Chapter 284: To: The Faint Star 『 Part Two 』
「 Seeing that Stelle had already pulled up the surveillance footage of him sabotaging the repeater, Bernard simply stopped making excuses.
However, he insisted that destroying the repeater was entirely for Rocky's own good. The boy was utterly consumed by thoughts of Lesley, idling his days away without learning a single useful skill—that alone was bad enough.
"You simply lack a fundamental understanding of the facts. Lesley, she… she…" Bernard hesitated, the words catching in his throat.
Stelle sensed a vague unease. "Did something happen to her?"
"No, she is unharmed. Furthermore, she accepted Rocky's confession." Bernard's tone suddenly shifted. "But they cannot be together."
Observing Stelle's furrowed brow, Bernard continued his explanation. "This is not the result of my interference, but rather that they cannot be together… it is an eternal impossibility. You see, very few people truly understand what a starquake implies…"
"If properly shielded, a starquake causes no physical harm to the human body. However, the gravitational collapse caused by a starquake will severely change the space-time curvature of the segmentum.… For example, the time in Lesley's segmentum was once a straight line like ours. But now, it has been pressed into a huge canyon by gravity."
"From the moment the starquake occurred, the temporal divergence between Lesley and us began to widen. The time it takes for her to send a reply will stretch from a month to a year, and potentially extend to a decade."
"Not only that, but until she escapes that anomalous gravitational environment, for every month she journeys through the galaxy, we will endure decades of waiting. If Rocky lives in a node called the [Present], then Lesley… she is already living in the [Future]."
Bernard stood before the observation window, gazing out at the boundless river of stars. The starlight reflected upon his wrinkled face, and the brows that were usually locked in a frown now relaxed, revealing a rarely seen weariness and desolation.
He let out a heavy sigh.
"…I was a young man once, too," Bernard murmured. "I believe that rather than rejection, being unable to be with someone despite mutual affection is a far crueler fate."
In the end, he placed the truth within a signal transcription log. The Red Signal Log contained the truth, while the Blue Signal Log contained a falsified chat record of Lesley rejecting Rocky—the power of choice lay in Stelle's hands; she would decide everything. 」
「 ..... 」
〜Bandori World〜
Inside the restaurant on the first floor of LIVE HOUSE RiNG, Chihaya Anon rested her chin in her hands, the bubbles in her strawberry soda long since gone flat.
She watched the hesitation and indecision of Stelle on the Light Screen, her face filled with a sense of loss and melancholy.
"That is just too cruel to them."
Seeing this trope where lovers cannot be united sent Anon's mood plummeting to rock bottom. To make matters worse, what stood between them wasn't a person, but the insurmountable barriers of time and distance.
Behind the counter, Taki was wiping plates.
"So, will Stelle tell Rocky the truth? I get the feeling he's pretty stubborn. If he's told everything—"
"Of course she has to tell him!"
Anon unconsciously raised her voice a few octaves, biting down hard on the straw in her cup.
"When I'm old, if I found out I gave up on true love when I was young because of a lie, I… I… wouldn't be able to rest in peace!"
"Heh."
Sitting opposite her, Soyo shook her head calmly.
"And what good would knowing do him? Would you have him live his whole life carrying regret and sorrow?"
She gently stirred the black tea in her cup, the silver spoon clinking crisply against the porcelain.
"But…"
Anon knew Soyo had a point, but the thought of Rocky's entire life potentially being shaped by a lie made her indignant.
Soyo looked up at the Light Screen, gazing at Rocky's worried face.
"Sometimes, not knowing is a form of happiness. Only a clean break can truly—"
She stopped mid-sentence. Anon noticed Soyo's brow furrow deeply as she took a heavy breath; her face had turned ashen, as if recalling some unpleasant past.
—
「 Stelle found Rocky, who was still revising his newly written love poem. Seeing Stelle approach, Rocky guessed that she had repaired the repeater.
Stelle ultimately steeled her resolve and handed him the Red Signal Log.
After expressing his thanks, Rocky joyfully went to check the reply from his beloved. But as his fingers swiped across the datapad, the smile at the corners of his mouth froze before it could fully bloom.
"How can this be… Lesley accepted my confession, but this part about the starquake…" Rocky lowered his head, bewildered. "I… my brain can't quite process this all at once…"
"It seems that due to the gravitational effects of the starquake, for every month that passes for her, decades pass for me. Doesn't that mean by the time she returns, I'll be as old as Master? And the long time I spend missing her will be nothing but an insignificant blink of an eye to her?"
"…I never imagined that even time could be unfair to people," Rocky muttered to himself. "Spending a lifetime waiting for someone, enduring endless longing and loneliness… Come on, bro, do you really think I'm that naive?"
He seemed to have an epiphany, his voice erupting with ecstatic joy. "Haha! Of course, I'm not going to wait for her! I won't!"
"I am not going to wait for her... But I will go chase her. I'm going to chase after time! Since her space-time curve has become a great canyon, instead of hoping for her to come out, why don't I just cross that canyon myself?"
In Rocky's view, spending ten years to find her when she has only experienced a month—but ensuring their flow of time synchronizes from then on—was an absolutely wise move. Having said this, he decided to pack his bags and set off to find Lesley. 」
「 ..... 」
〜Kaguya-sama: Love Is War World〜
"Waaaaah… It's so touching!"
In the Student Council room, Fujiwara Chika was clutching a box of tissues, her tears flowing like an open faucet ever since she learned the truth about the starquake.
"Ten years! Waaaaah… you two better be aggressively happy for me!"
"I'm willing to go vegetarian for three months in exchange for them being safely together!"
Fujiwara cried even louder.
"And I'll throw in ten years of Ishigami-kun remaining single, too!"
"Hah? Thank you so much for your generosity, Fujiwara-senpai."
Ishigami Yu looked up from his computer screen.
"Senpai, it's fine if you're moved, but why is my happiness footing the bill?"
"It's mainly just that seeing such a pure-hearted guy makes me kind of want to fall in love, too,"
Fujiwara revealed a shy expression.
Ishigami took off his headphones.
"Oh, that's great. However, Fujiwara-senpai, I need to remind you: falling in love… is always sweetest when you're watching others do it. If you do it yourself, you might just stop believing in love altogether as you go along."
—
( Translator-kun: One of my favorite adventure missions in the game, also Ishigami splitting some facts out there. )