Intelligence, Strength, and Luck (1)
“Hardt, what do you think? Are we doing it at our place?”
“I don’t think it’s possible. We can’t give all the employees a day off, and it’d be bad if an emergency happened that day.”
“Then do you have another idea?”
“I was thinking we could do it in Shinana Village and Helios Village.”
“You want to do it in two villages?”
“If possible, I’d like to hold it jointly.”
A joint event would be difficult, but to deepen their interactions, half of the villagers would move from Shinana Village to Helios Village, and likewise, half of Helios Village’s people would move to Shinana Village, and we’d hold them on the same day.
“If you do what you did in Savai Village, won’t the beastkin have an advantage since they’re physically stronger?”
“You’re doing the same thing as Savai Village?” Brother Chris and Floria asked.
“I plan to make some parts different.”
Today is the joint festival for Shinana Village and Helios Village.
I am at Shinana Village, while Brother Chris and Floria went to Helios Village.
Yesterday afternoon, sixteen beastkin from Helios Village arrived in Shinana Village.
About seventy people from Shinana Village also headed to Helios Village.
Since we had a social gathering last night, each team seems to be getting along well.
Because the beastkin had interacted with Shinana villagers when they came earlier under Natt’s escort, the villagers weren’t tense or wary this time.
I want the beastkin to slowly increase their interactions with humans from here on.
First, we went to the church, and everyone offered greetings and gifts to the gods before heading to the square.
After the tug-of-war and ball toss events ended, we had everyone form groups of five or six.
“From here on, it’s intelligence, strength, and luck. We’ll be playing a sugoroku game.”
Rosa explained.
First, at the starting point, each team’s representative rolls a die marked with 1, 2, and 3 (anyone on the team can roll).
They proceed to the numbered flag where a knight or one of our employees (those who won the right to help) is stationed throughout the village. If they clear the challenge there, they can roll again.
To prevent cheating, the representative wears a sheet showing the game board around their neck, and after rolling the die, the person giving the challenge marks the number of the next destination.
However, if they land on a “move backward” space or fail a challenge, they must go back. If they return to a space they’ve already been to, the staff writes “Space # — 2nd time — ○ or ×” in the margin.
Once they reach the goal, they receive dorayaki filled with red bean or white bean paste, and that’s the end.
Since this wasn’t meant to be a serious competition but more about exchange and bonding, the purpose of today was for everyone to work together and enjoy the event.
We had Group One, chosen by lottery, roll the first die.
Since it was their first time, they seemed nervous.
They rolled a “2”.
“Please head to Flag Number Two and try the challenge,” I said, sending them off.
We repeated this until everyone was underway.
“Finally, it’s our turn. Took long enough.”
“It can’t be helped. We joined at the last minute.”
Maria and Nanally were here, for some reason.
Maria’s reasoning: if I don’t participate, then Raul and Natalia can’t participate.
Nanally’s reasoning: she wants to continue making dorayaki and equipment for the ice cream workshop comfortably.
I gave up and allowed both of them—as well as Raul and Natalia, who serve as Maria’s escorts—to join. For some reason, Rosa and I ended up going along with them.
Nanally put all her focus into rolling the die, muttering “Come on, 3,” but the die landed on “1”.
Trying not to laugh, I watched her receive the sheet with the mark for Space One, and we moved to the Flag Number One spot.
“This is a luck test. Two of you will roll a die at the same time, and if you get the same number, you clear it.”
Maria and Nanally rolled first.
Their dice showed “2” and “3”.
Next were Rosa and Natalia.
Their dice showed “3” and “1”.
Even though it’s a special six-sided die with two each of 1, 2, and 3, matching numbers are surprisingly hard to get.
Then Raul and I rolled—“2” and “2”.
“Oh!” “Finally!”
“This time, the matched number is the number of spaces you advance. Please proceed to Flag Number Three.”
Nanally got another circle marked on Space Three of the sheet hanging from her neck.
“This is the intelligence challenge. Math problems. You must answer five out of six correctly to clear it.”
Each of us was shown a paper with math problems and answered mentally.
The problems mixed two types of operations—addition, subtraction, multiplication, division—so they shouldn’t have been too difficult.
Everyone passed.
Rosa rolled the die next and got a “3”.
Next, we moved to Flag Number Six.
“This is the strength challenge. Men must do at least fifty push-ups each, for a total of 120 between two people. Women must jump rope—one hundred total between four people.”
“““Jump rope!!”””
Jump rope doesn’t exist in this world.
A knight demonstrated.
“This will be easy,” Nanally said.
Unless you figure out the rhythm, continuous jumping is hard, you know.
Raul and I matched the knight’s count and cleared it by doing sixty push-ups each.
The women jumped rope two at a time.
If the rope caught on their feet, they switched.
Maria and Nanally tripped once or twice and couldn’t jump well, so Rosa and Natalia ended up doing almost all one hundred jumps.
What do you think about this chapter?
