Honkai Star Rail: I Played the Villain, Now the Heroines Want Revenge — Chapter 230

Chapter 230: Where Did Orion Go?

“Orion!”

“You bastard!”

Inside the hangar, the moment the inner airlock hissed open, Firefly and Silver Wolf, moving as a single, desperate blur, launched themselves at the white-haired Foxian figure.

They hit her with the force of a small freight train, one on each side, clinging tightly as if to a lifeline they thought long lost.

“You’re finally back…” Firefly’s voice was muffled, burying her head in the stranger’s shoulder. Her whole body was trembling. “It’s good that you’re back… it’s good that you’re back…”

“Bad guy! Big bad guy! Idiot!”

Silver Wolf grumbled, her voice thick with emotion, yet she also buried her face in his—her—chest, her smaller frame hugging tightly, afraid that he would leave again the next second.

“Do you know how long we’ve waited for you! You just disappeared without a word! That’s too much, even for you!”

But the white-haired Foxian, who was being hugged by them, was completely stunned.

Jiang Li stood there, utterly bewildered. She was being tightly, painfully hugged by two beautiful girls who had suddenly rushed over, and for a moment, she was at a total loss.

“Th-that…” she tried to speak, her voice crushed. “Who… who are you…?”

But before she could finish, Silver Wolf, still pressed against her front, suddenly let out an “Oh?”

She felt something… strange.

The hug was… off.

“What’s wrong?” Silver Wolf looked up in confusion, her gaze falling precisely on the other’s chest. “Orion, your chest… why is it so… soft?!”

As she spoke, driven by a gamer’s scientific curiosity, her face unconsciously rubbed against “Orion’s” chest.

The… very soft touch, the warm body temperature, and… a full, prominent contour that definitely did not belong to a male.

Silver Wolf’s expression instantly changed from teary-eyed ecstasy to wide-eyed, data-crashing shock.

She suddenly let go as if zapped by a taser, took two huge steps back.

She stroked her chin, carefully examining Jiang Li’s face. “She really looks alike… but, why do I always feel like… she’s a little prettier than before?”

As she spoke, Silver Wolf’s mischievous hand, ever the pragmatist, shot out again—this time for a direct, tactile confirmation.

A quick, definitive grope.

“!!!!”

Silver Wolf recoiled her hand as if she had been shocked by high-voltage electricity!

Her eyes widened, and she pointed at Jiang Li in absolute shock, her voice cracking as she shouted:

“Orion! ORION! You, you, you… you brat… you didn’t go on some strange mission and turn into a woman, did you?!”

[Inorin’s Note: This is a classic fanfic trope, playing on Jiang Li’s identical appearance to her brother, Orion. The user’s original text uses “Firefly” (萤火虫) as the name for Sam’s pilot.]

Hearing Silver Wolf’s shocking words, Firefly, who was still hugging Jiang Li from behind, also froze.

She slowly let go, peeked around Jiang Li’s side, and when she saw the unmistakable curve of Jiang Li’s chest, she instantly turned to stone.

“H-how could this be?!”

The two girls looked at each other, their minds processing this impossible new data.

No way? After such a long time apart, how did that cool, handsome, and occasionally annoying Orion… turn into a beautiful woman?!

What kind of mission did he go on, after all?!

Just as their brains were crashing, Jiang Li finally had the chance to speak a complete sentence.

She looked at the two girls with their wonderful, shell-shocked expressions in front of her, somewhat confused, and asked:

“Um… excuse me, who are you?”

“Also…”

She tilted her head, her pure white fox ears gently swaying.

“I’m not my brother, Orion… My name is Jiang Li.”

Jiang Li?!

Hearing this name, Silver Wolf and Firefly were both shocked.

They had heard Orion say that he had a twin sister, Jiang Li, who looked very much like him.

But… Jiang Li… wasn’t she already…

“Alright.”

Just then, Kafka, who had been watching from the lounge, arrived. She stepped calmly into the hangar, her smile perfectly composed.

“Since our new companions have arrived, we can’t just let them stand here in the wind, can we?” She smiled. “It’s time to go inside.”

“New companions?!”

Silver Wolf was surprised again. She pointed at Jiang Li and then at Neergul, who had been hiding shyly behind her. “It’s them? Orion’s sister and… uh, who?”

At this moment, the other Foxian girl finally gathered her courage and stepped forward, bowing slightly. “Um… my name is Neergul.”

“Neergul? You are…”

“Alright, they just arrived. Let’s save the questions for later,” Kafka said, her voice gentle but firm.

Kafka smiled, walked forward, and naturally took the hands of the still timid Neergul and the confused Jiang Li.

“Ladies, follow me.”

Just then, a pure black cat quietly jumped down from the spaceship, landing silently, and elegantly followed behind Kafka.

Silver Wolf and Firefly were still frozen in place. It took them several seconds to recover before they quickly followed.

Walking behind Kafka, Silver Wolf still felt like she was dreaming. She quietly whispered to Firefly beside her:

“You think… since Orion’s sister is here, Orion himself should be back soon, right? Elio must have sent them…”

Firefly looked at Jiang Li’s profile, which was so painfully similar to Orion’s, and replied uncertainly:

“Uh… sh-should be…”

…

In the ship’s bar, the four girls sat around a table. Kafka had moved to the bar to mix drinks.

Under Kafka’s gentle guidance, they finally confirmed each other’s identities.

Jiang Li was indeed Orion’s sister; judging by her appearance, there was no mistake.

Neergul was Orion’s friend, also one of the Yaoqing Four Royals.

[Inorin’s Note: The “Yaoqing Four Royals” was a renowned squad from the Yaoqing ark, consisting of Orion, Jiang Li, Neergul, and Feixiao.]

And they were, as they explained, resurrected through the grace of an Aeon and sent here by Elio.

“Oh, right, Jiang Li, do you play pokemon?” Silver Wolf suddenly asked as they chatted, her mood recovering.

“Pokemon? What’s that?” Jiang Li blinked her curious eyes.

“A game! A super fun game!”

Silver Wolf immediately became excited, her gamer spirit ignited. She began to talk endlessly:

“Let me tell you, your brother is really good at it, he’s quite a gaming master! But… compared to a genius like me, he’s still a little bit off.”

She cleared her throat and proudly puffed out her flat chest, beginning to boast:

“Back then, when I first caught my first shiny pokemon, he was so envious! He begged me for days before I finally softened and agreed to trade that shiny Dratini with him, hmph hmph.”

Firefly, who was sitting beside her, sipped her tea and silently grumbled in her heart when she heard this:

Wasn’t it you, Silver Wolf, who begged him for the shiny Dratini…

However, she didn’t say it in the end, giving her stubborn companion enough face.

Jiang Li listened intently, her eyes wide.

“So, brother used to… have such a time as well…”

She smiled, a genuine, beautiful smile that was so much like Orion’s, yet softer. She was genuinely happy for her brother.

It turned out that in this world, after she and Neergul left, there was still such a group of interesting and kind people who loved him.

“What else did brother do here before?” Jiang Li pressed on.

She wanted to know everything she missed about her brother’s life.

After her death, how was he doing? Was he… happy?

Firefly also spoke, recounting Orion’s experience of going on a mission with her to a place called Winterwood City, saying that he had been a student there for a few days, experiencing ordinary campus life.

When she heard that her brother had received a mountain of love letters because he was too popular, Jiang Li couldn’t help but laugh. “As expected of him…”

Neergul also listened curiously, as if through their descriptions, she saw Orion’s unrestrained and happy days in the Stellaron Hunters.

The four girls hit it off immediately and quickly became familiar with each other.

Finally, as the conversation drew to a close.

Firefly still mustered the courage to ask the question they had been avoiding but most wanted to know.

“Jiang Li… I want to ask you something…”

Jiang Li looked at her serious expression, also a little nervous. “Eh? What is it?”

“Your brother… Orion…”

“Do you know where he went? When… will he come back?”

Hearing this question, the smile on Jiang Li’s face slowly disappeared. She was silent for a moment.

Silver Wolf also nervously stared at Jiang Li, waiting for the answer.

After a long while, Jiang Li finally spoke:

“Brother… went to a very, very distant place. Perhaps… perhaps he won’t…”

“Won’t come back?!”

Silver Wolf and Firefly exclaimed in unison.

“That guy Orion, dares to lie to us?!” Silver Wolf was incredibly agitated.

“Eh? Did he leave the Stellaron Hunters… and never come back?!”

“Damn that guy…”

Kafka, who was silently mixing drinks for them, paused with the glass in her hand when she heard Jiang Li’s words, her expression somewhat downcast.

Is that so… he won’t come back…

Seeing their reactions, Jiang Li quickly waved her hand and corrected herself:

“Ah, no, it’s not like that! What I mean is, brother has something he must do… But, he will definitely come back!”

“Really?”

Silver Wolf and Firefly looked at her in unison.

Jiang Li nodded vigorously:

“Mm! I believe him!”

“Only you believe him…” Silver Wolf was a little unconvinced.

“What if he really abandons us…” Firefly was also a little disappointed.

“He won’t!” Jiang Li said, her voice firm. “After all, I’m here… Brother will definitely come back!”

Hearing this, Silver Wolf and Firefly exchanged glances, feeling… that it seemed to make some sense.

After all, Orion loved his sister so much.

No matter where he went or what he did, as long as his sister was here, he would come back one day, right?

“Anyway,” Jiang Li clenched her small fists, “I’ll wait here for brother to come back.”

“Alright!” Silver Wolf patted Jiang Li’s shoulder. “Then please take care of us from now on!”

“We have to take good care of you, otherwise, when Orion comes back and sees his sister being wronged, he’ll definitely come looking for us to settle scores.”

“Mm!” Firefly also nodded heavily.

At this moment, Kafka walked over with several prepared drinks.

“Then,” She placed the glasses one by one in front of them.

“Neergul, Jiang Li, welcome to the Stellaron Hunters.”

…

And a few days later, the Stellaron Hunters welcomed another new member.

The newcomer was Feixiao.

She had shed her Arbiter-General attire and changed into a practical, agile black outfit.

As a traitor to the Xianzhou, she should have had nowhere to go.

But now, no Xianzhou would pursue her anymore.

Because after Gui Zhong’s slaying of The Hunt, Destruction, and Elation, the entire cosmic order had changed.

[Inorin’s Note: The text implies that between the last chapter and this one, Gui Zhong (Orion) has also hunted and killed Aha, the Aeon of Elation.]

Subsequently, the Aeon of Gui Zhong cast her judgmental gaze upon Abundance.

That battle also shook the universe, and ultimately, the “compassionate” Aeon of life, Yaoshi, also fell under Gui Zhong’s power of the End.

The two archenemies of the Xianzhou people for tens of thousands of years, Abundance and Destruction, were both ended by Gui Zhong.

And Gui Zhong, along with her new, silent Emanators and Pathstriders, mercilessly purged the remnants of Abominations of Abundance and Borisin across the universe.

Having lost their faith (The Hunt) and their eternal enemies (Abundance/Destruction), the remaining Xuling of the Xianzhou Alliance finally faced disintegration.

Marshal Hua of the Xianzhou, after a long, silent vigil, finally announced the dissolution of the Alliance.

From then on, the Xianzhou Alliance became a legend existing only in interstellar history books.

At this moment, when Jiang Li and Neergul saw Feixiao’s figure.

They could no longer control themselves; the three embraced tightly, tears streaming down their faces.

“Sister Feixiao…”

“It’s great, you’re still alive…”

“You too.”

Feixiao patted their backs, her eyes also welling up.

They were once the “Yaoqing Four Royals,” the most important people in each other’s lives.

“One day, I will fly higher than the sky, making all enemies look up to me! I will become a General, and no one will ever be able to bully us again!”

“I, I want to become the most powerful pilot… that way, I can protect everyone from the sky!”

“Brother, I will become the best doctor in the Xianzhou in the future, healing everyone’s pain!”

“These damnable Borisin, and the high and mighty Lan… I must make you pay the price!”

The vows the four had made had now, in a twisted way, all come true.

Only, at this moment, the one who vowed to protect them was no longer by their side.

After their emotional reunion, Feixiao did not forget that there was still an important matter for this trip.

She found Kafka, who was watching them with a knowing smile. Feixiao took out a complex, sealed containment unit.

Inside, a golden Stellaron pulsed gently.

“He asked me to bring this,” Feixiao said, her voice soft. “He said, this belongs to Stelle.”

It turned out that in that Luofu battle, what Orion had launched from the warship towards Lan was another Stellaron, one recovered by Phantylia.

And the one belonging to Stelle, the one he had drawn from her chest in that chaotic moment, had been perfectly preserved by Orion before the battle and entrusted to Feixiao, his most trusted person.

Kafka looked at the Stellaron, first surprised, then she let out a soft, understanding laugh.

“No wonder.”

“The relationship between those two children… is indeed very good…”

She took the containment unit. “Come,” she said to the others. “We have one more friend to welcome back.”

In the medical bay, Kafka placed the Stellaron into a specialized instrument.

The residual data, the memories, and the very soul-imprint within it were activated.

Using the bio-data the Stellaron Hunters had on file, the machine began its work.

Soon, a girl’s body was reconstructed, floating in a nutrient tank.

And Kafka, with the delicate care of a mother, personally placed the Stellaron back into her chest.

The next moment, Stelle suddenly opened her eyes.

All the sealed memories rushed back in.

The Stellaron Hunters. The Astral Express. Himeko, Welt, March, Dan Heng… their deaths in the void.

And the man named Orion. His kindness to her, the lantern festival, the head pat, the way he looked at her… and his final, cold betrayal.

Everything awakened.

Her feelings for Orion became an incredibly complex, tangled knot of grief, anger, and a strange, lingering affection she couldn’t erase.

And when she walked out of the med-bay and saw Jiang Li—that face, those white ears, that same smile—she was stunned for a long time.

Afterward, she almost treated Jiang Li as her own sister.

Whenever there was something good to eat or fun to do, the first person she thought of was Jiang Li.

She always liked to stare blankly at Jiang Li’s face, as if trying to see the shadow of that person from back then, the man who had both saved her and condemned her, through his sister’s eyes.