A mask left behind by the Elation Aeon?
That was way too amusing.
Within the Path of Elation, there were two major factions.
One was the Masked Fools, the regulars of the taverns.
The other was the Mourning Actors—those who believed Elation itself was fundamentally broken.
Every mask worn by the Masked Fools?
They were all seized from the Mourning Actors.
That was true for Sparkle.
True for Sampo.
Even the mask Sparkle once gifted to Vita in that neighboring theater—
Also taken from those same Mourning Actors.
Evan pulled the mask out of his inventory and examined it closely.
It looked… ordinary.
Just a simple mask, nothing special—
the kind you'd use to hide your facial features.
But the moment he tried sensing it with Path energy—
He felt it.
A flow of power that didn't belong to his own Path.
And beneath that—
A strange awareness.
As if something were staring straight at him.
From time to time, a low, unsettling "heh-heh" echoed near his ears.
It felt like playing survival horror alone at night.
"Hiss—"
Terrifying.
Yeah. Back into the inventory it went.
At least in there, an Aeon's gaze couldn't reach it.
...
Evan's eyes drifted toward Pom-Pom.
As the conductor, Pom-Pom had remained here ever since Aha blew up the train and Akivili fell.
Pom-Pom—the soul of the Astral Express.
Even when Aha deliberately destroyed an entire carriage, Pom-Pom never got angry.
To this day, it still missed that former strongest Nameless—
the greatest Emanator of Trailblaze.
"Alright, alright! Passengers!"
"The Trailblazing mission on Jarilo-VI is complete!"
"So—where should we head next?"
Pom-Pom's voice snapped Evan out of his thoughts.
"I vote Pier Point!"
"I've heard the Kirillo Fresh Fish Restaurant there is amazing!"
March 7th shot her hand up enthusiastically.
"Pier Point?"
"That's basically the Interastral Peace Corporation's home base, isn't it?"
"We just resupplied at Herta Space Station—we're not exactly short on resources."
Himeko analyzed calmly.
"I'm more interested in Pegana,"
Welt spoke up.
"After all, it's said to be Akivili's homeland."
Pegana—the legendary birthplace of Akivili.
The Astral Express now traveled along the old Trailblazing routes,
though many stations had been lost due to memory damage.
Even so—
Both the starting point and the final destination of the route
were tied to this planet called Pegana.
"Punklorde wouldn't be bad either,"
Dan Heng added.
"It's a cyber world—famous for hackers."
"One of the Stellaron Hunters wanted by the IPC comes from there."
As the current head of security—and caretaker of the data archive—
Dan Heng was naturally intrigued.
A planet full of hackers sounded like a place overflowing with talent.
So producing a Stellaron Hunter?
Perfectly reasonable.
Still—
No one could quite decide where to go next.
The Astral Express followed the Trailblaze,
and along the silver rails lay many extinguished worlds—
Salsotto.
Screwllum's planet.
Vonwacq.
And so—
Everyone's gaze slowly shifted.
All eyes landed on Evan.
"Hey, Evan!"
"Where do you think we should go next?"
March 7th put her hands on her hips.
"..."
"I'm a local, okay? A Jarilo-VI native…"
"I really don't know."
Evan waved his hands helplessly.
Honestly, any planet worked for him.
There were treasure chests everywhere in the universe.
But—
Wait.
By the original flow of events,
after Jarilo-VI ended, shouldn't they be heading to the Xianzhou?
Right—Kafka.
Where was that woman who always showed up to push the plot forward?
Oh.
Right.
Because when Stelle and the others arrived,
the Stellaron crisis had already been resolved.
So the departure time was advanced.
But—
Elio's script hadn't been updated.
Nor had the timing been rewritten.
Which meant—
"How about… we go to the Xianzhou?"
Evan finally spoke.
...
"The Xianzhou?"
March 7th immediately lit up.
Stelle stared at Evan with open curiosity.
Welt and Himeko didn't object.
Only Dan Heng—
His expression turned extremely strange.
So strange it almost looked… painful.
"The Xianzhou?"
"You mean the Xianzhou Alliance's Xianzhou?"
"That could work," Welt nodded.
"It's a good place to stop and rest."
Evan shot Welt a puzzled look.
He really wanted to ask—
How long have you been around, sir?
How do you know everything?
"It is a good option," Himeko agreed.
"The nearest jump on our route brings us close to a Xianzhou vessel."
"Let me see…"
"Hm—looks like it's the Xianzhou Luofu."
She checked the navigator's log and star-route map carefully.
And confirmed it.
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