Chapter 106 The Riddler (Part Two)

A prank? Who wrote it? Richie or Irensie?

Whoever it was, it piqued Lisa's interest in investigating.

Five fountains, as the name suggests, are places with fountains. When asked, White said there was only one place with a fountain in the entire fortress, located in the central headquarters of the Special Agents Group.

There are exactly five fountains in the building's courtyard, and each fountain has a large stone on it, making a total of five stones.

Each stone is strangely shaped, neither resembling a person nor an animal, lacking even basic aesthetic value; it's as if a stone was randomly picked from somewhere and placed on top.

Elsa also learned the detective game, searching for evidence in each pool, eventually getting herself all wet, but still not finding any relevant clues.

The fountain was found, the stone was found, but the final face was the key.

But where can we find that face?

Elsa jumped back into the pool to search again.

"Elsa only sees her own face! She doesn't see anyone else's face!"

Her own face? This is a small reminder for Lisa: the fountain, the stone, and the face should be a whole.

If viewed from above, the five stones form a V shape.

Lisa arrived at the very front of the V and finally found the so-called face.

It turns out that these five stones are the five parts of a face, and only by observing from a single angle can you see the face pieced together from the stones.

That unique angle points in the opposite direction of the intelligence group building, to a building that looks quite short.

This house is the shortest and most unique in the fortified complex. Its uniqueness lies in the careful selection of materials: rock and soil from the central region, permafrost from the north, black soil from the south, coral from the west, and wood from the east.

The architect built a house using five different styles, demonstrating his considerable familiarity with materials from another world.

The homeowner happened to be there; he was an elderly dwarf. Upon seeing the four investigators, he slammed the door shut.

However, the homeowner remained hidden behind the door, secretly observing the four people and noticing that they were different from the resident agents of the stronghold.

Only after Lisa spoke kindly to them did the homeowner agree to let them in.

The investigation revealed that the homeowner was the builder of the fountain, and the stone face was his appearance on Earth.

The homeowner named himself after the statue of David, and also called himself David. He said with a smile that he participated in the overall construction of the fortress, and that he had also had three friendships with Richie, and that he felt sorry for Richie's death.

“I’ve known him since the construction of the fortress. I was the chief designer of the fortress at the time. Then something happened and I was demoted to supervisor. Then something else happened and I almost lost my job. If it weren’t for Richie pleading for me, I probably wouldn’t be living here anymore.”

"What's up?"

"The first time, I used the frozen soil at the base of the barrier, which caused the overall flight altitude to decrease. The second time, I used rock and soil instead of coral, but I didn't expect that the coral in the other world was even stronger than the rock and soil, which caused a lot of rework and delayed the project progress."

"Learning from failure is an essential step for every successful person."

"Indeed, I've always stumbled on big projects, so I've turned to small projects, like building a fountain or a low-rise house, which is fine."

"You just said that there's something between you and Richie..."

“Oh! We’ve only met three times. My impression of him is that he respects the elderly, cares for the young, and is always willing to help others.”

"To be honest, this is very different from my impression of him. I always thought he was the kind of person who would stay at home and never leave the house after assigning tasks."

"Guess how old I am this year?"

"Eighty! Wait, I've seen an eighty-five-year-old dwarf before, you must be ninety!"

"Ninety-two. Ten years ago, people here were unwilling to hand over design drawings to an eighty-two-year-old designer, but! I love this profession, and only Richie understands me."

"But you just said you've only met him three times."

"Because our first meeting was long enough, and probably all dwarves have a miner's complex, I'm no exception. I needed to find a special crystal in the Barrier, a perpetually frozen crystal, so he helped me dig a tunnel in the tundra. I originally planned to use it to build a house, but the quantity is so scarce that it's probably as precious as diamonds for the entire landmass."

“I can understand what they mean a little better now. If I were in charge, I wouldn’t let you build a house with diamonds either.”

"I originally had this plan, but by excavating the crystals, I discovered another secret about the barrier: it was actually part of the land."

“I am very interested in ‘being part of the land’.”

"From my architectural perspective, the size of the barrier is equivalent to that of an island, and the power that makes it fly is magic. As for who cast the magic, I don't know."

"Unexpected gains are delightful. May I ask something else now? What are your thoughts on the decision to build the headquarters in Fortress?"

"Based on an engineer's intuition, it should be for safety reasons. Engineering design is an art, and every artist will delve into the mysteries. The barrier is a once-in-a-century miracle. The founder of the alliance also set his sights on this uniquely advantageous location, which is why he decided to build the headquarters here."

"I guess you were working here during the first year of the big reboot."

“I was indeed the first one, and also the fastest one to be sidelined, if it weren’t for Richie…”

"Let's talk about Richie then. You just mentioned that he mined for you the first time you met. When were the second and third times?"

"The second time was probably during the project acceptance. He stood out among a bunch of misfits, and I recognized him at a glance. Back then, he looked older and shorter than he does now."

"You mean, Richie is getting younger as he gets older?"

"Yes, I bet he must have eaten some kind of magical fruit, or he must have obtained the secret to immortality. Isn't that what the intelligence team collects?"

"Don't you have any doubts about his change?"

"Huh? Why would you doubt it?"

"For example, it's a different person, not the Agent Richie you used to know."

"No, no, no, this is the only thing I'm sure of. No matter how his appearance changes, you can tell it's him the moment you hear his voice. 'David! Don't you recognize me? It's me, Richie, Richie from the intelligence team.' That's how he likes to talk to people."

"What a coincidence, he speaks to us in the same manner. Do you know who he's usually close to?"

“An agent, but I don’t know his name.”

"Irenshere?"

"I'm not very clear about that. He rarely talks about mission-related matters, which I can understand. Keeping secrets is the consistent style of intelligence team members."

"So, he has almost no friends in the fortress?"

"Does the waitress at the tavern count as a friend? If so, count her too, because the tavern is the only place where the agent can relax."

"A friend of the public, of course, is a friend, Mr. David. Can we talk about Irensie?"

"I wish I had never met you."

"You know him?"

“He was indifferent to my architectural aesthetics, and for that reason, I didn’t want to know him.”

"Okay, it's fine if you don't want to. Let's get back to our original topic. We were talking about the second meeting, so what about the third?"

"The third time was a few days ago, before Richie had his accident. He came to see me specifically and prepared a gift for me."

What is it?

"He thought I would like a small pearl shell, which could be used as a decoration for the house. But I didn't like it at all. So he told me, 'If you don't like it, just give it away.'"

"It's too much of a waste to give it away, and he's already gone, so let's keep it as a keepsake. Oh, by the way, I'd really like to see the so-called special gift."

"Wow, besides Richie, you're the second person who's talked to me for this long. Thank you."

After David finished expressing his gratitude, he brought out the pearl shell.

This is an artificial pearl oyster. I don't know if David's eyesight is not very good, but there are obvious pry marks on the left shell.

Sure enough, another note was found inside.

It reads: "Whoever you are, seeing this paper proves that you have gained David's trust and are a patient person, so let's continue playing the game."

Sitting in the chair, two places lower than ten and three places higher than five.