"Sphinx!"
Ritsuka blurted it out first, or Hernán might've already drawn her gun. In this group, only she and the Sphinx were meeting for the first time.
The Sphinx scanned the room, her gaze cool and piercing, before finally speaking. "So, you've solved the riddle."
Her tone was icy, but there was a faint hint of approval buried in it.
"Solved it…" Ritsuka muttered, scratching her head, caught off guard by the Sphinx's words. They'd tossed around ideas during their discussions but hadn't landed on anything solid—just vague guesses about the riddle pointing to something.
So, the riddle was about the cave's location? It had to be. Why else would the Sphinx show up the moment they got back from finding it, claiming they'd cracked the code?
Nero was just as puzzled, but her mind was already racing further. She thought back to last night, fighting off that beast horde under a blood-red sunset. Then it clicked.
The sunset sat on the horizon, meaning this coast faced west. So, the town was east of the shore.
The sealed cave had to be west of the town, at the "place where the sun falls." The sun dipping below the sea could be seen as "swallowed," tying perfectly to the riddle's first line.
They'd all missed it. The line "the sun suffers the devouring of hatred" was a sneaky clue about direction! If they'd caught that, Nero and the others could've headed west and found the cave straight away.
Nero slapped her forehead hard. "How am I this dumb?!"
The smack was loud enough to draw everyone's eyes. Each gaze carried a different vibe.
Ritsuka and Hernán looked confused. Ritsuka knew the riddle but hadn't solved it; Hernán didn't even know it existed. Totally fair. The Sphinx's stare was unnervingly calm, and Nero couldn't tell if she knew Nero had just figured it out.
Then there was Mephistopheles. That demon's eyes gleamed with the same "oh, this is gonna be fun" look he always had. No question, this guy was a top-tier chaos gremlin, thriving on everyone else's struggles.
The Sphinx's chilly voice cut through the room's weird silence. "If you've solved that one, the next riddle shouldn't take you long."
No one was shocked she'd throw another riddle their way—that's just how this mythical beast rolled. Nero and Ritsuka leaned in, ears perked.
"Iron hooves of winter trample the green, offering vibrant colors to the divine."
The Sphinx slowed her words, enunciating clearly so they'd stick, then flashed a faint smile at Nero and Ritsuka. "If you still wish to press deeper, try solving this."
With that slightly different closer, she vanished like a popped bubble.
Nero let out a long breath and flopped back in her chair.
Ritsuka hurriedly repeated the riddle to lock it in her memory. "Did I get that right?"
"No mistakes, Senpai," Mash chimed in, popping up with a notepad in hand. Clearly, she'd been ready to jot things down the second the Sphinx appeared.
Confirmed, Ritsuka slumped into her chair, staring at the grimy, unfamiliar ceiling. "What's this one about? We haven't even fully cracked the last one."
Then she sat up straight, turning to Nero. "By the way, Miss Nero, what was with that forehead smack earlier?"
Nero glanced at her, then at the others, and sighed. She spilled the beans about how she'd finally unraveled the first riddle's true meaning.
"It was about direction?!"
The second Nero finished, Holmes, chilling back in Chaldea, lost it. "What an embarrassment!"
He'd been the one to steer everyone toward the "metaphor" angle from the start, so flopping on the riddle meant he was taking the biggest L. Da Vinci, who'd backed his theory, was the runner-up and had gone dead silent.
"So, that means…" Ritsuka ignored the chaos from Chaldea's end and looked at the group. "This new riddle's probably the same deal, right? 'Iron hooves of winter'…"
"Points to the north," Hernán cut in. "England's in the Northern Hemisphere, so winter rolls in from the north."
Nero nodded. "Sounds right. Tomorrow, we head north and check it out."
"Hold up, that's not it." Holmes' voice broke in, sharp and insistent. "It can't be just that."
Curious to hear what the great detective had to say after his first fumble, everyone paused and turned to him.
"If the riddle's only about direction, the first line would've been enough," Holmes said, puffing on his pipe, eyes locked on a scrap of paper. "Occam's Razor applies to riddles too: don't add unnecessary fluff. If the info's enough to point to an answer, extra words just muddy the waters."
Nero mulled it over and nodded. He had a point.
Take the first riddle: "The sun suffers the devouring of hatred, the arrogant king soon to break its shell." If it was just about the cave's direction, the second half was pointless noise, opening the door to too many interpretations.
But if that second half hinted at something scary brewing in the cave, then the riddle had two answers. That made sense.
So, "north" was only the second riddle's first solution. The rest of it was hiding something else.
"How about a little hint, folks?"
Out of nowhere, Mephistopheles, who'd been quietly enjoying the show, piped up. Nero shot a glance at the demon, who was now holding a tiny clay bird he'd sculpted, twirling it in one hand.
"Spit it out," Ritsuka prodded.
"If the two lines point to different answers, why not split them up?" Mephistopheles said, his face lighting up with a sly, eager grin. "When you hear 'Iron hooves of winter trample the green, offering vibrant colors to the divine,' it's easy to assume the 'colors' are the green of the grass. But what if we ditch the first line and just look at 'offering vibrant colors to the divine'?
"What color do you think is being offered to the gods?"