Nora's Questioning

"Patriarch Ignati, do you know my name?"

Ignati stared at Nora for a long time, as though he were meeting her for the first time. Only after a while did he slowly nod. "I know you, Nora. I know every Burier in the temple."

His gaze fell on Richard and Nini, who was also outside the tent. It lingered briefly on Nini's scaled snake tail before slowly withdrawing.

"Since you know me, then the temple must have had its reasons for abandoning the Resistance Army back then, right?"

Ignati raised his brows and opened his mouth to say something, but Nora interrupted him without hesitation.

"You don't need to say it. I can more or less guess. It was nothing more than sacrificing us to deal with the White Calamity."

The man's expression darkened slightly. He did not attempt to defend himself and merely nodded.

"I'm not accusing you—or rather, at least not here. Although you abandoned me and abandoned the Resistance Army, you never intended to save yourselves alone. I saw what you planned to do before, to perish together with the white fog."

Hearing this, even Nini set down her pen and nodded solemnly.

The Silent Temple's choice might have been laughable, and its ending might have been laughable, but their courage should not have been mocked.

As Patriarch, Ignati had abandoned everything worldly and led the temple's priests to perish alongside the white fog. No matter what, that could be called bravery.

And the temple's Transcendents had actually been willing to follow him and give their lives.

"The Silent Temple has never been free of sacrifice. When the great calamity descended a thousand years ago, the Forgotten Temple abandoned its people and responsibilities, chose to split from the Church, and hid within the White Calamity. Back then,