It was an incredibly tough question for only the second round, but I suddenly recalled a detail from my date with Shiro-san and the opening ceremony of the Six Kings Festival.
Back during my first date with Shiro-san, I’d assumed the group gathered in front of Lilia-san’s mansion represented the entirety of the Gods. However, the crowd I saw at the Six Kings Festival had been far larger. Shiro-san had brought the entire God race as her companions for that event, which meant that number was likely the total population.
If the gathering in Lilia-san’s garden—which Chronoa-san had borrowed—had been a smaller group curated as a courtesy, where would she have drawn the line? If they’d been separated by rank, then those 200 or so individuals must have been the High-ranking Gods.
It was nothing more than a guess, but without any other leads, I decided to go with option 2.
"The correct answer is... 2! The God race consists of 800 Low-ranking Gods, 200 High-ranking Gods, and 3 Supreme Gods."
Nice! I was right. Having that bit of context gave me an advantage over everyone else. Actually, considering how little information about the God Realm was made public, I might be in a surprisingly strong position here. After all, I had plenty of opportunities to learn these things through my conversations with Shiro-san and Fate-san.
"Now for the third question... When the Supreme Gods were created by Shallow Vernal-sama, they were bestowed with one more gift in addition to their Authority and their names. What was it? 1. A Temple, 2. Scripture, 3. Divine Raiment, 4. Nothing at all... The time limit is two minutes."
Wait, I knew this one too. I remembered Fate-san mentioning it during one of our dates. The answer was option 3, the Divine Raiment. As I moved toward the third area, I noticed that most of the crowd seemed to be gravitating toward option 1. Since the Supreme Gods’ temples were located in the Upper Level, I suppose it was a natural assumption to make.
This was going to thin the numbers out considerably.
"Time's up! The correct answer is... 3, the Divine Raiment! At the time of their creation, the Supreme Gods were specially gifted Divine Raiment modeled after Shallow Vernal-sama’s own clothing. Oh my, our numbers have certainly dwindled this time."
As she spoke, the God Moderator reached into a box beside her. I hadn't noticed it before, but it looked like she was drawing the quiz questions from slips of paper inside.
The quiz continued. By the time the ninth question ended, only about twenty people remained. Lilia-san and the others had unfortunately been eliminated along the way, leaving me as the sole survivor from our group. Among the remaining participants, about half looked like high-level priests or high-ranking demons. I felt a bit out of place standing among them.
"It looks like we're nearing the end. Now then, for the tenth question... Oho, this one is an ultra-hard challenge. I wonder if even the Supreme Gods themselves know the correct answer..."
This was a fearsome question to face just as the match was about to be decided. I’d made it this far, so I really wanted to stick it out to the end, but if it was truly as difficult as she claimed, I might be in trouble.
"Now, for the tenth question! How many varieties of flowers are currently blooming in the Sanctuary? 1. 18 varieties, 2. 32 varieties, 3. 61 varieties, 4. 86 varieties... The time limit is two minutes. This is such a difficult question that even a God would have to guess blindly, so there is no shame in getting it wrong."
...The answer was 4. I had literally just heard it from Shiro-san herself a short while ago.
For all the enthusiasm I'd felt when I heard it was a high-difficulty question, I felt... well, a bit strange. But it made sense. The Sanctuary was a place that even the Supreme Gods couldn't enter without permission. A question about its flora was undoubtedly an ultra-high-difficulty problem that most Gods would never know the answer to.
Feeling a bit conflicted, I watched the others begin to scatter before moving to area 4.
"Time's up! The crowd is split. Looking at the numbers, this should be the deciding factor. Now, the correct answer is... 4! Eighty-six varieties!! We have... six winners! Congratulations!"
The people standing in area 4 with me let out a burst of joy. With this, I was guaranteed a prize; all that was left was the lottery to decide the order of selection.
Once I’d received my prize, I returned to the others.
"Welcome back, Kaito-san. That was quite impressive."
"Thanks. I just happened to know a lot of the topics by chance."
I exchanged a few words with Lilia-san, who greeted me with a warm smile.
"Well, once Miyama-sama was the only one left, it was a foregone conclusion that you’d draw the number one slot in the lottery. So, what prize did you end up choosing?"
"The Eternal Flower Sky-san mentioned. I think I’ll put it in a pot and keep it in my room."
That’s right—luck had been on my side during the drawing, so I got to pick my prize first. I’d settled on the Eternal Flower. I already had the bottle of Glorious Tea from Shiro-san that refilled itself, and she had already given me a massive supply of Shallo Grande after I’d mentioned how much I liked it.
Since none of the other prizes really caught my eye, the flower seemed like the best choice. I tucked it away in my Magic Box for the time being; I could figure out where to display it later.
Serious-senpai: "Come to think of it, this was inevitable, wasn't it?"
???: "Well, when your lovers are the Supreme Gods and the Creator God, and you visit the God Realm as often as Kaito-san does, there aren't many people more knowledgeable about the place than him. Especially since most of today's questions were things the general public wouldn't know, he had a massive advantage."