"72! It's 72! If you have the number 72 on your card, press that part and bend the number!" (Sabine)
Of course, it was actually a number in the local language, so it was not "Seventytwo", but the equivalent word was automatically converted into Arabic numerals in my head.
Then, Sabine-chan grabbed a ping pong ball from a transparent plastic box and held it up above her head so that the numbers could be clearly seen by the customers.
"Oh, two more to go!"
"I only need one more to complete this one!"
Hmmmm, it's exciting, it's exciting! As expected, games that stimulate the spirit of gambling are powerful. Their popularity is universal!
Bingo card were distributed to everyone, regardless of whether they were adults or children. Therefore, the attraction's large play equipment and table games were currently unmanned. Every single one of them was holding bingo cards and staring at the lottery box.
This time, we had prepared 30 prizes.
A wooden box containing a dozen whiskeys, a tailoring ticket for earth-made furniture, daily necessities, and dresses that were not sold at General Store Mitsuha... Since there were problems with the actual size and whether it suited you or not, I decided to make a tailoring ticket. ...A small artificial gemstone... Even though it was artificial, it was a real gemstone. It might be small, but its cutting technology was on a whole other level, so its value here should be high.
Other benefits included the right to have a 30-minute talk with the Archpriestess-sama (me), the right to have the chef taught you one recipe for Yamano cuisine, the right to buy a copy of "The King's Ideas," and things that could be sold at hands on, such as chocolate and sweets, assorted items, cleaning scrubbers, and many more.
The "The King's Idea" was probably referred to here as "The Archpriestess-sama's Idea"...
The things we bought on Earth weren't all that expensive, but I wondered how much they were worth to the people here... Well, this kind of thing was not about the amount, but about joy of "I won!" The important thing was that the joy and desire to shoot was satisfied.
And since people here didn't know how much something was worth, in order to avoid any disputes, they didn't decide on the first place and the second place, but instead choose what they liked first. I decided to let people chose.
With this, there would be no need to worry about complaints such as 2nd place being a better prize than 1st place or that they wanted something else.
…And I'm definitely sure the turtle child scrubber would stay until the end…
Of course, in case a lot of people got bingo at the same time at the end, I had plenty of turtle child scrubbers on hand. In fact, we had even prepared a bonus for those who had get turtle child scrubbers. As expected, if the only prize left after winning was a turtle child scrubbing brush, I'm sure people would complain. So, this was just a joke to get some laughs.
I made it a point to attach G. SAKAI's knife to turtle child scrubbing brush when I gave it to him.
It was the work of a Japanese knife manufacturer that could compete with top overseas manufacturers such as Gerber, Loveless, Buck, and Randall. In this world, wouldn't it be an heirloom?
It was a practice of the idea that leftovers bring good fortune, and if there was a hero who chose the turtle child scrubbing brush even though there were other prizes available, it would be like a reward for his courage.
...Of course, I wouldn't give it to the hero at the end when it hit him, the bonus G. SAKAI knife. Otherwise, there would be no surprise effect for those who finished tied for 30th place, who only have the last scrubbing brush left to choose from. And among the bonus knives, there were also knives from the "Nyaifu" series with cat symbols on them, as well as kitchen knives.
...Ah. I wonder if the knife I gave to the soldier in New Continent is okay? It's a pretty good knife. He said that his superior officer tried to take it away from him once.
At that time, the captain said that he was passing by and escaped the accident, and after that, the captain showed interest, so many people recognized that "This knife belonged to a military man," and no one could touch it.
But I wondered if I would be targeted by bad guys other than the crew members on the same ship...
Those who later sold it to captains, squadron commanders, and fleet commanders probably didn't have to worry about that, but if they bragged about it and showed it off to a lot of people, I felt like more and more people were going to sell it too.
I didn't think they had the means to contact them directly, but the soldiers would bear the brunt of it...
Well, I'll think about that later. Now I have to concentrate on making the party a success...
"Yes, 12! This time it's 12!!" (Beatrice)
In place of Sabine-chan, this time Beatrice-chan grabbed a ping-pong ball and held it high above her head.
These are the numbers that the Great Saintess has grasped. I am so grateful! If you get bingo with this, you'll be a thousand times more impressed!
...Isn't it "3000 times more sensitive"?
Well, I didn't know what that means, but I had been seeing a lot of words on the internet lately, "3000 times more sensitive."
Do you mean the exposure sensitivity of photographic film?
Anyway, the ping pong balls with numbers written on them were grabbed one after another from the box by the Sabi-Colé duo and Beatrice-chan and held up above their heads.
In order to avoid missing any numbers, all the numbers were written on a large piece of paper (made in Japan, of course) that was pasted on two boards set up in front of them, and the numbers that came out of the box were marked with a red marker. I had to check the cards of people who won bingo to make sure there were no false declarations.
And then...
"I won! I got one row!!" (A boy)
"Ooooooooooooooooo!" (Everyone)
Finally, the first bingo came out. The victim was a boy around 10 years old.
"Congratulations! You are the first bingo winner on this continent! Your name will go down in history!" (Mitsuha)
"Yaaaay!!" (A boy)
...Of course, that was not the case.
No, if bingo games were to become popular in this world, there was a very slim chance (perhaps even a microscopic chance) that this child's name would go down in history as "the world's first bingo game winner"...
"Now, please choose your favorite from these prizes." (Mitsuha)
"Then, the meeting with the Archpriestess-sama…" (A boy)
"With jewels!!" (Boy's father)
A man who appeared to be the boy's father hurriedly covered the boy's mouth from behind and shouted in a loud voice.
"...Oh, oh..."
Perhaps the management of the territory was difficult.
That's why he chose the prize that would sell for the highest price and had the best liquidity...
The right to talk with me for 30 minutes might be valuable to some people.
However, it was easy to predict that I would not approve of the transfer of this kind of right to another person, and as the head of the family, it would be one thing if his young son talked to the Archpriestess-sama (me) for 30 minutes. However, he probably thought that they would just play together and be done with it.
Again, if he was a financially well-off nobleman, he might have chosen the chance for his son to get to know the Archpriestess-sama (me). ...But maybe he was in a situation where he had to prioritize the immediate jewels (things that can be exchanged for cash) over that. Even if it meant trampling on the wishes of his son, who had won his rights for himself, and exposing himself to shame in front of the other nobles...
But I didn't want to see that at my parties, and bingo games weren't about a father losing his son's trust and respect. Party games were no good unless everyone was smiling and having fun. So...
"Yes, here's the ticket you chose to have a 30-minute meeting with me, and a jewel as an extra prize!" (Mitsuha)
"Eeeeeeeh!!" (Everyone)
Yes, everyone was surprised, but this was just a game, a sideshow, and just for fun. So, maybe the organizers (me) could do whatever they wanted. And children's dreams must not be destroyed. ...No matter what happened.
Clap...
Clap clap clap...
Then, the entire venue erupted in applause.
……Yeah. There was nothing surprising about it.
This was Kingdom of Zegreius, a wonderful country with many good nobles...
"Now, there are only 29 prizes left! Everyone, let's do your best to win!" (Mitsuha)
"Ooooooo~!!" (Everyone)
Now that there's one less prize, aren't there only 28 left? Well, I have a spare scrubbing brush!
Author's Note
On November 9th (Thursday), my work "I Shall Survive Using Potions!" Volume 2 of "I Shall Survive Using Potions! Continued", a comic from "I Shall Survive Using Potions!", has been published.
This is a comic by Hibiki Kokonoe, "I Shall Survive Using Potions!" This is a continuation of volumes 1 to 9, and is essentially equivalent to volume 11 of the main comic.
A continuation of the main comic adaptation by Futsu Sonoshin.
Thank you very much for your support! (^^)/
Also, please take a look at Volume 1 of the spin-off comic "I Shall Survive Using Potions! Hanano and Lotte's Journey for Two" by Sukima-sensei, who is in charge of the illustrations for the novel version that is currently on sale. Thank you very much for your support! (^^)/
Translation Note
What is "Turtle scrubbing brush" (亀の子タワシ)?