Chapter 544: You Want to Betray Castel?

“What!”

“How is that possible!?”

Hunter and Grisha cried out in shock.

The Silent Sanctum, the true ruler of the White Raven Principality, had founded this theocratic nation north of the Canary Mountain Range.

Every Northlander, from birth until death, could not escape the influence of the Silent Sanctum.

And after the White Calamity occurred, the Silent Sanctum had tried to rescue their people from the White Raven Principality. They had even confronted the lord of this land in the Northlands for a time, yet in the end, they abandoned all their followers and departed for the Empire.

That was the most fundamental reason Nora had severed ties with the Silent Sanctum.

“How is this possible—they already went to the Empire, didn’t they? They abandoned us, didn’t they? Why would they come back!?”

Grisha shouted. His tone carried anger, confusion, and a hint of… grievance.

The Sanctum had always been the reliance of the White Raven people. They had never abandoned their believers. In the past, when facing the Empress’s army, the Sanctuary priests charged forward, always shielding their believers behind them, using their own flesh and blood to force the Royal Army back to the negotiation table.

But in the end, they abandoned their believers.

Nora stared fixedly at the distant figures. She could not tell what emotion surged within her chest. Those people had once been her companions, her mentors, her reliance—and in the end, she alone resisted.

“No… something’s wrong!” Nora suddenly spoke. “Those are Burier insignias. Virion, Ivan, Zoya, Gleb—every one of them is a Transcendent! Nearly a hundred Transcendents!?”

Transcendents were the Church’s most precious asset. Earlier, Isaac had judged that the Church of Candlelight valued the Northlands greatly precisely because they had sent as many as thirty Transcendents here.

That was almost the entirety of the Transcendents the Church of Candlelight could mobilize.

Across the whole Church of Candlelight, all Transcendents combined barely exceeded one hundred, and that was already the most prosperous and powerful of the major churches.

During the Silent Sanctum’s conflict with the Empire, they had deployed forty Buriers to break the lines. They had shattered the Royal Army’s formation, forcing them into a disastrous retreat. It remained the largest recorded battle involving Transcendents.

And now—nearly a hundred Transcendents…

“We’re facing… the entire Silent Sanctum?!” Hunter asked, trembling.

“Almost. With this number of Transcendents, the Silent Sanctum has emptied their entire nest.” Even Nora’s usually steady voice wavered.

The Silent Sanctum had deployed everything they had, at this moment, this close to the Expeditionary Army…

“Nora, I—I don’t really understand the combat strength of Transcendents. If there are over a hundred, can they take the Expeditionary Army’s Fortress?”

Nora did not speak. She silently watched her former comrades, and anger gradually rose in her eyes.

It did not take long for the group to reach Hunter and the others. Even Grisha could now clearly see the Burier insignias on their bodies.

Dozens of them—all of them Transcendents, not a single Mortal among them.

“You must be—” The man leading them stepped forward, but suddenly froze mid-sentence. “Nora!?”

Behind him, the Buriers tugged their horses to a halt, all staring at the Nora who had only a head left.

Nora said nothing. Her gaze swept across each of them like a blade, finally landing on the carriages behind them.

“You even brought Ice-Field Heavy Armor. So you really came prepared for war.”

Ice-Field Heavy Armor was extremely thick—so thick that it had only one purpose: breaking enemy lines.

Even the priests of the Silent Sanctum rarely wore such heavy armor. Wearing it made even turning one’s head difficult. It was only used in the harshest battles, against the strongest enemies.

An entire nest of deployed Buriers, carriage after carriage of Ice-Field Heavy Armor—the answer was self-evident.

The man silently met Nora’s gaze. Buriers were always silent, as if becoming a Transcendent meant burying half of themselves in the earth.

In the end, he only shook his head, offering no explanation, and said:

“Please take us to the Resistance Army’s camp.”

“Why should I help you?” 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

The man stared at Nora. Slowly, he reached behind his back. A sound of clashing steel rang out, and a chain-flail appeared in his hand.

“W-What are you doing!?” Hunter raised his musket with trembling hands, pointing it at the man.

The man didn’t move. He merely glanced at Hunter—yet Hunter felt as if he had been frozen in place, as though he was staring into the cold, stone gaze of something that had existed for countless ages.

“Ignati, if you have even a shred of a Patriarch’s honor left, don’t trouble them. They aren’t part of the Expeditionary Army,” Nora shouted.

Ignati did not answer. He suddenly swung his chain-flail, and a cloud of smoke carrying the icy aura of the Northlands swept forward.

Hunter flinched and instinctively tried to escape, but the smoke moved too fast. In an instant, it was upon him.

Nora’s head jerked, breaking free from Hunter’s backpack, leaping straight into the smoke.

She drew a faint arc in the air—but the moment she touched the smoke, she abruptly slowed.

No—strictly speaking, she did not stop. She simply fell at an extremely slow speed. Moments later, the smoke surrounding her contracted sharply.

Nora stared deeply at Ignati, then hopped back into Hunter’s backpack.

“Lady Nora!?”

“Nora, are you alright!?”

Nora lightly shook her head. In a low voice, she said, “Take them to the Resistance Army’s camp.”

“Huh?” Hunter froze. After a while, he scratched his head. “I might not have the right to say this, but I don’t think betraying Castel is a good idea.”

The moment he lifted his head, Ignati glanced at him again, and Hunter immediately shut his mouth.

Grisha, however, did not hesitate at all. “Understood, Lady Nora.”

He immediately turned his horse around and rode off.

Ignati’s gaze lingered briefly on Grisha’s steel prosthetic, his expression shifting slightly.

Hunter reluctantly followed after Grisha.

The people of the Silent Sanctum followed behind them at a distance. Hunter glanced back and whispered to Grisha, “Hey—are you just going to lead them like this?”

“That is Lady Nora’s order.”

“And Lady Nora’s order is automatically correct?”

“Lady Nora’s orders are not necessarily correct,” Grisha replied in a flat tone.

“But Lady Nora is stronger than me, understands more than I do. She may make mistakes, but her judgment is more trustworthy than my own. I will carry out all her commands.”

“Even if it might harm Castel?”

“I trust Lady Nora.”

Hunter looked at Grisha—and saw only the clarity in his eyes.