Chapter 36: Stelle: No—! I can't do anything!
"Is there anything else you'd like to ask?" Himeko's gaze swept over the three new arrivals. A warm, welcoming smile graced her lips, her tone as gentle as the steaming coffee resting on the nearby table.
Leon rubbed his chin, his eyes scanning the familiar metallic bulkheads of the storage room. "I do have one tiny request regarding our living arrangements," he began, his voice laced with casual amusement. "Would it be possible for me to stretch the space out in here just a little bit?"
Truth be told, the storage room on the second floor of the Parlor Car was already massive. The Astral Express used highly sophisticated folded-space technology—a marvel of engineering not unlike the spatial-compression techniques favored by the Xianzhou Luofu. It allowed the interior of the train cars to boast a cavernous volume that completely defied their sleek exterior dimensions.
Yet, manually expanding the train's internal dimensions required a direct infusion of the Power of Trailblaze. While the room offered plenty of square footage, Leon still found the prospect of three people sharing a single open area a bit too cramped for his liking. He already had a grand design brewing in his mind—a completely exclusive, personalized sanctuary just for himself.
"Oh?" Himeko blinked, a flicker of genuine surprise crossing her elegant features before melting back into a soft smile. "You plan to use the Power of Trailblaze for a renovation? Is the current layout not enough for you? It's already quite generous."
"You know, seeking excessive luxury isn't a good habit for a nameless traveler," March 7th chimed in. She wagged a slender finger at him, puffing out her cheeks in a display of mock seriousness.
"Don't worry, I know exactly what I'm doing." Leon's lips curved into a confident, almost mischievous smirk. He closed his eyes for a brief second, reaching inward to tap into the boundless energy of the Path of Trailblaze lying dormant within his body.
Ever since the fall of Akivili, the Path of Trailblaze had remained a masterless road. Given his overpowered nature, Leon could effortlessly step to the absolute furthest end of this conceptual Path if he truly desired... but where was the fun in that?
'Wouldn't you agree, Akivili?' Leon mused silently, his amused gaze drifting over to Stelle and Caelus.
He couldn't help but wonder about the fallen Aeon's original gender. After all... both the male and female vessels had been simultaneously created for this exact moment.
Going by the meta-knowledge of his past life, if a player chose Stelle, then Caelus was heavily implied to be the past Akivili—and vice versa. But here, in this fractured reality, both of them existed at the same time. Destiny's Slave, Elio, must have been tearing his hair out trying to calculate this unmatched anomaly.
The mental image of Elio hyperventilating over his shattered scripts made Leon want to burst out laughing. The end had always been a train traveling backward from the future... otherwise, there would be no logical reason for the Stellaron Hunters to be sandwiched directly between two Trailblaze-aligned factions in the official Data Bank.
Suddenly, a dense, suffocatingly thick wave of the Power of Trailblaze flooded the Parlor Car like a bursting dam. Himeko's breath hitched. Her pupils constricted to pinpricks as a massive wave of pure shock crashed against her usually unshakable composure.
In this current era, where the Path of Trailblaze was steadily waning across the cosmos, she was widely considered one of the few who had walked the furthest along its tracks. Yet, at this very second, she could clearly feel an ocean of energy—far beyond her wildest comprehension—saturating the very air around them.
Countless theories raced through her sharp mind. Was this young man actually some ancient, hidden Trailblazer from a bygone epoch? Unlikely. Pom-Pom possessed the ability to recognize every single Nameless who had ever boarded the Express. But then again... if Aha the Elation could once disguise themselves as a mundane passenger, Leon could naturally be hiding an equally terrifying truth.
Or perhaps Leon's innate compatibility with the Path of Trailblaze was simply off the charts, allowing him to awaken this monstrous strength the moment he touched a Star Rail Pass? Was such a miracle even biologically possible?
Or... could he be Akivili reborn? She instantly killed the thought the moment it surfaced. There was absolutely no way Pom-Pom would fail to recognize their beloved former master.
Just as Himeko's mind spun dangerously close to an existential crisis, March 7th's bright, ringing voice shattered the heavy silence. "Whoa! That's amazing!"
Compared to the seasoned navigator, the pink-haired girl's perception of cosmic energy wasn't nearly as acute. However, she didn't need a sixth sense to see the physical walls of the storage room stretching and folding outward at a speed visible to the naked eye. She clapped her hands together, offering her heartfelt, starry-eyed praise.
"What is happening?! The Power of Trailblaze on the train has suddenly become so abundant..."
A familiar, high-pitched voice echoed from the corridor. Pom-Pom rushed into the room, their long, fluffy ears swaying wildly with every frantic step. As the Conductor of the Astral Express, they had sensed the massive spatial anomaly the very millisecond it began.
"It's nothing major, Pom-Pom," Leon explained with a breezy wave of his hand, acting as if he hadn't just rewritten the laws of physics. "I just felt the living space was a bit too cramped for three people, so I stretched the floorboards a little."
As the golden currents of Trailblaze energy continued to flow from his fingertips, he didn't just push the walls back. He actively manipulated the folded space to carve out an entirely new upper floor, flawlessly integrating a sleek, spiraling staircase that led to the newly formed level.
Himeko and March 7th stared in awe, assuming he had merely increased the room's square footage. They were completely unaware that Leon had already carefully furnished the entire second floor using his overpowered abilities. He had conjured a plush, comfortable living area, a fully equipped entertainment center, an elegant tea room, and high-end audio-visual equipment. It was a private, cozy little paradise manifested from pure thought.
The interior design drew heavy inspiration from the modern aesthetics of his past life, boasting a highly rational layout and a uniquely sleek style. Fortunately, Himeko couldn't see the secret paradise hidden upstairs. If she had realized he was creating complex, modern electronics out of thin air, she would have been utterly paralyzed by this logic-defying method of creation.
After all, the Power of Trailblaze was strictly meant to expand the train's pre-existing spatial dimensions, not act as a localized reality-warping engine to manifest matter from nothing. This fundamental limitation was exactly why Himeko had originally asked Leon and the others to draw up blueprints, fully intending to purchase the physical furniture and construction materials while docked at the Herta Space Station.
"Whoa! This is so cool!" Stelle's golden eyes lit up like supernovas. Eager to test her own limits, she squeezed her eyes shut, grunted, and attempted to mobilize her own meager reserves of Trailblaze energy, desperately trying to emulate Leon's casual reality-bending.
A tense second passed. Then another.
Absolutely nothing happened.
"Why can't I do it?!" Stelle blinked, staring down at her empty hands in utter betrayal.
"Do you even need to ask?" March 7th groaned, slapping a hand over her face in a dramatic facepalm. "You literally just woke up! You haven't been on a single Trailblaze journey yet. Where on earth would you get enough cosmic energy to remodel a room?"
"No—! I'm useless! I can't do anything!" Stelle wailed.
She clutched the sides of her head and dropped to her knees in an incredibly exaggerated display of agony. She stared blankly at the floorboards, her posture screaming of a tragic hero whose entire world had just collapsed. The look of utter, hollow despair on her face made it seem as though she had just lost her life savings.
'So that's how it is!'
Standing just a few feet away, Caelus silently pulled a small notebook from his pocket. With the utmost scholarly seriousness, he clicked his pen and jotted down a single, deep observation: The Power of Trailblaze can be used for interior decorating.
March 7th stared at the kneeling girl and the furiously scribbling boy. "...Is that really necessary? You're being way too dramatic!" She dropped her arms to her sides, utterly speechless at the sheer eccentricity of the train's newest recruits.
"I've made up my mind," Stelle suddenly announced, her voice trembling with newfound resolve as she slowly pushed herself off the floor. "I am going to forge my own Path of Trailblaze."
Her logic was flawless. If Himeko brewing terrifying coffee and adding whatever random ingredients she wanted counted as 'Trailblazing', then surely she could find her own calling. Stelle's golden gaze slowly, involuntarily, drifted toward the sleek metallic trash can sitting innocently in the corner of the room. Suddenly, the cylindrical receptacle looked exceptionally alluring. It practically glowed with hidden mysteries.
"Hey! What are you doing? Don't dig through the trash!" March 7th shrieked, lunging forward to grab Stelle by the shoulders just as the gray-haired girl took a zombie-like step toward the bin.
But while the quick-thinking archer could stop one raccoon, she couldn't stop the second.
Taking full advantage of March 7th restraining his female counterpart, Caelus nimbly slipped past their flank. With a swift, practiced motion, he popped the lid off the trash can and immediately began rummaging through its contents with intense, scholarly fascination.
"Darn it, beaten to the loot again!" Stelle clicked her tongue, glaring at Caelus with genuine annoyance.
"What is wrong with you guys?!" March 7th cried out, her voice cracking as she tried to pull Caelus away from the garbage by his jacket.
"Mr. Leon..." Himeko smiled warmly, completely ignoring the chaotic trash-digging antics unfolding in the background. She clearly hadn't realized the sheer severity of the Galactic Baseballers' obsession yet, innocently assuming Stelle and Caelus were just blowing off steam with a quirky joke.
"Since I'm already an official member of the Express, there's no need for formalities. Just call me Leon," he interrupted gently, his tone smooth and relaxed.
"Leon, you've certainly opened my eyes today..." Himeko replied, her smile deepening. Although a sharp, inquiring light danced in her crimson eyes, she considerately chose not to press the issue any further.
After all, on the Astral Express, which passenger didn't harbor a few deep secrets? Maintaining a proper, respectful distance while trusting one another was the fundamental philosophy of the Nameless. It was simply how the crew survived the long, endless journey among the stars.
[Inorin's Note:
Enjoying the story? Dropping a quick review, comment, or Power Stone means the world to me and keeps these daily updates flowing!
Want to read 50 chapters ahead or just want to help keep a shameless translator alive? (My livelihood actually depends on this, haha 😭). You can support me directly here:
(P.S. Just remove the brackets and replace the [.] with a regular dot . to use the links!)
✨ Patreon (50 Advanced Chapters): patreon[.]com/InorinTL
☕ Ko-fi (Support / Sponsor): ko-fi[.]com/InorinTL
Thank you so much for reading and keeping this project alive!]