The twenty-third question of the quiz tournament had concluded, leaving only two remaining. Aside from the high-difficulty rounds, the questions hadn't been impossibly hard; somehow, I had managed to scrape by with correct answers using the random facts I'd picked up from others and my own experiences since arriving in this world.
The four-choice format definitely worked in my favor. Even if I didn't remember a formal name exactly, I could usually narrow it down if it sounded familiar or make an educated guess. I’d certainly been saved by the way the questions were framed.
"Well now, there are only two questions left," Alice announced. "Time for a status update: as of right now, there are exactly two participants with perfect scores."
"Oh, a perfect score is impressive," Fate added. "This requires quite a lot of broad knowledge. Many of the questions about the Otherworld were things even I was hearing for the first time, and those high-difficulty ones were absolutely brutal."
"Exactly," Alice continued. "And there’s a reason I’m bringing this up now. The runners-up currently have twenty correct answers... which means the battle for the top spot has narrowed down to a one-on-one showdown. We won’t reveal who the leaders are until the very end, but since the perfect scorers surely know who they are, please give it your all for these final two questions!"
To think the competition for the top spot had become a head-to-head duel... Whoever that other person was, they were incredible. The high-difficulty questions were obviously monstrous, but for the people of Trinia, the questions about the Otherworld should have been just as challenging.
Of course, it was possible that one of my fellow otherworlders held the perfect score. But if that were the case, they would have had to accurately distinguish Shiro-san’s expressions and correctly answer questions about the Cruel race’s naming conventions and the Nagelist rankings. No matter how I looked at it, it was an impressive feat.
"Next up is... ooh, High Difficulty Four," Fate said. "The final high-difficulty question."
"That means the very last question will automatically be Otherworld One," Alice noted. "Now then, will one of our perfect scorers stumble here? Here is High Difficulty Four: In the Otherworld, there is a type of pottery called Tenmoku tea bowls, said to have originated from tea utensils used at Zen temples on Mount Tenmoku in a country called China. Among these, what is the name for the highest grade of Tenmoku bowl, all existing examples of which are currently designated as National Treasures? One: Yohen Tenmoku tea bowl. Two: Yuteki Tenmoku tea bowl. Three: Konoha Tenmoku tea bowl. Four: Haikatsugi Tenmoku tea bowl. As usual, you have three minutes."
"Wait, isn't that way too hard!?" Fate cried out. "Is this common knowledge for you otherworlder kids?"
"If you happen to have a hobby in ceramics, it wouldn't be strange to know it," Alice replied.
Oho, a question that was significantly in my favor. I remembered this specifically because the topic had come up when I brought some of Nebula’s pottery to Shigenobu-san’s house; Aoi had explained the details to me then.
The correct answer was one, the Yohen Tenmoku tea bowl. However, this had to be nearly impossible for anyone from Trinia to know. I wouldn't have known it myself if Aoi hadn't told me. Then again, looking back at the distribution... the Cruel race question represented the Human Realm, Shiro-san’s expression represented the God Realm, Magnawell-san’s weight represented the Demon Realm, and this one was for the Otherworld. Setting aside the WANAGE question as a special category, the high-difficulty rounds might have been specifically balanced across the different realms.
"And... time’s up," Alice said. "The results are in, and both of our perfect scorers gave the correct answer without a moment's hesitation. It looks like we really might see a double perfect finish."
"Eh? That's amazing..." Fate said, sounding genuinely surprised.
That other perfect scorer really was something else. Could it be Aoi or Shigenobu-san? If it were one of them, it wouldn't be surprising that they answered that last one so quickly.
"Now then, for the final question: Otherworld One," Alice said, her voice trailing off. "Ah... of all the things to be left over, it had to be this one..."
"Is it that hard?" Fate asked.
"It's not so much 'hard' as it is... well, let's just get on with it. Here is the final question: In the home countries of the otherworlders invited as Hero-roles in the past, including Kaito-san, what is considered the primary staple food? One: Bread. Two: Rice. Three: Noodles. Four: Baby Castella. You have three minutes."
"...Wait, isn't that way too easy?" Fate asked. "Even I know that one."
It was indeed an incredibly simple question; the answer was two. Since it specified our home countries, there was no mistaking it was rice.
It was a well-known fact that those in the Hero-role favored rice, and because of that, rice was even being cultivated in small quantities in various countries. It wouldn't be strange if everyone got this one right.
"And that’s the end of the answering period," Alice announced. "And... just as I thought. Why on earth did you answer faster than anyone else only to get it so spectacularly wrong? Kuro-san, our perfect scorer until two seconds ago!"
"Well, I mean... look, it might not be true right now, but it might become the staple food in the future!" Kuro-san protested. "And besides, Baby Castella has infinite possibilities!"
"I'm not talking about hypothetical possibilities here!"
The other perfect scorer had been Kuro-san!? From Alice’s exasperated tone, I could tell exactly which option she had chosen.
Even though she knew it was wrong, the fact that she had chosen Baby Castella faster than anyone else made her truly the Demon of Baby Castella. I couldn't help but feel she looked satisfied—almost as if getting it wrong for the sake of her obsession was exactly what she wanted.
The Mystery Entity observed: "Yes, as many of you suspected, the other perfect scorer was Kuro-san. As the Honorary Chairman of the world's greatest magic tool trading company, she is naturally an expert on magic crystals and the Cruel race. She also checks the Nagelist rankings twice a year because she's ranked in them herself. While not quite on Kaito-san’s level, she has long been able to distinguish Shallow Vernal-sama's expressions to some degree—though mostly to complain that her smugness is irritating—and she also knows the approximate weight of her family member, Magnawell-san."