Truth of the manner was, the person who was supposed to give the lecture had called in his early retirement. Noel was meant to be his replacement for a single session, and if it went successfully he'd expect to be invited again.
What he didn't know was the type of audience he'd be hosting, which was full of (old) generals, majors of governments and the like. This lecture was going to be the 'sample', and if approved, these generals and majors would give a similar kind of lecture to their own if it was received successfully. Noel had two weeks to prepare for it, leaving ample of time to philosophize about the contents lecture.
Noel followed through a two-day cursus about teaching, namely the body language of an effective teacher. This trained his ability to converse his thoughts in a more nuanced manner.
So the upcoming days preparing for the lecture, he'd spend his time at the library. He'd engage with some people, who he'd seen browsing at the philosophy section a lot. Since he didn't want to tell a one-sided story, and needed people to spar with in terms of what he'd explain. Some passages that were unclear to him, he'd talk about those too. Noel made a first draft of his presentation, and managed to pull together four random citizens that were down to listen to him and give him feedback--given that Noel supplied them with lunch. Which was possible, Noel arranged for this to happen and presented his first draft of the presentation.