"No interest."
The Tsaritsa fell silent instantly.
She hadn't expected Su Ran to reject her suggestion so decisively.
"Won't you reconsider? That would make you the being above all life in Teyvat."
At that point, even the Seven Archons would kneel at his feet.
What higher exaltation could there be?
"But if I already stand above the heavens," Su Ran asked, "why would I stoop down to become the heavens?"
The question stunned her.
What use was authority?
To him, ruling a land and wasting time managing it—was that a reward?
Why do you think Herta, after saving the Blue Planet a few times, never bothered governing anything?
It was simple: the job was thankless and boring.
When you possess power far beyond what's needed to govern a single planet, why waste effort on tedious rulership?
Just like cultivators who retreat to spiritual mountains instead of running mortal kingdoms.
Liyue's Adepti lived freely, yet the Archons?
Other than Venti who slacked off completely, none of the others lived freely—not even Zhongli, who still had to attend the Rite of Descension every year.
Su Ran's explanation made the Tsaritsa realize—
He already stood above Celestia.
Why would such a being lower himself to manage a new world order?
"…I was being presumptuous."
He had refused, but she didn't lose heart.
"Then… could you at least take me to see that space station? I want to know just how tightly Celestia has bound Teyvat."
On her own, she could not break the false sky.
No matter how reachable it looked, no one could surpass it.
Su Ran brought the Tsaritsa beyond the world.
It was the first time she saw the true vastness of the universe.
Compared to Teyvat, this was an ocean to a droplet.
When she turned back to look at the planet she had ruled all her life, she felt—for the first time—utterly small.
She had thought she was insignificant before Celestial Order…
But now, even the Celestials themselves seemed tiny in this infinity.
Then came the space station.
Its sheer scale and the strange distortions of space as they traveled shocked her; without Su Ran's protection, she would have been lost forever.
Distances that seemed near were, in truth, impossibly far.
Only when she stood on the deck did she finally understand what "technology a million years beyond Teyvat" meant.
As the Archon of Snezhnaya, she knew her nation's science well.
She couldn't dissect the principles, but she could analyze constructs.
Yet before her stretched something that defied all Teyvat's logic—
No elemental energy, no ley-line resonance…
A system completely unlike anything known.
"You… got this for free?"
That scale, that sophistication—
This could be free?
Was the outside universe really this generous?
Her determination to rebel against Celestia only grew stronger.
If she didn't resist, she would remain a frog at the bottom of the well forever.
The station was nearly complete—ready for use, just empty.
To Su Ran, that didn't matter.
Even without contact with civilization, he could thrive.
With Erudition's computational arrays monitoring the entire star system's resource nodes, he could build automated collectors, expand production endlessly.
Resources were guaranteed.
Progress inevitable.
The Tsaritsa, overwhelmed, wandered the station—her eyes only growing brighter.
"Baal doesn't know about this, does she?"
"She, her sister, her puppet General, and Liyue's Ningguang all came to tour it not long ago."
The Tsaritsa's expression instantly dimmed.
Late.
She was late—
Later than Baal, later than Makoto, later even than Ningguang, a mortal.
…But at least now she knew.
She wouldn't call it a loss.
She would call it a partial victory.
"What… is that little doll?"
On the vast deck stood a single petite figure—a marionette.
Moments later, Herta's puppet avatar blinked online.
And immediately caught sight of a gray-haired Archon staring at her.
"What are you staring at? Never seen a puppet before?"
Her sudden activation startled the Tsaritsa; had her reflexes been slower, she might have attacked.
"Oh? A new face?" Herta floated closer. "Another woman you picked up, huh?"
Seeing a face she didn't recognize, she instantly assumed Su Ran had lured another girl here.
"No, to be exact," Su Ran corrected, "I knew her before those other women. She counts as… an old flame."
Herta raised an eyebrow and inspected the Tsaritsa's face.
She frowned slightly.
And that tiny frown made the Tsaritsa frown back, as if wondering why this puppet dared scrutinize her.
"This face… that little wolf cub…" Herta murmured.
"Don't tell me that brat is your two's child?"
The resemblance—
Too strong!
The turbine behind her, the eye color, the facial bone structure—
It was practically copy-paste!
"Oh? You noticed?" Su Ran stepped right into the act.
"That unfilial brat—so many years and not one visit to see his parents. Honestly shameful."
The Tsaritsa froze.
Herta froze harder.
Something felt wrong.
Very wrong.
"But didn't you say," Herta asked slowly, staring at him and then at the Tsaritsa…
"That you're only in your twenties?
Do you realize— that would make this a CRIME?!"
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