II : II

The breakfast was served at 7 in the morning. Most of the detectives were already gathered at the dining hall by the time I finished eating breakfast.

That night, I slept for only 4 hours. After the game with Mr. Smith, I returned to my room and found that the old man from the Spain was already asleep.

I stayed awake for another 2 hours pass the midnight wrecking my brain to give taught to those confusing riddle given by the mansion owner. Although a set of quill pen and a sheet of blank paper was prepared on the desk of the room, I couldn't figure out anything sensible in lieu of the solution.

But then, shouldn't there be another paper for Mr. Spain to write down his answer? Maybe the old man had answered the riddle. I thought of looking at what kind of answer he wrote, still, it wouldn't be fun if I couldn't figure it out myselves.

So I left the paper that was originally blank to begin with, with a blank solution.

The detectives were waiting for the mansion owner to come assemble all of the responses. Since my disguising plan was terrible, I went to the dining hall without it. Yet, most of the detectives didn't really notices of my presence. Just when I thought it was better to act as Mr. Benedict without fixing the disguise even, Mr. Smith called out to me from behind.

Mr. Smith : "Buenos díaz, Erza."

*Hmm? What bun?*

I turned back and found that Mr. Smith and Mr. Watson were coming to the dining hall together. But that's not the point here. How come Mr. Smith was able to identify me as being Erza Kenny, when this was the first time I ever get rid of the disguise since coming to this mansion?

As if knowing what my mind was thinking about, Mr. Watson said,

Mr. Watson : "Well, well. Among the crowd here, you are the only one that didn't exist yesterday. It was not so much of a mystery there."

Ahh, shoot! Once again too! It seems it was true of the saying that a single drawing can be described with thousands of different interpretation. I failed to realize those easy deduction in light of the disguise.

Seeing how they came together, I asked, "Err, well, were the both of you used the same room last night?

Mr. Smith just happened to run into Mr. Watson on the fourth floor who was there smoking cigar while waiting for the sun rise. Ahem, it was a lie if I don't be curious on their answer to the riddle. Of course, I asked them.

"I have more or less the same answer as my partner here.", referring to Mr. Watson. It appear that both of the gentleman advocated the same method into solving the riddle.

By taking the first letter of each of the toys that were inside of the boxes, the gentleman formed several words and turned them as a reference point to a location.

Below was how it worked out.

B - ox .
A - pple .
B - ridge .
D - oll .
O - range .
R - ain .
S - ky .
U - mbrella .
T - rumpet .
T - ree .
C - ane .
L - ight .

Then, they turned them into a word.

DOT - CAB - BURST - L

As they said, DOT can always be understood by how the writers wish to end their sentence. Thus, DOT will be referred as a stopping point. CAB referred to a carriage. Well, you don't have to think about anything complicated there. Then, we have BURST. They said the word may refer to a person personality. The assumption there was that it referred to a guardian with enthusiastic, bright and joyful personality.

Hook them all up together, the location of the treasure box will be ascertained in this way;

"To find the treasure box, we need to find a stopping point of a carriage where a guardian with joyful personality will be waiting. Maybe if we succeed in finding the said stopping point, the guardian, by using the carriage, will lead us to the real location of the treasure box."

I was amazed by those deduction made by them. And so I asked the curious question,

"But sir, how about the 'L' from the light?"

Mr. Smith : "That was where we stucked. Maybe, just maybe, that the 'L' will help us determine which of the stopping point it actually referred."

"Hmm."

Mr. Smith : "How about you, Erza?"

"Err..", as I tried to come up with a plausible reason of not answering the riddle, Rudolph called out to me from behind.

Rudolph : "That voice, sir Erza?"

I turned back and saw Rudolph with his long strap shoulder bag, "Yes?"

Rudolph : "What the..not only your name, you even have entirely different look?! You look young too! I thought it was only your name that was different, sir!"

Maybe because it had become comfortable for him with calling me with the title 'Sir', he kept on calling me that way. On the spur of moment, I blurted out several good reasons why I had to put the disguise on in order to answer Rudolph curiousity. It seems that he convinced with anything that I just said.

*Fuhhh*

Or so I thought.

Mr. Owner came to the dining hall at 8.30 morning. There was another pendulum clock in the inside of the dining hall for us detectives to keep track of the time. Hmm? Wait. I'm a detective already?

After ensuring that all of the invited 50 detectives were there, he spoke.

"Good morning, ladies and gentleman. I hope all of you have a good sleep last night. Now, as I did promise, I would like to assemble each of your wise thought of the riddle. But before that, would anyone be so humble as to share their thought of this confusing code?"

Out of all of the detectives, Mr. Jack Clinton volunteered himselves to voice out his thought of the code. If I am not mistaken, he was the world number 6 detectives, a representative from Denmark.

Mr. Jack Clinton : "Dear all of gentleman and ladies here, in regard of those riddle, I did a bit of questioning yesterday night. It was just after the dinner, if some of you noticed of it."

While doing the questioning, Mr. Clinton found that most of the detectives gave thought in almost similar pattern. Well, the group that went to the fourth floor surely didn't realize it, seeing how they got hook so intensely onto the chess game.

"Let me describe what pattern are those, before I share my opinion of the riddle."

Mr. Clinton told that each of those 11 toys established an indication to a certain location in term of when, how and where. By considering each of those into account,

Mr. Clinton : "Let me see.."

"The idea is to find a guardian of the treasure, whom will lead the person to its location. The guardian, the old man with a cane, will be waiting under the rainy sky while holding onto an umberella, in the middle of an apple tree and an orange tree, next to a street light near the bridge."

Upon finishing his statement, the crowd gave a nod signaling that they were agreeing to it.

Rudolph who was sitting next to me asked a question.

Rudolph : "Sir, I understand how those toys should refer to a location. But from where did the guardian came from?"

I told him that the doll and the cane might refer to a guardian. Well, it didn't hard to understand as to why the guardian need to be an old man with a cane, right?

And whoa, the crowd idea sounds not unreasonable, too. It became even more confusing. And if that were the case, then the assumption to determine the treasure location that depend on how you construct the said toys into a build-up point of references there will be never ending. Mr. Clinton also said the same thing.

The pattern was different though as compared to the kind of premise given by Mr. Smith and Mr. Watson. As the crowd getting even more of a hectic, Mr. Clinton resumed his explanation.

Mr. Clinton : "But dear crowd, we cannot leave aside the possibility that the toys might also indicate an entirely different meaning."

Mr. Clinton further told that as there was nothing that make it necessary to be hinted toward direct definition, the toys may also imply indirect meaning altogether. Below was what he meant.

The Sky - Free
The Rain - Coming from high place
The Umberella - The treasure was buried
The Apple - Food
The Bridge - Path
The Doll - Guardian
The Orange - Colour
The Trumpet - Loud
The Tree - Forest
The Cane - Old man
The Light - Clear

By implying indirect definition to the given toys, Mr. Clinton told that the treasure was buried somewhere inside of the cave at the mountain high up. The cave should clearly be visible upon searching for it, without being obstructed by the depth of forest. The guardian, an old man with a orange cane who likes to eat apple, will lead the person to the said treasure on a path inside the cave.

Mr. Ferrell : "I am sorry to interrupt, but Mr. Clinton, those toys could also bring other definition, couldn't it? And what about the trumpet, which you pointed as 'Loud'?"

Mr. Clinton : "It is true, but that was the best definition I am able to think of. And I don't know exactly how I should fit the trumpet on the picture of my assumption."

Ahem.

I taught that if the assumption were to be concluded in this way, then it will never be ended. Mr. Smith's premise should also be questioned in the same way as it did to Mr. Clinton's premise.

Thus, the treasure will never be found. And in short, the inventor of the riddle might has no intention of giving the treasure at all, in the first place.

"And worse of it all,..."

Mr. Clinton add,

"...which of the world seven continent those treasure was actually lay in rest?"

The crowd became utterly dumbfounded and disappointed. Amid the gloomy atmosphere, Mr. Owner spoke.

Mr. Owner : "Now, now. Dear ladies and gentleman here. I'm not sure if I am able to catch up to all of this confusing deduction. But as promise, I will be collecting all of your thought of the riddle. My maid will help me with those. After that, please, return the room key to Mr. Derry Koin before you leave this mansion."

Haa, I didn't know whether I should pass this blank paper or not. It appear that all 6 of the world renowned detectives have their paper be scribbled with at least something. After giving hard thought as to what I need to write, I just slipped my blank paper underneath Mr. Smith written deduction without him noticing it before being passed to the maid.