The herb tea that was brought to us was in a clear glass cup and looked very stylish.
It also has an apple-like aroma, just as Dr. Vier said, and when I drank it, the slightly sweet and refreshing taste was very good and relaxing.
[It's elegant and relaxing.]
[The herb cookies are delicious too. Here, Miyama-kun, ahhhn.]
[Eh?]
With very natural movements, Dr. Vier held a cookie in her hand and held it out towards me. Puzzled by the suddenness of the situation, I hurriedly looked around.
There are a few customers in the store. I don't think I became the center of attention, but I do feel a little embarrassed.
[E- Errr, a- ahhhn.]
[There~~]
Though I said that, Dr. Vier's smile was just too dazzling to refuse, so I ended up opening my mouth and receiving the herb cookie she held out into my mouth.
The crunchy texture and the cool herb flavor were pleasant. As I was thinking like that, Dr. Vier opened her mouth, as if urging me to feed her this time.
[Ahhhn.]
[...Here you go.]
[Hmmm, delicious!]
Dr. Vier really is very proactive, or rather, she has the dynamism to take action after she decides on something.
[How should I say this... Sounds like you're really having fun, Dr. Vier.]
[Unnn. I'm having fun. I'm very happy that I'm able to be with Miyama-kun like this as lovers. I want to do more lovers-like things like this.]
[I'm a little bothered by the eyes of the surrounding people though…..]
[Really? I would rather brag about it to everyone around though. See how great he is? Isn't he cool? He's my lover, you know~~? Stuff like that.]
...What should I do, Dr. Vier is absurdly cute. She's older and more mature than me, but she also shows this kind of mischievousness, and above all, her smile is even more dazzling than usual.
Being showed with a full-throttle of affection like this, of course I would be embarrassed, but more than that... I feel happy seeing her smile.
[...Dr. Vier, would you like another one?]
[Ahh, unnn! Gimme.]
[Yes, here you go.]
[Ahhhn.]
For the time being, let's forget our shyness and enjoy the cute smile Dr. Vier has.
After leaving the café, we used Dr. Vier's Teleportation Magic to move around and complete the stamp rally. As we had expected, we didn't take long to get around with Teleportation Magic, and we soon completed the 20 stamp rally locations.
When we brought the stamps we collected to the store of the sponsoring Trading Company as indicated on the map... We were given an envelope containing the difficult question along with the low-grade prize.
If we solve this quiz, bring it to the Trading Company, and tell them the correct answer, they will give us the superb prize in exchange.
Incidentally, even though I said they were low-grade prizes, the pen I got was pretty solid and seemed to be something you'd buy with a reasonable prize. In that case, I suppose we may be able to expect a lot from the luxury prizes.
Leaving the Trading Company, I looked at the paper with the question on it with Dr. Vier...
[...W- What is this? That's a lot of numbers... Are they asking us to solve some kind of cipher?]
[H- Hmmm, I don't know how to solve this. There are no hints at all...]
The paper in the envelope contained a number that, as far as I could see, appeared to have over 100 digits, with no other information written on it.
I thought this would be impossible to solve just by looking at it, so I looked at the back of the paper...
[Ahh, it says something on the back. The first hint is that it's pointing at a location?]
[That doesn't really tell us anything though. The second hint is... Ahh, seems like they'll announce it at a later date.]
There's only one hint on the back, and it seems like further hints will be announced at regular intervals if no one answers correctly.
Incidentally, the second hint will be announced tomorrow...
[Hmmm, I completely give up. Should we try again when they announce another hint?]
[I'm not really good at this kind of thing either. Hmmm, we'd end up having to come here again and again, but I don't really think we're going to solve this with one or two additional hints, so I'll just give up...]
[I see. That's unfortunate...]
Just as I was talking with Dr. Vier about giving up, Alice suddenly appeared and took the piece of paper from my hand.
[Lemme see... Fumu, it's talking about the "floating castle" huh.]
[ [ Eh? ] ]
Only looking at the paper for a second, Alice said that the correct answer was the floating castle. From the way she spoke, it wasn't that she knew the answer, but that she had just seen it and quickly solved the cipher.
[...Alice, you understand what was written there?]
[There's a subtle gap every seven digits, and assuming the numbers are separated by seven digits, there would be 20 seven-digit numbers, the same as the number of stamps for this stamp rally. Dividing the seven-digit number by the section number... the address where each stamp stand was located in order, add up all the resulting numbers, multiply the number by the number of years since the founding of Symphonia Kingdom, and divide the number that comes up by the number of digits in the world coordinates, and you will get three world coordinates. Those are all world coordinates for an area around Symphonia's royal capital, and in the center of the map, when you connect the three world coordinates with a line, caught within that area is the floating castle.]
[....The heck is with that mind of yours... Eh? You solved it with almost no clues?]
[I did try to decipher it in about 480,000 other ways, but I didn't get any result that would feel like the right answer, so I guess the answer would have to be the floating castle. Well then, I'll take my leave.]
Alice really is smart, or rather, her mind works really fast. Seeing her like this reminds me of how amazing she is.
[...Errr, we were just told the correct answer...]
[If Shalltear-sama went out of her way to tell us the answer, then maybe the luxury prize is good for us?]
[Ahh~~ Indeed, if it's Alice, she would know what the superb prize is. She also seemed to have seriously solved the cipher just now...]
[I guess it wasn't a big problem for Shalltear-sama. As one would expect from the person known as the Greatest Mind in the Three Realms.]
At any rate, since Alice went out of her way to show up and tell us the answer, as Dr. Vier said, there's a good chance that the prize is something useful for us. Let's return to the Trading Company and tell them the answer.
**********
Serious-senpai: [I have one question. Are individuals there able to just look up the world coordinates?]
???: [You can find books with world coordinates in libraries and other such places, and if you learn how to calculate them, you can even be able to figure out by looking at the map. Those who are good at Teleportation Magic usually have a way to calculate world coordinates in their heads.]