Magician in Type-Moon

Page 409

But what should we do?

"Let's begin the first game! Everyone, please come over here!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than the glass door leading to the balcony slammed shut.

Matou Ike turned around, placed his hand on the doorknob, and remained motionless.

He then shook his head, looking somewhat helpless.

"It's an escape room game."

"An escape game? Does Fim's ship banquet have such a game?"

Medea looked on with suspicion, clearly not believing that gambling could be associated with such a thing.

“Van Fem said that there are roughly three types.”

Matou Ike began to explain.

"The first type is Authentic, which, as the name suggests, is traditional gambling. Roulette, poker, blackjack, etc., are options to be chosen depending on the situation."

That's easy to understand.

This type of gambling is perfectly reasonable.

"Then there's Magic. A form of gambling unique to the world of magic. Connecting each other's magic circuits to play some kind of mysterious game. It's arguably the mainstay of Fem's ship banquet."

This is understandable.

Magicians' gambling, of course, includes this kind of bizarre type.

"Finally, it's New's turn. It all depends on the ship owner's interests and mood; no one can predict what will happen. This escape game will probably be just like that."

After explaining to Medea.

Matouchi walked straight to the bedside.

An antique-style hourglass had appeared on the bedside table sometime during the night.

The sand dripped down from the narrow waist to the lower part with a gurgling sound.

This must be what they call a time limit.

It was shorter than I expected.

It will probably take less than twenty minutes.

Medea looked around the room, thinking about the order that Matou Ike had just mentioned.

"It seems you don't want us to escape by force. What do you think we should do next?"

“These kinds of things usually have some clues set up in the room,” Matou Ike replied.

"But wasn't this room checked before? There was nothing particularly strange about it."

Medea was right. The room had been thoroughly inspected by Matou Ike and Medea after they checked in, and even the antique hourglass that suddenly appeared on the bedside table was within their expectations.

Matou Ike shook his head, then held up the card in his hand.

"What? You want to tear me apart?! No way!"

Ignoring the crocodile spouting his dramatic lines, he rubbed his fingers back and forth on the front and back of the card, then suddenly stopped after a while.

The card was two cards stacked together, which Matou Ike realized after receiving it.

Following a certain groove, Matouchi exerted force.

With a "click," the card split into two.

On the newly formed surface, pictures and words are drawn.

It is rounded—or rather, it is a large egg with a face, and has illustrations of hands and feet.

Short and fat.

This is a famous character from the English nursery rhyme "Mother Goose." Like this illustration, it personifies an egg. It is said that after this short, stout man fell off the wall and shattered, the King's Knights were also irreparably broken.

Besides the illustrations, there was also an article written in English in just two lines—

"The short, fat guy was sitting on the wall when he tripped and fell flat on his face."

After looking around for a while, Matou Ike turned his attention to the built-in kitchen in the room.

My gaze fell upon a box of goose eggs that had been placed inside.

These were things that were already in the room; Matouchi and Medea initially thought they were ingredients for some guests to cook their own meals.

Matou Ike's lips twitched slightly. If someone really did consume all the goose eggs before the game even started...

Does that mean that the one million euro participation fee was simply wasted?

Matouchi walked over, picked up the goose egg, and twirled it in his hand.

Watching the white egg spin and dance between her slender fingers, she pondered for a moment, then muttered a slight complaint:

"Intentionally only writing the first half of the four-line poem, it's more meaningful to say that the omitted second half is what matters."

"Do you know the second half?" Medea asked.

"Of course I don't know, but the clues should be in this room."

Just as Matouchi was pondering, the sand in the hourglass began to fall.

Even though the falling speed was constant, it felt like it was constantly accelerating. The time left for me was melting away like sugar pastries being roasted over a fire.

Chapter 450 Unraveling the Mystery

Matouchi was deep in thought.

He and Medea had just checked the entire room for the second time, but there were no problems.

I had no choice but to rethink that nursery rhyme that only had two lines.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, and Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

In gambling games, the primary rule should be fairness.

So...

There shouldn't be clues that only people in a certain region can follow; instead, they should be clues that everyone can reasonably find.

Therefore, the answer should not lie in the meaning of these two folk songs, but in the sentences themselves.

The "Humpty Dumpty" likely refers to the goose eggs placed in the kitchen.

The next things to be deciphered are "sat on a wall" and "had a great fall".

Matouchi gently tossed the goose egg in his hand.

I thought back to the man himself, Van Fem.

A Dead Apostle transformed from a magician.

Although they gained their lives.

However, the very foundation of the business has been altered as a result.

This is why the soul differs from that of humans.

"Change..."

"difference..."

My thoughts returned to the goose egg in my hand.

And those two short nursery rhymes.

He seemed to understand something.

"Humpty Dumpty is the word as the subject, so it is also the source, while the following phrase 'sat on a wall' refers to the action, and 'had a great fall' refers to the result."

Matouchi murmured.

"Does action lead to results?" Medea asked, moving closer to Matou Pond.

"More or less." Matou Ike paused, then turned to Medea and asked, "Do you know any magic that can turn a magician into a Dead Apostle?"

"...I do know a little, but what's the connection?"

Medea looked puzzled, after all, this should be a place for deciphering modern magic, which is fundamentally different from the logic of her, a magician from the age of gods.

“There is a strong connection. I just didn’t expect that in the first round of selection, Van Fim would choose such a difficult magic trick.”

Matou Ike smiled and continued:

"The transformation from human to Dead Apostle is not merely a trait, but a fundamental change. 'Sat on a wall' and 'had a great fall' are both four-word phrases, but they refer to completely different things, and even the word order is vastly different."

Matouike paused for a second or two before looking at Medea:

Don't you think they look alike?

"Changes in the base?" Medea asked thoughtfully.

“That’s right.” Matou Ike nodded. “Changing the essence of things is the core element of this level.”

"Isn't this a bit too difficult?"

Medea frowned. Although both she and Matou Ike were capable of doing this, as Matou Ike had said, this was only the first round of selection.

Even if other magicians could grasp this point, they would still find it difficult to succeed.

Because this is comparable to "turning stone into gold".

This is considered an extremely difficult magic trick to perform even among alchemists.

Even if another magician happens to be able to see through it, it's impossible for them to do it in such a short time unless their family trait is "transformation".

Not to mention the resources required to perform such a magic trick.

Seemingly seeing through Medea's inner doubts, Matou Ike shook his head and explained:

"Do you remember the techniques that Van Fem used when we first met that guy a couple of days ago?"

"That game called 'Three Stars Return to the Cave'?" Medea said softly, but she didn't really remember it.

After all, when Matou Ike was by her side, she almost never paid attention to men other than Matou Ike.