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Chapter 129 Part 1

Quiz Championship (2) ~Kind Feelings~

『Well then, to start with, let’s have a few words from Kodama Ayako-shi, the board chairman of the Ayakuni Group.』

『Good morning, everyone.』

「「「「「Good morning.」」」」」

『Yes. It is nice to see you all so lively. Well, today, as if to celebrate the opening of the first Ayakuni Cup High School Quiz Championship, the sky is clear and blue. I am very pleased that we are able to get to this opening stage without any problems, thanks to the concerted efforts of the student councils and executive committee members of both schools, who have worked hard together to prepare for the event even though they were busy with many other things since the beginning of July. Looking back, I found it very regrettable that when Sairyou Academy became a coeducational school, their connection with Sairei Academy, with which they had been holding social events as neighboring sister schools, ended up getting cut off. So it is a welcome development that after 15 years, the interaction between the two schools has been revived in the form of a quiz championship…』

『The Ayakuni Group, where I serve as board chairman, wishes to use this opportunity to deepen the interactions between all sister schools. Of course, this does not only refer to interactions between Sairyou Academy, a coeducational school with the motto of educating the students to become fine gentlemen and ladies, and other schools. Saihou Academy, which boasts a long history and excellent results in helping the students advance to higher education, Saiai Academy, which aims to cultivate human resources indispensable to society in fields such as commerce, industry, agriculture, medical welfare, and childcare, and Sairei Academy, which mainly aims to cultivate human resources excellent in the arts and performing arts. Utilizing the characteristics of each school, it will give nice stimulations to the students of each school, and help them grow into fine adults who can contribute to society…』

◇ ◇ ◇

「It, it’s long.」

「Yeah, it sure is.」

Perhaps she was used to giving speeches, as one would expect, the board chairman spoke like flowing water, but the topics continued to jump from one topic to another without stopping.

As expected, no matter the place, it seemed that important people spoke for a long time.

Her smooth manner of speech made them feel like they were listening to easy listening music, and they were beginning to get sleepy.

『… As such, I wish the participants from both schools the best of luck in today’s Ayakuni Cup Quiz Championship. With that, I will wrap up my speech short.』

Looks like it’s finally over. It wasn’t short at all, duh!

That was probably the common sentiment of all the students listening.

At any rate, as the board chairman bowed at the morning assembly stage, they gave her a round of applause.

Then the executive committee members moved on to explain the tournament.

In the first round, four questions would be asked in a true or false quiz format, and the group that got the answer wrong had to leave the stage each time.

In the second round, the remaining contestants would be split into groups and compete in a buzz to answer quiz format, with up to 50 groups advancing to the next round.

If they won the quizzes elaborately arranged in the third and fourth rounds, they would advance to the finals.

In the finals, the contestants were narrowed down to six groups.

Also, even if they won the round, the fourth round was as far as the faculty staff teams could go, and in the finals, students would compete against each other and be ranked.

Up to the second round, 1 point was awarded for each correct answer. From the third round to the final, it was 2 points, which were then accumulated by schools, and the winner would be decided by the total points of each school.

The schedule was for the first round to start at 9.00 am, with a lunch break at 12.00 pm and the afternoon session starting at 12.45 pm. The tournament was scheduled to end at 3.00 pm, with the results announced at the closing ceremony at 3:30. Then, it was time to disperse.

As a note, if they committed a foul play in any way, such as getting the answer from the cheering section, shouting more than necessary, or using force to interfere with other people’s answers, points would be deducted from the school in question. If a contestant was found to have committed a violation, he or she might even be disqualified.

It was announced that students from Saihou Academy and Saiai Academy, who were invited as third parties, would act as referees.

『Well then, it’s now 9 o’clock, so we will start the first round as it is. Currently, there are sheets with O mark on the Sairei side and X mark on the Sairyou side of the track. If you think the sentence I’m about to read is correct, please move to O. If you think it’s incorrect, please move to X. A rope with a line drawn on it has been placed in the space between the two sides, and the rope will be stretched after 20 seconds. After the correct answer is announced, the contestants who get the wrong answer should leave the track immediately. Still, the four questions in the first round are all about the Ayakuni Group and the board chairman, so if you have properly read the school guide distributed to you before enrolment or listened to the board chairman’s speech, you should be fine.』

「Not good. I’m not so confident about it…」

Yuu muttered with a stunned expression.

Feeling relieved that it was a co-ed school and not an boys’ school, he didn’t read the school guide properly, and earlier, the board chairman’s speech was so long, so he let it go in one ear and out the other midway through it.

He had thought that since he was an adult on the inside, he would have an advantage in terms of knowledge, but suddenly, he found himself in a pinch from the very beginning.

「Before taking the entrance exam, I was at a loss between this school and another coeducational school, so I did a fair bit of research, and I remember pretty much all the contents of the school guide. As long as it’s not a nit-picking question, I think it should be fine.」

Masaya, who adjusted the position of his glasses out of habit, looked so reliable in Yuu’s eyes.

「P, please! You’re the only one I can rely on, Masaya!」

「Geez.」

Masaya was by no means very sociable normally, but he was a good guy who not only would accept a request if asked, even if he grumbled about it all the while, when Yuu and Rei had trouble fitting in with the class when they first enrolled to the school, he took the initiative to talk to them and acted as a bridge between them and other classmates.

At first, Yuu thought he was cold towards girls because he only looked after people of the same sex, but from the fact that he was doing surprisingly well in the brass band club, which was overwhelmingly made up of girls, he started to think he might be what people called a normie.

He had heard that boys in this world tended to have difficult personalities, such as being more afraid of women than necessary, or being willful or apathetic, but at least at Sairyou, that wasn’t the case.

As they got used to school through boys-girls’ social events, they began to show the lively qualities of the high school boys that Yuu knew.

He began to think that if, in addition to himself, the number of boys who wanted to get along with women increased, the world would probably turn into a better place.

Yuu was lost in such thoughts for a moment, but soon the announcement of the start of the first round was made.

『Now then, the first question! Including middle schools, high schools, and junior colleges, the Ayakuni Group manages six schools in Saitama Prefecture. True or False?』

In an instant, the contestants in the track started to get abuzz.

That said, the first question was actually a freebie, and most of them knew the answer.

In other words, the Sairyou students rushed towards the side where the Sairei students were, the blue tarp on the opposite side where a large circle was painted all over it.

「Given that you head towards the circle without any hesitation, does that mean you know about it, Yuu?」

「D, don’t make fun of me. I knew that much, duh!」

Due to the way he acted earlier, he ended up getting teased by Masaya, but as expected, even Yuu had learned about it from Riko through the student council activities.

As the Sairei contestants moved back to make some space, the Sairyou contestants moved into that space one after another.

Even though there was a 20-second time limit, they didn’t need to hesitate, so they were moving slowly.

However, as twice as many people were fitted into the half side of the track where 150 groups of 300 students had been standing up until now, the population density increased, so…

「Move to the that side more!」

「Eh~, it’s already packed with people!」

『10 seconds left.』

「We don’t have time. Hurry up!」

「Whoa!」

「Kyaa!」

As they tried to get into the circle before the time was up, they ended up pushing against each other.

In the midst of it, the girls from Sairyou naturally surrounded the boys to protect them.

Among the first-year boys, Yuu and the others were on the edge, so they were pushed from behind and bumped into the girls in front of them, and ended up hugging their backs.