Star Rail: Starting with a Lyre, Living off Busking [42]

“Mm… that’s right. Just follow this path, and at the end, we’ll reach our final stop.”

Walking ahead, Venti explained their destination to Bronya, who took the opportunity to observe the surrounding shops and signs, a faint sense of familiarity surfacing in her heart.

“Why… does this place feel so familiar?”

Especially the steps leading up to the hilltop—it seemed like they should be wider, not this narrow.

“I think I’ve been here before,” Bronya murmured to herself.

“But… when could that have been?”

As they climbed the steps, they could see a grand mansion sitting on the high ground, overlooking the town and all its unpredictable events.

Bronya’s expression grew more complicated, and she held her head, as if lost in fragmented memories from the past.

“This is the town’s only orphanage,” Venti said softly. “It was funded by a wealthy merchant. Seele, and even Natasha, once lived here. Unfortunately, the erosion from the Rift eventually reached this place, and the children lost their home.”

For Bronya, his words were like a thunderclap on a quiet spring day, striking her mind with force.

Memories she thought long gone flooded back, like an avalanche, filled with scenes of her time spent living here.

They mingled with the image of the building before her, along with the playground structures, stirring a deep and certain emotion within her.

“Yes… when I was young, I really did live here…”

She gazed intently at everything around her, only to be pulled from her thoughts by the creaking of an old swing where a certain poet sat, swaying back and forth. The rusty chains groaned against the metal frame, snapping her out of her memories.

As the culprit responsible, he showed no awareness of interrupting her. Instead, he shamelessly called out.

“Hehe! Come join me! You push, and I’ll fly!”

Seeing his eager expression, Bronya felt an almost-forgotten feeling slowly rise within her.

She walked behind him, gently pushed his back, and watched him soar with the swing.

He looked like some sort of green birdie…

Once her mood had settled, she asked him.

“Why here?”

“Haha, you finally asked! I was beginning to think you wouldn’t say anything, and then we’d miss this chance.”

Venti swayed his slender, graceful legs and answered with a carefree tone.

“It’s actually quite simple. There wasn’t any special reason. I just thought… you should come back here to see it again.”

Seeing the nostalgic look in her eyes, his tone softened even more.

“Although people shouldn’t be bound by the place they were born, sometimes, forgetting it can make childhood feel all the more empty, don’t you think?”

“…That’s true.”

In the past, Bronya had no time for these kinds of memories. In fact, had she not returned, her impression of this place would probably still be vague.

She had been taken away by the architects, adopted by Lady Cocolia, and her days were far from the carefree life Seele assumed she had.

Every day was filled with grueling lessons, heavy principles of devotion to the people, and the watchful eyes of those around her, filled with hopeful expectations.

These pressures had never disappeared. They only grew heavier, until they became an armor inseparable from her.

If not for her mother’s company, soothing her restless mind with the gentle, resonant voice that told her one folk tale after another on sleepless nights…

Maybe she wouldn’t be like this now—

Of course, Bronya didn’t resent her position, just as the stories her mother told never had happy endings.

Though they ended imperfectly, she found herself strangely fond of them.

Whether it was something innate or a child’s unrealized fantasy forced into reality, no one could say for certain.

Gradually, the swing came to a stop, and Venti hopped off, looking at Bronya, who was still lost in nostalgia.

“To be honest, I didn’t anticipate so many surprises before bringing you here…”

He admitted.

“My intention was simply to have you come and walk around. Even if you didn’t see much of the underworld’s hardships, as long as you knew that people here were still living resiliently, I was certain that with your nature, you wouldn’t ignore it.”

At this, Venti showed a somewhat troubled expression.

“I just didn’t expect so many things to go differently than planned. I guess… I’m really not suited for this kind of thing.”

The wind is inherently free-spirited, unrestrained and carefree, never blowing in just one direction.

But plans… plans could fall apart with any unforeseen change. That wasn’t something he was built for.

Hearing his words, Bronya could feel the old barriers and mistrust dissolving, finally transforming into a tacit trust.

She could see it too. Venti had initially brought her to the underworld with a certain purpose.

But as she joined him, he’d begun to “go with the flow,” allowing her to make her own choices.

“So, do you regret bringing me here?”

Somehow, Bronya’s words came out as a playful tease.

That question made Venti’s eyes light up with a mischievous smile. “Not at all! I believe that sooner or later, you would’ve come here on your own. As long as you refused to stay confined in that despair, one way or another, you’d have arrived.

If I may put it poetically, it’s as though you were fated to come here, Bronya.”

“Fate? Now that’s unexpected. Weren’t you always the one preaching freedom?” Bronya remarked, her mood vastly different from when they’d first arrived.

“That’s because, from the moment you chose to come down with me, the unchanging destiny you’d always known began to shift.

The landscapes you’ll see, the people you’ll meet, the tales you’ll pass on… these are things I look forward to.”

In his eyes, she could see a certain beauty she herself did not possess.

Bronya didn’t ask why it had to be her, nor why he had chosen to do this, nor how he knew about this deeply hidden past. She’d found her answers during this journey.

But even so, she couldn’t help but feel a tinge of regret at the journey’s impending end.

Venti noticed this hint of emotion and gave a serene smile, gazing out over the town below.

“Bronya, would you like to see what it’s like for birds to soar?”

Born within these towering walls, Bronya had never witnessed the grandeur of the outside world, nor seen the beauty this world had to offer, and for a moment, she felt utterly at a loss.

After a long pause, she finally nodded, fumbling over her words.

“Will there really be a day like that?”

“Of course. I’ve seen it many times myself, but if it were with you, maybe those familiar sights would seem brand new.”

The wind-colored poet gave her a playful wink, his voice as gentle as the night breeze.

“So, my friend, won’t you come with me?”