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ArabicHonkai Star Rail: My Chat Group is Full of Broken Timelines — Chapter 29
Chapter 29: A Reunion with Tingyun, and the Tale of Robin’s Biggest Fan
Kazuki stood on a bustling thoroughfare of the Starskiff Sea Hub, his gaze fixed on the elegant starships shuttling back and forth against the backdrop of the void. A grim realization had just settled upon him—even with a hard-won permit to leave the Luofu, actually reaching the Herta Space Station was going to be anything but simple.
The people of the Xianzhou Luofu were a civilization unto themselves, many living their entire long lives without ever setting foot on foreign soil. This deeply ingrained, insular mindset had a direct and frustrating consequence: a complete and utter lack of officially operated interstellar routes connecting the Luofu to the wider galaxy. There was simply no ‘official channel,’ no cosmic bus line he could book a ticket for.
If he wanted to travel with any degree of freedom, his best, and most outlandish, point of reference was the knight Argenti and his personal warship, ‘The One-and-Only.’Kazuki pressed his palms together, offering a half-sarcastic prayer to the empty space before him.’O, Idrila above… perhaps you could spare a Pure Beauty Knight to give me a lift? Or, you know, just solve this whole starship problem for me.’
Jokes aside, the problem was very real and stood squarely in his path. While Kazuki’s family was well-off by Luofu standards, the credits in his personal account were a far cry from the fortune needed to purchase a vessel capable of subspace leaps or even long-distance travel on the Trailblaze’s silver rails.
And asking his family for help? That was out of the question. The elders would be overjoyed to see him chained to the Luofu forever, patiently waiting to inherit the family business. They would never support his dream of running off to see the galaxy.
When he’d previously sought aid from Jing Yuan, the general had simply offered a placid smile. “From the moment you accepted that permit, your trial began, did it not? You’ll have to figure this one out on your own.”
Easier said than done. A solution was proving maddeningly elusive. Kazuki had already wasted half a day wandering the Starskiff Sea Hub, inquiring at every starship vendor he could find. The results were disheartening: either the prices were astronomical, or the ships’ performance specifications were laughable, barely fit for a jaunt to the next dock, let alone interstellar travel.
At present, the most reliable option seemed to be hitching a ride on an Interstellar Peace Corporation transport. But that path was also riddled with obstacles. The Xianzhou, with the exception of the currently resting Fanhua, was a nomadic fleet, drifting through star systems without a fixed address. The Herta Space Station was equally exclusive; without special clearance or a formal invitation, you couldn’t even get past the welcome mat.
Penacony, the Planet of Festivities, was a regular stop on the IPC’s routes, but getting there would be as difficult as convincing the Corporation to charter a private route just for him. At that point, it would be more cost-effective to just grit his teeth and find a way to buy a starship.
“What a headache,” Kazuki sighed, leaning against a polished railing and watching the distant, silent ballet of moored vessels.
Ultimately, the Xianzhou was just too closed off. Only the Yaoqing, with its frequent collaborations with the IPC, seemed to have a proper connection to the rest of the galaxy.
He stroked his chin, a name suddenly illuminating his thoughts—Fu Xuan.
As the Master Diviner of the Divination Commission and one of the Six Charioteers, Fu Xuan wielded immense power and status. The resources and wealth at her command were far beyond his own. Asking her for help might just solve his starship problem in one fell swoop.
But… Kazuki slowly shook his head. The potential cost of that favor felt far too high.
“Well, if it isn’t Little Trianne. Long time no see.”
A crisp, warm voice, perfectly pitched between familiarity and decorum, sounded from behind him. Kazuki turned, his eyes widening slightly. Standing there was Tingyun, her slender figure elegantly outlined by her professional attire, a gentle smile gracing her lips.
“Sister Tingyun?” Kazuki’s surprise was genuine and pleasant. “It really has been a while. The last time we saw each other was at my coming-of-age ceremony, wasn’t it?”
He remembered it clearly. A few years ago, just after he had passed his ceremonial exams, Tingyun had deliberately waited until his celebration was over before departing on a long-haul voyage. As the next-generation helmsman being personally mentored by Yukong, she had spent the last few years on the frontier of galactic trade, forging new routes for the Sky-Faring Commission and building her reputation. Her assignments often took her away for years at a time.
“Indeed it has.” Tingyun closed the distance between them, a fond smile playing on her lips as she rose onto her tiptoes to ruffle his hair. “Our Little Trianne has grown up even more in the past few years.”
“Sister Tingyun, Xianzhou natives stop growing taller after eighteen,” Kazuki muttered, a note of helpless affection in his voice. He made no move to dodge her hand.
“Oh? Is that so?” Her eyes curved into bright crescents. “Well, your temperament has certainly changed. You carry yourself more like an adult, someone who can stand on his own two feet.”
Tingyun’s smile widened as if she suddenly remembered something. She reached into a small, embroidered pouch at her waist and, with a subtle shimmer of spatial distortion, pulled out a surprisingly heavy box.
“Right, this is for you. I was originally going to find you at the teahouse where you tell your stories, but they said you’d resigned. I was just about to head to the Palace of Astrum to look for you when I ran into you here.”
She opened the box. Inside was a treasure trove of merchandise: CDs, glossy photobooks, enamel badges bearing a familiar, gentle face, and even a pristine, signed poster. Every single item featured the Halovian singer, Robin.
“I picked these up for you when our fleet passed through Apocrypha,” Tingyun said, her voice laced with a hint of pride. “I never expected you to have such foresight, Little Trianne. That Miss Robin has become a galactic superstar now. Thanks to your tip, I even made a huge profit back then.”
The memory suddenly clicked into place for Kazuki. Before Tingyun had left on her last long journey, he had just discovered Robin on the interstellar network. Back then, she was just a fledgling artist who hadn’t even released her first album, let alone her universe-shaking hit, ‘If I Can Stop One Heart From Breaking.’
At the time, Tingyun had asked him what gift he wanted from her travels. He’d answered casually, “If you happen to pass by a planet called Apocrypha, could you bring me back a Robin album?”
When Tingyun’s trade fleet had eventually docked at Apocrypha, Robin was still a minor star with a small, local following. Tingyun, ever thorough, did a quick background check on this “Miss Robin” and concluded that she was indeed a high-quality, promising idol.
Driven by a mix of sisterly support for her “little brother’s” favorite singer and a keen business instinct, Tingyun proceeded to buy up every single album and piece of merchandise available on the planet. Shortly after her fleet departed, the name Robin exploded across the galaxy. Tingyun, now holding a mountain of what was suddenly priceless memorabilia, sold off the entire collection she had originally intended to keep for Kazuki.
The resulting profit was so immense that it had, as she put it, allowed her to achieve financial freedom far earlier than she’d ever planned.
“So that’s what happened…” Kazuki murmured, picking up the signed poster. He stared at Robin’s gentle, smiling face, momentarily at a loss for words. He had only made a passing comment, never imagining that his offhand remark would accidentally make his friend a fortune.
“Sigh, and to think, I thought she’d be a flash in the pan at most,” Tingyun shrugged, a hint of theatrical regret in her tone. “Who knew she’d become such a phenomenon? If I had held onto that merchandise until now, its value would have increased a thousandfold.”
She paused, then leaned in conspiratorially, her eyes sparkling. “However, there was another little surprise from that trip, and its current value is even harder to estimate.”
“What surprise?” Kazuki asked, his curiosity piqued.
“Well, buying out an entire planet’s stock of merchandise didn’t go unnoticed,” Tingyun said, a triumphant gleam in her eye. She deftly pulled out her Jade Abacus and tapped the screen, pulling up a photo. “It actually caught the attention of Miss Robin herself. Look, this is a photo of me with her. To thank me, her ‘earliest and most loyal fan,’ she even promised she could write a song specifically for me.”
In the photo, a slightly younger, more fresh-faced Robin stood beside Tingyun, both of them beaming at the camera.
Tingyun waved her Jade Abacus with a flourish, a mischievous smile spreading across her face. “I told her then, ‘Actually, it’s my younger brother who’s your biggest fan. He’s the one who asked me to buy all this for him. If you don’t mind, could this opportunity be left for my brother instead?'”
She winked. “So, Little Trianne, if you were to go to Robin now, you might genuinely be able to get her to write a song just for you.”
Kazuki stared from the photo on the Jade Abacus to the box of merchandise in his hands. A slow, dawning realization spread through him. Suddenly, the impossible problem of leaving the Luofu didn’t seem quite so impossible anymore.
But then, another, more immediate thought crossed his mind.
‘If I were to bundle all this official, debut-era Robin merchandise,’he mused,’and sell it to her brother, Sunday… could I achieve financial freedom, too?’