People bring their own maids to the training camp

Also advancing to the finals was Sakayanagi Arisu from Class 1-A. The girl was still wearing her beret and cane, sitting on the stool with a smile.

Since the other contestant had not yet arrived, Chihaya sat down next to Sakayanagi.

"You've advanced too, haven't you?" After Chihaya sat down, Sakayanagi smiled slightly and took the initiative to start a conversation.

"Does Sakayanagi-san have a lot of confidence in me?" Chihaya asked. "I don't think I have a face that guarantees I'll pass the preliminary round, do I?"

"No, I'm just making some small deductions. Would you like to hear them?"

"I'd like to hear the details." Chihaya nodded.

“Your surname must be ‘Hi-kyu’, right?” Sakayanagi said. “I know a little bit about your family.”

"It could also just be a coincidence?" Chihaya replied calmly.

"Your demeanor and bearing are not something that can be cultivated in an ordinary family, especially considering that you attended St. John's Middle School, right?"

"That's true, but you can go to Sheng Ying as long as you have money, right? The admission requirements aren't as strict as they used to be."

Chihaya's words could be considered sophistry, but the effect was very obvious—the other party was unable to continue proving their point, thus bringing the conversation to a standstill.

Although the Hime family is very influential in high society, no high school student would actually go out of their way to find out about all the family members. Chihaya took advantage of this loophole.

"Oh? But I heard that there's an old lady in the Himegami family who has Nordic blood, and her beautiful silver hair is quite similar to Himegami's." Sakayanagi said, looking at Chihaya with a half-smile.

"I didn't expect Sakayanagi-san to know so much." Chihaya chuckled. "That's right, I'm the Himemiya family you mentioned."

“Hime-kun’s silver hair is very beautiful, it’s hard to mistake her for someone else,” Sakayanagi replied. “Then let me formally introduce myself, I am Sakayanagi Arisu from Class 1-A.”

"Kiyoshi Sakayanagi-san, Class 1-B, Himegami Chihaya."

The two exchanged a smile, and then Sakayanagi suggested exchanging contact information, which Chihaya readily agreed to.

"I heard Class B elected a class monitor?" Sakayanagi asked casually.

“Yes, the class representative is Ichinose,” Chihaya replied. “Didn’t they choose one for Class A?”

"Since the homeroom teacher didn't mention it, we didn't choose anyone," Sakayanagi smiled. "It didn't really have any impact. Hasn't Princess-san ever thought about being class representative?"

"No, after all, I'm involved in two clubs, and my energy is limited."

"I understand. I saw a standee of Fei Gong during the club recruitment a while ago, didn't I?"

"The minister said this would increase the number of members, so I agreed," Chihaya said. "Does Sakayanagi-san participate in any clubs?"

"No~ As you can see, I'm not really suited to joining clubs. I occasionally go to the library to kill some time."

"Then it's only natural that Sakayanagi-san was able to advance."

"You flatter me. I just prefer the quiet atmosphere of the library. Sometimes I play chess by myself for a while. By the way, does Princess Fei Gong know how to play chess?"

"I understand the rules, but my skill level is just average."

"So, if there's a chance, would you like to play another round?" Sakayanagi extended an invitation.

“Of course,” Chihaya readily agreed, “as long as Sakayanagi-san doesn’t mind my lackluster Go skills.”

"How could that be? I'm more than happy that my classmate is willing to play chess with me."

After the two made a promise to play chess together again, the third person to advance finally appeared—it was Hiyori Shiina from Class C, the one who went to pick up the book during the preliminary round.

Horikita Manabu and Tachibana Akane also appeared at the same time as her.

"Now that all the participants are here, we can begin." Horikita Manabu didn't waste any time and went straight to the point. "The rules are very simple. You will ask each other questions. You will get one point for a correct answer and lose one point for a wrong answer. The questions can be true or false or multiple choice, and they must be objective questions. The questions will be reviewed by me and Secretary Tachibana."

"The questions will be presented in a clockwise direction and then a counter-clockwise direction. If the scores are tied, the contest continues, and the contestant with the lowest score is eliminated."

The rules are very simple: go clockwise once and counterclockwise once, meaning each person will ask their neighbor a question once.

"Each question has 5 minutes to be written down along with the answer on a piece of paper, and the answer time is one minute."

After Horikita finished speaking, Tachibana Akane handed out two sheets of paper and a pen to the three of them, and arranged for them to turn their backs to each other to ensure that they would not see each other's questions.

"Five-minute countdown begins," Horikita Manabu's indifferent voice rang out.

The order for the first round is Sakayanagi → Chihaya → Shiina.

Five minutes passed in the blink of an eye. After the two student council members reviewed the question, Tachibana Akane was responsible for reading it aloud.

"The question that Sakayanagi-san gave to Himegami-san is: Which country does Pacamara coffee bean originate from? A. Panama B. El Salvador C. Indonesia D. Brazil."

Although it was Chihaya's question, Shiina glanced at the questioner, Sakayanagi, with a surprised expression.

The girl in the beret smiled, revealing a rather adorable grin, as if to say to Chihaya, "You won't be mad at me for giving such an obscure question, will you?"

"I choose B, El Salvador."

"Correct answer. Shiina, please listen to the question."

Chihaya's question to Shiina was: Which of the following people does the King of Hearts represent in a deck of cards?

King David

Alexander the Great

Julius Caesar

Charlemagne

"D. Charlemagne".

"Correct. Sakayanagi-san, please listen to the question."

Question: Which of the following works was NOT written by Raymond Chandler?

A. Goodbye, My Love

B. The Long Confession

C. *The Maltese Black Hawk*

D. High Window

After reading Akane's question, Sakayanagi did not answer immediately, so the secretary started counting down in her mind, reading it out aloud every tenth.

50

40

......

"I choose D." Sakayanagi answered just before the time was about to expire.

"Correct answer. Now the order will change. The five-minute countdown for the questions will begin."

The two opponents' approaches to setting questions seemed to stem from their own hobbies; Sakayanagi probably really enjoys drinking coffee, while Shiina probably really admires the author Raymond Chandler.

So, could we use this approach to mislead them about their own strengths and interests when creating our own questions?

Chihaya pondered for a moment, and then completed the second question.

22. Final (Part 2)

The question order, counter-clockwise, is Shiina → Chihaya → Sakayanagi.

The topic Shiina gave to Chihaya was: "Harmony, Respect, Purity, and Tranquility," which are known as the "Four Rules of Japanese Tea Ceremony." Who among the following proposed this idea?

A Rongxi

B Nanpu Zhaoming

C. Sen no Rikyu

Whether it was due to insufficient time or some other reason, Shiina did not write down all four options. Although there was no rule that all four options had to be written down, in the first round, everyone tacitly wrote down four options.

The answer is C.

Chihaya answered very easily.

"correct answer."

Sakayanagi glanced at Shiina, wondering why she would give Chihaya such an easy question—as an outstanding young lady, Chihaya couldn't possibly have been unfamiliar with the art of tea ceremony.

Could it be that Shiina from Class C doesn't know Himegami-kun at all? Sakayanagi looked at Shiina and couldn't help but wonder, so she decided to test Shiina in the next round.

Next, Chihaya gave Sakayanagi a question: Which of the following Dior lipsticks is a true red?

A888

B720

C999

D100

After Akane Tachibana finished reading the question, Shiina, who was standing next to her, couldn't help but burst out laughing. She immediately made an apologetic gesture to the judge, Horikita, seemingly surprised that such a question could pass the review.

Sakayanagi fell silent after hearing the question. Unlike the previous round where Shiina seemed to deliberately delay answering until the last minute, this time she genuinely seemed to have no idea what the answer was.

Soon, Akane Tachibana began the countdown.

Sakayanagi smiled helplessly: "Let's choose B."

Since I don't know the answer anyway, I might as well just pick one randomly.

"If the answer is wrong, then if Shiina answers correctly, Sakayanagi will be eliminated. If Shiina answers incorrectly, then Himiya will win, and Sakayanagi and Shiina will have a tiebreaker match."

Sakayanagi posed a question to Shiina about German slang, which Shiina answered incorrectly.

Chihaya thus became the winner, while Shiina and Sakayanagi needed to compete in a tiebreaker.

"Is this number one?" Chihaya blinked. She still had many questions she hadn't had a chance to use, such as "Which of the following islands has penguins?" and "What is the current world ranking of the Japanese men's national football team?"—unfortunately, she didn't get a chance to use them.

"Congratulations, Chihaya Himegami. You will be informed of the champion's reward after the runner-up and third-place winners are decided." Horikita Manabu nodded to Chihaya.

"Ah, okay."

Having already won, Chihaya was able to leave the examination area, leaving Sakayanagi and Shiina to compete in the final solo match.

First, Shiina asked Sakayanagi a question, a geography question about the United States, which Sakayanagi answered easily.

What Sakayanagi asked Shiina next was quite surprising.

"Um, who came in third in the 'Girl I most want to date' poll on the first-year forum?"

A. Ichinose Honami