"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?" She 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 greeting 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. They are happy because they only had two riddles to answer.
Second really has no idea how to answer the 5th riddle, so she proceeded to the fourth first. This one is kind of long. She wonders if this is the hardest one.
Chromatic color that produces a pleasant harmony in 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? She 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 she startled Seventh.
"The 4th riddle, she's not sure though." She continued. "They 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 giggled.
"Good. What about the 5th riddle?" Third followed up her staringly and raised his eyebrows as if asking, 'what is the answer to the 5th riddle?'
She just shook her head and forced a smile. Third's stare was intimidating, just like a boss. Oh, he's their leader, by the way.
"Solfane!" Seventh interrupted. They gave him a confused look because they 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 she's 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 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 they have are letters, not words."
He is stubborn, but she admires 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. They must find out the answer.
They will compile the letters that were answered earlier. She wants to know if their prediction has a good result. Otherwise, it would be unfortunate because they have already wasted a lot of time, and they'll go back to square one.
"The answer in riddle 1 is 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-" she murmured as she couldn't process yet why they got that as an answer.
"Dracodile!" Seventh corrected her.
Sixth wondered. "What is that?"
"It's like... a name of a monster?" Fourth sounds worried.
"There's no word like that. More like 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 it has already told them the directions before." – Aeith
Well, there's a possibility of succeeding in what Ninth suggested. It is unfair for them if they mislead themselves into finding the treasure without even a map to give them proper directions.
"Good point. I still remember the directions. It was left, right, right, left, right." Third assured them. Thanks to his terrific brain, he memorized it. He's called a leader for something. They weren't wrong for choosing him right from the start.
They paused to look for the treasure because they already knew the answer to the riddles, but they were still not sure if that was indeed the right answer, because they had no idea what a dracodile is.
They ran to find the detour. They plan to go for a run until they see 2 directions and turn according to the previous order of directions that was led by the map. After seeing one, they turned left but were shocked when the walls moved.