Since I had a perfect score and Kuro had only missed one, I already knew the top two spots by the time the final question was over. My interest now lay in the rankings that followed.
"Now, since having everyone from third place on give a speech would take too long, I'll be announcing them myself with a bit of light commentary. Starting with third place... It's a tie, so I'll announce them together. With twenty-two correct answers out of twenty-five: Tre-san and Elis-san!"
"Ooh, twenty-two right? That's actually pretty impressive," Fate-san chimed in.
"It is. Elis-san made use of her extensive knowledge to provide very consistent answers for both the otherworld and high-difficulty questions. As expected, reading Shallow Vernal-sama's expressions proved difficult for her, but she seemed to have every question right that fell within the realm of what a Marquis's daughter could research and learn."
I could understand Elis-san getting twenty-two right. While this quiz required a broad range of knowledge, it didn't necessarily demand extreme specialization. It felt like the questions favored those with a wide horizontal spread across various genres rather than those who had simply lived for a long time. Elis-san seemed quite strong in that department.
If anything, Tre-san's placement was the real surprise. It was true that she was sharp, and she had mentioned getting interested in all sorts of things before quickly getting bored, so perhaps she truly did have a wide range of knowledge.
Still, she always gave off such a clumsy—or should I say, hopeless—impression that it felt quite unexpected.
"As for Tre-san, her win was pure luck," Alice continued. "Well, she actually knew the answers for about half of them, but the other ten or so were cases where she just hit a button at random and happened to be right. She even lucked out on reading Shallow Vernal-sama's expression."
"Well, luck is a part of skill, too," Fate-san said.
Apparently, Tre-san had reached third place through a streak of inspired guesswork. It did feel like she'd be strong in a battle of instincts... She certainly had an aura of good fortune about her.
Still, as Fate-san said, luck counts for something, and since she did get half of them right on her own merit, it was still a feat.
"Moving on, fourth place is a three-way tie. With twenty-one correct answers: Isis-san, Magnawell-san, and Zwei-san!"
"That's a pretty convincing group," Fate-san noted. "They all look like they'd be well-versed in various fields."
The fourth-place group was indeed composed of people who seemed intellectual and likely to possess a broad base of knowledge, just as Fate-san observed.
Isis-san was an avid reader with knowledge across countless fields, Magnawell-san was a font of wisdom, and Zwei-san always projected an intellectual image. They were a lineup I could easily accept.
"First, Isis-san has a vast library of knowledge thanks to her reading hobby, but due to her own circumstances, she hasn't had many chances to talk with otherworlders, so she dropped a few points on the otherworld questions. Magnawell-san's breadth of knowledge is exactly what you'd expect, but because he couldn't travel much until he gained his split bodies, he missed questions related to the geography of the Human and God Realms. Zwei-san was consistent across the board, but she seemed a bit weak on the God Realm stuff. Well, even so, they all got twenty-one right, so these are minor details at best."
It made sense. Unlike Kuro, Isis-san had probably never spoken with otherworlders before me, so she would have had to rely on hearsay for those questions.
The explanation for Magnawell-san was also logical. Given his original size, there were limits to where he could go. He had mentioned himself that obtaining a human-sized split body changed how the world looked entirely. Since he was usually so massive, his perspective was always a top-down view from the sky; it was no wonder he might struggle with choosing the correct landmark symbols for human tourist spots.
As for Zwei-san, perhaps she simply hadn't visited the God Realm much. She stayed busy managing her territory and didn't seem to have any close divine acquaintances, so that was likely unavoidable.
Looking at the results, the high scorers were mostly the people I would have guessed. A few people hadn't participated—like Ein-san, who surely would have ranked near the top if she had.
"The final announcement will be for fifth place. We'll have to stop there, as the ties become so numerous after this that we'd never finish. So, in fifth place with twenty correct answers out of twenty-five: Megiddo-san, Lilliwood-san, Lilia-san, Blossom-san, Fafnir-san, Chronoa-san, Life-san, Gaia-san, Akane-san, Aoi-san, Falce-san, and Chris-san!"
"That's quite the crowd..."
"Well, the average score was around fifteen to eighteen, so the fifth-place finishers still had a very strong showing. We have trophies for the first through fifth ranks—made of platinum, gold, silver, bronze, and iron, in that order. They're themed after the world's currency. With that, the quiz tournament is officially over! Thank you all for joining in!"
And so, the lively quiz tournament came to a close. My massive birthday celebration was finally nearing its end.
???: "I'll adjust things here, wrap it up in the next part, and then deliver one last blow to the Stomach Pain Warriors... sounds like a plan."
Serious-senpai: "Would you please stop punching their stomachs as an afterthought?"