Family heirloom, then turned into a demon girl

Chapter 48 Mission: 06-1 Puzzle Solver

"Sphinx!"

Li Xiang was the first to shout, otherwise Hernan might have been about to shoot. She and Sphinx were the only ones meeting for the first time here.

The Sphinx looked around and finally spoke: "You have finally solved the mystery."

Her tone was indifferent, but seemed to contain a hint of appreciation.

"Unraveled..."

Ritsuka muttered, scratching her head, somewhat surprised by the other party's words. They hadn't come to any conclusions in their several discussions, but they felt that there was some kind of reference relationship between the puzzles.

Did the puzzle actually hint at the location of the cave? If not, it wouldn't make sense for the Sphinx to show up and say they'd solved the puzzle right after I found the cave.

Nero had similar doubts. But she thought further, recalling the blood-red sunset she had seen last night while battling the beasts. Instantly, she understood.

The sunset exists above the sea level, so this coast faces west, so the coast is west of the town.

It was concluded that the sealed cave was located to the west of the town, at 'where the sun sets'.

The sun sets below the sea level, which can be seen as "the sun is swallowed", which is exactly in line with the first sentence of the riddle.

None of them could have imagined that the phrase "the sun is being devoured by hatred" actually contained a hint about "direction"! As long as they deciphered the deep meaning of this phrase, Nero and the others would be able to find the cave by heading west!
Thinking of this, Nero couldn't help but slap himself on the forehead.

How could she be so stupid!
The slap was quite loud, and everyone in the room looked over, but the emotions expressed in their eyes were different.

Ritsuka and Hernan were puzzled. One of them knew the puzzle but couldn't solve it, while the other didn't even know it existed, so it was natural for them to have such expressions. The Sphinx was calm, so calm it was unsettling. Nero wasn't sure if she could tell that he had only just now truly solved the puzzle.

As for Mephistopheles—the demon's eyes, like so many times before, were filled with amusement. Undoubtedly, this guy was a top-tier entertainer, and his favorite thing to see was the distress and struggles of others.

The Sphinx's cold voice broke the eerie silence in the room. "If that's the case, then you should be able to solve the next puzzle quickly," she said.

No one was surprised that she would continue to offer clues with riddles; after all, that was how this mythical beast existed. Nero and Ritsuka both pricked up their ears.

"Winter's iron hooves trample the green land, offering its bright colors to the gods."

The Sphinx slowed down his speech and explained the riddle in clear words that everyone could remember well. Then he looked at Nero and Ritsuka with a smile.

"If you still want to delve deeper into it, try to unravel it."

She left this sentence with a slightly different ending from the previous one, and disappeared again like a bubble.

Nero breathed a sigh of relief and instantly collapsed into the chair.

Ritsuka, on the other hand, quickly repeated the puzzle to prevent herself from forgetting it, then asked, "...Am I remembering it correctly?"

"That's right, Senior." Mashu, who had secretly listened in on the entire conversation, appeared with a piece of paper in her hand. It was obvious that she had been preparing to take notes the moment the Sphinx appeared.

Receiving the affirmation, Ritsuka slumped down in her chair, looking up at the unfamiliar ceiling. "What's the point of this... We haven't even solved the last puzzle yet." Suddenly, she straightened up and asked Nero, "Ms. 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 puzzle he had finally solved.

“It’s actually the direction?!”

As soon as Nero finished speaking, Holmes, who was sitting firmly in Chaldea, could no longer sit still: "What a disgrace—"

Because from the very beginning, it was this great detective who took the lead in leading the way of solving puzzles to the "reference method", so he would have to bear the biggest blame for not being able to solve the puzzle.

The great genius Leonardo da Vinci, who agreed with his opinion, was second-in-command and was completely silent at this moment.

"So..." Ritsuka ignored the noise coming from Chaldea and looked at the others: "The puzzle this time should be the same? Winter Iron Hoof..."

"North, I guess," Hernan continued. "England is in the Northern Hemisphere, so winter moves from north to south."

Nero agreed. "That's right. Let's go to the north tomorrow."

"No, that's not right..."

Holmes' voice interrupted their conversation: "It shouldn't be just that."

To see what the great detective would think after learning from his first failure, several people in the room stopped and looked at him.

"If the purpose is simply to provide a clear direction, then this puzzle only requires the first sentence." Holmes held his pipe, frowning as his eyes fixed on the slip of paper in his hand. "Don't add entities unless necessary—Arkham's razor applies to puzzles as well. When the information in the puzzle is sufficient for the puzzler to draw a conclusion, any extra words will only obscure the meaning."

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

It's like the first riddle: "The sun is consumed by hatred, and the arrogant king is about to break out of his shell." If the riddle simply told Nero and the others the direction of the cave, then the second sentence would be redundant, only interfering with their solution and leaving the riddle open to multiple interpretations.

But if this sentence is just to tell them that there is something terrible brooding in the cave, and the puzzle itself has two solutions - then it makes sense.

Therefore, "North" is only the first answer to the second puzzle, and the second sentence may have some other hidden meaning.

"How about I give you some tips on this?"

Suddenly, Mephistopheles, who usually watched the show in silence, spoke up. Nero turned to look at the demon and saw that he had somehow molded a small bird out of clay and held it in front of him with one hand.

"Go ahead," Ritsuka urged.

"Since the two sentences point to different answers, why not look at them separately?"

Mephistopheles said this with a playful, mischievous, excited, and expectant smile on his face: "'Winter's iron hoofs trample the green land, to offer bright colors to the gods'. These two sentences together can easily make people think that the color to be offered to the gods is the 'green' of grass and trees. But if we put aside the first sentence and look at 'to offer bright colors to the gods' alone.

"What color do you think should be offered?"

(End of this chapter)