Two weeks later.
Noel was about to retire for the day, but the moment he opened the door to his room, he couldn't help but find a familiar figure he had been waiting for a long time.
"Eh?!" Noel widened his eyes in shock. "Anna?"
Because of the nature of her trip, she couldn't show herself in public. So, she had to leave and return during the night, meaning Noel wouldn't know if she was already back or not.
And tonight was a huge surprise for her because Anna had already returned, waiting for him on the bed.
Noel rubbed his eyes, thinking he was hallucinating because he had missed her. "It seems I have overworked myself."
Anna chuckled while saying, "You are not imagining things. I'm home."
Noel's body trembled as he couldn't believe what she had just said. He staggered to the bed. "You are really back."
Anna made a big smile as she leaped toward Noel, hugging him. The hug was firm to show how much she missed him and didn't want to leave his side anymore.
"I'm glad that you're alright." Noel closed his eyes. He felt relieved that Anna was finally back. It didn't seem she received any harm, which finally put his heart at ease.
"Mhm. I miss you. Leaving you for a month made me feel empty, making me realize how much I love you."
Noel smiled. "I miss you too."
"Really? Weren't you too busy to think about me?" Anna grinned.
"What? How can I?"
"So, you felt lonely when I wasn't here?"
Noel's body shook. She didn't expect to see Anna teasing him.
"You might not know it, but I have sworn to myself that I will become bolder once I return. The trip just showed me how important it was." Anna made a big smile. "That's why I'm not going to hold back anymore and show everyone how much I love you."
Noel blinked a few times. The trip seemed to be important for another reason.
"Is that so? I personally don't mind."
Anna buried her face on Noel's chest, but Noel noticed her yawning.
"You must be tired. Let's get some rest." Noel pointed at the bed. She must have gone through a lot in the past month, so everything could wait.
"Oh my? It seems that you have become bolder as well. So, you want to sleep with me or maybe you want to do something more? I don't mind, but…" Anna smirked, implying that if he was ready to accept the fact that he wouldn't be able to fulfill his promise, she didn't mind going beyond that point.
"What are you talking about? I'm still respecting your wishes." Noel sighed.
"Hehe."
"Alright. Alright. Let's sleep!" Noel shook his head. He was a bit too overwhelmed by Anna's change, but he was fine with this kind of change as well. Though, to avoid the embarrassment, he ended up gently pushing her to the bed.
Anna once again made her move. She normally slept without doing anything unless there was something special, but this time, she actually sneaked into his arm and hugged his body.
"Anna?" Noel was startled. If this continued, he might really not be able to hold himself back.
"What? Are you going to do something?" Anna smirked.
"Kh." Noel clenched his fist. Normally, he wanted to tease her back, but Anna had just returned, so he let her win this time. "Fine. Fine."
"Noel…"
Anna's voice echoed in his ears when he was looking at the ceiling to calm his heart down. "Mhmm?"
"I love you."
"I love you too." Noel closed his eyes with a smile on his face. It seemed that he was going to have a good dream tonight, or so he thought.
Right before he slept, an image flashed through his mind. It was the conversation he had with Anna.
Back then, Anna asked, "If I say I want to go back to Old Ru's place to do something, will you let me go?"
Noel didn't want her to leave at that time, but as her equal, he knew how to respect her wish. Hence, he didn't reject her but actually wanted to know the reason for that decision. "Can you give me a reason?"
Anna looked pained back then as if there was a big problem haunting her heart. "I can't tell you anything yet. But after this trip, I feel like I will be able to tell you the truth. All I can say is that… this is the only way for me to be able to stand beside you for the rest of my life."
Of course, Noel decided to trust her.
He thought this trip was much safer than when they visited Old Ru's together since Anna had become a Spirit Grandmaster and had no trouble using the True Spirit Body.
But this memory actually gave him another question.
Anna had never broken her promise to him. Even if she became bolder, she would definitely use this time to actually tell him about the reason. The fact that she called his name earlier was the trigger for this thought.
And this was the only time they would have time together. They loved to talk about themselves during this private time to learn more about each other.
That was why this scene actually made Noel question whether Anna still remembered the promise or not.
However, when Noel tilted his head to the side and saw Anna's innocent sleeping face, he sighed, fully aware that Anna was tired after the journey. He had to let her rest first.
…
The next morning.
Noel woke up without Anna on his bed. He thought that he might have been so tired recently that he started hallucinating, but when he opened the door, he saw Anna cooking breakfast for him.
"Oh?! You're awake? Go wash your face first and let's have breakfast together."
After confirming that last night wasn't a dream, Noel hurriedly tidied himself to have breakfast together.
While eating, he couldn't help but get bothered by the image from last night. While he didn't want to doubt her, he had to ask. "How was the trip? You were not in danger, right?"
"Of course not. We killed five Superior Demons during our trip in fact."
"Woah, seriously?!"
"Yeah. Unfortunately, we didn't have a lot of spare bags to bring all the Demon Crystals, so we couldn't fight too much." Anna chuckled. "Also, your mother was with us."
"My mother?"
"Yeah. She tagged along to make sure the journey was safer. Besides, she was quite excited to find the ancestral land of the Ardagan Family."
"Really?"
"But there's not much left after nature takes over. So, we couldn't really find much… As for the problem with the underground tunnel, your ancestor seems to be digging up holes underground to create a wall of water."
"A wall of water?" Noel tilted his head while contemplating. "Wall of water, huh? Flooding them?"
"Indeed. The demons are strong, but they can't breathe underwater. Hence, they use that wall so that the demons dig straight into it. If we have enough supply of water, the entire tunnel will be flooded with the natural pressure."
"That's indeed possible." Noel nodded in agreement. "Now that I think about it, it's not like the demons can dig too deep underground. We have a water reservoir underneath us, which is the one providing the city water. And if you think about it, this water reservoir must be linked to the river.
"In that case, the demons can only dig to a certain area before the water starts coming out, which makes the tunnel useless. With that being said, we can dig up the soil around that level and use the river water to flood it, creating a barrier of water.
"If the demon digs lower, they will meet the water reservoir. If they continue, we will have river water, which will flood the entire tunnel. Some of the stronger demons might be able to pass it, but the water itself should weaken it even if they are a Peak Level Demons."
Noel could imagine the entire concept and design. He simply had to dig a hole in the ditch outside his wall. He was going to fill it up with water, so it shouldn't be that troublesome.
"That's a good idea, I think." Anna agreed with Noel. It wasn't much, but it was very effective.
"Still, the demons might create a lot of tunnels underground. At the very least, it will weaken the soil." Noel raised a concern.
"I think it's not a problem. Just like how you can pump out water from the well, don't you think it's possible to use the rune to pump soil underground to fill the tunnel? While it's going to be troublesome to take care of the mess, this is pretty much a simple yet effective method."
Noel couldn't deny it. "In that case, I will talk to Douglas about it. It's going to be hard to dig up that much, but it's not impossible."
"Sure."
Noel smiled. "Thank you."
"Is there even a need for that between us?"
Noel then stood up. Now that the mood had lessened, Noel finally asked, "How about we have a spar? It's been a while and it's not like we can use our full power to avoid suspicion. So, how about a spar with only our swordsmanship? You said you want to become the strongest woman in the world, so I want to see how much you have improved in this one month."
Anna raised her eyebrows. There was a subtle hint in his words, but Anna didn't back down. "Oh? You can talk big now. I should show you that I'm still the stronger one between us."
