The garden fell silent for a moment.
Gawain now understood why Bercetia had dismissed all unrelated personnel.
"You're very surprised," the Silver Empress said as she looked at Gawain across from her. "It seems this isn't the answer you wanted to hear."
"No, in a sense, this answer could even be considered good news—but I truly am surprised." Gawain let out a soft breath, steadying his thoughts as he considered the implications behind Bercetia's answer. "Could you tell me more? The details of those secret cults' activities—what kind of gods did they communicate with, and what phenomena did they trigger?"
"Of course." Bercetia smiled faintly, then seemed to sink into distant memories. She spoke slowly in a low voice as she pondered. "It all began with The Fall of the White Star... As you know, during The Fall of the White Star, the druids lost the god they had worshipped for generations. Their original church organizations gradually transformed into various academic institutions and secret societies of Supernatural Beings. In history books, this transformation was simply summarized as 'a difficult transition'—but in truth, the elves' struggle to accept that reality was far more difficult than that lightly written phrase suggests.
"Short-lived races such as humans probably cannot understand any of this—Uncle Gawain, I'm merely speaking honestly. For humans, even the most difficult and painful things can be forgotten and accepted with just a little time. Sometimes one or two generations are enough; sometimes not even one generation is needed. But elves live for two or three thousand years, or even longer, so there are still druids from the time of The Fall of the White Star alive even now. Our long lives make us remember those hardships for a long time, and for some devout servants... even after centuries have passed,