Honkai Star Rail: I must live a peaceful life

"Is that so? That's not bad then." Milo's expression remained unchanged, though there was a hint of understanding as their suspicions were confirmed.

So... Milo stared at the glowing white lie detector mark, many related questions floating through their mind. But in the end, they simply snapped their fingers, shattering the mark that could have lasted a while longer.

Why did they do all this? The answer to such questions was no longer needed. The Chaos Zone and the Empire were separated by thousands of stars' distance. Even if Milo knew the truth, they couldn't change anything.

Whether Norton's reasons were good or evil, whether they were mundane or soul-stirring, they had all been buried in the distant past. Why unearth them now?

After all, time erodes all reasons. Even if Milo had the chance to return to the Imperial Capital, it would be at least twenty or thirty years later. By then, the other party probably wouldn't care anymore.

Milo skillfully found reasons to remain ignorant - a kind of self-deception, like covering one's eyes and ears. But that's how the world worked. Even if you knew what cards lay face-down on the table, as long as you didn't flip them over directly, everyone could pretend they didn't exist.

Perhaps?

Milo lay down on the recliner and gazed at the faint starlight in the night sky. Their consciousness gradually settled into silence.

After all, how could obsession possibly overcome the passage of time?

"But obsession combined with competitiveness can overcome quite a long stretch of time." Across a vast distance, a woman with golden vertical pupils smiled bitterly.

She casually thrust her longsword into the thick ice beside her and collapsed onto the ground, seemingly exhausted.

The ancestral grounds of the Notica family were eternally covered in frost and snow, a scene of bitter cold. Thin, sharp ice and snow swirled endlessly in the air, while howling gale winds swept across the land - even steel would be reduced to powder in this harsh environment.

Yet no matter how swift the storm or how sharp the frost, they could not touch the only two living beings in this realm.

The snow melted as it approached, the water droplets quickly refroze as the wind stripped away their heat, and the tiny ice crystals gradually wore away to nothing as they collided and cut against each other in the wind.

No single snowflake could exist for long, yet new ones constantly formed and were born. After all these years, countless flakes still danced through the sky.

Some obsessions were just like this.

A well-dressed middle-aged man sat cross-legged on an ice block nearby. However, his overall dejected demeanor and unkempt stubble made his expensive clothes look like bargain bin items.

The man took a swig of alcohol with a troubled expression, then continued advising his daughter earnestly: "Look, I don't care who you like, you're of age after all. I won't say you chose poorly even though that person's fate is unknown and it's causing you such lingering attachment. Worst case, you can use the ancestral powers to force an advancement to pseudo-fifth tier. I never had much hope for you reaching the near-divine tier anyway."

"But my dear child," the man sighed helplessly, "why are you announcing your true gender to the outside world now? Back then, you declared yourself male because you found dealing with suitors too troublesome. What are you trying to do now?"

"Is there a problem?" Norton turned her head slightly, her golden vertical pupils gazing at the man impassively.

"It's going to be such a hassle." The man shook his head and took another drink. "Now that the inheritance has passed to you, I'm only considered a strong fourth tier. We can't just ignore everyone like before. Once this gets out, there will definitely be people trying to get close to me through you. I can't just resort to violence, can I?"

Besides, in his current state, he might not even win against certain people.

"And it's not like you could possibly be interested in anyone else." The man gave Norton a strange look. "Let me be clear - I don't mind if our bloodline ends and the inheritance gets sent to a museum."

"I want to create big news that will spread far and last long, that's all," Norton said softly.

"But what's the use of that? That person..." is probably no longer in this world. The man wanted to say something but swallowed his words and changed course mid-sentence. "What use is it for that person to know you're female?"

"That's enough. That person has a good memory and is sufficiently perceptive. Just knowing this one thing will allow them to guess many others." Norton gazed at the sky, her eyelids lowered. "I'm only worried that they might guess too much and become unwilling to see me."

"Well then..." The man laughed awkwardly, a flash of gold suddenly appearing in his cyan eyes. "If worst comes to worst, how about I just kidnap them and bring them here once I get news of their whereabouts?"

"Mm, though you probably couldn't manage it, thank you anyway, Father." Norton nodded, slowly closing her eyes. "I'll rest for a bit. Please do as you wish."

"Wait, what do you mean I probably couldn't manage it?" The man suddenly realized something and protested indignantly: "I'm a mighty fourth tier, surely I could handle them."

The Grand Duke of the North sighed like an ordinary middle-aged man, "Or is it that even you think they're unlikely to still be alive?"

Across the distant starry sky, Milo was in peaceful slumber until the first ray of sunlight touched them the next day.

Nimbly flipping off the recliner and landing on their feet, they grabbed the "Temporarily Closed" wooden sign by the door and hung it outside, then walked naturally out of the workshop. There was no trace of their previous days of refusing to leave.

The old city district still maintained the most basic public transit system, with self-driving mini-buses repeating their loops between the old and new districts on an hourly schedule.

Like the self-examination site in the Thirteenth Stellar District, it was just for show, maintained at the minimum operational level. After learning the relevant information, Milo had seen through its true nature.

But these things existed because there was no denying the possibility they might be used.

Milo smiled calmly, their eyes flickering with fragments of memories. In a sense, these facilities were meant to be "public" but were really for individuals, whether due to their origins or their inherent capacity.

Take the self-examination site in the Thirteenth Stellar District - just one extra test paper waiting to be graded could cause the processing power-diverted processor to lag several hours beyond the usual double time. This led to two people missing their train home and having to pool money to squeeze into a single bed at an inn.

Milo's mood naturally lifted. She was perhaps the only familiar person they often remembered, after all, they frequently made use of her abilities and occasionally broke through creative blocks by trying to think from her perspective.

The image naturally surfaced in their mind - that silver-haired, aloof figure with delicate features, always dressed in white. Milo walked past the last corner on the map.

At the old-style waiting area from a decade ago, a white-clad figure with silver hair stood in the shadow of the sun shelter, turning to look over with a calm, indifferent expression.

P.S.: Not the same person.

End of chapter.