Mission:061 The Puzzle Solver

"Sphinx!"

Ritsuka shouted first, or Hernan might have been ready to open fire. Here, she was the only one meeting Sphinx for the first time.

Sphinx looked around, then finally spoke. "You have finally solved the riddle."

Her tone was cold, yet seemed to carry a hint of approval.

"Solved it..."

Ritsuka murmured and scratched her head, a little surprised by her words. They clearly had not reached any conclusion in their several discussions, only feeling that some sort of referential relationship existed within the riddle.

Had that riddle actually hinted at the cave's location? If not, it made no sense for Sphinx to appear and say they had solved the riddle just after she found the cave and came back.

Nero had similar doubts. But her thoughts went further, recalling the blood-red setting sun she had seen last night while fighting the Beast Pack. In an instant, she understood.

The sunset existed above sea level. Therefore, this stretch of coast faced west, and therefore the coast was west of the town.

The conclusion was that the sealed cave was located west of the town, at the "Place Where the Sun Sets."

The sun sinking below sea level could be regarded as the "Sun is Devoured," which answered the first line of the riddle perfectly.

None of them had thought that the phrase "Sun Suffers the Devouring of Hatred" actually contained a hint toward "direction"! As long as they unraveled the deeper meaning of that phrase, Nero and the others could have found the cave's location simply by heading west!

At this thought, Nero could not help slapping her own forehead.

How had she been so stupid!

The slap was quite loud, and everyone in the room turned their eyes toward her, though the emotions in their gazes differed.

Ritsuka and Hernan were puzzled. One of them knew the riddle but had failed to solve it, while the other simply did not know the riddle existed, so such looks were only natural. Sphinx was calm, so calm it was unnerving, and Nero was not sure whether she could tell that Nero had only truly solved the riddle just now.

As for Mephisto—this demon's gaze was the same as it had been many times before, full of "amusement." Without a doubt, this fellow was a top-tier enjoyer of spectacle, and what he loved seeing most was other people's distress and struggles.

Sphinx's cool voice broke the strange silence inside the room. She said, "In that case, you should be able to solve the next riddle very quickly as well."

No one was surprised that she would continue offering hints through riddles. After all, that was the way this Mythical Beast existed. Nero and Ritsuka both pricked up their ears.

"Winter's iron hooves trample the green land, to offer vivid colors to the gods."

Sphinx slowed her speech and pronounced the riddle clearly enough for everyone to remember it properly, then looked at Nero and Ritsuka with a smile.

"If you still wish to delve deeper, then try to solve it."

Leaving behind this closing line, slightly different from before, she disappeared once more like a bubble.

Nero let out a breath and instantly collapsed back into her chair.

Ritsuka hurriedly repeated the riddle once to keep herself from forgetting it, then asked, "...I didn't remember it wrong, did I?"

"No, Senpai." Mash, who had secretly listened in the whole time, appeared with a sheet of Memo Paper in her hand. Clearly, she had been prepared to take notes from the moment Sphinx appeared.

After receiving confirmation, Ritsuka also slumped in her chair, tilting her head back to stare at the ceiling that was neither white nor familiar. "What does it mean this time... We haven't even solved the last riddle yet."

As she spoke, she suddenly sat up straight and asked Nero, "Speaking of which, Miss Nero, what happened to you just now?"

Nero glanced at her, then at the others in the room, sighed helplessly, and explained the true meaning of the riddle she had finally solved just now.

"It was actually direction?!"

As soon as Nero finished speaking, Holmes, who had been sitting steadily in Chaldea, could no longer sit still. "What an utter disgrace—"

Because from the very beginning, it had been this great detective who first led the method of solving the riddle toward the "Referential Method." So as for failing to solve the riddle, he would likely have to bear the greatest blame.

The Great Genius Da Vinci, who had agreed with his view, was Second Blame, and had now fallen completely silent.

"Then in that case..." Ritsuka ignored the noise coming from Chaldea and looked at the others. "This riddle should be the same, right? Winter's iron hooves..."

"It means the north, I suppose," Hernan continued. "England is in the Northern Hemisphere, so winter comes from north to south."

Nero expressed her agreement. "That is correct. Tomorrow, we shall go and look toward the north."

"No, that is not right..."

Holmes's voice interrupted their conversation. "It should not be only that."

In order to see what brilliant insight this great detective might offer after learning from his first failure, the people in the room stopped and looked at him.

"If it were only to indicate direction, then this riddle would only need the first line." Holmes held his pipe, brow furrowed, his gaze fixed on the slip of paper in his hand. "Entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity—Occam's Razor Principle applies to riddles as well. When the information in a riddle is enough for the guesser to reach a conclusion, extra words instead make the meaning of the question vague and unclear."

Nero thought about it for a moment and agreed with his view.

It was just like the first riddle: "Sun Suffers the Devouring of Hatred, The Arrogant Monarch is About to Hatch." If that riddle only wanted to tell Nero and the others the direction of the cave, then the second line was redundant, and would only interfere with their solving of the riddle, making it open to multiple interpretations.

But if that line was meant to tell them that some terrifying thing was being nurtured inside the cave, then the riddle itself had two answers—and in that case, it made sense.

Therefore, "north" was only the first answer to the second riddle. The second line likely still hid some other meaning.

"Regarding that, why not allow me to offer you all a few hints?"

Suddenly, Mephisto, who had always been silently watching the show, spoke up. Nero turned to look at the demon and saw that at some point, he had shaped a little bird out of clay and was holding it up before him with one hand.

"Say it," Ritsuka urged.

"Since the two lines point to different answers, we might as well look at them separately."

As Mephisto spoke, an amused, teasing, excited, and expectant smile appeared on his face. "'Winter's iron hooves trample the green land, to offer vivid colors to the gods.' When these two lines are connected, it easily makes one think that the color to be offered to the gods is the 'green' of grasses and trees. But what if we set aside the first line and look at 'offer vivid colors to the gods' alone?"

"What color do you think is to be offered?"