Mission:022 The Riddler

Mission:02-2 Riddler

Seeing the girl before her, Beatrice, fall into a panic, Nero smiled with a hint of helplessness. She was not trying to scare Beatrice on purpose. There was a demonic aura nearby, and that was an undeniable fact.

"Is... is what you said true?"

Beatrice asked, trembling.

"Of course."

"I-I'll go back and tell Father right now!"

The girl lifted her skirt hem and, with quick little steps, dashed back into the town in a flash. Since she was the daughter of the town's lord, the residents in the town would probably be more careful about their own safety after this as well. Before the demon showed itself, that was the best she could hope for.

The question now was, how had Nero suddenly arrived in the fourteenth century?

The Gate of the Demon World connected to the Demon World, and time in the Human and Demon Realms ran in sync. Nero had also never heard of anything like a "time rift" in the Devil May Cry world. Looking at it that way—

She had probably come to another world?

Had Yamato suddenly gone berserk just now, to the point that it could even take Nero to a world unrelated to Devil May Cry?

She had to find someone to ask. Beatrice, whom she had just met, clearly did not even know demons and supernatural powers existed, so asking her would be pointless. However, there was someone who looked as though she might know, standing not far away at this very moment.

Nero raised her head and looked toward the town. Behind the departing Beatrice, a silent spectator had been standing there the whole time.

It was a girl with blond hair and green eyes, her hair tied into a strange pair of twintails like wings. Her face was expressionless, yet she gave off a beastlike air. She had been there from the very beginning of Nero and Beatrice's conversation, but Beatrice had been completely unable to see her.

So Nero took the initiative and spoke to her. "You've shown yourself, but you're not going to say a word?"

The person wore a white robe in an ancient Greek style, with gold-edged sandals on her feet, gold chains wrapped around both her arms and ankles, and a feathered crown inlaid with emeralds atop her head. She looked at Nero and spoke in an emotionless tone. "You are an intruder."

What did that mean?

Utterly baffled, Nero put on a confident front and asked in return, "After eavesdropping for so long, shouldn't you introduce yourself first?"

"What flies through the sky is wisdom. What runs across the earth is strength. What soars between the two is freedom."

The girl stated it indifferently. "And all of this is my name."

What kind of riddler was this?

Nero stared at the person before her in complete confusion, not knowing why the other party had suddenly decided to make her solve a riddle. And it was a riddle about the other party's identity, no less. If this were any other time, Nero might have just gone up and done the whole "Riddler, beatdown!" routine, but unfortunately, she needed something from this person right now, so she could only endure the other party's annoying habit for the moment.

Thinking seriously about it, Nero's first reaction was that it might be a word puzzle. After all, the answer she was supposed to guess was the other party's name, and things like the sky, earth, wisdom, and strength could only be related to a name in that sort of way. But after pondering it carefully, Nero felt that was not right.

She suddenly realized that perhaps the very act of using a "riddle" was an important clue revealing the answer. Introducing oneself through a riddle—in other words, the act of being a "riddler" itself—was a hint toward her identity.

Someone connected to riddles.

Someone famous because of a riddle.

Nero thought of something. There was an extremely famous riddle in this world, and the one who posed that riddle was sometimes used to describe riddles themselves.

If she thought backward from that angle, the riddle itself also became easy to match piece by piece.

"Sky" very obviously referred to the highest part of a living being. From a physiological standpoint, that was the brain; from a spiritual standpoint, it was humanity's so-called "spiritual sky," so it corresponded to "wisdom." The answer to the first line was "a human head."

"Earth" referred to the parts of a living being that touched the ground: the limbs and body. At the same time, in European culture, the creature that represented "strength" was the lion, so the answer to the second line was "a lion's body."

With just those two lines, Nero could actually already lock in the answer. She did not even need to think much to know that the third line had to refer to "a bird's wings." Those three sentences, combined with the other party's riddler behavior itself, made the answer obvious.

"You're Sphinx?"

Nero questioned her in a certain tone.

"Correct."

The blond girl—or rather, Sphinx—smiled. It was a very faint smile, accompanied by a hint of arrogance.

"Then allow me to formally introduce myself. Sphinx, Heroic Spirit of the Ruler class. First meeting, wanderer from another time and space."

"My name's Nero."

As Nero spoke, she nodded slightly to herself. Thanks to Sphinx's information, she finally had some idea of what world she was in.

The other party had clearly mentioned that she was a "Heroic Spirit," and moreover, "a Heroic Spirit of the Ruler class." With that answer, Nero could completely rule out possibilities like Norse legends and lock the answer onto the one and only option.

The Type-Moon World—or more precisely, a branch worldline within the "Fate series" Worldview, "FGO." Because before the Renaissance, Type-Moon had no such thing as a Holy Grail War that summoned Heroic Spirit Servants.

But in Nero's memory... in this Worldview, the "Singularity" around the fourteenth century that could affect human history should have been France after the end of the Hundred Years' War. Yet now, it seemed they were still in the early stages of the Hundred Years' War, and the place she was in was not France, but England.

What was going on?

Before Nero could continue asking about anything, Sphinx had already turned her head, and her figure had begun to turn transparent. Nero hurriedly shouted, "Wait!"

"The history of this place is being distorted." Sphinx did not look back, merely saying faintly, "Sun Suffers the Devouring of Hatred, and the Arrogant Monarch is about to break from its shell. If you wish to escape from this, then try solving it..."

That voice disappeared along with Sphinx's figure. Nero gritted her teeth and helplessly withdrew her hand.

At any rate, the other party had given her a clue on how to leave this world, so she could not exactly ask for more.

Just as she had guessed, this place was history distorted by the Holy Grail, a "Singularity" that would eventually burn away humanity's thousands of years of history. FGO's protagonist, Fujimaru Ritsuka, should arrive here before long, correct this stretch of history, and erase it. According to Sphinx, Nero would be able to leave this world then.

She did not want to just say farewell forever to Kyrie and the others like this. She had to return to the Devil May Cry world. Only when she was sure she could go back would she have the mood to enjoy a journey.

Speaking of the Devil May Cry world, Nero thought again of the Gate of the Demon World she had destroyed. Was this crossing related to some peculiarity of that gate?

Could that Mephisto have come here too? Could that demonic aura be its?

At that instant, the demonic aura that had been flickering in and out suddenly surged in presence. Without the slightest hesitation, Nero flung Serpent Sword behind her.