The Extra is a Genius!?-Chapter 603: Noir’s Last Evolution

Noel stood alone in his room, finishing the last of the preparations. Several things were already inside his Dimensional Pouch, healing items, communication artifacts, spare weapons, and a few practical things he preferred to carry himself rather than entrust to anyone else. His movements were calm and efficient. He had packed for danger many times before.

What occupied his mind now was not the pouch. The girls would want to come. He already knew that much. There was almost no chance he would convince them to remain in the mansion with the children, no matter how reasonable his argument sounded. Elena, Elyra, Charlotte, Selene. None of them were the kind of people who would quietly stay behind while the final battle unfolded elsewhere.

Noel slid another item into the pouch and exhaled slowly.

Then the system window appeared before him.

[Noir has finished evolving.]

His eyes sharpened at once. A second later the shadow behind him stirred, and Noir stepped out of it in her familiar wolf pup form, black fur soft under the room’s warm light, purple streaks faintly visible along her small body. Noel turned toward her, and a small warmth touched his face almost immediately. "Welcome back. How do you feel?"

Noir sat down and looked at him. But she didn’t answer.

Noel blinked once. He waited another second, then tried through the bond instead. ’Are you alright, Noir?’

Still nothing. No voice entered his mind. No familiar playful response. Just silence. His brows drew together slightly.

Then Noir changed. Her body dissolved upward out of the wolf pup shape he knew so well, stretching and rising and reforming in a way that made Noel freeze where he stood. Black fur became smooth skin. Her shape lengthened and settled into a small human frame, not much taller than a young girl, her hair falling black with purple tips. When she lifted her face fully, her eyes were the same vivid purple as before.

Noel stared.

"Hello, dad."

For one full second he did not move. Then he reached into the Dimensional Pouch, pulled out a coat, and wrapped it around her shoulders before it could slip.

Noir stepped forward immediately and hugged him. Noel returned it without delay. After a moment he pulled back just enough to look at her again. "Do you want to go surprise the others?"

Noir nodded. She felt exactly like herself. Only now, in a different form.

Noel led the way into the living room with Noir half a step behind him, the oversized coat still wrapped around her small frame. Elyra and Elena were both in the middle of preparing to leave, one checking over a few final items laid out on the table while the other adjusted the strap of a small bag. Nicolas and Elyria were not with them, the two children already taken by the maids to be watched while the house settled into its final rhythm before departure.

Both women looked up when Noel entered. Their eyes moved to the figure behind him. Elyra’s reaction came first, her gray eyes sharpening for only a second before understanding settled into them almost immediately. Elena, on the other hand, only looked confused.

Noel saw it and decided, for reasons that were probably not mature, to take advantage of it. "Elena, Elyra," he said with a straight face, "this is my daughter I forgot to introduce to you before."

Elena froze. Her eyes went from Noel to the girl behind him, then back to Noel again. "Your what?" she said, already sounding horrified. "Noel, who is that child? You didn’t kidnap a little girl, did you? That’s impossible. You’re eighteen. You cannot just walk in here with another daughter!"

Elyra looked at Noir again, then at Noel, and the corner of her mouth lifted. "I didn’t expect you to be able to do that, Noir."

Elena stopped. Her expression changed all at once as she stared properly at the girl in the coat. "...Noir?"

Noir gave a small nod. "Hello. I’m back."

That finished Elena. The shock in her face melted instantly into something dangerously close to tears from pure tenderness. "I did not expect this at all," she said softly. "So this is what you can do now?"

"Among other things," Noir replied. "Since dad reached Manacode, I became stronger too. This is one of the new things I realized I can do."

Elyra’s eyes brightened at once. "That means we can dress you properly now. And take you shopping."

Noir’s purple eyes lit up with immediate interest. Noel saw it and couldn’t help the small warmth that crossed his face. More than anything, he was simply glad she had returned before they left.

"Are you ready, Noir?"

She met his gaze without hesitation. "Yes. More than ready."

Selene and Charlotte arrived not long after. The moment they stepped into the room, both of them slowed, their eyes moving first to Noel, then to Elyra and Elena, and finally to the unfamiliar girl wrapped in the oversized coat.

Selene was the first to understand. Her blue eyes narrowed slightly for only a second before recognition settled into them. "Noir?"

Charlotte, meanwhile, looked completely lost. She blinked once, then twice, her gaze moving between Noir and the others as if waiting for someone to explain why an unfamiliar girl was standing in the middle of the room so comfortably.

Elena immediately straightened, as though she had been waiting for this exact opportunity. "See?" she said, pointing lightly in Charlotte’s direction. "My reaction was the normal one. Elyra and Selene are the strange ones here. They just have better instincts, or are too used to this family being absurd."

Elyra let out a quiet laugh. "Noel’s joke was good. You can’t complain too much."

Charlotte still looked dazed. Then Noir gave her a small nod, which seemed to help, though only slightly.

Noel let the moment settle before his gaze moved across all four of them.

Their expressions already said enough. None of them had any intention of remaining behind while the rest went to face Roberto. Still, out of habit more than hope, he asked anyway. "So... none of you plan to stay here, right?"

All four answered at once. "No."

Noel closed his eyes for a brief second and exhaled through his nose. "Yeah. I thought so."

That drew the faintest reaction from Selene and Elyra, though neither of them disagreed. Then Noel looked toward Charlotte. "Where are the kids?"

"In the main children’s room," she replied. "All three of them. The maids are getting them ready to sleep."

"I see. Thanks." He glanced once more at the four of them, then toward the hallway beyond the room. "I’ll be back in a moment."

He turned and left the living room alone. The house was quiet as he walked, warmer than the mountains, softer than everything waiting outside those walls. His steps carried him down the corridor toward the room where his children were being prepared for the night, and for a few brief moments the world felt gentle enough to forget what was coming.