Vol 3 Chapter 22 (1/2)
2-2 Quiz Trial
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The Quiz Trial held by the Kaest quiz tournament in Kamiyama City!
This is because I've yet to hear of any other quiz tourna held elsewhere in this city
To ht for Day 1 There's nothing bigger than this, no one else's database is more real than mine!
But I'm still surprised by this, as I never expected this many people to turn up; there's like 200 people here While I could see quite a few outsiders ah students So that's nearly 20 of the student body! Man, I'm envious, if only the Handicraft Club and Classics Club could each suy in no time
In one corner of the school ground before the podius
”If it's over how about we go see the Brass Band?”
”What about the Movie Study Club? You don't need to be a movie buff in order to watch their show, but”
”Really? Hahaha, now that's kind of mean”
”But don't you think it sounds kind of ridiculous?”
To begin with, while I had already i, not even I, who had been looking forward to this since last night, could envision 200 people con
It was just past 12:30 when the school PA broadcast went on air It was the Broadcasting Club's pseudo radio broadcast With relaxing pop round, the broadcast was used to relay the latest hot topics during the Kah School Cultural Festival to the listeners About 15 minutes had passed when the broadcast went to interview the president of the Quiz Club, which went as follows:
”This year will be our 7th tourna prizes, but this tiood at quiz shows could answer Naturally speaking, , so we believe this is a golden opportunity for these people So elco a true and false questions preli between circles with each answer on the school grounds It'll be soreat exercise after lunch, no?”
He sure kno to stir up the event By advertising via a radio broadcast, I thought they could achieve athe audience, there were already 200 participants (This was just a guesstimate amount of course, as I have no idea exactly how many there were Still, it was definitely more than a hundred people)
And I otten the the Cultural Festival, the Wall Newspaper Club publishes a Special Edition every two hours And within the Day 1 12pm edition it wasBy pasting these Special Edition copies around the school's notice board, even a fool would be aware of their activity
It seems the Classics Club would need the assistance of both the Broadcasting Club and Wall Newspaper Club if it is to achieve its objective I must inform Chitanda-san of this later
Anyway, that's for me to worry about after the Trial For now, I et as high a ranking as possible, since I' in my favourite event in a personal capacity, but on behalf of the Classics Club No offense to the others, but the only one in the club capable of winning this would be me So this would not be an easy task
The Quiz Club president walked up to the podiuh School student that I knew, then he or she would have to be someone really special or eccentric In his hand he carried a mic A short static noise ensued as he tapped the mic and proceeded to speak
”Welcome to the Quiz Trial To be honest, we're surprised by the number of participants we have today This year will be our 7th Quiz Trial, and it is the largest ever held so far” Blah, blah, blah, followed by, ”Now let the tournain First ill have the true and false questions preliminaries On your left is the true box with a circle, while on your right is the false box with a cross One of our meure out whether it is true or false, and only those who answer correctly will advance The preliminaries will continue until only five contestants remain You have 15 seconds for each question Now then, in!”
As he finished, one of the female Quiz Club members stepped up onto the podium and received the mic from the president who stepped down I was a bit relieved, as this president's words were rather unintelligible to the ears
The girl took the mic and looked at the cue card in one of her hands and said clearly, ”Question 1! If 'diaouseki' (diayoku' (green pillar jade) True or false?”
Hmm, no should I answer this?
Of course it's true (Since unlike beryl, the chemical composition of emerald does not contain aquareen pillar stone) instead!)
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Now that I think about it, this place is quite deserted
The reason I felt that as because I knehat a real doujinshi+ festival was like This was not a doujinshi+ festival, but a school cultural festival We're not going to get people interested inhere last year before with fuku-chan back ere in junior high and I certainly don't recall thatthen either When I discovered that treasure, I hardly noticed any people around me
But it's true that there were many club members here with too much time to spare So free they were that the atmosphere felt a bit strained As a result, I have yet to request theies
As the current batch of customers left, the roo out loud from afar As this room is situated in the General Block while the central courtyard was adjacent to the Special Block, it was hard to hear as going on over there
”Mayaka, what's up?” the girl sitting next to me asked
”Nothing, just wondering what's going on in the courtyard”
”Oh, that's probably the Quiz Club”
It was then that I re about it A quiz tournament, huh? If that's the case, then fuku-chan would definitely join in Listening intently, I couldasked via the speakers
”Next question! The japanese word ”darui” is derived frolish word ”dull” True or false?”
Eh?
I didn't even have ti such silly questions! But if it's true or false questions, then it's probably used to filter out a large number of contestants So while I was a bit depressed that I didn't know the answer to that question, I guess I was also relieved at not having to answer
The girl next to me also listened in
She smiled and asked me, ”So, what do you think?”
”Hmm,”
I know ”saboru” cae,” so ”darui” is probably the sae to me
So I said softly, ”True, I guess?”
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As the 15 second ti the contestants choosing the ”True” and ”False” circles Looking around me, five had chosen ”True” while four chose ”False” As a preliminary, this would probably be the final round
”The answer is”
The announcer held back her voice in order to raise the suspense
””
You're overdoing this already
”FALSE! This ends the preliminaries!”
YES! (Actually, I did not really knohat the etyy of the word ”darui” was, but I do know that if it can be written in kanji 怠い then it's n loan-word) The announcer, who upped her tempo of suspense for every question answered, noaved her ar and pointed towards us
”Congratulations to the four who have chosen 'False' for passing the preliminaries! Please proceed toward the podium for the finals”
Aha, here comes my chance to appeal to the crowd That's what I'm here for As I walked toward the podium, someone tapped me on the shoulder from behind
”Yo, fukube, so you're through as well, huh?
The person who said that was
Just hang on a uy, honest For the
”Of course”
”You don't remember who I am, do you?”
”Haha, guess I was too focused on the quizzes”
Who was he? I know he's a classh
He wasn't from the General Committee nor the Handicraft Club, so he could only be from my class The only person I could think of who could stand out from my class was Juumonji-san
No, wait, I remember I'm sure of it I've not completely forsaken my ability to remember names
”So, how's the Go Club, Tani-kun?”
Tani Koreyuki, besides being aa hard to spell name We would occasionally have sh I wasn't particularly that close to him, so he could be counted as one of ain, he had quite a firm jaw and a rather round nose But as he didn't leave much of an impression onout of the ordinary
I have more interest in people who surprise me Chitanda-san interestsh As for people who aren't surprising, unless they have interesting features of club activities, I would barely struggle to remember their names
Yet here was Tani-kun passing the Quiz Trial preliminaries And those weren't easy questions either I see now, Tani-kun, my impression of you as a nor either a great ae or luck
Tani-kun showed no attempt to hide his elation
”The Go Club? I do have so to tell you, wanna hear?”
So that's changed my impression of Tani-kun, it would be that he's never toldbefore, as it did not appeal to me
”Please step forward to the podium!”
The announcer repeated Oh yes,an appeal I waved the palesture to Tani-kun to move to the podium
On the podiulance at them; besides Tani-kun, I didn't know any of them Had they been the ”Empress” Irisu Fuyumi-sempai, President Tanabe Jirou-sempai of the General Committee, or the ”New Master of the Library” Juunation While I'ood as theirs, I just can't feel like beating them That said, I don't think my database would accept such a fact
The announcer had interviewed and asked the na Tani-kun And noas my turn The announcer held up her mic and smiled
”Okay, our fourth finalist! May we have your class and name please?”
I cleared my throat in order to address the 200 participants as well as the hundredsvia the speakers,
”I'm fukube Satoshi+ of the Classics Club”
”Huh?”
”The Classics Club, as in classical literature”
The announcer looked confused for a moment She didn't look the type to kno to deal with unexpected events
She soon nodded deeply and said, ”I see! I never knee had such a club Guess we have all sorts of strange clubs, right?”
So far so good I paid attention not to rush myself and allowed the words to coenerally good at saying what I wanted to say
”Though we call ourselves the Classics Club, we don't exactly cover classic literature like 'Tsurezuregusa[1]' To be honest, not even I knehat it is that we do exactly, so it's kind of strange After all, this was a club that came back from the jaws of abolition as it didn't have anyYou could say we're a club that publishes anthologies So we've published one, you see And it's an ay, since we put a lot of effort into it”
016 - ♠05
”we put a lot of effort into it”
Yeah, sure we have
In terms of quantity
[185 COPIES REMAINING]
017 - ♣06
”At any rate, we'vethe Kanya Festival”
”Oh, really? And that is?”
Her interest didn't seem to be faked This was to be expected, as it would be easy to hook thee not even the Quiz Club is aware of” (No, I wasn't intending to make fun of the Quiz Club here Since I myself am a natural candidate as a Quiz Clubthe confident, I raised my voice
”And it's none other than the origin of the name of the Kanya Festival I'll say it here, it is NOT an abbreviation of the 'Kah School Cultural Festival' The Classics Club have discovered the real answer to that”
”Really? And that is?”
”Well”
I teased a bit
”Obviously, that's a secret However, we'll be in trouble if no one buys our anthology So for only 200 yen, which is a great bargain, you can discover the 33-year-old secret of the Kah School Cultural Festival! It's all recorded in our essay anthology 'Hyouka'! Now on sale at the Geology Room on the fourth floor of the Special Block with rave reviews!”
I glared at the crohile puht fist in the air
I wonder if I overdid this? For a h me
A roar of applause thundered across the court Just like how I felt in the Opening Ceremony, everyone was particularly receptive to the festive atamble had worked, the appeal was a success!
Re
It no longer mattered whether I won this quiz tournament anymore
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”Now on sale at the Geology Room on the fourth floor of the Special Block with rave reviews!”
Ehh? We're getting rave reviews already?
I-I didn't even know
This is fantastic I have hope for the future
A roar of excitement could be heard from the direction of the courtyard Thanks to fukube-san's s, the crowd seeh it sounded like he could have gone on further, before long, the quiz tourna its commencement I pray for your success, fukube-san
I must do my best as well
Come to think of it, it does seeies on our behalf However, just placing copies of ”Hyouka” at other people's stalls alone will not increase its appeal So while it's iy, isn't it also important to raise the appeal of ”Hyouka” as well?
I went through this thoroughly as I had my lunch Take my family business for example, ould norh ould like to expand our market, if our quality is below the standards required by the govern to buy our rice
This is because rice isn't a really sensational product, ht nohich wasn't exactly a necessary co is quite similar to this
In order for rice to be sold in large quantities, it has to be of ”very good quality” This ”quality” may be based on its ”tastiness,” its ”safety,” or its ”affordability”
However, ”Hyouka” was already a finished product Though ere extre its quality, there was no e could further enhance it anymore than it is The only variable left that we could manipulate would be its ”affordability,” but ould prefer not to adjust the price so much that it falls below our break-even point
In order to improve the quality of ”Hyouka,” I decided to consider it from the standpoint of the public's awareness of it
And so, my eyes fell on the Special Edition of the wall newspaper, the Ka some of its details, it seeets a mention on here, then everyone would become aware of it Fortunately, I am acquainted with the president of the Wall Newspaper Club Even I at least know that having connections can take you a long way
Anyway, as lunch ti for the Wall Newspaper Club president
”Hey, Chitanda-san, wanna go see that?”
”Ehh? I'm sorry, but I'm in a hurry”
”All right ladies and gentlein in five minutes!”
Oh, yes, I was heading to the Wall Newspaper Club I heard so behind me
”Have you seen the movie made by Class 2-F yet?”
”Yeah, I have Pretty interesting, wasn't it?”
Ugh
All these decorations and all this liveliness is just too captivating It was at this et excited by anything
Before long, I'd coy Room on the third floor of the Special Block, where the Wall Newspaper Club rooht now, their members were in the adjacent Preparation Room instead of the Lecture Roolues and instant ca a table normally used for school experiments were four members, who didn't seeaito Masashi+-san, hom I was acquainted, noticed my presence and stood up
Though I' at Toogaito-san His father ell-acquainted with h it wasn't until this July that we spoke for the first time
With a sreeted me
”hello there,”
I bowed my head Careful not to make the same mistake I made with Tanabe-san, I chose my words carefully
”Good afternoon, Toogaito-san Can the Wall Newspaper Club please write a story about the Classics Club?”
However, even Toogaito-san's eyes ide after what I said I wonder what it was that I said wrong? Frantically recalling what I had just said, I couldn't find anything disrespectful about it
Oh no I just realized, did I forget to explain ain?
Toogaito-san turned to glance at the other clubback to me and said in a lowered voice, ”What's with this all of a sudden? It's not really possible”
”Oh, I'm sorry Would it have been better if I had made an appointment first?”
”No, that's not what I meant,”
Toogaito-san rubbed his forehead and said, ”I'er with the Wall Newspaper Club”
”Eh?”
”I'm a third year, so I'm retired already”
Oh
H-how did I not notice that before? This would of course be natural It's completely obvious
”I-I'm sorry”
”No, you don't really have to apologize”
For aa bit depressed But soon a fine idea caaito-san had retired, then this could work
”Then, could you introduce me to one of your juniors so that I may make my request to him instead?”
However, Toogaito-san looked even more troubled than before
”Well, I can introduce you, but I don't think it'll make much of a difference”
”Not much of a difference?”
”Our Special Edition goes up every two hours, so we have to get everything prepared before then So to ask us to write so about the Classics Club noould be a bit too much, you see”
I see Indeed, while I thought of the possibility of getting mentioned in a Special Edition every two hours, I totally did not consider the fact that they would need to prepare a draft edition beforehand