The Ranch

Treasure Trial (4)

It takes Phillip no more than half an hour to order some men to bring a motorboat to Tih's location. Basile finishes the bag of chips he got from who knows where and wipes his hand on a napkin. The team push it into the water while Pierre tips the men. They leave with a small smile, never thinking they would gain a little extra kquil when the staff was pulling sticks, with them pulling the shortest ones.

Victor pushes and holds a button with the words "start" below. The eco-friendly engine rumbles as the boat starts to glide across the water.

Everyone was already on except for Pierre, whose fat giggles when he jumps on deck.

They cruise to the center of the lake within a short period. There, they see a metal pedestal with a slit, of similar size to the ID, on top

Victor maneuvers the boat to a standstill, almost nicking the podium. Theodore, the largest, takes the job of inserting his ID.

The pedestal opens up from within, showing the brilliant blue of a holograph. Random shapes the size of a palm are mushed together in a 3-D area bordered of by blue lines.

"Is it like one of those things you see in art galleries? When you look at it from a certain direction, you can see someone's face?" Theodore questions.

"A holographic, 3-d puzzle, is it?" Victor concludes.

"Time-consuming." Lucien spits out.

Sherlock speaks sarcastically," I think most jigsaw puzzles are. Not everything can be solved with code."

Looking as if he gained a spark of inspiration, he ignores Sherlock and starts entering numbers on the laptop he always carries on him, becoming consumed with his numbers.

"Is he actually?" Theodore wonders curiously.

"No, we can't hack headquarters for the time being, so I don't see how he's going to solve it." Sherlock shrugs before focusing on the puzzle.

"...for the time being." Basile mumbles under his breath, quiet enough so that only the person next to him can hear.

Victor glances at his friend, also aware of the connotations those words hold, but decides to put those thoughts away for now. They only have a few hours left and they don't know how many clues there are left to solve.

They only manage to sort of the pieces and fit a few in place before Lucien shoves them to the side. Holding his laptop in front of him, he points to one of their placed pieces," That's wrong, it should go like this."

He quickly uses his finger to move the pieces around. It's like he looks for a specific piece before knowing exactly where to put it and that's because he does.

Kai asks while he works," How did you..."

"I created a computer code to solve the puzzle."

"But that's-" Basile is shushed by Lucien's next words.

"As long as you're good enough, a code can do anything you want it to." Although his words sound extremely arrogant, inside his head, Lucien is reprimanding himself for taking too long to finish it, not to mention the fact that he got the idea from someone else.

He monologues his process and goes over how he could have improved his code and shortened his time.

He finishes the puzzle while mumbling to himself, stepping to the back of the group so he can continue examining his mistakes without being bothered.

Those at the wrong angle only see a mess, but Sherlock and Victor, who were in front, saw the whole process and its completion. The fragments spell out [9LP82].

With the code from the last clue keyed in, the pedestal returns back to its original state and a holographic message along with a robotic voice announces, "Congratulations on completing the trial within the time limit."

It's over. They drive off the lake, return the boat, and go home. After a couple days to think over it, the two groups decide to merge together. To quickly get to know each other better, they plan a sleepover using Alphonse Wilmhelmer's ID, as it has more room since the bathroom's been taken down and it uses both floors. They plan to host it a couple days from now.

In the meantime, Tih has to pay up his end of the bargain. He meets Phillip at a cafe in the marketplace.

"Tih, over here." He ushers the boy over. "I've already ordered for us. I don't believe you would have tried it before, so it should be a fun experience for you."

Soon enough, a giant bowl of takoyaki is placed in the center of the table. The octopus balls have been drizzled with a soy sauce mixture and sprinkled with chives. Two toothpicks poke into two respective balls.

Tih follows Phillip's movement and picks up the toothpick with the takoyaki. It enters his mouth and he savors the new flavors and textures of the food.

Phillip takes joy in watching Tih hurriedly consume the takoyaki, betraying his expressionless face to show that he likes the food.

He starts conversing one-sidedly while Tih listens attentively. He mentions his trial and what he had to do, soon moving on to a topic that puts a frown on his face.

"While I was busy with my trial, Casanova took the opportunity to enact his new promotional material. It's already very popular, it'll probably start a new trend among the shops selling similar products." His frown deepens the more he thinks about it," He's probably already gotten praised by master, right?"

Tih can feel his downcast mood and pats his hand.

Phillip looks at the small hand that makes him feel comforted. A small smile blooms on his already handsome face.

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That's right! Why should I be upset over something so insignificant.

I just have to create promotional material twice as popular as his. Then wouldn't I be beating him at his own game?

But how am I...oh. Ooooooh.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Phillip, determined to beat his self-proclaimed rival, looks at Tih with glittering eyes. He flips over the hand that was being pat and puts his other one on top, grasping the small hand enthusiastically," Tih, would you like to be a poster boy for our next product?"

He can picture it now, the newbie that beat the other talents during the newcomer's tournament, someone that everyone is watching right now. It'll definite grab attention, not to mention Tih's looks aren't half-bad.

Tih doesn't completely understand the question.

Phillip nods in understanding and explains in detail, including the advantages to working with such a huge corporation.

"Although you weren't originally well-liked among your generation due to their favoritism towards the five aces, it's gotten better since you've been seen walking around with them recently. Your accumulated stunts have garnered you quite the reputation." A smirk grows on Phillips face when he recalls this fact.

Thinking that expressionless face feels cheeky, he pinches the child's cheek," So what do you say? It pays well and I'll also give you a yearly discount for any of our stores?" How about this, I'll give you some time to think about it, okay?"

He doesn't bring up the job for the rest of their time together. The two finish off the entire bowl and Phillip takes Tih shopping to walk off the calories. They enter multiple clothes shops and Tih becomes a dress-up doll for Phillip for the next couple hours.

Phillip ends up carrying multiple bags full of children's clothes. As a final  destination, they eat frozen yogurt.