Savai Village Sports Festival (3)
While I was stressing over the championship prize, the Skolo Race ended with the pink team in first place, the green team in second, the blue team in third, and the orange team in fourth.
Next was the bean toss.
Red bean bags and black bean bags were prepared.
The bags seemed to be stuffed tightly with cotton.
So even if one fell from the basket and hit someone, it probably wouldn’t hurt much.
Because the matchups were different from the first round of the tug of war, the pairs were: blue team vs. pink team, and orange team vs. green team.
Two knights held the baskets from below.
To keep things fair, they evened out the number of participating boys and girls by allowing temporary participants from other teams so everyone could join.
The bean toss would be scored by how many bags were thrown into the basket within three minutes.
The basket height was four meters.
There were plenty of adults over two meters tall, after all.
I felt a bit bad for the children, but throwing was fun, so hopefully they’d forgive us.
First was the blue team versus the pink team.
“Ready.”
“Beep!” When the whistle blew, everyone began snatching up bean bags and throwing them toward the basket.
Even if you threw the opposing team’s bean bags into your basket, they wouldn’t be counted.
Three minutes passed, and the ending whistle sounded.
Everyone counted aloud.
The knights holding the baskets tossed the bean bags upward.
“One,” I called, and everyone repeated, “One.”
The knight tossed a bag upward with a light motion.
… “Forty-five,” “Forty-five,” “Forty-six.” The blue team’s basket seemed to have been emptied.
The knight tipped the basket upside down to show nothing remained inside.
The pink team still had more, so counting continued. “Forty-seven,” “Forty-seven,” “Forty-eight.”
… At “Forty-eight,” the knight hurled the last one as high as he could into the air.
In the rehearsal, we appointed only knights who could throw high to be basket holders.
When the final bean bag soared high into the sky, the villagers cheered, “Wow!” “So high!” and the pink team shouted in delight.
Next was the orange team versus the green team.
Three minutes passed, and they counted… “Forty-two,” “Forty-two,” “Forty-three.”
It looked like the orange team’s basket had been emptied.
The final match of the bean toss was pink team versus green team, and the pink team claimed victory.
The last event was the all-participant quiz.
Everyone gathered in the center of the square for a series of three-choice questions. Anyone who got a question wrong would be eliminated.
Numbers 1, 2, and 3 were written on paper and attached to thin wooden boards, made into placards. The knights held them and stood far apart from each other.
Participants moved to the number they believed was correct.
The survey questions came from the bakery in Zwei Town—the place where I once bought all their petit barley bread at once. The bakery had asked its customers to fill out surveys and drop them into a locked box.
We’d asked them ahead of time to collect this information under the guise of “using it to improve future sales.”
Of course, I planned to give them the compiled results later to help their business.
“This quiz is based on the responses of 347 customers who bought bread at the Erik Bread Workshop in Zwei Town. The people from Erik Bread Workshop participating today don’t know the answers either, so they’re the same as the rest of you.”
“Now, first question: ‘Which bread is most often purchased from the Erik Bread Workshop?’”
“1. Walnut Bread 2. Milk Bread 3. Soft Bread Move to the number you believe is correct.”
After fifteen seconds, Damian blew the whistle.
The knights used ropes to mark off the areas so participants couldn’t change positions anymore.
“The correct answer is…”
Everyone stared at me intently.
“Number 3, Soft Bread.”
Cheers rose from those who had moved to number 3.
“Those who chose 1 or 2, please exit,” Rosa called through a megaphone.
The knights holding the ropes guided participants toward the exit area as well.
“Second question: ‘Among the many petit barley bread workshops, why do customers choose Erik Bread Workshop?’”
“1. They like the taste. 2. The price is reasonable. 3. There’s a wide variety. Move to the number you believe is correct.”
“The correct answer is… number 1, because they prefer the taste.”
Question three, then question four—the quiz continued, and participants dropped out quickly.
Now there were about thirty people left.
What do you think about this chapter?
