章 97: The riddle of books
The door stretched taller than him and the fairy. It was like a gate, having two doors, two parts. Each only saw one entrance, the one made for them. The door was part of the smart building. It started as a normal plain door with two parts then it changed. She waved her hand, beckoning him to open it.
A voice whispered in his head to open it and see what was behind it. His hand approached apprehending some kind of puzzle; his master always prepared something for him for a challenge. It was almost too good to be true to find it easy to open the door. He turned the knob and pushed both doors but they didn't open. Instead, he changed his tactic and pulled the door then it opened. He didn't notice it before but the door had two handles.
There were coats inside, luxurious ones that belonged to a man. There was another door behind the big one; it was smaller, right fitting his height. However, it had a puzzle. There was an empty small shelf with a riddle on top.
(Choose four books and a book from what was left: a knife, a belt, an arrow and a feather.)
"Oh no! Not a riddle again. I won't ever say I like riddles. I hate them," he turned towards the fairy. "Can't you make this quicker by activating a switch or something of the sort?"
"I am sorry. I am not allowed behind that door without the one who opens it. There is a reason why it's closed?"
He sighed. He had to think again and mule over another riddle just to finish a tour with her. He thought he could spare some hours for the tour since he refused the fairy's offer at first. However, it turned out the first door she wanted to show him would already take half of the time.
It was obvious one thing; the shelf needed books on it so the riddle was to find the books that had the descriptions: a knife, a belt, an arrow and a feather. He stepped back and looked around. There were many bookshelves and he doubted searching them all would bring him the books he needed. He narrowed his search around the door and then he found out something. The door wasn't actually a door; it was a closet for clothes. The clothes were there to mask it as a way to enter the room, which meant if an outsider came in without a guide, he would think that it was a wardrobe.
"Genius! I would never have thought of that. Such a nasty way to hide things!"
There was a thick carpet laid out inside the wardrobe, filled with a soothing fragrance. It helped him think deeper and calmed his nerves. He didn't think about time anymore; he had the impression he had all the time in the world to do anything there.
He kept searching around for a few minutes before stopping at the coats. Then he thought what if there was something behind them. It didn't hurt to check. He tried to remove the coats but they had so much fur that they were heavy. Furthermore, they were placed higher than his height. It was unnerving He turned to the fairy once again.
"Can't you help me put these things down?"
"You can do it yourself, traveller. I will simply wait here until you finish opening the door. Good luck," she bowed her head slightly.
Countless thoughts welled inside his mind, turning everything into silence. He stared at the coats, completely helpless. Normally, in that moment, he had to think that once he would get out of there, he would train his muscles to heft things like these, but he didn't. Anything that had a clear relationship with the outside world was kept at bay. They were suppressed by an unnatural force.
Again, he tried to remove them and gave up on it. Instead, he tried to move them aside. He pushed them repeatedly but they didn't budge. A flock of books stopped at his level and eyed him with curiosity. The books turned to each other, flapping the papers. The noise made Stephan glance back. It felt like the flock were talking to each other; the pages turned over and over again, changing the writing each time. It was strange.
"Can you help me with this?" he finally asked.
The books turned at him and then flew by his side. They moved under the coats and lifted them up slightly by creating a huge block of books stuck to each other. The cord that kept half of the coat snapped and they fell. On the other hand, half of the flock created a staircase for him. He looked back at the fairy. She nodded in approval. He raised his shoulders slightly then climbed. It was enough to let him reach the second half and like that, all the coats fell revealing hidden bookshelves that contained ten books.
Stephan thanked the books after helping the ones stuck under the coats. If he saw himself, he wouldn't think he was helping out of his will. Well, they technically helped him, but he wouldn't think of himself as asking for help from someone or something. He always relied on himself. It was the case since the beginning of his adventure. In Soprana's case, he gave her an offer she didn't refuse.
He was relieved because the books were narrowed to ten. For the moment, he had two choices; whether to use his mind or use the probability. There were 70 ways to arrange four books out of ten, considering there was no repetition and the order mattered. He would have to go all day to try out all the combinations. Therefore, it was better to go with the first option; it was better to read the books and find out what consisted of a knife, a belt, an arrow and a feather.
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