then their glowing red eyes simultaneously, hungrily turned toward the heavy bamboo basket currently held by the Main Body.
"Reasonably speaking... we technically count as official members of the Scarlet Devil Mansion too, right?" "If we just carefully take one tiny, little sip, Sister Remilia probably won't even magically notice, right?"
The Main Body Flandre, nervously clutching the heavy basket to her chest, was violently forced backward step by step under the shade of a massive oak tree. Only when her back firmly touched the rough trunk did she terrifiedly realize she was completely surrounded by her three identical, hungry clones. Looking at the three menacing little devils creeping toward her, the Main Body shivered violently, placed the basket carefully on the grass, and immediately crouched down defensively with her hands covering her head.
Pop, pop, pop.
Unscrewing a metal cap, the three clones each eagerly took a massive sip from a bottle. The incredibly rich, sweet milky aroma immediately made them sigh and squint their eyes in absolute, sugary bliss. Licking their white lips and suddenly seeing that the first bottle was now terrifyingly one-fifth completely empty, they quickly opened the other four full bottles to carefully pour and mathematically even things out a bit so it wasn't obvious.
Job perfectly done; it looked perfectly fine, almost completely no different from before they greedily drank...
"How about... exactly one last, tiny sip?"
After another massive, chaotic round of pouring and aggressive sipping, the five glass bottles of milk were visibly no longer as full as before, but they were still somewhat, barely passable as full if one didn't look too closely. Seeing the three little devils finally put the glass bottles back down on the grass, the Main Body Flandre finally looked up cautiously, nervously preparing to quickly pick up the basket and run.
"No! Wait! If the Main Body absolutely doesn't drink any milk with us, what if she maliciously sells us out to our Sister later for a reward?! We absolutely have to drag her completely down with us in this crime! You two, violently hold her down in the dirt! Today, the Main Body drinks the milk whether she wants to or not!"
One clone suddenly thought of something terrifying and violently held down the bamboo basket, giving the other two an evil, knowing look. She quickly pulled out a half-full bottle of fresh milk and aggressively, violently poured several massive gulps directly into the pinned Main Body's screaming mouth!
Gulp, gulp, gulp!
...??
Only a tiny, pathetic splash of milk remained at the very bottom of the glass bottle. The clone put the empty bottle down on the grass with an incredibly sour, betrayed expression. After frantically trying to pour the remaining liquid back and forth between the bottles a couple of times, she tragically found that absolutely no matter how she mathematically balanced it, the overall volume was obviously, undeniably missing quite a massive bit!
"Darned Main Body! She was completely baiting us! She greedily drank way more by herself just now than the three of us combined!" "What exactly do we do now?! Sister is going to kill us!" "In for a penny, in for an absolute pound! Let's just aggressively pour absolutely what's left directly into the other bottles to make exactly four completely full ones! Then when we finally get up there, we'll just convincingly say the clumsy Main Body was playing around on the rocky path and accidentally dropped and broke one!"
Looking angrily at the Main Body, who just lazily let out a massive, highly satisfied, milk-scented burp while lying in the grass, the clone Flandre made a ruthless decision through gritted fangs.
"Um... I think if we're going to convincingly lie and say they completely broke, saying exactly only one randomly broke is a bit... highly unrealistic for our reputation." "Oh~~ you mean...?"
The clone Flandre who was carefully putting the four full bottles back into the basket completely paused upon hearing the other clone's dark words and looked over with an incredibly subtle, chaotic glint in her red eyes.
"I genuinely think we should be biologically able to withstand the physical beating from Sister. If it really tragically comes down to it and she gets her spear, we'll absolutely all just violently disperse into mist and let the slow Main Body completely take the entire fall!"
One clone made a very, very constructive, evil suggestion. The three clones looked at each other in complete silence for a tense moment and finally absolutely couldn't help but burst out into loud, chaotic, manic laughter.
"Do it!" "Bottoms entirely up!" "Keep the loud music playing, absolutely keep the dancing going!"
Seeing the three chaotic clones happily sitting on the grass completely draining the remaining bottles, looking a bit woozy and milk-drunk in the sun, the Main Body Flandre looked down sadly at the very last, full bottle of fresh milk remaining in the basket. Gritting her fangs and aggressively stamping her foot in the dirt, she decisively picked up the bottle, twisted off the metal cap, and started aggressively chugging the entire thing.
I'm my sister's actual biological sister, she absolutely can't possibly beat me to actual death over breakfast!