Kuma-san Watching the Awards Ceremony
“Eliza-chan finished the third! It is finished. Ladies and gentlemen, please stop dismantling. We will start grading.” (Master of ceremony)
All three have finished dismantling and signaling the end of the event.
Everyone stopped, and an attendant checked the state of the dismantling and graded their work.
I was a little disappointed that Fina was not standing on the stage with the finalists. But it seemed that she couldn’t dismantle spiders, so she probably wouldn’t have made it to the finals, but somewhere in the back of my mind, I would have liked to see Fina compete in the finals.
“Sorry for the wait. The rankings have now been determined. Many of you may have expected the first place to be Deed-kun, and you are right, the first place is Deed-kun!” (Master of ceremony)
The audience was so excited that it was like they knew it.
By all accounts, he was expected to be the winner. If not, there would be a protest, I believe.
“Congratulations on your victory. You have won the championship for the second year in a row.” (Master of ceremony)
“Thank you. I didn’t have to show my seniors an embarrassing moment.” (Deed)
He waved his hand towards the adventurers in the hall.
They must be his party members.
“I was very lucky.” (Deed)
“Luck?” (Master of ceremony)
“If I had been born a little later, I wouldn’t have won two championships in a row.” (Deed)
“What do you mean by that?” (Master of ceremony)
Deed-kun looked at Fina, who was standing next to Sanya-san.
“When I was that age, I couldn’t have dismantled anything. So I am lucky.”
He might be saying that he might not have been able to beat a grown-up Fina in a dismantling competition.
“I see, so please say one last thing.” (Master of ceremony)
“I would like to challenge the seniors next year, so please continue to support me next year.” (Deed)
Next year, he would be 20 years old, and it looked like he would be competing in the veteran’s category.
It would be interesting to see how good Deed-kun, the winner, would be in the over 20 event.
“Thank you very much. Now for the announcement of second place. As expected, second place is Garde-kun!” (Master of ceremony)
This was also as expected.
“Next year, first place!” (Garde)
“Well done, Garde!” (Random Adventurer)
An adventurer, who I assumed was a member of his party, shouted out encouragements.
“Next year, there will be no Deed-kun, your rival. So, next year, you will be aiming for the championship, right?” (Master of ceremony)
“Up until now, I’ve only been looking up. It’s good to know that next year there will be someone catching up from below.” (Garde)
He glanced over at Fina, who was at the commentary table.
Perhaps everyone was thinking of Fina?
“And I know I fell behind in the spider dismantling, but next year I’m going to win!” (Garde)
He declared, this time looking at Eliza-san.
Maybe he thought that he had lost to Eliza-san in the spider dismantling.
First and second place were announced, and the results were as expected. However, third place was someone that no one had initially expected.
“And the third place went to Eliza-chan, who moved up a notch by dismantling the spider!” (Master of Ceremony)
A big, roaring applause from the audience.
The final push was amazing.
No one would have thought she would finish in third place. And because of her careful dismantling, as she had done from the first to the fourth rounds, there was no point deduction, and she finished in third place as it was.
“Eliza-chan, I was disappointed. If it had been only spiders in the final, Eliza-chan would have won.” (Master of ceremony)
“It is indeed a pity. But, I wouldn’t be happy if it was only by chance that I won because the monster prepared for finals was something I was familiar with. If I won with that, I doubt anyone would recognize me as the winner.” (Eliza)
Indeed, they would just claim that she was lucky.
Eliza-san dismantled well, but she has never won first place in all of her dismantling. By all accounts, Deed-kun and Garde-kun would be seen as the two winners.
In that light, dismantling all the monsters from the first to the fourth rounds is a fair measure of total ability. 𝒍𝙞𝙗𝓻𝙚𝒂𝓭.𝒄𝙤𝙢
However, the dismantling of the spider definitely gave Eliza-san an advantage.
“But it is also a little disheartening. After all, if the spider was presented in the fourth round instead of the finals, I might have a chance to make Deed-kun and Garde-kun to be a little panicked.” (Eliza)
If that had happened, Deed-kun and Garde-kun would not have taken first and second place in all the rounds.
In a sense, the two were saved by the rules.
But if the spider had come out in the fourth round, Fina would not have been able to compete and would have withdrawn; considering Fina, it was a good thing that the spider dismantling was in the finals.