If I Could Have Another Life, I’d Choose to Love You

Honkai: Star Rail | Xilian | Pure romance | Possibly a slow burn | First person | Even if she isn’t Elysia, she still deserves the respect she is due. |

On my 33,550,335th return through the eternal cycle, the blade at dawn pierced my body as it always did. I’d lost count of how many times this had happened. Every time I woke, it was the same ending, the same straw, the same emptiness.

So this time, before my consciousness faded completely, I let myself imagine…

If I were given a life, what would I do?

Perhaps heaven really did take pity on me. When I opened my eyes again, I saw not straw but a white ceiling, the glass tube of an IV drip, and a group of people in white coats. My mother died giving birth to me, and my father had an accident at a construction site years ago. All I had left was Bai E, and we depended on relatives to get by.

It was my first day at school, the first time I never went hungry, and the first time I made it to adulthood without seeing blood.

I thought it was just an unusually long dream.

When I came of age, I saw those familiar faces: Feng Jin, Xing, Bai E, Hysilens… and him.

Qiong.

Gray hair, yellow eyes.

He said, “I’ve been waiting for you.”

His voice was as level as if he were commenting on the weather, but the certainty in his yellow eyes left no room for argument.

He was never in a hurry. He only waited until I thought there was still a way out, then closed off each escape route one by one, until the only place I could go was into his arms.