Answer: Secret Code #111

The secret message says:

ORANGE

The shift was 4.

The secret note decoded: ORANGE
The note, decoded.

Letter by letter

Secret letterEIKRSV
Real letterAEGNOR

Decode it with Python

This program does the decoding for you. Change the secret and the shift to crack other messages!

secret = "SVERKI"
shift = 4
message = ""

for letter in secret:
    if letter.isalpha():
        number = (ord(letter) - ord("A") - shift) % 26
        message = message + chr(number + ord("A"))
    else:
        message = message + letter

print(message)

When you run it, it prints:

ORANGE

Did you know? Shift codes are very old. A Roman writer called Suetonius said that Julius Caesar wrote secret letters by shifting the alphabet by three. That’s why it’s often called the Caesar cipher.