noveltune Chapter 174 Who Kissed the Robin?
Chapter 174 Who Kissed the Robin?
Chapter 174 Who Kissed the Robin?
Yvette explained to Geb with great enthusiasm, while the halfling stared at her blankly, looking completely bewildered.
"—Simply put, the entire ball's program is designed according to a three-act structure: a light and suspenseful overture, a middle section that gradually warms up and speeds up, and then, before the midnight bells toll, the ball reaches its climax with rousing music—finally ending with a soothing finale."
Geb interrupted Yvette.
"Don't lecture me yet, I'm not in the mood. But you said there's a clue in this piece of music?"
"This is my guess. The princess is a very meticulous person. The riddles she sets at the ball are never repeated. Three years ago it was a painting in the gallery, and before that it was an inscription on a statue. I haven't found any other anomalies this year, so I deduce that the riddle should be related to the music."
"So what do we do next?" Gebu asked. "Just sit in the dance hall listening to music? I don't have that kind of leisure—I saw Peacock's people patrolling on the first floor. Maybe she's already noticed something's wrong, and my identity might have been exposed."
"Hey, sitting around waiting isn't my style," the half-elf grinned. "Then find a secluded place to hide, and let me borrow Sister Doffin for a bit—I'll be right back."
As the music ended, the lingering notes echoed through the ballroom. The conductor turned around and bowed to the men and women on the dance floor, to which the masked guests responded with enthusiastic applause.
The servants entered the dance floor to offer drinks and towels to the guests. The musicians took a short break between pieces, and the cellist quickly left the dance hall, turned into the servants' area, and headed towards the restrooms at the end of the corridor.
A figure followed the cellist into the corridor. The man, however, didn't notice. As he walked, he loosened his belt, allowing his taut stomach some breathing room; hours of playing had left him drenched in sweat, and the mask on his face was making him even more uncomfortable. As instructed by his employer, no one was allowed to remove their masks all night. The reason was unclear.
Even without a mask, who would give me a second glance? Nobles are just pretentious.
The man pushed open the bathroom door, walked to the toilet, and was about to unzip his pants to relieve himself when a cold hand suddenly pressed on his shoulder!
The cellist was startled and immediately held back his urine. He turned around in a panic and saw a tall woman staring straight at him—in that instant, he mistook the cat-face mask on the woman's face for a cheetah in the night, his legs went weak, and he slumped onto the toilet.
"Help—help?!"
"Shh—" The woman made a shushing gesture, then gave the man a vicious look and made a throat-slitting gesture with her hand.
"I—I'm just a violinist—" the man said, trembling.
"A violinist is just right, that's exactly what I need." The woman with the sword gave a chilling sneer, walked to the door, and waved to the outside.
Yvette, wearing a Faceless Man mask, slipped in from outside and locked the door.
The man was completely dumbfounded. There were three people crammed into the cramped bathroom: an innocent cellist and two women who were eyeing him menacingly.
"Don't panic, I just want to ask you a question—we can be forceful or gentle. Which do you want?" Yvette chuckled mischievously.
The violinist nervously swallowed, glancing at the eager swordswoman beside him, like a mouse cornered by a cat.
"The soft one—let's go with the soft one," the man said timidly.
"Okay, sister, beat him until he's weak." Yvette waved her hand.
The woman with the sword glared at Yvette. "If you can't speak properly, then shut up—hey, you, answer whatever I ask, or I'll make you suffer. Understand?"
The man nodded.
Seeing that the woman wasn't joking, Yvette became more serious and asked the man, "Is there anything strange about tonight's playlist?"
"Strange—ah, if you ask me that, today's program is indeed different from usual—there's a new piece before the climax."
"A new piece of music? What's it called?"
"Scream—scream—" The man pressed his temples, trying to recall, groaning for a long time. The woman with the knife grew impatient, grabbed the man by the neck, and was about to shove him into the toilet.
"I remember now! I remember now!"
"Say it!"
"Call"
"Who Kissed the Mockingbird!"
The raven-faced man walked through the Hall of Glory on the second floor. In the center of the room was a huge map of the kingdoms. The Holy Kingdom of Kane was covered in golden paint, and in the capital of the Rose Kingdom, where Matiana was located, a blooming rose was drawn. To the east of the continent, the territory of the Golden Sun Red Earth Empire was filled with an ominous dark red, like an unhealable wound.
Various suits of armor and weapons were laid out beside the map. The raven-faced man carefully examined every corner of the corridor, searching for any trace of the halflings.
Apart from the man with the raven mask, there was no one else in the room; only his footsteps echoed in the corridor.
The man with the raven mask stopped in front of a suit of armor. He squinted as he looked at the horizontal slit in the helmet.
Something about this armor looks off...
He took a step forward and reached out to remove the helmet. Just as his fingers were about to touch it, he heard women talking outside the corridor.
"This is the Hall of Glory—I wonder if your male companion is still waiting for you here. Please allow me to check."
Hearing someone approaching, the raven-faced man quickly withdrew his hand and hurried away from the other side of the corridor. After the man left, Yvette and the swordswoman entered the corridor. Seeing that the raven-faced man had left and there was no one else in the room, the half-elf coughed lightly.
The helmet of the armor slammed to the ground, and the halfling emerged from behind it.
"That was close—" Geb looked up at Yvette's excited expression and quickly asked, "Did you get the answer?"
"We got it! The clue is: 'Who Kissed the Robin?'" the woman said excitedly.
"Huh?" Geb asked, puzzled. He looked at the swordswoman, who shrugged.
"Don't look at me, I don't know what it means either."
"Did the musician explain why the piece is called that?" Geb asked Yvette.
"He said that his employer gave him the name, and he demonstrated the main melody of the piece to me. It sounded very familiar and was an adaptation of a folk song from the New Kingdom."
"ballad?"
"That folk song is something like: Who Killed the Mockingbird?" Yvette said. "But that's not important. I reckon what we're looking for is this guy wearing the 'Mockingbird' mask!"
The half-elf had a smug expression on his face, as if he had solved a mystery. He raised his head, waiting for the halfling's praise. But after waiting for a long time, Geb didn't say a word.
Looking down, I saw that Gebu was already deep in thought.
Who kissed the robin, and who killed the robin? A subtle difference, yet worlds apart.
"Is there an introduction before each piece is played?" Geb asked.
"Yes, the usual practice is that the conductor calls out the name of the piece to the guests and then starts counting down, entering in time with the beat," Yvette replied.
"Then, the guests will know that this piece is called 'Who Kissed the Robin'."
Ivite nodded. Geb continued, "Since it's based on a folk song, why change the name?"
"This—" The half-elf shrugged, indicating that he had no answer.
Geb bowed his head in silence for a moment, then clapped his hands, raised his head, and said to the two of them, word by word, "I think the answer to this riddle—who kissed the robin—is Princess Shiren's disguised identity. Therefore, it's definitely not as simple as just 'the robin.'"
"Do you two know how this folk song goes?" Gebu asked. He certainly had never heard of a human folk song.
The swordswoman shrugged, admitting she knew nothing. Yvette thought for a moment and said, "Uh—I studied mainland folk songs at the Anecdotes Academy," vaguely remembering some, which were rather dark.
It seems to be sung like this:
Who killed the robin?
The sparrow said, "It was I who killed the robin with my bow and arrow."
Who saw him die?
"It was me," said the fly, "with my little eyes, I saw him die." Yvette sang a cappella, her voice light and melodious, like a veil falling. It was clear she wasn't entirely sure of the lyrics, so she vaguely glossed over some parts with onomatopoeia. The woman stopped halfway through her song. Geb and the knife-wielding woman were stunned, only reacting after a moment.
"You sing quite well—no wonder you're an academic poet, why did you stop?" Gebu asked.
"—I forgot my lines." Yvette scratched her head somewhat embarrassedly.
"It's okay, give me two minutes—"
Gebu ran to a corner, took out his precious treasure, the Book of Sand, from his dimensional bag, and searched for the folk song "Who Killed the Mockingbird?" in the large book bag.
Seeing the halfling lurking in the corner, muttering something under his breath, Yvette gave the swordswoman a curious look.
"What's Gebu doing? Why so secretive?"
"That's just how he is, you'll get used to it." The woman with the sword had an expression of being used to it and too lazy to explain.
Two minutes later, Geb, with a wise expression that said he had finished, rejoined the two women and recited the entire text of "Who Killed the Mockingbird?".
This folk song is indeed somewhat cultish; the whole thing is about a bunch of small animals assigning tasks after a robin dies: you carry the coffin, I'll sew the shroud, you sing hymns—
Who is the murderer?
"The sparrow said, 'It was I who killed the robin with my bow and arrow.'"
However, the riddle is not about who killed the robin, but about who kissed the robin.
If we look at it according to the description in the folk song:
Who should be the chief priest?
The dove said, "It is I. I will mourn my love and I will be the priest."
"The dead robin's lover is a dove. Therefore, the animal that kisses the robin is a dove."
"Gebu said with certainty."
After a moment's thought, Yvette and the swordswoman nodded in agreement.
"Then, let's split up and look for the person wearing the 'pigeon' mask. Where is he?"
Before Gebu could finish speaking, several footsteps suddenly sounded outside the Hall of Glory.
The three immediately became alert, and several crow's beak shapes flashed by at the entrance of the corridor!
Yvette immediately picked up the silver tray from the side and whispered to the swordswoman and Geb, "You two hurry up and go, I'll hold them off for you!"
Then, the half-elf woman carried the tray of champagne towards the door. Without a word, Geb and the swordswoman quickly headed towards the other exit!
As soon as Gebu and the Swordswoman slipped out of the Glory Corridor, they heard a loud crash from inside the corridor. Glass shattered and liquid splattered everywhere.
"Obak! Excuse me, esteemed guest!" the half-elf woman exclaimed, feigning surprise.
Hearing the sound, Geb knew that Yvette had staged a champagne plate accident—her actions bought the two of them some time. They quickly moved along the corridor, their figures silhouetted against the moonlight streaming through the narrow windows. The two of them then slipped into the next exhibition hall on the second floor.
The Hall of Devotion.
In the center of the room is a huge Oebak emblem, backed by a church-style stained-glass window. Scattered moonlight falls on the emblem, leaving mottled, colorful patterns.
Beneath the holy emblem, a masked man and woman were kneeling in prayer when Gebu and the knife-wielding woman barged in, disturbing the peace of the people in the room. They looked up and stared at the two with slight displeasure.
"Oh, sorry," Geb said loudly.
"Tsk—Shh—" the man frowned at Gebu. At that moment, Gebu noticed something amiss with the couple's clothing. The man bent down in prayer, revealing his shoes—he was wearing women's high heels. The woman, on the other hand, was wearing men's boots.
"Hey, you two, what filthy things have you been doing in front of the gods?!" Gebu thought to himself.
However, Peacock's men did not give Gebu time to expose the adulterous couple—Gebu heard hurried footsteps behind him, indicating that Yvette's methods had not stopped these ravenous men for long.
"Obak bless, excuse me—"
Gebu, pulling the woman with the knife, pushed his way through the adulterous couple. The man stood up to protest, but his high heels gave way, and he slipped and fell to the ground with a thud, colliding with the woman. Just then, the crows rushed into the house, saw the adulterous couple writhing on the ground, paused for a moment, then looked up and saw Gebu and the woman's clothes disappear through the other side of the door. They quickly gave chase.
The crow-beaked men were hot on their heels. Before Gebu and the swordswoman could even reach the next exhibition hall, new pursuers appeared ahead: four crow-beaked men emerged from the Rose Salon, and with three more chasing closely behind, the two had nowhere to go but to run towards the spiral staircase leading to the first floor.
Gebu considered whether to confront these people head-on, but that would cause quite a stir, and the guards of the Silver Moon Corridor would definitely be drawn in. At that point, whether he could escape or not, he would have no chance of luring the peacock out.
The woman with the sword seemed to realize this as well. She turned her head, raised an eyebrow, and said to Gebu, "Hey, Gebu, all the Crowbeaks are here—I'll hold them off, you hurry and go find the pigeons!"
"Are you sure?!" Gebu asked hesitantly. "There are seven people on the other side!"
"At worst, I'll make a scene, and we'll all get kicked out of the ball!" The woman with the sword shoved Gebu towards the stairs. "Go!"
Hearing the swordswoman's words, Gebu didn't hesitate any longer. He took a bottle of minor healing potion from his bag and tossed it to her: "Be careful! See you later!"
"Stop talking nonsense and get going!"
As Gebu tumbled down the stairs, the swordswoman turned around, and the group of uninvited guests arrived just in time, forming a fan shape around her.
The woman with the sword looked at the railing behind her; there was a six-meter drop below, and she had nowhere to retreat.
"Fuck you, Buck—come on, I've had enough of this party, I need to get some fresh air!"
The woman lifted the hem of her long skirt with one hand and neatly tore it off an inch below her thigh, tossing it aside, turning the long skirt into a short skirt.
"Come on!!!"