After establishing a unified human empire, Yang Hao was ousted under false charges due to his attempts to redistribute power and benefits away from the nobility, clergy, and landlords. This event came to be known as the “Silent Exile.” Not a single person he had supported ever spoke up for him—or perhaps they couldn’t. When he returned in disgrace to the village where it all began, he was not greeted by old friends who had once helped him, nor the village chief who owed him a life debt, but rather by Teresa, a cantankerous nun with whom he never got along. “Are you here just to mock me?” he asked.