(Heartfelt thanks to 'Mo Yu Linshang', 'Letian Sime', 'Shayu Is My Wife', 'Crazy for You [x]', 'Hehe wc', 'Pokémon', and 'HJAkeno' for their rewards!)
In the castle at the center of the floating island, Noah strode down the corridor with firm, powerful steps until he arrived at a room.
Without any hesitation, Noah opened the door and barged inside.
"Sorry, I'm late."
Noah's voice immediately silenced the room, which had been deep in discussion.
Claire, Linse Laurenhrost, Fianna, Alice, and the other girls all turned their gazes toward Noah, varying degrees of displeasure appearing on their faces.
"Honestly, where have you been?" Linse Laurenhrost puffed out her cheeks.
"You didn't even attend the Spirit Princess's announcement. Don't you care at all about where the finals will be held?"
"Weren't you all definitely going anyway?" Noah said as he sat in the one remaining seat at the round table.
"Since you were all going, it didn't really matter whether I went or not, did it?"
"Do you not know what team action means?" Claire sighed in disbelief.
"Come on, you're still the captain, at least."
"Well, I had things I needed to do too." Noah shrugged.
"To learn more about our opponents, I've spent almost the last two days holed up in the Sanctuary library."
Ever since he had formed a few suspicions about Guren's identity, Noah had begun trying to verify them and had conducted quite a bit of investigation.
Thus, while the girls had been resting and conserving their strength over the past two days, Noah alone had remained in the Sanctuary library, constantly gathering intelligence.
The girls knew about that as well.
So when they heard Noah say that, they immediately had nothing more to complain about.
"So, how did your investigation go?" Alice asked, sounding concerned.
"Did