The Princess and the Polyops; Mr. Warm's Hand in Jonquil Magic Ball and Anagram Password

Why is there someone else all of a sudden? As far as I can remember, Mr. Warm's instructions didn't indicate that anyone else would come to this place besides me... That's when I remembered I had thought about my password. Watchmen, not watchman. Maybe the password indicated that there was someone else that Mr. Warm "summoned" to be a watchman—someone who would uncover the veil of Mr. Warm's death and unlock the key to conquering the Quietus Cloud.

Seeing the possibility that the person who came was on my side, I spoke up, "Who are you?!" The person didn't leave his footing. I spoke again, "Who are you? Are you here because of Mr. Warm?"

The person finally answered, "Haaa? Could it be that you're here because of Mr. Warm, too?"

With the black force shield, the two of us looked like two monoliths talking to each other.

"Yes, I'm here to fulfill Mr. Warm's instructions! What are you—" I didn't finish my sentence. I chose to express an idea that suddenly came to my mind. “You have a password, right?”

“What?” the person asked.

I explained my idea, “Password. You must have a password from Mr. Warm, and after that, you are asked to touch the ball with your fingerprint. I have done both of those things, but it didn’t work.”

The person asked, “So you think the Ball is asking us to say our passwords together?”

“Yes, that’s it,” I said as I stepped towards Jonquil Magic Ball.

The person left the ground and walked towards Jonquil’s Magic Ball. When the ground had risen back up, I said, “I will say my password. Watchmen!”

The person did his job, “My password is Ideogram!”

Only about a second later, Jonquil Magic Ball immediately reacted. The round thing made a sound that was typical of electronic artificial intelligence. “Voices detected. IDEOGRAM WATCHMEN. Password correct. Welcome, Aria Sunna Hitzevogel and Essa Eruhi Schonewolken.”

I was surprised to hear the first name that Jonquil Magic Ball mentioned. As fast as lightning, I deactivated the black sheath of my AZ gun’s reflective film glass mode, leaving only its force shield mode. Along with that movement, I spontaneously shouted, “Princess!”

When I revealed my face, that person also immediately deactivated his AZ gun’s reflective film glass mode. A woman appeared who also shouted like me, “You, Polyops!”

(***)

Princess is what I call the woman who is currently in front of me. We have known each other for a long time. We first met when we attended the same high school. In the next level of education, we studied at the same university and also at different universities.

That woman has a background that could make her accepted as a member of the Five. That woman has three postgraduate degrees, namely business management, atmospheric science, and botany. I met that woman at the same university when I took my aerospace engineering degree.

Speaking of titles, I am not the only one who gave the woman the “title” or title of Princess. When I was in high school, my friends told me that the woman’s friends had called her Princess since she was little. Hearing that, I followed suit by calling her Princess.

Why did she get the nickname Princess since she was little? Of course not, because she was a member of the royal family—the remnants of the royal system in Deutschtonia were limited only to titles and a little land and property ownership owned by only a few people. The reason behind the title of Princess was that she was the person who would later become one of the two heirs to the Heissvogel family fortune.

The Heissvogel family could be said to be the largest individual taxpayers in our country. They are the “Big Five of the Five” in the economy of the Federal Republic of Deutschtonia. As a few examples, their wealth is still much greater when compared to the combined wealth of the Herzwarm and Ragunanzu families.

Because of this wealth, it is not surprising that the woman could own an AZ gun. The government would approve if a woman with her profile owned a firearm for self-protection. In addition, the government will receive additional high taxes from people who own such firearms, unlike the members of the Five, who are exempt from paying high taxes for owning AZ guns.

If there is misuse of AZ guns and other firearms by super-rich people like her, the woman will still be dragged before the law. Everyone is treated equally before the law—or at least in practice is not treated that much differently, as one of my friends who graduated from law said. The law shows the same face to everyone.

Speaking of faces, the nickname “Polyops” that the princess gave me means “man with many faces.” The nickname comes from two Greek words, namely ‘poly’ and ‘ops.’ Poly means 'many', and ops means 'face' or 'eyes'.

The princess nicknamed me with that word because she considered me (1) a person who has many interests in various fields, (2) a person whose mood can sometimes change at any moment, and (3) a person who often has desires that suddenly appear. Since I had already called her by a nickname first, I didn’t mind the princess having a nickname for me.

“So this is another one of your faces?” the woman asked. That time I could see that she was wearing a backpack strap over his shoulder.

“Please say so, Princess Aria Sunna Heissvogel,” I answered by saying her full name. While answering the question, I deactivated part of the force shield. I expressed my opinion, “Look, it seems like it would be better if we finish this task quickly. If you want to talk, let’s talk later, okay?”

“Agreed, Polyops,” replied the princess, who had also deactivated the force shield in front of her. At that time, without any conversation, it seemed that our thoughts were already in line, that we would not deactivate our force shields completely. Who knows what might appear to the side or behind us?

At the same time, the princess and I placed both of our palms on the Jonquil Magic Ball. The round thing immediately responded; it showed a bright light, and then the image of two palms appeared inside its round body.

“Mr. Warm’s hands,” I said.

At the same time, the princess also stated the same thing: “Mr. Warm greets us?”

When the princess’s sentence had not finished, the Jonquil Magic Ball made its voice heard again. “Nice to meet you, Vogel and Wolke.” After that greeting, the image of Mr. Warm’s hands inside the ball disappeared.

Then Jonquil Magic Ball gave instructions: "Next, take me out of this cellar. When you arrive in Deutschtonia, I will give you instructions again."

After that sentence, Jonquil Magic Ball emitted a holographic light while giving instructions: "To get out of this cellar, solve this riddle. Four words, one of which I have already filled in, are something that can describe your current condition. These four are the anagrams of your two password words".

In the hologram that Jonquil Magic Ball displayed, several letters and empty curly brackets were visible. A {}O{}{}{}{}{}, NE{} {}{}{}{}{}{}.

(***)

As I expected, it was the princess who guessed the anagram correctly and faster than I. I knew since high school that she was very good at making anagrams, playing Scrabble, and other word games.

The anagram of "IDEOGRAM WATCHMEN" is "A COMRADE, NEW MIGHT".

“Good job,” I complimented the princess.

“This is a walk in the park for me,” the princess said. She then said, “You’ve got your folding bike on your back. Let me carry this ball in my bag, okay?”

The princess carefully took the ball from a hexagon-shaped prism stand and put it in her bag. Then we walked toward the stepping ground that had come down to meet us.