Family heirloom, then turned into a demon girl

Chapter 35 Mission: 02-4 Breaking the Ice
"The sun is being devoured by hatred, and the arrogant king is about to break out of his shell..."

After listening to Nero's retelling of the riddle, Ritsuka repeated it, looked up and asked, "Mr. Sherlock, what do you think?"

The projection switches characters. A pale-faced young man, holding a pipe, appears. "This puzzle already contains the time, characters, motivation, actions, and outcome that constitute a complete event. We already know the location. It can basically be considered an abstract expression through 'symbolism.'"

Outside the projection, a female voice chimed in: "I agree. The key to solving this mystery lies in metaphor."

The projection switched again, and Mashu's face appeared in it: "Senior, have you thought of anything?"

Li Xiang shook his head slightly: "I don't know. We are new here and don't understand many things."

"I do have a discovery... which I guess can't even be called a clue."

Nero's voice made everyone look at her.

"Although I just arrived here, I happened to run into something..."

Nero briefly described Beatrice's conversation with the farmers and concluded, "I don't know much about agriculture, but my intuition tells me that this is a big deal for the residents here."

"Mashu..." Ritsuka asked her junior for help again.

"No need to look for information, I know this." The female voice from before stopped Mash and walked into the projection. That face was completely the reincarnation of Mona Lisa.

"Da Vinci kiss!"

"Oh?" The devil smiled happily as if he saw something interesting.

"Nice to meet you two. I am the Heroic Spirit of a magician, my real name is Leonardo da Vinci." She briefly introduced herself, then said, "As a genius and a polymath, I happen to have some research on this topic."

As she spoke, she pulled out a blackboard from behind her and wrote a word. "If I understand correctly, what this Baron's daughter, Beatrice, proposed is the prototype of the 'grass-field rotation system.' It's a method of increasing land productivity by cycling between pasture, meadow, and farmland."

Leonardo da Vinci said, looked around, and wrote another word: "But, it's too early."

She wrote "Fifteenth Century." Leonardo pointed to the word on the blackboard and explained, "In European history, the idea of ​​crop rotation did originate in England, but it was not until the fifteenth century, when I was active, that it was truly proposed and put into practice."

"A hundred years too early." Sherlock Holmes' voice could be heard again from outside the projection: "It's indeed a blind spot that we can easily miss. Does this system have a sufficient impact on human history?"

Leonardo da Vinci looked in his direction and replied, "I'm afraid so. The development of agricultural productivity will undoubtedly promote social progress. If the grass-field rotation system had been proposed a hundred years earlier, it would undoubtedly have had a huge impact on the nascent Renaissance."

Li Xiang raised his hand and asked eagerly, "So, this girl named Beatrice is the focus of our attention?"

"Probably."

After saying this, Da Vinci left the projection range.

Sherlock's reasoning followed: "Then the first thing we need to find out is whether this girl's thoughts have been influenced by the Demon Pillar. This will guide our future actions."

If so, then they understand the purpose of the Demon Pillar; if not, it means that Beatrice's ideas were ultimately not put into practice in history, and perhaps the Demon Pillar will make a fuss about this.

The projection turned off. Ritsuka then looked at Nero: "You said she went home, right?"

This girl has a strong ability to take action and is very efficient in making decisions.

"That's right." Nero folded his hands and nodded, looking at the demon standing behind Fujimaru Ritsuka, who seemed to be silent. "Do you want to enter the city now?" The demon responded with an impeccable smile: "It's all up to the Master to decide."

Fujimaru Ritsuka nodded in agreement with Nero's statement: "Well, let's go into the city now, but let's put off finding someone until tomorrow. Also..."

Facing Nero, who was acting in an ambiguous manner, she lowered her head, bowed, and extended her hand, saying in one breath: "Miss Nero, please be our partner and act together!"

This invitation came a little unexpectedly, but for Nero, there seemed to be no reason to refuse them. According to the Sphinx, if Nero wanted to return to the Devil May Cry world, he had to resolve the singularity under his feet.

They have the same goal as everyone in Chaldea.

Nero glanced at the demon again and saw that he was still smiling calmly, as if he had seen through everything.

It makes people feel a little uncomfortable.

So she reached out her hand, but stopped in front of Ritsuka's outstretched hand, and asked the demon behind her: "Are we on the same side now?"

"Of course!"

Li Xiang answered quickly.

The demon then smiled helplessly, narrowed his eyes, and said, "Well, since the Master has said so, I will abide by the agreement and state my name."

It took a step back, took off its hat and pressed it against its chest, then bowed like a gentleman again: "Introduce myself again. I am the magician's heroic spirit, named—

"Mephisto."

"Mephisto?"

Nero took a breath in surprise, then frowned and fell into deep thought.

Although both were called Mephistopheles, the demon before her was clearly not the same kind as the one she had been chasing. Wasn't it just a little too coincidental?
Mephistopheles smiled slightly. "Yes, that's the Mephistopheles you were thinking of. You really are from the future."

The devil Mephistopheles comes from "Faust", a long poem by the German poet Goethe, which was written in the 19th century.

Since he reacted the moment he said his name, Nero must have come from a later era - this was Mephistopheles' judgment.

Nero did not answer directly, but asked: "Are you a character in the book, or a real person in history?"

The demon opened his arms and replied, "Your judgment is yours. But the name Mephistopheles was given by books."

Taking a deep breath, Nero nodded in acceptance of its explanation and turned to look at Ritsuka: "How did you meet?"

Ritsuka smiled bitterly and touched his hair. "Well, let me put it this way... When the spirit particles were transferred, for some reason, the Heroic Spirits of Chaldea were rejected by this singularity and couldn't come along. And then, it was Mephisto who protected me as I went to the spiritual land to set up communication."

"Do you think I'm untrustworthy?" Mephistopheles said with a smile. "If you've read that book, you'll know I'm a stickler for contracts."

"I just doubt your purpose." Nero replied calmly.

(End of this chapter)