Feidric recalled and said to the others, "In Legend of the Demon King and the Hero, the half-elf Druid's name was Eve Perkins."
Hearing this, Aria naturally turned to the half-elf young girl and asked, "Do you remember your name being Eve?"
The half-elf young girl shook her head blankly.
Castorice then stepped forward and said, "Actually, you were originally dead. I revived you, bringing you back to the living world without permission. I'm truly sorry. So, do you wish to continue living in this world, or return to peaceful slumber?"
Though the half-elf young girl had lost her memories, she wasn't foolish. Even with Castorice's gentle wording, the meaning was clear: Do you want to live or die? She immediately shook her head frantically, her small head bobbing like a rattle drum, her long green hair swaying wildly. "No, no, no, no, no!"
Clearly, the half-elf young girl had no desire to die. This left them with a thorny problem: where would she go next?
After all, Castorice had resurrected her. Normally, the half-elf young girl's ownership—or rather, custody—should have belonged to Castorice. But the half-elf young girl looked terrified of her. After a moment's thought, Castorice turned to Cipher and said, "Miss Cipher, since she relies on you so much, would you mind taking care of her?"
"Of course," Castorice continued. "I certainly wouldn't impose on you for nothing. Let's consider this my owing you all a favor. If you ever need my help, feel free to come to me anytime."
"No need for that!" Aria immediately interjected. "It's no trouble at all. Besides, the child is so adorable! Just leave her to us! As for favors... let's forget about them!"
In truth, if you were to try to insert a helpless little girl into an adventurer's party—no matter how cute she might be—she would normally be resented. There's no other reason for it other than that she would just be a liability, slowing the group down.
But the problem was, the half-elf young girl wasn't just some helpless little girl! She was a bona fide former Hero, resurrected from the dead!
Her very existence was a living legend. Even with amnesia, the fact that she had instantly transformed into a squirrel just moments ago proved that the half-elf young girl hadn't lost her abilities.
In other words, if they truly allowed the half-elf young girl to join their party, she would likely become their strongest member (excluding Cipher). Far from being a burden, she was a major asset!
At that moment, Feidric hesitated before asking, "Actually, there's something I've been wanting to ask you, Miss Castorice. Can you revive someone who has been dead for a very long time?"
Though Feidric didn't elaborate, Cipher, having learned of Feidric's origins from the Prophet Old Mage, immediately understood who he wanted to resurrect.
However, Castorice shook her head. "If someone has been dead for a very long time, I can't help. My resurrection isn't resurrection in the conventional sense. Instead, I use Water from the river styx to create a body identical to their living form and then insert their soul. The process itself isn't particularly complex; the key lies in the soul."
"If the soul exists, resurrection is possible. If it's gone, resurrection is impossible."
Douglas was stunned by Castorice's words. Although she claimed her resurrection method was simple, using Styx Water to create a body and then preserving and inserting a soul sounded incredibly complex.
In any case, Feidric's sister's soul had long since returned to the Death God's embrace and was now in some unknown realm. Unless Castorice could somehow snatch her soul from the Death God himself, resurrecting her seemed impossible.
But the Death God had vanished. Even if they wanted to attempt such a daring rescue, they couldn't even find the god!
"I see..." Feidric murmured, his head bowed, his voice tinged with sorrow. But he quickly rallied, meeting the concerned gazes of his teammates. "I'm alright. Let's focus on what to call our new team member, the former Hero."
The crux of the problem was that the half-elf young girl's memories had been wiped clean, as if her mind had been reset to factory settings. She remembered nothing. Was she still the same person she once was?
Should they continue calling her by her former name, Eve Perkins, or give her a new one?
In truth, Feidric couldn't even be sure if Eve Perkins was a name the author of "Legend of the Demon King and the Hero" had invented, or the Hero's true name.
For some reason, Cipher suddenly thought of March 7th and suggested, "Why don't we name her after the date of her revival—today's date?"
However, upon learning that today was May 13th, Cipher reconsidered and ultimately abandoned the idea. The date was too awkward to pronounce and sounded too strange as a name.
In the end, everyone unanimously decided to stick with her original name: Eve Perkins.
As the discussion wrapped up, dusk began to settle. Despite the day's whirlwind of events, only an afternoon had passed.
From Nathaniel's sudden appearance, dragging Aria and four others into a forced raid on the Blazing Fire Gang, to a harrowing journey through the Nine Hells, and finally a brutal battle with the White Dragon beneath Chaos City, Cipher's afternoon had been nothing short of extraordinary.
Correspondingly, after such a tumultuous day, Cipher and Castorice felt utterly drained, not physically, but mentally exhausted. If they felt this way, the others must be even more drained.
Everyone looked utterly worn out, but before resting, a hearty dinner was clearly the priority.
Cipher and her companions were waiting in the dining hall for Chef Kaia to serve dinner when Cipher suddenly noticed that her Fame on the System Page had just crossed the 100,000 threshold.
She had already surpassed 90,000 Fame during the battle against Beelzebub in the Nine Hells. The remaining 10,000 points likely came from Castorice publicly resurrecting a 'Hero' in front of all the Death Priests, Barbarians, and the Black Hand.
As for Castorice's fight against the White Dragon, since only Aria and a few others witnessed it, the Fame contribution wasn't substantial. Regardless of the source, the result was clear: she could now perform her next lottery draw!
Hooray!
However, Cipher glanced at Eve, the half-elf young girl sitting tightly beside her on her right, her arms wrapped around Cipher's. Eve seemed unwilling to let go.
There was no doubt that if Cipher made any excuse to leave briefly, the little one would follow. But that wasn't a problem. If Cipher couldn't spare a hand, Castorice could handle it!
After all, they were both her, so naturally they could both access the System. Castorice stood up, murmured something to Aisha beside her, and headed straight for the washroom on the first floor.
Castorice first washed her face, took a deep breath, and, feeling somewhat excited, gazed at the System Page before her:
[Current Fame: 100,050 / 100,000]
[Fame requirement met. Initiate gacha pull?]
[Yes / No]
Naturally, she chose "Yes." But it quickly dawned on her that this wasn't the kind of gacha pull with 90-pull pity or 180-pull hard pity. Instead, it was a single pull each time, but guaranteed to yield a result every time. What was she getting so worked up about?
She remembered how the System had lagged when she first pulled Castorice. This time, however, no such delay occurred. The moment she decided to initiate the gacha, a system notification appeared:
[Ding~ Identity draw complete. Unlocked: 'Tribios']
Castorice glanced again at the System Page, which now displayed:
[Flame-Chaser Identity System at your service.]
[Current unlocked Identities: Cipher (Cifera), Mydei (Mydeimos), Castorice, Tribios]
[Increase Fame to unlock the next Identity draw. Current Fame: 50 / 200,000]
"Trib... Tribbie?" Castorice couldn't help but freeze for a moment. Or, more accurately, "Big Tribbie." In the original game's lore, Tribios inherited the Coreflame of Janus, the Passage Titan, and became a Demigod of Passage. Upon ascending, she split into a thousand "Tribbies," each tasked with delivering prophecies across the world.
By the time the main plot unfolds—when the trailblazers arrive at Amphoreus—the Tribbies have been carrying out this mission for 1,191 years. Over this millennium, nearly all of the thousand Tribbies have perished, leaving only the final three: Trinnon, Trianne, and Tribbie.
But the System had summoned the original, undivided version of Tribios—the primordial form before the fragmentation. Castorice pondered this. Though she couldn't discern the System's reasoning, it seemed like a stroke of good fortune for her.
Thanks to Cipher's Lie, Castorice could now dual-wield her consciousness, simultaneously controlling both Cipher and Castorice's bodies without issue. But if a thousand Tribbies had truly materialized out of thin air, forcing her to manage a thousand and two bodies at once, wouldn't that be an insurmountable challenge?
It was like playing ping-pong: one moment you're on easy mode, and the next, you're suddenly facing pro-level difficulty, right?
Now that she had drawn a new Identity and body, Castorice naturally wanted to summon it to take a look. She reached up and plucked Little Pollux from her head, cradling the tiny creature in her palm. "Pollux," she said, "could you keep watch at the Washroom door for me? If anyone comes, give a little chirp to let me know."
"Chirp chirp~"
Though Little Pollux didn't know what Castorice was planning, it eagerly accepted the task. With a flutter of its tiny wings, it flew to perch outside the Washroom. Castorice closed the door and silently summoned her newly acquired Identity.
Before her materialized a woman half a head taller than herself, with long, flowing crimson hair, azure eyes, and a graceful white Grecian-style dress. She exuded an air of elegant tenderness.
Or, to be more precise, the moment Castorice summoned "Tribios," her perspective split from two to three. Just as Tribios materialized in Castorice's vision, Castorice simultaneously materialized in Tribios's.
Tribios didn't need to examine herself directly; she simply spun around in place, meticulously observing her own appearance through Castorice's third-person perspective.
In the Honkai: Star Rail game, both Castorice and Cipher had the young girl body type, with a height of approximately 1.61 to 1.62 meters. With high heels, they stood approximately 1.67 meters tall.
Tribios, on the other hand, had the adult woman body type—the so-called "mature woman." Her natural height was around 1.69 to 1.70 meters, and with high heels, she nearly reached 1.75 meters.
While this height might not seem particularly tall among men—Douglas, for example, towered over her at over 1.90 meters—it was considered relatively tall for women.
When Tribios looked at Castorice, she actually had to lower her head slightly, viewing her from a downward angle. Having grown accustomed to looking up at others, this rare experience of looking down at someone—even if that someone was her "other self"—felt remarkably novel to her.
Beyond her towering height, Tribios possessed a remarkably well-proportioned figure. From Castorice's perspective, the most striking feature was Tribios's long, flame-red hair, while the second most captivating was her remarkably ample chest.
Cipher and Castorice were already generously endowed, but Tribios surpassed them both in size. Tribios couldn't resist reaching out with both hands to gently cup her breasts.
"Hmm~"
They were too large to grasp with one hand alone. Fortunately, having Cipher and Castorice as prior identities had accustomed her to the daily burden of two heavy masses on her chest. Otherwise, if her first Identity had been Tribios, she would have felt extremely awkward.
Lost in thought, she absentmindedly pinched and kneaded her breasts. Hmm, the texture is remarkably soft and pliant.
Next, Tribios continued to examine herself. Her fingernails were painted a vibrant red, and her wrists were adorned with two golden bracelets, while three more encircled her forearms. She lifted her right hand and gently shook it, the bracelets clinking softly against each other.
Looking further down, she noticed a golden metal leg ring on Tribios's right thigh—a classic Mihoyo-style design. Her feet were adorned with golden, Greek-style high-heeled sandals, resembling modern heeled sandals with a sole and numerous straps, leaving most of her toes exposed to the air.
While modern heeled sandals typically have straps that only wrap around the ankles, the golden leg straps on Tribios's pair extended from the heels, crisscrossing up her calves in overlapping loops until they stopped just below her knees.
Notably, from Castorice's perspective, golden toe rings adorned the second toes of both of Tribios's feet. Her first reaction was, So beautiful, so alluring! Her second thought was, Could that toe ring equipment I picked up from the Catfolk Ranger fit Tribios perfectly?
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PS: Among all the female characters in Honkai: Star Rail, Feixiao is the tallest. Her height is around 1.7 meters, but with her high heels and ears, she towers at 1.9 meters.
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Volume 2 End