"Hiyarn's three eggs." There's a nursery rhyme like that.
The Hiyarn here is that pervy rabbit — the real Hiyarn herself.
Most people think she's a bald male Edda, though.
Right now she's a rabbit, but her true form is a beautiful Edda woman who's a dead ringer for Ms. Megadia.
She's not Megadia's direct descendant, but from the same ancestral line — and she feels sorry for Ms. Megadia.
The three eggs from that nursery rhyme.
The Sacred Egg of the Elixir. The Eternal Egg of the Talisman. The Revival Egg of the Phoenix.
The effects of each are absurd.
The Elixir heals any wound and annihilates the undead.
The Talisman grants eternal youth. If desired, one can receive longevity surpassing even elves and fairials.
And the Phoenix… brings back the dead. Anything can be revived.
And that Phoenix's Revival Egg is now in my hands.
Why would something like that be in a place like this…
The Elixir too, for that matter. These aren't things you just toss into the Junkyard.
Well, they weren't exactly tossed. Their owners died, and they ended up gathered here.
But still… no way.
"…The Revival Egg of the Phoenix."
I held the egg up.
The golden ancient characters appeared to burn red, depending on the angle of the light.
It was making the entire egg look red. Ah, I see. So it's a Phoenix.
"Hmm hmm. Hmm. You've found yourself something truly outrageous again."
"But is it actually real? There were fakes of elixirs all over the world, too."
Sure, the contents might be genuine, but there are plenty of things that don't infinitely respawn.
"I believe it's genuine."
It had the same blue light as an elixir.
It was stored in a box similar to the one for an elixir.
That was the only basis for my reasoning, but I was fairly confident it was real.
"Oh my. Then shall we try using it?"
"Huh? Use it?"
"But Hiyarn said we absolutely must not revive anyone."
Hiyarn had said that with a rare, dead-serious expression on her face.
That much, at least, had stuck with me.
"Well now, if the great Hiyarn says so, she can't be wrong. But you know — resurrection. Doesn't that interest you? The phenomenon of coming back to life — Kom is ever, ever so curious about it. Even if it's been forbidden, even if it's been prohibited, Kom would like to try it just once."
A witch was a witch, at the end of the day.
But I was interested, too.
"Then why not give it a shot?"
Mineha said it with an air of complete disinterest.
"'Give it a shot,' she says."
"It's not like it has to be a person, right? Try it on a weak monster, or some small creature or something."
"Ah well, when in doubt, guinea pig slime is the way to go."
"Guinea pig... slime."
Not a mouse?
The witch pulled a bottle from her pouch.
Inside the bottle was a red liquid.
"Oh my, oh my, it's a dead Red Slime."
"Why on earth do you have something like that?"
"Well now, well now, it's for crafting materials."
Total lie. Nobody labels their guinea pig "for materials."
The witch picked up a bronze helmet lying nearby and dripped the dead Red Slime into it.
A thick, vividly crimson liquid filled the inside of the helmet.
I opened the Phoenix revival egg and let a single drop fall onto the dead Red Slime.
Opened the same way as an elixir, the slime glowed red and began to move.
"It actually revived!"
"Hoh hoh. Came back to life, didn't it."
"But something seems off."
The Red Slime trembled, then burst out of the helmet and lunged at the witch.
I stepped forward in a flash and raised my gauntlet in a guard. The Red Slime bounced off on reflex.
And then Mineha took it out with "Demon Star Manifesting Spear."
"What is this thing?"
If It Attacked as a Monster, There Was Nothing Particularly Unnatural About That
The witch took the Red Slime's corpse in hand and placed it into her helmet.
"Good, good. Young Wof. Let's try it one more time."
"Huh?"
"Come on, come on. Try it once more—see if it revives again."
"...All right."
She wanted to verify whether it would revive again.
I was curious about that myself. Mineha silently readied herself.
One drop, onto the Red Slime's remains again. After a moment, it started moving.
We tried it ten times in a row, and all ten times, it revived.
The way the Red Slime revived was completely unstable.
Sometimes it attacked, sometimes it did nothing—its reactions after resurrection varied wildly.
Mid-experiment, I accidentally destroyed the slime's core, and even after revival it would just die immediately.
Once I healed it with an elixir first, the instant death stopped.
"Hmm, hmm. The state isn't very stable."
"It attacks one moment, stays docile the next—emotionally unstable."
"That's what happens when you've been revived this many times."
At this point, it wouldn't be surprising if it suffered a complete mental breakdown.
I wasn't sure whether monsters even had minds to break, though.
"Hm, hm, hm. Hm. Many times over... I see."
The witch folded her arms and pondered.
When she folded her arms, her chest bounced prominently, and I averted my gaze.
"Something bothering you?"
"Mm-hm. There's no consistency in any of their responses. The fact that they're this different each time I revive them — it's like they're entirely separate individuals. And that's what reminded me. The teachings of Seihou. When you die, your soul leaves the vessel of the soul and returns to the sea of souls."
"Um, does the witch believe in the teachings of Seihou?"
I was genuinely surprised. It was hard to imagine this witch believing in the teachings of Seihou.
Mineha tilted her head.
"Seihou, you said? What exactly are you getting at?"
"Well, you see — perhaps this Phoenix resurrection egg..."
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"Huh? That's just obvious, isn't it?"
"Hmm, hmm. Well then, young Wof. What do people generally think about coming back to life — about resurrection? For instance, when someone you love dies and comes back."
"You'd have to call it a miracle, wouldn't you? 'How wonderful.' That's all there is to say."
I mean, it would make you happy, right.
Because resurrection isn't something that normally happens.
"Mm-hmm. That's right. If someone you love were resurrected, you'd naturally think their soul was that of your loved one, wouldn't you?"
"Of course. That's what resurrection is."
I stopped short.
The slime's inconsistent behavior each time it was revived flashed through my mind.
And the dead souls return to the Sea of Souls—the Goddess of the Knife said the same thing.
In other words, the teachings of Seihou are the truth of this world.
To resurrect means to bring a soul from the Sea of Souls.
However, considering the slime’s far too inconsistent behavior upon revival...
"The soul that enters the resurrected body is random?"
"Eh?"
"You're just pulling them randomly from the Sea of Souls, right?"
"Oh? I see, I see..."
"Wait, doesn't that mean even if you bring someone back to life, you won't meet the original person?!"
Mineha blurted out in shock.
Yes. That’s how it would be. Even after resurrection, you wouldn’t meet the real person.
"Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. That’s probably the case, yes. So resurrection is indeed possible. The Phoenix’s Revival Egg contains that power—the power to bring a soul from the Sea of Souls. However, there’s no guarantee that soul belongs to the original person... Is that what you’re saying?"
"R-Really?!"
The witch flashed a sardonic, knowing smile at Mineha, who asked fearfully.
"Well now, well now, who can say? This is merely a hypothesis. Armchair theory, if you will. To prove it... yes, you’d have to conduct a clear-cut resurrection experiment on a human to know for certain."
"There’s no way you could do something like that!"
"Exactly, exactly. That’s why there’s no other way to confirm it."
"............"
Bring them back to life, but inside is a different person—there’s no way to verify it except through experimentation.
But even so, killing someone just for that purpose made even me hesitate.
I had killed plenty of people. A mass murderer. I'd killed just as many people as monsters.
Even so, even I had certain lines I wouldn't cross.
I only killed those with malicious intent—those who attacked or harmed others.
But even with malicious intent, killing for the sake of an experiment crossed that line.
Besides, after reviving someone, whether they were a different person or not, I'd still bear the responsibility of having revived them.
I couldn't shoulder that. And killing again was… …no. I still couldn't do it.
But I was certain. Reviving them would almost certainly result in a completely different person.
The power of Phoenix's Revival Egg did not include the ability to salvage a specific soul.
The reason I was so sure was what the Knife Goddess had told me.
When a soul dies and departs from its "soul vessel," it returns to the great sea of souls.
From that sea, souls flow onward. In other words, that is birth.
At least, that's what my past-life memories told me. The concept of reincarnation.
Or perhaps transmigration to another world.
So if one had already reincarnated, bringing that same soul back would be impossible.
Using the Phoenix's Revival Egg could bring someone back to life.
That meant it had the power to draw a soul from the sea of souls.
However, it could not bring back a specific soul.
The soul drawn from the sea of souls would be random.
If you revived someone, they would be a completely different person.
Though there was a slim chance the salvaged soul happened to be the original one.
However, that's about as likely as finding a specific grain of sand by chance in a vast desert.
That's why Haiyrn said you shouldn't revive them.
She had a point. You couldn't really call this a revival.
"Well then, shall we head back up to the surface?"
"Yes, let's. I'm feeling rather tired."
"Um, uh, witch. What should we do about this?"
I show her the Phoenix's revival egg.
The witch said casually.
"Well well, I'll leave it up to young Wof."
"B-but I already have an elixir."
"Then it's fine, isn't it? Going from one to two doesn't change a thing."
Mineha says irresponsible things too.
They're both trying to push this onto me.
"It's not the same!"
"But but, but still. Right now, the safest place for it is your pouch, Wof."
"Wouldn't that apply to the witch as well?"
Equally safe — no, even safer than with me — I think handing it to the witch would be.
The witch then flashed me a mischievous, impish grin. It was oddly seductive.
"Oh my, are you sure you want to let me hold it? I'm a woman of boundless curiosity, you know. I didn't earn the title of witch for nothing. If I were to taste the forbidden fruit that is a Phoenix's revival egg, who knows what I might end up doing?"
"Ugh, th-that's…"
What an outrageous threat. But I couldn't deny it.
The witch would definitely do something with the Phoenix's revival egg.
Even if it was dangerous and forbidden, she'd end up doing it anyway.
That's just the kind of person the witch was. I looked at Mineha.
"Me? It's frustrating, but I'm the weakest one here. And I have the least… interest in that egg. I understand its importance, but honestly, I think it'd be fine to just throw it away. Since I have zero interest, I might forget what it is and accidentally toss it. You know how that happens, right? But in this case, that wouldn't be good. So you hold on to it."
She told me that straight to my face.
When you have zero interest, you forget about things and treat them carelessly.
That's how it was for me with swords.
Lately I'd been getting knives in such large quantities that they'd become like that too.
So I could understand how Mineha felt.
She would definitely forget about it. She'd end up throwing it away somewhere.
That's just the kind of person Mineha was.
"…Sigh, fine. Understood."
With no other choice, I tucked the Phoenix's revival egg into my pouch.
Man, this felt heavy.
But at least this meant I was prepared for the Full Moon Bazaar, so that was good.
I was genuinely happy that the Relic had evolved and become even easier to use.
That alone was enough to call this a win.
We left the Junkyard behind.