CHAPTER 621: CHAPTER 618: CHURCH SQUARE

The two continued their way towards the center of the city.

In this world of childlike charm and cuteness, Ronald once again experienced the joys of childhood.

Tapping on a city square fountain would turn it off and on, tentacles would emerge and pull the spectators into a roadside well, and there were even professional Casters putting on shows to match the festive atmosphere...

These were things you’d never expect to see in the city before.

But now, they were everywhere around the roads.

Despite the inconvenience of finding their way through the maze-like city streets, one undeniable fact was—Ronald and Patricia thought it was a very interesting journey.

And then... something even more unimaginable happened.

When they left the outskirts and tried to navigate through another maze-like district towards the church area, a new obstacle appeared in their path.

Right now, standing in the middle of the road was a creature with the upper body of a beautiful woman and the lower body of a lion—simply by seeing it, Ronald knew this was a timeless classic from labyrinth stories—the Sphinx.

Ronald blinked his pebble-like eyes and then turned to the slender and sprightly Patricia to ask,

"Patricia, I haven’t been in Springs for too long, does this city have such things?"

Patricia shook her head.

Her cartoon figure made this gesture extremely cute:

"Don’t say that you haven’t seen these things since you’ve been in Springs. Even I, a local who grew up here, have never encountered this sort of thing."

While they were speaking, the beautiful-looking Sphinx slightly bent down to bring her head close to Ronald’s:

"Yo, isn’t this the great detective Ronald?"

"I have a riddle challenge for you. Do you want to give it a try?"

"If you can get through this challenge, I’ll clear the way for you, but if you cannot..."

Before the Sphinx could finish, Ronald interrupted her without a second thought:

"The answer is ’human.’"

"..."

"I haven’t even asked the question yet, how can you answer it so fast!"

The Sphinx looked utterly shocked.

Clearly, she hadn’t expected that the challenger she faced would give an answer before she could even pose her question.

What’s more important—the answer was correct!

Ronald spoke calmly:

"It doesn’t matter whether I can interrupt or not. You just wanted to play a riddle game, right? Just tell me whether my answer is right or wrong."

"..."

The Sphinx was silent for a few seconds.

Then, an awkward smile appeared on her beautiful cartoon face, and she continued in a begrudging tone:

"That’s not acceptable. I must ask you another question!"

And Ronald interrupted again:

"The answer is ’sisters of day and night!’"

"..."

"Ah???"

The Sphinx clearly got startled.

Her lion half, coupled with the beautiful upper body, leaped back several meters. She even trembled like a frightened little animal and said,

"Is... Is this the strength of the great detective?"

"Exactly, this is the strength of the great detective Ronald!" Ronald nodded firmly with strong empathy, then pointing past the Sphinx into the street behind her, "Now, can you let us pass? We’re in a hurry here."

"Of course..." The Sphinx almost blankly uttered the response and involuntarily moved to the edge of the road. It wasn’t until Ronald and Patricia had moved ten meters past her that she suddenly snapped out of it and called out loudly,

"You answered two of my questions, I can’t just clear the path!"

"Great detective, go check out your house!"

"You’ll gain something from this!"

Ronald waved at the Sphinx without turning back,

"Thanks for the advice!"

"..."

After saying goodbye to this roadblock of a challenge, Patricia pondered hard on the road but to no avail. Finally, she couldn’t help but squint her eyes and ask,

"Ronald, what was that Q&A with that thing all about?"

"I completely don’t understand."

Ronald immediately answered the girl,

"It’s the answers to two riddles."

"The first question—what animal has four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening, metaphorically representing the three stages of human life: childhood, adulthood, and old age."

"The other question was—there are two sisters, the older sister gives birth to the younger sister, and the younger sister gives birth to the older sister, the riddle uses this paradoxical relationship to symbolize the cyclical rule of day and night."

Patricia nodded her cute head,

"So that’s it..."

Patricia didn’t ask Ronald how he knew the answers to the two riddles.

In terms of grasping the depth of a conversation, Patricia’s level was perfectly in line with her status as a noble, and this wouldn’t change even with a different artistic style.

They continued on into the church district.

The two arrived at the church square and saw a huge statue.

—This was a sculpture of a great Pope of the church.

And in this world of picture books filled with fantasy, the statue, of course, came to life, turning into a living stone giant that could move at will.

At this moment, a group of clergy was surrounding it, hugging the statue’s legs tightly and crying out,

"Great statue, you simply must not run away! The queen will be here today, and you are an important part of the festival’s program!"

Unfortunately, the statue’s tone was not so gracious.

The giant sculpture shouted almost as if begging for escape,

"Have you idiots ever considered my feelings!"

"365 days a year, 24 hours a day, without even a minute’s vacation, always standing in this square through wind and sun, why don’t you try it yourselves and see what kind of torment it is?"

"I won’t do it anymore, let me go!"

Of course, Ronald and Patricia didn’t stay in the church district because of this phenomenon.

However, as they passed through the area,

They couldn’t help but glance at each other and then began to laugh and talk,

"Ronald, what do you think would happen if this statue ran away?"

"I think it’d be very happy not having to work anymore."

"In that case, the bigwigs of the church would be very sad."

"..."

Wuu wuu wuu—

Just as the two were laughing and about to leave the square,

The sound of a horn instrument came from the distance.

The cartoonish Ronald and Patricia realized something had changed, so they started to sprint with their little legs, and eventually, they made their way through the maze of the square and climbed up a tower in the church district.

Then, the scene in the direction of the sound caught their eyes.

"It’s the parade for the festival..."

"The queen..."

Ronald never imagined

that he would encounter the Harvest Day festival in this manner!