"Atheist, huh?" Koumyou ponders that for a moment, holding his chin. "Does that make the Seiten sutra even weirder? Or..."

Or even Koumyou himself, holy as he intrinsically is.

"I suppose Buddhism -- for me -- is less a religion and more a philosophy. 'Faith' implies trust in the unknown, but I have met the gods. I protect part of that which made everything. Those are facts."

Not for everyone, sure. There were a lot of people in Koumyou's world for whom the 'faith' element was very real. But... no one at his rank.

"How one lives their life, that's where things get much messier and much more interesting, to me."