Oritis in the world of Detective Conan

Chapter 131 Azoth's Theorem Proof (Part 9)

Conan carefully reviewed the timeline of the Azoth Library: approximately two years ago, Director Mercury arrived with Miss Arya, then resigned. Directors Mars and Philemon, after taking over, faked their deaths under the guise of the Oritis Organization. Director Cangyue was murdered by Helios shortly after taking over, and Director Arya, after discovering part of the library's true story, disappeared.

Then and now, the director of the Azoth Library is Miss Helena Adams, a descendant of the Four Knights family.

Amuro Toru was thinking: "So, Director Mercury is Miss Helena's grandfather, and Director Arya is Miss Helena's mother. Now three generations of the family are directors."

The old guard wasn't surprised by this revelation. "When I saw the current Curator's appearance, I knew she must be related to Curator Arya. And Curator Arya didn't designate a successor before she disappeared, so the Cult will likely follow tradition and choose a suitable candidate directly from the Four Horsemen."

The blind girl was a little frustrated. "But I've never been exposed to alchemy. I've only ever studied poetry and prose."

Conan comforted the blind girl: "Don't be sad, Sister Helena. The key was left to you by Director Arya. Maybe there are some clues left on the mechanism of the planetarium."

Xiaolan also encouraged: "Yes, maybe Director Arya left you some message."

The blind girl nodded, and everyone returned to the planetarium in the hall.

The old guard brought a ladder, and after climbing up the ladder, Toru Amuro drew all the symbols on the inner circle of the planetarium.

Maori Kogoro took a look and complained, "There are twelve symbols in total, but although four of them have astronomical meanings, they are not common in alchemy."

The old guard nodded. "Indeed, in alchemy, the sun represents gold, the moon represents silver, and Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Mercury represent copper, iron, tin, lead, and mercury, respectively."

Amuro Toru pointed at the four symbols and said, "So these four symbols should represent Uranus, Neptune, a comet, and the Earth."

Conan keenly noticed that the position of these four symbols was somewhat similar to the distribution of petals on the rose at the bottom of the key.

Thinking of this, Conan found another piece of paper and drew the four patterns and the rose pattern on it: "That rose has a total of eight petals. If these four symbols can correspond to the inner petals, then the outer petals may correspond to the elemental symbols on the outer circle of the planetarium."

Conan connected the patterns and symbols as he spoke: "These eight symbols correspond exactly to the eight petals of a rose, so we can interpret their meaning!"

Conan exited his reasoning state and when he looked up, he found that everyone was looking at him. He laughed awkwardly: "Haha, I'm just learning how Uncle Kogoro usually makes inferences."

Maori Kogoro took the paper with the pattern drawn on it from Conan's hand in a bad mood and said, "Really, you little brat, you always do unnecessary things."

Xiaolan asked curiously, "What other meanings could these symbols have? The outermost ones are water, fire, earth, and air. We've seen these in other directors' offices. Do we have to find something with these elements in the library?"

Maori Kogoro also scratched his head: "There is not much water in the library, but there is a large lake outside. Could it be that the thing is under the water?"

The old guard retorted, "Impossible. With such a large lake, if the object the curator wanted to protect was an alchemical product, even if it was kept in a sealed container, accidents could easily occur."

Amuro Toru agreed with this statement: "In that case, such a thing is likely to be stored in a place with a stable environment. I guess it should still be in this library. And something that can be hidden in a library is most likely a book."

Maori Kogoro's eyes widened at this, and he pointed to the sea of ​​books in the hall. "You mean to find a specific book among these thousands of books? I don't think we can finish checking them in a week."

Conan suddenly thought of something and asked the old guard, "Grandpa Guard, do the books in the library have serial numbers or something like that?"

"Of course, the first four letters of the Azoth Library's serial number represent the initials of the four necessary stages in refining the Philosopher's Stone. In actual use, these four letters will be shuffled to distinguish between regions."

"I remember Curator Mercury telling me that the four stages of refining the Philosopher's Stone—blackening, whitening, yellowing, and redening—coincidentally require the purest four elements to complete each."

"From the burning of fire, the four black elements are smelted; from the purification of water, impurities are removed, resulting in pure primordial matter; next comes the purest air, which will guide the spirit and dye it noble yellow; and finally, the earth of creation will give birth to red seeds."

Amuro Toru pondered the meaning of this statement and felt he was close to the truth: Helios had attempted to forge the Philosopher's Stone at the expense of four Directors, representing the four elements, but Director Arya's escape had thwarted his plan. Now, Helios might be hoping to have Miss Helena replace Director Arya and complete the final refining...

Maori Kogoro nodded. "The sentence on the wall before, 'One becomes two, two becomes three, and from the third, the first becomes four', seems to describe this process."

"So according to the formula, 'NACR', is this the area code in the library now?"

The old guard nodded. "Yes, I remember that Director Arya sorted out the books in this area shortly before she disappeared. However, the collection in this area is quite large."

"Now we're back to square one. I still have to look up the book." Kogoro Mouri had a headache.

Conan then took the initiative to ask: "So what is the specific numbering system of the library? I think the remaining four astronomical symbols must contain clues about the numbering."

"Each book number will consist of four letters representing the main region and eleven numbers. The first digit determines the local division within the region where the book is located and will only be a number between one and five. The last digit corresponds to the position of the book on the bookshelf and will also not exceed five."

Amuro Toru pulled out a book from the bookshelf next to him. The number on it was "ANRC/1-328/·3"

Based on this number, Amuro Toru began his reasoning: "What kind of number can a celestial body represent? The length of eleven means that the numbers corresponding to these four symbols are not the same length."

"First, according to the formula and the actual order of arrangement, all the symbols on the rose's outer four petals are arranged counterclockwise. If we continue to interpret it using the same logic, then the four symbols corresponding to the inner petals should be Uranus, Neptune, Comet, and Earth."

"Could these four celestial bodies be the time they were discovered? If we use the numbers for years and times, then there must be something that needs to be omitted. Could it be the overlapping 'ones'?"