The girl named Sin Mal didn't know when she started becoming different from everyone else.
When her biological parents were killed by thugs right before her eyes,
And when one of her eyes was scorched by the flames,
The world in her eyes began to change.
"Sin, the teacher praised you for being absolutely perfect in today's etiquette class."
The pig-headed man sitting at the head of the table put down his silver knife and fork, the smile on his fat face squeezing together,
"As expected of our daughter. You are much more outstanding than those noble young ladies."
The woman, whose head was a stack of banknotes, gracefully opened her folding fan. The portrait on the banknote opened its mouth to make a sound.
"Yes, Father, Mother."
Sin Mal.
This young girl, looking like an exquisite doll, was sitting upright on a velvet chair.
A complex and gorgeous lace dress adorned her petite body, and her long hair, tied in twin tails of purple and pink, covered half of her face.
Faced with the praise of her adoptive father and mother, she only lowered her head slightly, hands folded on her lap,
Revealing a textbook-standard smile in response.
"This is what I should do. It is my honor to receive such praise."
"What a good child."
"As long as you remain obedient and do as we ask, we will always love you—
Just like your biological parents."
Always love me... really?
Sin did not say anything more.
If she hadn't accidentally discovered this man and woman discussing with a noble about selling her to him as a concubine,
With no one to rely on, she might have truly believed this nonsense.
"Sin is full, Father, Mother."
"May Sin return to her room to review tomorrow's lessons?"
"Go ahead, don't overwork yourself."
——It would be bad if it affected this carefully made-up beauty; that was the implication behind their words.
Having received permission, Sin stood up gracefully to curtsy, then turned and walked toward the corridor leading to her room.
She walked softly, as if afraid of attracting anyone's attention.
Sin Mal opened the door to her room,
And closed the heavy oak door behind her with a click,
Completely isolating her world from the foul air breathed by that man and woman.
"Hypocritical."
"Disgusting."
"Just looking at them makes me want to vomit... Why don't creatures like humans just all die?"
The girl murmured in a low voice, a heart-palpitating chill seeping through her words.
She knew it all too well.
This man and woman, who claimed to be her distant relatives and adopted her for the inheritance,
What they liked was not Sin Mal,
But that doll who inherited a massive fortune, was obedient, sensible, and dared not defy their orders.
Furthermore, they were planning to sell this doll for a good price.
"Only you won't lie to me, right?"
"Starfruit?"
Sin walked quickly to the locked cabinet in the corner of the room.
She took out a small key from her dress and gently opened the cabinet door.
There were no precious treasures inside the cabinet; instead, it was lined with thick, soft cotton wadding.
Nestled in the middle of that cotton was a round, yellow creature emitting a faint, warm glow.
It looked like a yellow apple that had grown arms and legs, with small black eyes about the size of mung beans.
That was the only color Sin Mal could see in this world with her fire-scorched eye.
"Jiu?"
Hearing the commotion, the little guy rubbed its eyes and poked its head out of the cotton.
The moment it saw Sin, the antenna on top of its head, resembling a leaf stalk, swayed happily.
"Starfruit~"
Sin reached out her hand. The instant her gaze touched this little guy, a trace of eerie fanaticism melted into her expression.
She held the Junimo named "Starfruit" in her palms, rubbing its jelly-like body.
"So warm..."
"Only Starfruit is warm. It's so cold outside, and those humans are all monsters too..."
Sin pinched this Junimo as if clutching a life-saving straw, greedily inhaling its scent of sunlight and soil.
She had picked it up by the dry well in the mansion's garden a month ago.
At that time, the little guy was hiding in a snowdrift, shivering, looking like it was about to freeze stiff.
Although she didn't know what kind of creature it was, perhaps because it looked pleasing to the eye, Sin brought it home.
But unexpectedly, not only did this little thing survive,
It could also speak in her mind,
And would even tell her stories.
Tell a story...
About a place named "Stardew Valley," a place that didn't seem like it could exist in these times.
"Jiu! Starfruit, jiu jiu~!"
(You're back! Those scary people didn't hurt you, did they?)
Starfruit hopped in Sin's palm, making crisp sounds in Sin's mind.
The scary people it spoke of were naturally Sin's adoptive parents.
Junimos have no gender and cannot comprehend human appearances; in their eyes, only kindness and evil are visible.
Just like the current Sin.
Though, unfortunately, since her parents passed away, she had never seen the former.
"No, I am the perfect Lady Sin, after all."
Sin sat by the bed and placed Starfruit on her lap—on the expensive silk skirt hem she would absolutely never allow to get wrinkled normally.
She poked Starfruit with her finger, her eyes becoming somewhat yearning:
"Starfruit, tell me more."
"Tell me the story of that farm in your hometown."
"Starfruit~!"
Starfruit seemed very happy to share its hometown.
It waved its short, thin little hands, beginning to describe that world which, to Sin living in a land of extreme cold, was as distant as a fairy tale.
"Roses that never wither..."
"And green rain that makes plants sing happily? Melons as big as carriages that appear occasionally?"
Sin listened, the faint light emitted by the Junimo reflecting in her heterochromatic pupils.
"And that... Farmer."
When mentioning this word, Sin's voice suddenly lowered a few notches.
That was an emotion named jealousy breeding, one she hadn't even noticed herself.
In Starfruit's description, that Farmer was an omnipotent existence.
Although Starfruit itself hadn't met that Farmer either.
But the will of Yoba told them that the new Farmer was a very good person.
He conquered loneliness alone and revived that desolate field.
He took in the homeless, fulfilling the path of "Return."
Of course, he had also prepared sweet Sweet Gem Berries waiting for the Junimos to return, and was currently crossing thousands of rivers and mountains to find them.
The Junimos would like this new Farmer; this was Yoba's promise.
"You haven't even met him, so how are you so sure he's a good person?"
Sin's fingers tightened unconsciously, pinching Starfruit until it let out a cry of pain,
"What if he's actually a bad guy? Just like those humans?"
"Starfruit!"
(Yoba never lies; Junimos believe him!)
Starfruit put its hands on its hips unconvinced. Although the girl pinched it until it hurt, it didn't mind.
Junimos never care about the malice occasionally revealed by others, as long as the person is kind by nature.
Starfruit did not notice that Sin's gaze had become somewhat dangerous.
Why?
Why can a tiny "apple" have such a warm place to return to?
While she, Sin Mal,
Has to play the role of a marionette every day in this freezing manor, cautiously fawning over that profit-seeking couple?
"Hey, Starfruit."
Sin suddenly brought her face close to Starfruit, a gloomy light flickering in those heterochromatic eyes.
That bizarrely sweet smile made the Little Junimo somewhat afraid:
"Do you think that Farmer is even better than Sin?"
"Sin gave you the best sugar cubes to eat, made the softest nest for you. In order not to let you be discovered,
Sin acts desperately in front of those two humans every day..."
"In the end, inside Starfruit's heart, you actually still want to leave, right?"
"Starfruit...?" The Little Junimo sharply sensed that Sin's mood was wrong.
It shrank its body, rubbing its two little hands together somewhat at a loss.
Of course, it didn't dislike Sin; she was the one who saved it.
But it didn't belong here. Yoba told them they needed to return.
There were more important things for them to do; this was the Junimo's mission.
"It's okay, Starfruit doesn't need to feel troubled."
Seeing the little guy cowering, Sin narrowed her eyes, changing back into that gentle lady:
"Starfruit is mine."
"I picked you up, I raised you; you are a treasure belonging to Sin alone."
"Since that Farmer lost you, that proves he is an unqualified master."
"Things that are thrown away, once picked up by Sin, are Sin's."
"Do you understand?"
The wind and snow outside the window became more violent, beating against the windowpane and emitting wailing sounds.
"The wind and snow outside are so heavy; you will freeze to death."
Sin smiled, the corners of her mouth splitting into a somewhat exaggerated arc,
"How could that so-called Farmer possibly come to this kind of hellhole for you?"
"Sin doesn't want to share her treasure with anyone else."
The girl turned around and walked back to that wooden cabinet.
She stuffed the struggling Starfruit back into the cabinet, then turned the key with a click, locking the cabinet door tight.
At the same time, as if having a premonition, she looked toward the manor outside the window.
She saw her adoptive parents walking out the door enthusiastically, welcoming a tacky man dressed in flashy clothes like a nouveau riche into the manor.
Her eye that had been scorched by fire saw it.
She saw a man possessing colors that didn't belong to this world, looking like a patch of garbled code, bringing a grey-haired girl whose soul was as transparent as crystal into her home.
Exactly the same as her dream last night.
They came. They are here to snatch Sin's treasure!
[Hey, look!]
[Is it exactly the same as what I said?]
So Sin Mal came to the bedside, reached under the pillow, and fumbled around, pulling out a yellow triangular piece of paper that looked like a pyramid.
The piece of paper spoke, and the single eye drawn in the middle rolled around.
If Suke were present, he would instantly recognize that this was incredibly similar to the pattern on the back of a one-dollar bill.
The Eye of Horus (The All-Seeing Eye).
[But don't worry! Reality is just a hallucination imagined out, and the universe is just a holographic movie!]
[As long as you are willing, you can change it anytime like pinching plasticine!]
[So...]
[Have you decided to make a deal, young girl?]
____
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