"Do you really think Teyvat is everything?"
Ningguang casually activated the space station's virtual projection system.
As the station's administrator, this was one of her rightful privileges.
A holographic model of Teyvat's star system was projected directly in front of Nahida.
"Compared to the boundless sea of stars, our world is nothing more than a grain of sand—
small, insignificant, and countless in number."
This time, Ningguang was no longer the spectator.
She was the one opening someone else's eyes.
Planets, stellar systems, galaxies— even multiple galaxies unfolded one after another before Nahida.
Only then did Nahida truly realize that where she now stood was not somewhere in Teyvat—
but beyond the sky.
The realm outside the firmament sealed by Heavenly Principles.
A place Teyvat's people could never touch.
"You only know that Su Ran is a Fatui Harbinger," Ningguang continued calmly, "but do you know that in this vast universe, he is one of the eighty-five smartest beings in existence?"
"..."
Nahida's eyes widened.
She could hardly believe what she was hearing.
That Fatui Harbinger… was actually a scholar?
"But—even so, that doesn't erase his crimes!" Nahida protested.
"He even imprisoned your god, the Geo Archon!"
"Does intelligence justify committing evil?"
Nahida absolutely could not accept that idea.
"And who imprisoned you?" Ningguang shot back.
"Why were you unable to escape your cage for five hundred years?
Why, during those five centuries, did you never speak out against their cruelty?"
"Were you truly so weak that you couldn't even break free from human restraints?"
Ningguang couldn't excuse all of Su Ran's actions.
But imprisonment was imprisonment.
Why did Nahida condemn one case and ignore the other?
"It was my people who imprisoned me," Nahida said softly.
"Perhaps… it's because I wasn't a qualified god."
Her voice fell, heavy with self-blame.
"Whether a god is qualified or not should be judged after they've acted," Ningguang replied coldly.
"You were imprisoned for five hundred years. You did nothing during that time. What exactly is there to evaluate?"
Hearing Nahida's deep-seated inferiority, Ningguang almost felt pity.
Almost.
"Do you not resent them?"
Nahida shook her head.
How could she resent her own people?
At that moment, Ningguang's sympathy diminished sharply.
"Your people imprisoned you, and you don't resent them.
Su Ran imprisoned the Geo Archon, and the Archon himself never complained."
"And yet you are the one rushing to uphold justice?"
"I've seen hypocrisy before," Ningguang said, her voice sharp.
"But never this kind of reverse hypocrisy."
"It's precisely this so-called kindness that kept you imprisoned for five hundred years, isn't it?"
She didn't hate kind people.
But kindness that allowed oneself to be abused, that led to suffering without self-awareness—that wasn't kindness.
That was stupidity.
So stupid that even Ningguang found this so-called God of Wisdom unbearably foolish.
"Now I understand why Su Ran told me there was no need to worry about you," Ningguang went on.
"A god as self-abasing and weak as you truly isn't worth guarding against."
The more Ningguang learned about Nahida's past, the more she felt Su Ran had actually gone too easy on Sumeru.
He merely left a backdoor in the Akasha?
He didn't do more?
Didn't make every one of them experience the pain Nahida endured for five hundred years?
"..."
Faced with Ningguang's questioning, Nahida had no answer.
She couldn't say—
They are my people, so I tolerate them.
He is an outsider, so I condemn him.
"That makes Su Ran more of your benefactor than your enemy," Ningguang said icily.
"Your people harmed you, and you couldn't bear to retaliate.
He acted on your behalf—yet you criticize him instead?"
The more Ningguang understood Nahida's suffering, the more absurd her moral stance appeared.
"God of Wisdom, your suffering earns my sympathy.
But your choices leave me confused."
"I even begin to doubt whether you possess wisdom at all."
If this was the wisdom produced by the God of Wisdom—did wisdom truly still exist in Teyvat?
Even mortals in Liyue understood the principle of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
And yet a god did not?
Indulging her people's abuse of her—
wasn't that simply condoning their sins?
She condemned Su Ran's cruelty, yet turned a blind eye to the cruelty of her own people.
Even questioning whether it was her own fault.
Was this the wisdom of the God of Wisdom?
"In Liyue's distant past," Ningguang continued, "there was once the Salt God, Havria."
"She was gentle to her people— and she died at their hands."
"Is that the fate you wish to repeat?"
A god who was too gentle could never rule a nation.
Ningguang saw none of the qualities a god should possess in Nahida.
Under Ningguang's relentless questioning, Nahida found herself unable to respond.
Instead, she sank deeper into self-doubt.
If she truly ruled Sumeru herself—perhaps one day, she really would meet the same fate as Havria.
She slowly lowered her head.
Looking at Nahida, who now seemed utterly broken, Ningguang felt only disappointment.
No confidence befitting a god.
No wisdom worthy of her title.
A god imprisoned by mortals—likely lacking even the power a god should possess.
"Then answer me this," Ningguang asked quietly.
"Do you believe you are even qualified… to judge Su Ran's actions?"
Nahida lifted her head slightly—then lowered it again.
She didn't dare answer.
"If you still possess any self-awareness as a god," Ningguang said, "you should repay those who persecuted you in kind."
"If I gave you the chance—would you do it?"
If Nahida said yes, Ningguang would release her immediately.
Whatever consequences followed, she would bear them herself.
Su Ran likely wouldn't even care about the fate of such a minor figure.
But this time—
Nahida couldn't even bring herself to meet Ningguang's eyes.
And Ningguang felt as though her words had struck nothing but empty air.
—------------------------------
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