Helmut: The Forsaken Child - H.F.C Chapter 189 (Part 1):

“Is it a deer?”

People often stuff the severed heads of hunted deer and display them high up.

Usually, what is displayed are the heads of male deer with splendid antlers.

Deer symbolizes luck and power, and despite their swift and resilient bodies, they fall to human arrows.

Moreover, people often liken beautiful eyes and figures to those of deer.

What Helmut intuitively thought of was a deer collapsing while bleeding from an arrow wound. He had hunted deer in the Hunting Picnic too. He had a good instinct.

“I think so too.”

Alea readily agreed, then her gaze fell.

Only one sentence was left. The last sentence was written in red ink.

“Now the last question. I can find my worth anywhere in the world. That’s why people covet me to the point of cruelty. Even my corpse. My mutilated corpse is scattered around the world. I am so worthless that I could be burnt, yet sometimes I am as noble as to accompany a king. Some cherish my corpse at home, carefully preserving it, while others pierce my body with an awl and whisper love.”

“A corpse? A corpse…”

For Helmut, a corpse was something dripping with blood, devoid of life.

Alea was the one who found the answer.

“Wood.”

Helmut pondered for a moment then asked,

“What does the last phrase mean?”

Piercing with an awl and whispering love. Helmut wondered what that had to do with wood.

“Because we make paper from wood. It means writing love letters. The tip is sharp, hence the comparison to an awl.”

“Why write it? Can’t it just be said?”

“It’s different. Things that cannot be expressed in words can be conveyed in writing.”

Alea replied rather curtly, somewhat embarrassed.

‘Because of that damned festival.’

Having done something akin to a date with Helmut, she became easily agitated by any mention related to that topic.

Of course, Helmut probably didn’t think much of it.

‘It’s ridiculous that I’m the only one conscious of it.’

Helmut had a face that was advantageous in negotiations. Those pitch-black eyes. It was hard to read his thoughts.

Despite being close for quite some time, he seemed both knowable and unknowable.

“Then it’s hill, star, deer, tree. If these mean numbers… what would it be?”

It was more of a murmur than a question. The commonalities among the four words were hard to pinpoint. How they related to numbers needed to be figured out.

“Are there two antlers on the deer? Then what about the tree? No, this isn’t how it’s done.”

Alea stared intensely at the four sentences. Then Helmut pointed something out.

“These four sentences, their colors are different.”

Focused solely on the content, they had overlooked this fact. The sentences weren’t just colored differently for separation.

“Indeed. The hill is purple, the star yellow, the deer green, and the tree red. What does this mean? Ah, could it be… this?”

Alea decided to think simply. She thought of the rainbow. According to the order of a rainbow, purple is 7, yellow is 3, green is 4, red is 1. The answer would be 7341.

Alea tried to adjust the numbers on a metal plate.

However, after five seconds, the metal plate clicked back to its original position. It meant the answer was wrong.

“Two attempts left.”

Alea rolled her eyes at Helmut, who annoyingly pointed out the obvious.

Alea was a top student. She disliked the word ‘wrong.’

“What’s the problem? Isn’t it the rainbow? If so, then… it must be the order.”

Alea squinted and scrutinized the sentences.

She had derived the answer from the sentences, but now she was excluding that, relying only on the colors.

It was unlikely that Lampione would have intended for the answer to be derived without considering the meaning of the sentences.

Finding a numerical correlation from the words in the sentences was difficult. Then, it must be about order.

“Hill, star, deer, tree… How are these supposed to be arranged? The deer is the only living thing. Is it about size? The tree is larger than the deer, the hill larger than the tree, and the star larger than the hill. In ascending order? Or descending?”

Despite pondering, Alea hesitated to move her hand. There were only two chances left. They couldn’t be wasted recklessly.

‘I’d rather solve a math problem.’

Alea found that much easier. The answer was clear-cut in that case. Helmut spoke up as she was still thinking.

“I think I know.”

“What?”

Alea’s gaze shifted to him, her eyes filled with suspicion. ‘How could you know something I don’t!’ was clear in her proud look as the second-year top student of the magic department.

“Think simply.”

Unlike Alea, Helmut wasn’t desperate. He wasn’t afraid of being wrong and adjusted the numbers on the metal plate.

Alea’s eyes widened. With a clunk, the door to the next room opened.

‘I’m pretty smart too.’

Helmut compared himself to Alea. Since he had solved a problem that she had struggled with, he considered himself intelligent.

He never thought he was lacking in learning ability or dumb, but Helmut felt he didn’t know much.

He hadn’t put much effort into studying. Almost everything he knew he had learned since entering the academy.

‘This is more about a shift in thinking than knowledge.’

Helmut hurried to the next room. Alea stared briefly at the numbers Helmut had solved.

“Why… why is that the answer? Why is the arrangement of the words like that?”

Countless assumptions related to the arrangement of the numbers Helmut had figured out flashed through her mind.

But there was nothing Alea could discern. It seemed like she might remember something, yet she couldn’t dwell there long. Now was not the time to linger. She remembered the answer, so she could ask later.

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