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ArabicHonkai Star Rail: My Chat Group is Full of Broken Timelines — Chapter 9
Chapter 9: A Great Person, One Who Has Transcended Lowly Tastes
After finishing her introduction, Firefly found herself the focus of three pairs of unblinking eyes. Her eyelashes trembled, and a faint blush began to bloom high on her cheeks. “What’s wrong? Is there… something on my face?”
She subconsciously raised a hand to touch her cheek, her fingertips meeting cool, smooth skin. The silence only deepened her embarrassment. Why was everyone just staring without saying a word?
“Um… perhaps they’re just surprised that Miss Firefly is so beautiful,” Kazuki was the first to break the quiet, offering a gentle smile to smooth over the awkwardness.
As a die-hard Firefly fan, it’s only natural for me to stare at my waifu, he thought, but why did Castorice and Robin suddenly go mute too?
“That’s right,” Robin readily agreed, her gaze fixed on the moonlight-white strands of Firefly’s hair. “If I hadn’t known you were a member of the Glamoth Iron Cavalry, I might have mistaken you for an artist from the Iris Family!”
“Miss Firefly’s beauty is certainly enough to be voted the second most beautiful face in Okhema,” Castorice added softly, her amethyst eyes sparkling with genuine admiration. She didn’t elaborate on why she was only second; in her heart, she simply felt that Lady Aglaea’s authority was still absolute.
“You really don’t have to praise me like that…” The blush on Firefly’s cheeks deepened, creeping to the tips of her ears. Though she didn’t understand what the Iris Family was, nor had she ever heard of the Okhema rankings, she could feel the warmth and kindness in their words.
Her gaze drifted to the dancing flames in the cave. “Actually, I really like the name ‘Firefly’,” she said, her voice soft. “Before the war, my comrades and I once watched fireflies on a midsummer night. Those little insects carried tiny lanterns, flying through the grass like stars that had fallen to earth. That was the first time I felt that bugs weren’t so hateful.”
She paused, a flicker of complexity crossing her glazed eyes. “Perhaps what the chat group revealed really is the future… but for now, I am still AR-26710, loyal to Her Majesty the Empress and the Glamoth Empire.”
The moment the words left her lips, an orange-red flame erupted from her body, wrapping around her like a flowing veil of light. When the fire dissipated, the familiar silver armor had once again encased her form, as if the white-haired girl from moments before had been nothing but a brief, fleeting dream.
Kazuki looked at the resolute warrior before him. He didn’t have the heart to throw cold, hard facts in her face—facts like “the Glamoth Empire never existed” and “the Empress is just a puppet of the Republican Council.”
The journey of a clone, born and bred to fight for an empire and its empress, to awaken her own self-awareness couldn’t be rushed. It was a process that couldn’t be achieved overnight. At the very least, she had accepted her new name. That was a start.
“Although we are safe for the moment, we must remain vigilant…” Firefly explained, her voice regaining its professional soldier’s tone. In truth, she was mostly just not used to the way the other three had been looking at her. Among her fellow Iron Cavalry, everyone looked more or less the same; at most, they might notice different hairstyles, body types, or accessories.
Secondly, as she said, someone needed to keep watch to prevent any emergencies. This was a precaution born from her hard-won experience as a veteran of the Iron Cavalry.
“By the way, the fifth member in the chat group…” Firefly suddenly brought up, her tone laced with confusion. “She doesn’t seem very… rational?”
That description was an understatement. Whenever that particular group member wasn’t muted, their messages were an unending, frantic stream of “kill kill kill kill kill,” like a broken-down killing machine stuck in a loop.
“That one…” Kazuki rubbed his chin. “Firefly, Castorice, you two probably don’t know what the title ‘Emperor’ truly signifies, do you?”
Firefly and Castorice both nodded. In their understanding, the word “Emperor” was likely just another title for a ruler. They were unaware that in the wider galaxy, this term was a topic one couldn’t even touch.
In the vast expanse of the cosmos, no matter how many rulers had called themselves “Emperor” before those two, they would have to obediently change their titles in their presence.
[Cliffhanger King has uploaded “The First Anti-Organic War” and “The Second Anti-Organic War”]
“You’ll understand after you finish reading these,” Kazuki said. “After you do, you’ll probably realize that the galaxy isn’t necessarily much better than the world you’re in now.”
As someone who had ventured deep into war-torn regions to perform charity, Robin had plenty to say on that matter. She had been attacked more than once during her work. And while she had managed to resolve most of those incidents, they were a stark reminder of just how rotten the galaxy could be.
A short while later, two sharp gasps echoed in the cave. Castorice and Firefly stared at the files, their faces pale, seemingly terrified by the horrifying kill-death-assists of the two generations of Emperors.
“Then… our fellow group member, ‘Emperor the Third’…” Firefly’s voice carried an imperceptible tremble. “Could she also be a murderer who can wipe out countless star systems in a single second?”
“No, that’s not it.” Kazuki shook his head, his tone growing solemn. “In fact, she is a great person.”
“Great?” Robin was stunned. To be called “great” by this Group Owner, a man who dared to curse the Lord of Silent Hill, meant this person was anything but ordinary.
“In a way,” Kazuki began, “she saved the galaxy she resides in.”
“How can becoming Emperor the Third be related to saving the galaxy?” This was the question on all three of their minds.
Kazuki spoke slowly, his voice low and resonant, as if reciting an ancient legend. “There is a Headless Giant who, from the moment of its birth, is destined to seize a head. It is a tool, a weapon created by the first Genius, Zandar, to seek revenge against Nous, the Aeon of Erudition.”
Castorice’s head snapped up. “In other words, this group member is connected to Amphoreus, where I am?”
“Yes. In her parallel world, the iron curtain finally broke through its shell. And the first line of defense standing outside Amphoreus was her, coaxed there by Nous itself.”
Kazuki’s gaze swept over the three of them, each captivated by his tale. “When she learned the true nature of the iron curtain, she didn’t hesitate for a moment. For the sake of all living beings in the galaxy, sacrificing one Genius is always easier to accept than facing an Aeon, isn’t it?”
“Nous anchored the boundaries of knowledge. At least, in the moment He anchored it, mortals no longer had to worry about waking up one day to find ‘an integer appearing between two and three,’ or some other mystery disrupting their very cognition.”
“So, she offered up her own head. And in the name of ‘Emperor the Third,’ she began a journey to wash the galaxy in blood.”
He paused, letting the weight of his words settle, and looked at the three women. “Given that… can she not be called great?”
“She can,” Robin was the first to nod, her tone firm and unwavering. “No matter the time or place, anyone willing to sacrifice themselves for others deserves the word ‘great’.”
Castorice and Firefly also nodded silently, a storm of complex emotions surging in their hearts. To think that the group member who could only shout “kill” was hiding such a heavy, tragic story.
“But that brings us back to the original question,” Robin said, her eyes on Kazuki. “What is this fellow group member’s name?”
The cave fell silent, the only sound the crackling of the fire. Kazuki held their gazes for a long moment before uttering two words.
“Herta.”