The Past, Gone Like Smoke

Distributing the dozen or two volunteers evenly among the remaining Mindscapes to lie in wait was the best plan the Round Table Conference had come up with.

With enough people observing the Mindscapes in advance, they could "see" how Garuda invaded one and gather as much information as possible.

It was a brute-force approach.

Sending Magical Girls into the Mindscapes one by one on such a scale would drain a great deal of energy and magic, but Red Rose had agreed to help. With even the last problem solved, Su Tianqing raised both hands and her tail in wholehearted support.

Hyacinth still had reservations about letting Heartmoon Fox handle it, but the backing of Red Rose, Inari, and Scarlet Snow carried too much weight. Even Hyacinth, the most outspoken anti-fox voice, had nothing to say.

At most, she stared at the slip she had drawn for her ambush post and grumbled about it being "rigged!" for a while. Iris and Nightingale soon shut that down.

Hyacinth had drawn—Foxkov.

"Lying in wait alone in Foxkov does sound tough, but you're the real Shadow of the Stars. You'll handle it easily, right?"

Hellcat said this from the line for the draw, addressing a thoroughly dejected Hyacinth beside her.

Hyacinth wanted to roll her eyes at her on the spot, but with so many people around, she was forced to show some restraint. That was the only reason her classic catchphrase stayed unspoken.

Once everyone had drawn a slip from the box and shown it to Red Rose and the nervous Marigold beside her for confirmation, those with nothing left to do split into groups and left. They made plans to wander around Rongcheng and kill time sightseeing.

After all, packing this many people onto the Villain Rooftop was hardly practical. They had