Chapter 634: 96. Quiz Game_3
Chapter 634: 96. Quiz Game_3
“Finally, boss, this is for you.”
Philis took out a small silver pendant from the big bag in the end, engraved with a lifelike kitten. Valentina’s cheeks flushed a moment when she saw the kitten, and a second later, she cleared her throat lightly and reached out to Philis, smiling,
“Thank you.”
Philis swished her tail, satisfied, and carried the remaining big bag of items toward the outside of the room,
“Then I’m off, I need to tidy up… oh no, did Heidlin forget to bring down the stuff I left on the boat? That’s trouble…”
As the door closed, the room became quiet again. The three recipients of the gifts each had a different expression, except Valentina, who carefully examined the small kitten statue in her hands and then lovingly placed it in her palm.
Fisher and Balzac exchanged glances, then Balzac sighed and said,
“I give up.”
“… Thanks for letting me win.”
Fisher’s chess skills were taught by Damian, the dean of the military academy, a skilled chess player, who often played chess while enjoying tea in his office to decide whether he should punish Fisher. This method not only served to discipline Fisher but also subtly honored Princess Elizabeth.
Valentina watched the entire process of Balzac losing three games, feeling somewhat pity for her subordinate who constantly lost to Fisher. She lightly flipped through the book in her hands and said with a smile,
“Now that the chess game is over, would you two like to answer some questions?”
“Answer questions?”
Balzac and Fisher both turned to look at Valentina, who gently lifted the history encyclopedia in her hands,
“This contains a summary of knowledge about history. Since there’s nothing pressing now, I’ll ask you both questions. If you answer, you get a point, and if you don’t, no points are awarded. Whoever has the most points wins… Of course, I’ll add a little wager, hmm… The Turand Family has many interesting books that cannot be borrowed externally, but if one of you wins, I can have the family send over a list of books, and you can choose one to read.”
“Whether it’s long-lost magic tomes, history concerning demi-humans, or the secret chronicles of the Schwali Empire, the family archives have them all. So, what do you say, want to play this game?”
Fisher didn’t seem interested initially, but perked up a bit when he heard about the magic tomes… no, it was the demi-human history. Balzac felt similarly; as scholars, they yearned to explore more unknown texts and knowledge, so naturally, there was no reason to decline.
Valentina, holding the small cat-shaped statue, smiled and opened the book, saying,
“All right, then let’s get started. Let’s begin with something easy, how about eleven questions? First question, when the Schwali Empire was founded, someone claimed that the first Emperor ascended the throne by slaying a white snake, so what actually happened in history?”
“… He indeed killed a white snake, but it was a hibernating snake he picked up by the roadside. He cooked and ate the snake soup after he returned.”
Regarding a question about his family’s ancestral emperor, Balzac, although an exiled subject, still retained his basic respect and certainly wouldn’t speak irresponsibly. Before he could react, Fisher seized the opportunity,
“Fisher scores a point… Next question, how many major battles occurred in the Schwali’s Mist Mountain Range? Please name them.”
“Two, the Kado Extension Battle, which was a desperate move through the Mist Mountain Range to invade distant Kado; the Mist Sea Battle, which was a naval battle with a small country far from Kado. After the initial battle, the war gradually spread through the entire Mist Mountain Range until several months later, Schwali’s legions managed to eliminate the guerilla soldiers in the mountains…”
“Very good, Balzac scores a point. Next question, from which ancient state does the current Empress of Schwali descend her lineage?”
“Kado!”
“Very well, Balzac scores another point.”
Fisher raised an eyebrow, suddenly realizing why were all the questions about Schwali. He glanced at Valentina, who noticed his gaze. Seeing Fisher’s nearly mournful look made Valentina want to laugh but she had to maintain her composure to keep up the “fairness and impartiality” as the judge.
Very well… you just wait…
Fisher steadied his hand, his mind now racing. In the following questions, no matter what Valentina asked, Fisher responded quickly; after all, given Schwali’s proximity to Nali, Fisher had a decent grasp of Schwali’s history, but even so, he still didn’t know as much as Balzac, a local.
Besides, much of the knowledge was known to both, so it came down to who could respond quicker. Amidst such back-and-forth answering, Fisher, with his quick responses, soon evened the score to five to five.
This amused Valentina a bit too, and she casually flipped through the pages in her hand before finally noticing an interesting piece of content in a corner, then she asked,
“… All right, the last question. During the severe outbreak of the Death Rot Disease in Schwali, the Church once changed its stance toward the plague, referring to it affectionately as…”
Both Balzac and Fisher began to answer simultaneously, almost indistinguishably saying,
“The Bladeless Knight.”
“At the most hopeless moment of the plague, the Church proclaimed that the epidemic was a punishment from the Mother Goddess to her children, intended to cleanse the deeply entrenched sins of humanity… The disease was invisible and intangible, yet wherever it passed, there was widespread mourning, akin to a white, bladeless knight. Hence, later versions of the Creation Scripture included the concept of the Bladeless Knight.”
Fisher explained in such a way, making Valentina nod in approval, close her book,
“Well done, gentlemen, we’ll call it a tie then. Don’t worry, both of you will receive the reward I promised. I’ll bring you the list of books soon.”