Honkai Star Rail: My Chat Group is Full of Broken Timelines — Chapter 89

Chapter 89: The Wickedness of Nous

“The world truly is an unpredictable thing…”

Qingque’s fingertips tapped a quiet, steady rhythm against the polished surface of her desk.

Unlike March 7th, who was still reeling in confusion from the “Group Entry Guidelines,” she had already absorbed the entire text, grasping the dangerous undercurrents flowing between the lines.

The truth of parallel worlds. The machinations of Nous, the Lord of Omniscience. The terrible predicament of the Herta from the main timeline, codenamed Emperor the Third.

It was all laid out with the clarity of a well-written intelligence brief.

This flood of information intertwined in her mind like the star rails of old, eventually coalescing into a clear, horrifying sequence of events. She wasn’t particularly worried that her own world would be merged into the “Main Worldline” the Group Owner spoke of. According to the guidelines, the catalyst for that particular calamity was another version of herself walking the path of “General Dihuan.”

In her memory, no one named “Kazuki” had ever existed. It stood to reason, then, that the Xianzhou of the main worldline would not have to suffer the same catastrophe her own had endured.

‘Kazuki’s existence is like a singularity,’ Qingque thought, taking a sip of the now-cold tea on her desk. A sharp light glinted in her eyes.

Was it because of his uniqueness that the Aeon of Erudition used him as an anchor point, a fulcrum to stabilize countless possibilities of the past and future?

The logic was sound; it fit perfectly with Nous’s nature of “deducing all things.” But the methods… the methods were unconscionably cruel.

Her fingers, steady and without a single tremor, moved across the screen. Having been forged in the blood and fire of the Ambrosial Arbor Rebellion, she had long since learned to remain calm in the eye of the storm.

[General Dihuan: @Cliffhanger King, I believe I have a general understanding of the group’s situation. I will do everything in my power to help you, Group Owner, resist the actions of the Lord of Omniscience.]

[Cliffhanger King: Still calling it the Lord of Omniscience? Call it the Progenitor of Folly and Wisdom!]

Seeing the message, Qingque couldn’t help but let out a small, sharp laugh.

The name was blunt, carrying a youth’s unapologetic edge. It sounded far more satisfying than the lofty, reverent titles of “Lord” and “Aeon.”

[General Dihuan: Haha, that name is quite interesting. The young are certainly full of energy.]

Though calling Nous a “Progenitor of Calamity” would be a grave offense on any Xianzhou vessel where the Aeon was revered, in the privacy of her own heart, Qingque had already accepted the term.

[Galaxy Ranger: Wait… so you mean, Group Owner, that I might not have been picked up by my dad? That it could have been someone else?]

March 7th couldn’t wrap her head around it. Ever since she’d woken up from the ice, she had been Boothill’s adopted daughter. It was her Galaxy Ranger adoptive father who had taught her everything. How could she even begin to imagine a version of herself that had never met him?

[Cliffhanger King: Exactly. What Nous is doing is wrong. It needs to be corrected. It needs to be changed.]

[Galaxy Ranger: Anyway, the Aeon of Erudition is our enemy, right? I never thought I’d be in a position to make an enemy of an Aeon. I wonder if my dad would be proud of me if I told him?]

The sheer joy in her words practically leaped off the screen. Reading it, Qingque was suddenly reminded of the day she first took over as General. She had secretly clenched her fist before Fu Xuan’s memorial tablet, thinking, ‘Does this count as not letting down your expectations?’

That slightly clumsy, earnest pride was so very similar to March 7th’s right now.

[Cliffhanger King: First, I want to thank you both for supporting my position. But for now, the group’s primary task is to find a way to change the outcome where Ms. Herta’s head is taken by Zircornia. We cannot let that bad ending be anchored by Nous.]

Qingque’s fingers paused. Zircornia?

She had heard the name of this Lord Ravager before, but in her world, the being hadn’t seemed to cause much of a stir. The Anti-Annihilation Gang had been a formidable force, yes, but they had ultimately caused little substantial loss to the Xianzhou Alliance. So much so, in fact, that the Luofu’s archives contained only a few brief, dismissive mentions of Zircornia.

[General Dihuan: In my impression, the Lord Ravager Zircornia didn’t cause much of a ripple… Although the Anti-Annihilation Gang was powerful, it caused almost no losses for us. Has the Luofu’s policy of recuperation truly left us that ignorant of the outside universe?]

As someone who had survived the Ambrosial Arbor Rebellion, her timeline even further along than Emperor the Third’s, she knew shockingly little about the undercurrents of the cosmos. The Luofu had been severely weakened by the war. For years, it had focused only on rebuilding its devastated realms and pacifying its people, long having lost its former sensitivity to external conflicts.

[Cliffhanger King: Then you might have died once without even knowing how. Has the Xianzhou observed Fuli appearing?]

[General Dihuan: The Lord of Flowing Light? He did appear once, yes. Is there a connection?]

[Cliffhanger King: The connection is that, as an Aeon who ascended at the end of the universe, every appearance of Fuli represents a Flawless Pure One giving up their chance to become a god, reshaping the universe with memory at the cost of their own existence.]

[General Dihuan: It seems the entire galaxy owes the Lord of Flowing Light a few lives, then. Should I start addressing him as the Arbiter of Inscribed Remembrance?]

She typed it half-jokingly, following Kazuki’s own classification system—the good ones were Arbiters, the neutral ones Lords, and the bad ones Progenitors of Calamity.

[Cliffhanger King: You can call him that.]

[Galaxy Ranger: Ah? So according to that, I’ve already died several times?]

[Cliffhanger King: Have you seen Fuli?]

[Galaxy Ranger: No…]

[Cliffhanger King: Then you haven’t died.]

[Galaxy Ranger: I see…]

In truth, Kazuki wasn’t entirely sure about that. March 7th’s true identity was far more complex than he knew, and he didn’t dare make a rash judgment. He could only be certain that one of her identities was a Flawless Pure One, but it was clear that wasn’t the whole story.

Just as Demiurge Cyrene was not merely a Flawless Pure One, but also the original head that became Zircornia.

[General Dihuan: Then the answer is obvious, isn’t it? I will find a way to contact the IPC, the Express, and the Family—the factions that participated in the fight against the Anti-Annihilation Gang. I’ll request any research data they have on Zircornia.]

If they were to prevent Zircornia from taking Herta’s head, they first needed to understand the Lord Ravager’s background. Although she hadn’t personally experienced that catastrophe, the factions that formed the alliance against it must still exist. Perhaps the key to breaking the deadlock was hidden within their dusty archives.

[Cliffhanger King: If you can get future data about Zircornia, that would be wonderful.]

[General Dihuan: No need for thanks. Setting aside our current goal of preventing the Lord of Omniscience from anchoring the world, as fellow Xianzhou people, shouldn’t we look out for each other out here?]

The Xianzhou… A pang of homesickness struck Kazuki. He certainly couldn’t return to the Luofu of his own world, not for the foreseeable future.

And Qingque’s Luofu? The thought brought a bitter line of poetry to mind. ‘I would buy osmanthus wine to toast the old days, but the friends of my youth are gone.’

Jing Yuan and Fu Xuan had died in battle. Half of the Luofu’s population had perished, and countless realms were destroyed. The Xianzhou rebuilt from such ashes would no longer be the Luofu he knew…

[Galaxy Ranger: Eh? What about me?]

[Cliffhanger King: Why are you still here?]

[Galaxy Ranger:…]

[Fanfic Author: Lord Kazuki, please stop teasing Lady March…]

[Titania II: stare.jpg]

[Pure Beauty Knight: It seems the group is about to get lively again.]