This question has probably come up before, but the thread might not be active because I couldn't find anything. So I apologize if this is redundant.

Back when Soon, Girard, Serini, et al. decided to split up and guard each gate on their own, weren't they together each time they discovered a rift that the gates would eventually lock up?

They were adventuring together to find each rift right? So at some point in time each of them was physically at each gate? Does that mean that Soon just didn't know where on the map they were when they were on the Western Continent? So he had no way of checking that Girard didn't lie?