Chapter 162: Chapter 163: The Children And The Nymph Thieves (4)

The desert was large and wide.

Cariote looked at the empty water bottle and reported the situation to me. Two days had already passed since we left the oasis village.

“Oh, holy shh…! Another ammonite…!”

One thing that was good at least, was that the children weren’t exhausted by this desolate and vast desert.

Hina even played by catching desert scorpions.

“Just stick out your hand….”

There wasn’t anything special to it.

Maybe there was a magical kind of mana that flowed abundantly in the blood of desert royalty which allowed them to befriend desert animals.

Not only that, Hina was good at finding cactuses.

“This desert cactus…. stores water…. If cut at the bottom with the dagger… we can get water….”

I did as Hina said and sliced the lower trunk area of the cactus with the dagger.

When I did, a clear liquid started gushing out like shwaaa–, looking like someone had opened the faucet in the school field all the way on a hot summer day. 1

“That’s cool. Hina, how did you know?”

“I just…. feel it…. The desert….”

Hina acted in the desert like she had returned home. Whether the desert was favorable towards Hina or Hina was compatible with the desert, I didn’t know, but that was helpful anyways

“That’s awesome, Hina.”

I scratched at Hina’s head and chin.

“Aww… yeah…!”

She must be happy about being commended.

“Did you see? Hina’s this intelligent!”

… It’s an innate sense so what does that have to do with being intelligent?

“Naru, what can you do?”

“Naru can find ammonite! Naru already dug up 5 today!”

Naru pulled out five ammonite fossils from her pocket and showed us. The small and round fossils looked rather cool but Brigitte saw them and tsked.

“... That isn’t very helpful.”

Though Brigitte said it wasn’t helpful, I thought Naru was amazing, too. Ammonites were cool. Something about them stirred up one’s innocence and romantic side.

I’m going to ask Naru for one.

“Whew, can’t be helped, then. Everyone get on this carpet.”

At Brigitte’s words, everyone stopped walking.

Voooom—

“Mage, if you had this, couldn’t you have used it earlier?”

That was true.

“The mana flowing in this desert’s air isn’t compatible with me so I wasn’t in a decent state. And flight magic isn’t my specialty in the first place. But I can somewhat use it now.”

I see.

“Then what do we do about the camels?”

“Let them go.”

Swoosh—

n

It was fun looking down at the ground from the flying carpet. Though the desert scenery was all the same.

“It seems to be about 10 km away. Why does it look so big?”

It was an ivory-colored pyramid.

The pyramids I knew looked exactly like this.

ㅁ

They were square-shaped and built by layering rugged stones.

But the pyramid I was looking at now was a very smooth square pyramid. The surface was coated with ivory-colored marble and appeared beautiful, even.

If a gender could be applied to the structure, then anyone would see it as feminine.

At the breathtaking sight, we all closed our mouths and admired it.

“The height seems to be 1 km at least. The perimeter is more than twice that. How did they make such a thing?”

How did they make such a thing?

Just by having a lot of people work on it for a long time, probably.

Ssssss—

It was as I was encouraging everyone.

With a whipping sound, something landed heavily in front of us.

It spoke to me.

“That’s right. I am Sphynx, the guardian of the pyramid! If you do not answer correctly the three questions I am about to give you, then you will receive the curse of the ancient king!”

I see.

When I looked carefully, its subjugation level didn’t seem that high.

“Oh, holy shh…! Naru loves riddles!”

Naru showed enthusiasm.

“Mind games are a noble lady’s interests. Present your questions, now!”

I see.

“Then since there are three children, I will ask each one a question. Golden-haired girl, answer my question. What is 23 plus 21?”

An arithmetic problem?

Cecily twitched in surprise, then looked at us.

“… 44?”

“Fantastic.”

The Sphynx nodded and accepted the answer.

“This is the second question. Pink-haired girl, I ask you. What is 44 times 25?”

A multiplication question?

“1100.”

“Oho? That is correct!”

Ooh.

“Black-haired girl. The keeper of royalty asks of you. 「When n>= 3, no positive integers x, y, z can satisfy the equation xⁿ +yⁿ =zⁿ.」 Prove this.” 2

… The hell did it just say?

“This is the last theorem of Fermat who was the first Archmage! How does it expect this question to be answered? Why did it give such a difficult question only to Naru? This is unfair!”

Brigitte got upset on behalf of Naru. It looked as if she was a parent bringing her child’s test paper which was marked wrong because of a misprinted question to the teacher and complaining.

But the Sphynx remained strict.

“To question is the first step towards the truth. Archmage Fermat’s conundrum is like a shortcut to the truth. The one who cannot solve this will not be allowed a single step inside the pyramid. Solve it now!!!”

What’s going to happen now?

Since it’s a question with an answer, that meant there was a method of solving.

“Naru knows the answer to this problem!”

What.

As everyone looked on this situation tensely, Naru inhaled deeply.

“Naru Style, Hydro Pump!”

Phoooooooo—

“Guwaaaa—! How did you know that my weakness is water—! I cannot maintain my foooooorm…!”

The Sphynx simply collapsed into a pile of sand.

As everyone remained silent, Naru spoke.

“Dad once said! The answer to all problems is great power! He said if the problem wasn’t solved, it’s because you’re weak!”

Indeed, that sounded like something I’d say.

In my opinion, the world’s ‘problem’ meant the state of powerlessness.

I say this now but if Archmage Fermat had ground-breaking muscles like Hercules, he probably wouldn’t have studied math.

“Oh, holy shh…! Naru got it right…!”

Fsssss—

Ah, summer. /genesisforsaken