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ArabicHonkai: Star Rail: I Can Fix This Gender-Bent World — Chapter 54
Chapter 54: Amnesia
Auntie Oleg let Young Master Bronya’s promise hang in the air, her gaze lingering on his face as if weighing the sincerity of his words. After a long moment, she gave a single, sharp nod, saying nothing more.
Instead, she turned and waved a dismissive hand at the still-tense crowd of Underworlders.
“Alright, the show’s over! Get back to what you were doing!” she barked, her voice echoing with indisputable authority. “What are you all standing around for? Waiting for me to serve you dinner? Scatter, scatter!”
Her command was all it took. Though a few resentful glares still lingered on Bronya and Chen, the crowd began to shuffle and break apart, their grumbling dissolving into low-voiced murmurs.
A single sharp look from Auntie Oleg was enough to halt Seele from saying anything further.
As the crowd slowly dispersed and the situation came under control, Bronya’s attention finally shifted away from Auntie Oleg and the fiery Underworlder. His gaze drifted back to the source of the initial commotion—the girl in the corner who looked so uncannily like him.
At the same time, Seele’s eyes followed Bronya’s. The whirlwind of passion, anger, and defiance had made him almost forget the visitor who had wandered in from the Overworld. Now that a fragile calm had settled, he took a closer look at the strange young woman, the one who stirred an inexplicable sense of familiarity within him.
She looked like she could be Bronya’s younger sister.
The memory of how his companion’s overzealousness had nearly led to violence against her—and how he himself, caught up in shock and hostility, had failed to intervene—made Seele’s lips press into a thin line. Wildfire had its pride. When you were in the wrong, you admitted it, even if the other party was from the sterile world above.
With a soft click, he stowed his scythe. He took a deep, steadying breath and began to walk toward Chen. Auntie Oleg noticed the movement but didn’t interfere, merely watching with her arms crossed, a thoughtful expression on her face.
Chen, sensing Seele’s approach, pulled himself from his thoughts and looked up, a flicker of curiosity in his eyes.
Seele stopped two paces away. His gaze was direct, though it held a hint of awkwardness.
“…My companion was too impulsive just now.” Seele’s voice was much lower than it had been during his impassioned speech, the words coming out a bit stiff, but his tone was sincere. “They almost hurt you. On their behalf, and for not stopping them immediately, I apologize.”
His eyes swept over the conspicuous Silvermane Guard uniform Chen was wearing, and he added, “I don’t know why you’re here, but that’s no excuse for how they acted. Wildfire is not an organization that bullies the weak.”
Chen blinked, momentarily taken aback by the forthright apology. But his mind, ever the opportunist, kicked into high gear. This was an opening.
He carefully imitated the refined, gentle tone he imagined Bronya would use, a polite smile gracing his features. “It’s alright. I really shouldn’t have barged in without so much as a hello. I just heard it was quite lively inside…”
Just as Chen finished speaking, the sound of steady footsteps stopped beside them. Bronya had walked over at some point and now stood just behind Seele’s shoulder. He didn’t look at Seele; his eyes, a mirror image of the ones Chen currently wore, were locked onto Chen’s face.
“Hello,” Bronya said suddenly, his voice cutting into their conversation. He seemed to be searching for the right words, a crack in the moment he could slip through. The hesitation he showed laid bare the turmoil beneath his composed exterior. “May I ask you a question…?”
“Heh.”
An undisguised sneer of mockery sliced through the air from the side, cutting Bronya off mid-sentence. Seele crossed his arms, shooting a sideways glance at Bronya, the corner of his mouth curved into a provocative smirk. The hostility that had only just subsided seemed to flare up again, ignited by the way Bronya had completely shifted his focus to this girl.
“What’s this?” Seele’s voice rose, dripping with sarcasm. “Finished putting on your big Supreme Guardian airs and scaring us lowly troublemakers? And now you’re all polite and proper with your little sister? ‘Hello?’ ‘May I?’ Why weren’t you this polite when you were facing us just now, Lord Bronya?”
The sarcasm was a evident barb, and Bronya visibly flinched, though he didn’t get angry. He opened his mouth to explain that he didn’t know her, but as he looked at her face, the words caught in his throat.
“Mr. Seele,” Chen’s voice suddenly rang out, interrupting Seele’s aggressive tirade. He shook his head slowly as he looked at the bristling Underworlder. “You’ve misunderstood. I don’t know this Lord Bronya.”
As his words fell, a brief, heavy silence descended upon their corner of the tavern.
Seele was clearly stunned. His initial bewilderment at Chen’s direct denial quickly morphed into a surge of annoyance. His eyes widened. “Don’t know him? Are you kidding me! The two of you look…” He gestured with his hand, tracing a line in the air between Chen and Bronya. “You call this not knowing each other? Do you think I’m blind?”
Chen laughed inwardly, but on the surface, he adopted a timely look of confusion and gently shook his head again. “Mr. Seele, I truly do not know this Lord Bronya.”
He secretly stole a glance at Bronya’s tense, unreadable face, his internal plan clicking into place. ‘Step one of playing hard to get: pretend we’re total strangers. Check.’
Hearing this, the inexplicable tension coiling in Bronya’s chest suddenly dissipated. So, it really was just a coincidence. But in the wake of that relief came an indescribable, hollowing sense of emptiness.
Seele, however, was stifled by Chen’s frank denial. His brow furrowed even tighter, the suspicion in his tone not diminishing in the slightest. “You don’t know him? Are you serious?”
At the same time, he stared into Chen’s eyes, which were identical to Bronya’s. That strange sense of familiarity from before grew stronger, more insistent. Without waiting for an answer, he couldn’t help but press further.
“By the way… have we met before? That face of yours… I feel like I’ve seen it somewhere.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, Bronya’s gaze instantly snapped to Seele, his expression screaming a silent, ‘Are you seriously hitting on her?’Chen was completely floored.’Good grief, is he hitting on me? No, that can’t be right. Seele wouldn’t say something like that! And even if it were a real pickup line, he wouldn’t use one so worn-out and clichéd.”Wait a minute… Could Seele be mistaking me for the Bronya he knew at the orphanage when they were kids? Holy crap, that’s actually possible!’
Chen’s mind raced, but his expression was a perfect mask of someone caught off guard by an unexpected question. After a long pause, he gently shook his head, his voice dropping slightly, laced with a hint of imperceptible disappointment.
“I… I don’t really remember.”
He lowered his head, a portrait of someone reluctant to speak further on a painful topic. “I had a serious illness when I was a child. I can’t remember many things clearly. Even where I used to live or who I might have met… it’s all a blur.”
After delivering his lines, Chen mentally patted himself on the back. He was truly a genius.
‘Heh heh. The amnesia card. It might be old-fashioned, but it’s the GOAT for a reason. It shuts down Seele’s trip down memory lane and is guaranteed to make this Bronya fellow even more restless. After all, who could possibly resist an amnesiac with a fragile air and a face that looks exactly like their own?”Step two of playing hard to get, mastered!’
Just as he predicted, most of the annoyance on Seele’s face vanished instantly, replaced by a wave of awkwardness and helplessness. He clearly hadn’t expected that answer. He opened his mouth, but no words came out. Finally, he could only turn his face away dejectedly and mutter, “…Sorry.”
Bronya looked at Chen’s lowered profile, the delicate line of his jaw. That feeling of emptiness surged up again, even stronger than before.
Amnesia? A serious illness?
He looked at that face, a carbon copy of his own, and suddenly felt that there was no such thing as a coincidence in this world. He opened his mouth, wanting to ask something—anything. Where did she live? When was this illness?
But the words reached his lips and were swallowed back down. What right did he have to ask?
They were, after all, strangers.