"Staying alive mattered more than anything."
"But more and more people in the Temperance Faction feel that if temperance brings nothing but frustration and retreat, why shouldn't they embrace indulgence and enjoy themselves?"
Reinette merely replied flatly, "People who think that way were never suited to temperance."
Just then, boundless grayish-white fog abruptly surged before her eyes, and a hazy figure seated high upon a Bronze Chair said:
"Find somewhere safe and deserted. After you silently count to a hundred, I'll come for you."
The moment the words ended, the figure and the grayish-white fog vanished. Her heart gave a sudden leap, and she looked at the Temperance Faction elders in the room, only to find that they seemed to have noticed nothing amiss.
"Go back for now. Give me some time to think."
"Yes!"
Once they left, Reinette turned into a Wraith and passed through wall after wall into a hidden room. Then she picked up the Chained God's Marionette, lay down on the bed, and quietly awaited that mysterious "President."
In fact, she had long been waiting for this moment.
Only an evil god could deal with an evil god.
If she could provoke a conflict between this "evil god" Above the Gray Fog and the Mother Tree of Desire, leaving the latter no time to spare for the Rose School, Reinette would stop retreating and take the initiative instead.
"92, 93... 98, 99, 100."
After she silently counted to a hundred, a few more seconds passed. Reinette's vision blurred, and when it cleared, she was already in that Little Garden surrounded by gray fog, seated at the bronze Round Table.
The evil god who called himself the "President" still sat at the head of the Round Table, but this time there was another figure seated diagonally across