Honkai: Star Rail: The Ballad of the Trailblazer

Not being chosen does not diminish your worth. It is simply a matter of timing and circumstance.

Everything in this world has its own order. You simply do not belong on that person's path through life; it does not mean you are not brilliant enough.

A missed connection is an empty space left by fate, making room for a journey toward someone truly in sync with you, and leaving a way home.

Kafka's casual choice gave rise to two entirely different lives.

One embraced the cosmos, enthralled by the process of exploring world after world.

The other fell into the void, lost in a corner no one ever noticed.

So I introduced a few variables to see what kinds of flowers these protagonists could make bloom in the soil of another world.

And what kind of poem can the protagonist of this book, a somewhat troubled soul from another world, write?

For the Astral Express Crew, this is a story about family and adventure.

For Firefly, burnt bugs and a caring commanding officer are at the heart of the story, while waiting is just the seasoning.

Sacrifice, comrades, saving the world, and a tragic ending sum up Acheron's story.

Loss, gain, and loss again: that is the story of Jingliu's fate.

And then there's Sparkle, Robin, Feixiao...

As for Aha, dangling from the World Tree and getting whacked like a spinning top, and the many different Caeluses facing off nearby? A story needs a few villains and outside variables to be exciting, doesn't it?

(A new author, featuring time travel and the Myriad Worlds. Hope you enjoy it. This is for everyone who loves stories, and for Caelus, who keeps trying to live.)

(See the author's note in Chapter 11. It's now been revised through Chapter 12.)