Chapter 410: The Rejuvenated Stelle
Belle chimed in, her tone light and breezy as she tried to ease the lingering tension in the air. "That's right, Stelle! As for all those wrecked facilities and shattered containers inside the Hollow, you really don't need to worry about them! Miyabi said that if there's any collateral damage, the Hoshimi family will handle the bill entirely! But—"
She intentionally dragged out the syllable, blinking mischievously as she leaned in closer. "They did propose one tiny little exchange condition!"
"What condition?" Stelle's head snapped up, a flicker of nervous energy returning to her golden eyes.
Belle cleared her throat, doing her absolute best to imitate Miyabi's cool, razor-sharp seriousness. "Ahem. 'Once this incident is fully resolved, I would very much like to have a proper sparring session with everyone.'"
"However..." Belle paused, tapping her chin as if recalling the exact phrasing. "Stelle, you might want to hold back just a little bit when the time comes. Or, if possible, teach Miyabi a few of your tricks. Consider it a... well, a 'return gift' for the Hoshimi family graciously cleaning up our mess!"
Hearing this explanation, the heavy boulder that had been pressing down on Stelle's chest finally crumbled away. Her greatest fear had been that her out-of-control strike would inadvertently catch innocent bystanders in the crossfire, causing irreparable tragedy.
Knowing that not a single person was injured, and that the massive property compensation was being proactively swept under the rug by Miyabi and the Hoshimi family, the suffocating guilt evaporated. In its place, her signature chaotic vitality surged back to life.
"That's fantastic! Thank the Aeons no one got hurt!" Stelle let out a massive, exaggerated sigh of relief. A brilliant, blinding smile bloomed across her face, completely wiping away the previous gloom as if it had never existed.
She thumped her chest with a closed fist, radiating an extraordinary amount of enthusiasm. "A spar with Miyabi? Absolutely no problem! Leave it to me! I'll definitely give her the fight of her life when the time comes!"
Then, a dangerous spark of inspiration flashed in Stelle's eyes. Her tone pitched higher with excitement. "Wait, I've got a brilliant idea! How about I just teach her the Fire Dance Whirlwind? Miyabi is already ridiculously strong; I bet she'd master it in an afternoon!"
March 7th stared at her, eyes widening to the size of saucers. "Hey, hey, hold on a second! Since when did you become so generous with your ultimate moves? And more..."
March pointed an accusing finger at her tall companion, highlighting the most glaring flaw in this master plan. "Were you even paying attention on the battlefield just now? Miyabi's power is strictly Ice-attribute! Your 'Fire Dance Whirlwind' literally has the word Fire in the name! The elemental attributes clash completely. How is she supposed to learn that? Let alone learn it quickly?"
March's logic hit the nail squarely on the head. Even Lumine and Paimon, who were floating nearby, cast highly curious glances at the Trailblazer, eager to hear whatever twisted, logic-defying explanation Stelle was about to pull out of her hat.
Instead of backing down, Stelle's grin only widened. She wore a tremendously proud expression that practically screamed, 'I'm so glad you asked.' Straightening her posture, she cleared her throat and adopted a solemn, scholarly tone, as if she were about to unveil the greatest scientific discovery of the Amber Era.
"It is entirely possible," Stelle declared. "Because—she is Hoshimi Miyabi!"
"?"
A collective, almost visible cluster of question marks materialized over everyone's heads.
Miyabi? Hoshimi Miyabi? What did a family name have to do with elemental compatibility? Did the Hoshimi bloodline possess some secret, hidden genetic mutation that allowed them to wield Fire-attribute techniques despite being Ice-aligned?
Seeing the utterly bewildered expressions plastered across her companions' faces, Stelle's pride swelled to critical mass. She planted her hands firmly on her hips, puffing out her chest.
"Here's your hint! The name 'Hoshimi'—in our language, it sounds exactly like my weapon, the 'Star Sword'! Hoshimi Miyabi, Star Sword! Get it? It's hilarious!"
After delivering her punchline, Stelle blinked rapidly, her face glowing with an expectant 'Isn't my logic absolutely flawless?' expression as she waited for the uproarious laughter to begin.
Inside the resting area, a suffocating, dead silence descended. It stretched on for several agonizing seconds.
A microscopic twitch rippled across the muscles of Dan Heng's jaw. He slowly, silently turned his head away, fixing his intense gaze upon a completely blank section of the wall, acting as though an incredibly deep universal truth had suddenly manifested on the plaster for him to study.
The corners of Paimon's mouth spasmed uncontrollably. The floating companion's eyes were wide, swirling with a deep, existential confusion that seemed to ask, 'What in Teyvat did I just subject my ears to?'
March's reaction was by far the most visceral. Her expression morphed from initial confusion, to stunned silence, and finally settled into a hollow, dead-eyed blankness—as if she had just been physically struck by an invisible, freezing arctic wind.
Unable to bear it any longer, March raised a hand to massage her temples, groaning as a phantom headache pulsed behind her eyes. "This is my fault. I was too careless. I held you back on the battlefield and didn't let you speak your mind, so now you've finally found the perfect opening to unleash this psychological attack on us, haven't you?"
Stelle surveyed her companions. Instead of the roaring applause she expected, she was met with varied but uniformly unappreciative, deeply un-amused reactions. She tilted her head, genuinely puzzled.
"Come on, don't you guys think that's at least a little bit clever?" Seeing the group still struggling to digest the sheer awfulness of the pun, Stelle refused to be discouraged. Clearly, true genius was rarely understood in its time. They just needed a few more minutes to savor the subtle nuances of her humor.
"Alright, alright, timeout! End of topic!" March aggressively formed a 'T' with her hands, shutting the conversation down before Stelle could attempt a second joke. She then pivoted toward the Express's archivist, her voice laced with precautionary dread.
"Dan Heng, the very second we get back to the Astral Express, I need you to do something for me. You absolutely must access the logic core of that Bangboo we named 'Shut Up' and permanently delete its freezing-cold joke function. If we don't, any friends who visit the Express in the future are going to be mentally corrupted!"
Hearing this utterly ridiculous request, Dan Heng actually paused. He stared at the floor, pondering the logistics for a full second, before giving a solemn nod. He was genuinely considering the preventative measures required to quarantine Stelle's humor.
Hovering nearby, Paimon suddenly snapped his fingers, a lightbulb going off in his head. He zoomed right up to Stelle's face. "Oh! Stelle, if you ever get the chance, you absolutely have to let Lumine introduce you to Cyno! I seriously think the two of you would have a terrifying amount of things in common!"
"Cyno?" Stelle's golden eyes lit up like supernovas, completely filtering out the heavy sarcasm and underlying dread in Paimon's tone. "Is he also a master at discovering the hidden, hilarious connections between the fabric of reality? Oh, I am so looking forward to meeting him!"
She was already treating the art of terrible puns as a competitive sport.
Despite the collective groans and exasperated expressions, a warm undercurrent of relief washed through the group. Seeing Stelle bounce back from her dark, guilt-ridden gloom so quickly to return to her peculiar, hyper-energetic self gave them all a deep sense of security. This was the Stelle they knew and loved.
Her emotions were exactly like the weather in early summer; the sudden storms were fierce and terrifying, but the sky always cleared up rapidly after the rain, never allowing the dark clouds to linger for long.
"Alright, alright, the pun symposium is officially adjourned." Paimon clapped his small hands together to grab everyone's attention. "Since Stelle has her energy back, let's hurry up and head over to the Recovery Center at the Base!"
The floating companion did a little twirl in the air. "I'm seriously looking forward to seeing how many Gear Coins we can rake in this time! After fighting such a massive battle, saving all those people, and perfectly completing the commission, the payout has to be astronomically generous!"
"Yes, yes, yes! Let's go, let's go! Right now!" Stelle's attention was instantly hijacked by the promise of cold, hard cash. She became even more hyperactive than Paimon, practically vibrating in place as she prepared to sprint out the door.
"Let me tell you guys, I scooped up so many amazing things inside that Hollow!" She puffed out her chest proudly. "Even though... well, even though March forced me to throw half of it away, the stuff I managed to stash in my backpack is definitely worth a fortune! Once we exchange it all for Gear Coins, everything today is on my tab!"
She struck a heroic, hands-on-hips pose, radiating the absolute confidence of a newly minted billionaire.
However, the moment those words left Stelle's mouth, the companions who had just been shaking their heads at her terrible joke suddenly froze. Their expressions morphed into something incredibly strange and deeply pitying.
The corner of Dan Heng's mouth twitched imperceptibly before he forced his features back into a mask of stoic calm.
Lumine coughed lightly into her fist, her golden eyes darting away to stare at the ceiling, though the corners of her lips curled upward in a suppressed smirk.
Even March 7th wore a highly complex grimace—a chaotic mixture of 'I can't bear to watch', 'I completely expected this', and 'Let's just let her be happy for five more minutes'.
Every single one of them knew the harsh truth. One of the absolute, unforgiving penalties for breaking the system's rules was the immediate, total wipe of the user's Event Backpack. It didn't matter how many shiny baubles or rare artifacts Stelle had hoarded inside the Hollow; her inventory was undoubtedly completely empty right now.
, they all had vivid, traumatizing memories of exactly what Stelle considered "valuable loot." Even if her Event Backpack hadn't been mercilessly wiped, the random trash she had scooped up like precious diamonds would likely appraise for roughly zero Gear Coins anyway.
They all knew this obvious fact.
Yet, looking at Stelle's beaming, triumphant face, they all tacitly chose to keep their mouths shut.
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