Honkai Star Rail: My Chat Group is Full of Broken Timelines — Chapter 69

Chapter 69: The Boundless Kindness of Ms. Herta

Thanks to the “magical” blessings of Ms. Herta, Kazuki’s life had finally settled into a peaceful, if unconventional, routine.

Herta hadn’t been traveling lately, which meant Kazuki spent his days hovering around the renowned Genius. The arrangement was simple: whenever he felt the tell-tale signs of a Mara-Struck flare-up, he would give a shout. Ms. Herta would then casually stroll over and tap him on the head with her peculiar, key-shaped wand. A soft blue light would flash, and the surging, violent madness within him would recede like a phantom tide.

As time passed, the treatment began to show remarkable results. Not only did the progression of his Mara-Struck condition halt, but Kazuki found he could even maintain a sliver of lucidity during an episode. The aggression and the overwhelming urge to destroy everything in sight remained, but they were no longer so potent that he risked losing himself completely and harming those he cared for.

Upon discovering this, Herta, in her infinite wisdom, began throwing “preschool enlightenment” problems at him during his flare-ups. Under the guise of “maintaining cognitive activity,” she would present him with absurdly complex star map deductions or topological models of imaginary space. Only when he was truly on the verge of collapse, his mind screaming under the dual strain of psychosis and impossible math, would she finally deign to knock him unconscious with her little wand.

This morning, Kazuki awoke on the office sofa, the cushion beneath him still holding a faint, lingering warmth.

Since he had become a frequent, if involuntary, resident, the once-sterile office had gradually acquired a touch of homeliness. A sofa now sat against one wall, a coffee table before it, and in the corner, a half-dead succulent wilted in its pot. Herta had supposedly acquired it “on a whim,” but since she invariably forgot it existed, its care had fallen to Kazuki.

“Ms. Herta, be honest with me,” he said, sitting up and rubbing his temples. Spread across the coffee table were the star rail equations he’d failed to finish last night; the complex, interwoven curves were enough to make anyone’s head spin. “You call that ‘preschool enlightenment’?” He gestured at the papers. “I think that’s the entrance exam for the Genius Society.”

Herta was hunched over a massive light screen, her fingers flying as she sketched and wrote. She didn’t even glance up at his complaint, her tone laced with the mischievous delight of a successful prankster. “If you can’t even solve that, what’s the point of living?”

Clearly, she understood the difference between Geniuses and mortals perfectly well. The point where Herta diverged most from her peers was that she could, on some level, empathize with the common person; it was a form of beauty she was consciously aware of possessing. Just as she always proclaimed herself the number one beautiful girl in the galaxy—beautiful and kind-hearted—she did, in her own unique way, live up to it.

“Tsk…” Kazuki couldn’t help but smack his lips. “Everyone knows about you, the great Ms. Herta who solved the Soliton Algorithm in her youth,” he teased.

At that, Herta suddenly turned her head, her neck arching with pride. Her chestnut hair shimmered under the station’s lights, making her look like a triumphant swan.

“As long as you know,” she huffed, but her tone softened slightly as she changed the subject. “However, your adaptability is surprisingly good. Being able to maintain cognitive function while Mara-Struck, combined with my guidance… in a few decades, this ailment probably won’t affect you anymore.”

She spoke of it so nonchalantly. And she was right—a few decades was nothing. Both she and Kazuki were long-life species in the truest sense. Just a few decades? It would pass in the blink of an eye. To cure the Mara of a Xianzhou native in less than a single Amber Era was a feat that would rewrite history. If the people of the Xianzhou had no fear of the Mara, they could live for as long as they wished. Herta could even practice infinite rejuvenation… It was a total win.

In fact, she had already begun improving her rejuvenation experiments by studying him.

As the (self-proclaimed) number one beautiful girl in the universe, Herta refused to allow herself to grow old. Previously, she would simply perform an experiment on herself whenever her physical age approached thirty, a process that had become a bit of a hassle over time. But the Xianzhou trait of maintaining one’s peak physical state upon reaching adulthood had inspired her. Through a subsequent series of experiments, Herta successfully froze her body at the age she considered herself most beautiful.

When the experiment concluded, she had declared to Kazuki with a face beaming with pride: “It is the galaxy’s honor to forever have a beautiful Genius like me!”

…”Decades is still too long,” Kazuki sighed, attempting to use a bit of reverse psychology. “Ms. Herta, can you really do it or not?”

“I haven’t been able to contact Ruan Mei lately; I don’t know if she’s off on some deserted planet doing experiments again,” Herta retorted, her beautiful face slumping as she tossed her chestnut hair. “You should be satisfied being studied by this Genius, shouldn’t you?”

How could she not know why Kazuki frequently brought up Ruan Mei, whether intentionally or not? He definitely had other motives; solving his Mara-Struck condition might even be secondary. After all, Herta had already given him a device that would automatically activate and snap him back to his senses if an episode occurred while he wasn’t by her side.

It was just that this state was clearly not suitable for running wild across the galaxy. And since Kazuki’s goals were not yet accomplished, he remained here, at the Herta Space Station.

Of course, Herta wasn’t staying at the space station just for him. A major project she had been preparing for several years with a few other Geniuses was finally nearing completion. Lately, Kazuki often saw her working through the night, determined to finish the entire thing in one final push.

“Kazuki, my boy, what do you think? I call it… the Metaverse!”

“Ms. Herta… maybe don’t try to ride that hype train right now. Besides… the Metaverse hasn’t been very popular lately anyway.”

“True… I don’t like that name either,” she mused. “Let’s just call it the Simulated Universe.” Herta thought for a moment and chose a name she felt was simple and practical.

“By the way,” she added, “the Simulated Universe is basically ready. Screwllum is coming to the space station in a few days. Do you have any questions you want to ask him?”

“Mr. Screwllum?” That made sense. Among Herta’s three current partners, Stephen was socially anxious and Ruan Mei was often unreachable. Only Screwllum, as the leader of the mechanical lifeforms, was consistently in the public eye.

“Exactly. You’re so interested in everyone in our Genius Society; surely you have something to discuss with Screwllum?” Herta said confidently.

“…” Kazuki thought carefully. He had sought out Herta because of matters related to Emperor the Third, and he wanted to find Ruan Mei because of Tingyun. But Screwllum… he really couldn’t think of a reason to bother him.

Wait… actually, there was one thing he could ask. It concerned the matter of Lygus.

After the original Zandall died, his consciousness had fractured, scattering into nine mechanical clones. While Kazuki didn’t know the status of the other eight, he could confidently say he knew Lygus inside and out.

The programming method commonly used in Zandall’s era was the Sonnet Algebra. This code was somewhat outdated now; whether the other Zandall clones still used it was a mystery. But Lygus had been tinkering with the Emperor’s Scepter alone for thousands of years, working in complete isolation. The programming he used was still this ancient method.

Perhaps he could ask Screwllum to research a way to crack the Sonnet Algebra.

But… how exactly should he phrase the request when the time came? He wasn’t familiar with Screwllum at all. How could he persuade such a distinguished Genius to help him?

“What? Thought of something?” Seeing the shift in his expression, Herta couldn’t help but press for an answer.

Kazuki smiled. “There is indeed something I’d like to trouble him with. However…” He looked at Herta, his eyes gleaming with a hint of mischief. “I’ll need Ms. Herta’s help.”

“I knew it.” Herta rolled her eyes, but the corners of her mouth still curled upwards. “Seeing as you, this test subject, have been fairly obedient, this Genius will help you this once. Screwllum still has to give me some face. As long as it’s not a particularly difficult problem for him, I’m confident I can get him to do it for you.”

“Hooray! Thank you, Ms. Herta! Ms. Herta is peerless! Ms. Herta is brilliantly smart! Ms. Herta is drop-dead gorgeous!” Kazuki spread his arms wide, adopting an air of one whose debt to Herta’s kindness could never be repaid.

“Hmph, hmph, hmph. Feel free to worship this Genius! Hmph, hmph, hmph.”

Outside the door, Asta, who had been about to enter, saw this scene through the crack in the doorframe and couldn’t help but shrink back into the hallway.

“Ms. Herta and Mr. Kazuki… must have their reasons for doing this…” she whispered to herself, before quietly turning away.