(Heartfelt thanks to 'I Won't Say I'm a Lolicon,' 'Mengdie Qianxun,' 'Lei Xiang,' 'Star Assault Blast,' 'Youyouzi's Lament,' 'Q Yongjiang Yiku Q,' 'Liu Guang Zhi Shui,' 'Ming Qi Zi Fang Yuan,' 'Seven Sins Shattered,' 'Wu Qing Wu Yi Wu Fa Wu Tian,' 'Unknown ◎ Mo Yan,' 'Bing Yue Ying,' 'Potato Slayer,' and 'Mo Yu Linshang' for their tips!)
Silence.
A deathly silence.
Noah looked at the contract document drifting down from midair, his face filled with utter astonishment.
Because the contract document bore the following words.
"The White faction contestant has fulfilled the victory conditions. The game is over."
In other words, Noah had lost.
Even Asuka seemed unable to believe the result. Still cradled in Noah's arms, she turned toward the goat beside them and asked uncertainly.
"Did we succeed, Alma?"
The goat Asuka called Alma nodded and spoke in a human voice.
"Yes, you succeeded, my master. Congratulations on defeating the hero who single-handedly defeated both Absolute Evil and the Final Trial of Humanity of the Closed World."
"W-We really did it?" Asuka cheered in delighted surprise.
"Wonderful!"
Watching Asuka cheer in his arms, Noah opened and closed his mouth several times, yet could not say a single word.
In the end, Noah could only say this.
"Wasn't that a little underhanded?"
"Underhanded?" Asuka stopped cheering and glared at Noah.
"I can't pretend I didn't hear that. How were we underhanded?"
Noah could not immediately come up with an answer.
After all, using strategy was an extremely important part of a Grace Game.
The three problem children had first launched a surprise attack on Noah, catching him off guard and forcing him, as the defender, to evade using Phoenix's incarnation. Then they had Yao use Marchosias's Divine Artifact to seal Noah's Godspeed. Next, they had Izayoi use Another