"Anyway, any ideas are welcome and to be considered." Third further stated.
"Hmm... 'hay' is a greeting... not so..." Fifth murmured. His eyes widened as if he wanted to say something.
"Fifth?" I checked on him.
"Ah, I know!" Fifth blurted out.
"What is it?" is everyone's question.
"In riddle number 2, letter A is the answer!"
"How?" Sixth questions him.
"'Hay' is said to be a word of greetings or expression. It doesn't mean 'hay' as grass but H-E-Y."
"Same when pronounced but different in spelling and meaning, huh?" Ninth added on.
"Yeah. Don't mind the letter H. It will be removed from the word 'hey', making it 'ey'. When you pronounce 'E-Y', 'ey' as in letter A." Fifth ended his deduction.
"Two more!" Fourth excitedly uttered. We are happy because we only had two riddles to answer.
I really have no idea how to answer the 5th riddle, so I proceeded to the fourth first. This one is kind of long. I wonder if this is the hardest one.
Chromatic color that produces a pleasant harmony to a chromatic painting.
Amond is the world where amond lies.
When you touch it once again, you'll die.
The word 'amond' does not exist in English, but why is that word included here? I noticed in the first two sentences that the words 'chromatic' and 'amond' were mentioned twice. The last sentence is also weird. Twice? Twin? Double? Dual? Duplex? Twofold? Binomial? Trinomial? Bi, Tri as in...
"Eureka"
"W-What?" Looks like I startled Seventh.
"The 4th riddle, I'm not sure though." I continued. "You will notice in the first and second lines that the words 'chromatic' and 'amond' are mentioned twice, meaning 'di-' as in dichromatic and diamond. So, the word 'amond' was placed even though no such word was invented. The proof for that answer is the third line.
When you touch it once again, you'll die.
The meaning of 'die' is not to die or death but 'di-' which means two. It seems the same with riddle number 2 which is 'hay' and 'hey', same when pronounced but different in spelling and meaning. And it is common sense that when you touch something one more time, it means a second time. So, the answers are letter D and letter I. "
"Whoa," they reacted, still stunned.
"One more to go," Sixth gigled.
"Good. What about the 5th riddle?" Third asked me staringly and raised his eyebrows as if asking 'what is the answer to the 5th riddle?'
I just shook my head and forced a smile. His stare was intimidating just like a boss. Oh, he's our leader by the way.
"Solfane!" Seventh interrupted. We gave him a confused look because we couldn't understand what he was saying.
"Solfane is the answer on the last card. How? 'Enough Lose', when pronounced it is 'enaf-los', when inverted is 'sol-fane' = solfane!" he answered confidently.
"Pfft" Ninth laughed. It seems that this is the first time I've seen him like this.
"Why? What's so funny?" Seventh pouted. He probably can't believe that someone is mocking his theory. And that someone is Ninth, who is mostly serious and a lone wolf.
Ninth stopped from laughing and composed himself. "Believe it or not, there's no word like solfane."
"What if it's a person's name, place, or brand?" Seventh pouted.
"But Seventh, all the answers we have are letters, not words." Fifth also noticed that.
He is stubborn, but I admire him for being defiant. "Well, if you look at it... This can be an answer too."
First speaks up. "What about letters L and E. 'Enough Lose', letter E and L, reverse it, then L and E."
"Let's see. If First's answer is to be included, what word will be formed?" The leader wondered. We must find out the answer.
We will compile the letters that were answered earlier. I want to know if our prediction has a good result. Otherwise, it would be unfortunate because we have already wasted a lot of time, and we'll go back to square one.
"The answer in riddle 1 are letters D and R, in number 2 is A, 3rd riddle is C and O, 4th is D and I, and the last card is letters L and E. D-R-A-C-O-D-I-L-E... Dracodile!" First explained
"Dacula ... Dracu ... Dra-" I murmured as I couldn't process yet why we got that as an answer.
"Dracodile!" Seventh corrected me.
Sixth wondered. "What is that?"
"It's like... a name of a monster?" Fourth looked worried.
"There's no word like that. More of, monsters don't exist." Third objected. "Besides, we don't even know what a dracodile is."
"Shall we find the treasure? We've already answered the riddles." Aeith seems fired up.
"How can we find the treasure if there's nothing written on the map?" – Seventh
"Maybe we can use the same directions to follow when we still have the map." – Ninth
"Yeah! Maybe even without the map, Author thinks we'll be able to find the treasure because he has already told us the directions before." – Aeith
Well, there's a possibility of succeeding in what Ninth suggested. It is unfair for us if we mislead ourselves into finding the treasure without even a map to give us proper directions.
"Good point. I still remember the directions. It was left, right, right, left, right." Third assured us. Thanks to his terrific brain, he memorized it. He's called a leader for something. We weren't wrong for choosing him right from the start.