"Shogun, you do not need to be so bound by rules. Though you were made as a puppet, I understand: you have already developed a soul of your own."
"You are already an independent individual. You should not continue to be held by everything I instilled in you."
"You should have your own thoughts and your own will."
Ei looked at the Shogun with quiet self-reproach. The Shogun's gaze flickered. Her voice was level.
"This existence was born for Eternity. Eternity will be carried through to the end."
"Only Eternity can give the people a dream worth holding."
"Eternity is not wrong."
The moment those words landed, Ei said without hesitation:
"You are right. Eternity is not wrong. But I was wrong."
From nearby, Makoto watched Ei with eyes full of quiet pride.
That stubborn, unyielding sister of hers had finally grown up.
"Shogun. What is Eternity?"
Ei stepped forward.
"Undying life? Inexhaustible wisdom? A civilization that endures forever?"
The Shogun fell silent.
The concept of Eternity was something Ei had never actually defined for her. Perhaps Ei herself had never truly known what Eternity was.
What the Shogun had done across all these years was hold stubbornly to an Eternity whose content she had never examined.
Had she had doubts?
Yes.
What is Eternity, really?
She had asked herself this more than once.
But Ei had never listened to what she thought. Had never asked.
So the Shogun had stopped thinking about it.
A puppet had no need to think. A puppet only needed to hold to what had been instilled.
"Only Eternity is closest to the Heavenly Principles."
The Shogun offered Ei her answer.
Ei's expression shifted toward something edged with anger.
"The Heavenly Principles are Eternity?"
"Those words should not come from your mouth."
The Shogun looked at her steadily.
"Only Eternity is closest to the Heavenly Principles. You said that."
"Which is why I was wrong!"
Ei held the Shogun's gaze without wavering.
"The Heavenly Principles were never Eternity. They simply had enough strength."
The Shogun went still. Her head dropped slightly, and genuine thought moved through her voice.
"So then... strength is Eternity?"
"No! Strength is not Eternity either!"
Ei said it softly.
"To the people, I am strong enough. To the Heavenly Principles, she is stronger than me. To the rulers of the First Throne, they are stronger still than the Heavenly Principles."
"Is the First Throne Eternity, then? If so, why were they overthrown?"
"Shogun, we are all simply lives within Teyvat. Teyvat itself will have a day of destruction. As beings of Teyvat, we were never Eternal from the moment we were born."
This answer exceeded the boundaries of what the Shogun could process. For a moment, she too went quiet.
Ei glanced back at Ryen, then spoke more quietly.
"I pursued Eternity. I believed the Heavenly Principles were its embodiment. She destroyed Khaenri'ah. She took my sister from me on the battlefield."
"I was afraid of her. Afraid she would destroy the last precious thing my sister left me: Inazuma. So I tried to draw close to her, to follow her rules."
"That Eternity was wrong from the very start."
"Shogun, I was too narrow."
"It was only a few months ago that I came to know a wider world. I learned what Teyvat truly was."
"I finally understood what the world actually looked like."
"The Heavenly Principles were never Eternity. I was simply too weak."
"The world was born from the Imaginary Tree. Every moment, worlds are being born on the Imaginary Tree, and worlds are dying."
"One day, everything in Teyvat will return to nothing, fall into the endless Quantum Sea, and become foam and shadow."
"At that moment, what will Eternity have meant?"
Ryen smiled faintly and gave a small nod.
Ei had finally understood. Eternity had been a joke from the beginning.
Who in the world could honestly claim to be truly Eternal?
Teyvat was a world on the Tree. The Tree was the entirety of the universe. Beyond the universe, there were more universes still.
Everything that was born, from the moment it appeared, was already moving toward destruction.
Teyvat included.
The Imaginary Tree itself was no exception.
Eternity had always been a narrow definition.
The Shogun turned her searching, bewildered gaze toward Ryen. He was accommodating enough.
He snapped his fingers. Imaginary energy stirred. Behind him, the projection of a vast and towering tree took shape.
Its height was measured in time. Its breadth was measured in space.
Everyone who saw it felt their own existence shrink to insignificance.
Branches swayed. A few withered leaves drifted down and fell into the sea below. And on other branches, new buds grew sturdy and bright.
Those were worlds.
Born, developed, fallen, dissolved into nourishment for other worlds, which in turn were born, developed, and fell.
That was the cycle.
Teyvat: a leaf on the trunk, its color already beginning to fade at the edges.
The Shogun felt something close to panic and stepped back involuntarily.
Ei looked at the projection with a calm gaze and said quietly:
"You see. The world itself moves toward its end. What a narrow and misguided definition Eternity has always been."
This time, the Shogun did not argue.
Her foundational logic could no longer derive Eternity from what she was seeing.
Faced with this terrifying vision, what was the difference between a person and an archon?
How small was the force of life, against the scale of the Tree?
"Everything that is born moves toward destruction from its first moment. People. Stone. Civilization."
"Even the crash of thunder fades in the end."
Ei exhaled with quiet feeling.
"You ask me what Eternity is. I am sorry. I don't know either. I only know that I was wrong, and that the definition of Eternity has never existed in this world."
"We are all tiny things. Even the Heavenly Principles will have a moment of extinction."
The Shogun's polearm fell to the ground. She looked at the Imaginary Tree's projection with a vacant, lost expression.
"Then was my existence a mistake from the beginning?"
Ryen felt a twinge of unease.
This had gone sideways.
The Shogun had begun contemplating the deepest question about the meaning of her own existence.
Handled poorly, she might destroy herself on the spot.
Makoto's brow furrowed too. This had gone further than anticipated. But the Shogun's question was one she genuinely did not know how to answer.
Strictly speaking, the Shogun had been born from a mistake Ei made during a period of poor judgment. But say that plainly, and the Shogun would self-destruct in the next moment.
A heavy silence fell over the space.
The Shogun seemed to understand something. She lowered her head, and the vitality in her dimmed considerably.
"Hmm hmm! Why not ask the all-capable philosopher, current Director of Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, great Madam Hu who maintains the stability of the boundary between life and death?"
Hu Tao stepped forward with a bright smile.
The Shogun looked up at her. The bewilderment in her eyes made Makoto's heart ache a little.
"What is Eternity? If Eternity does not exist, why should I?"
Hu Tao put her hands on her hips and grinned.
"Eternity? I'm not sure about that, but if I absolutely had to give it a definition..."
"Right now is Eternity."
The Shogun looked at her blankly. Hu Tao clasped her hands behind her back and strolled toward the projection of the tree at a leisurely pace.
She reached out to touch it and found nothing solid there.
She curled her lip.
"Everything that is born has its meaning. The grass by the road. The stone on the mountain. The flower at the edge of a cliff."
"Everything that exists has a meaning of its own. My grandfather told me that."
"Born, developed, destroyed: that is an inescapable law. In terms of the final outcome, everything will ultimately fade, and so Eternity, in the absolute sense, does not exist."
"But to chase after the ending is to lose the meaning of the beginning. Every birth in this world is a gift the world gave."
"If I had to say it: right now is the Eternity worth pursuing."
"Since you cannot refuse death, live your life with joy."
"Every single day is an Eternity worth remembering."
Hu Tao turned around and said quietly:
"Before we disappear, there are countless things we can pursue. Fall in love. Have a child. Do something that matters."
"The present is Eternal. The pursuits of life are Eternal."
"Even after we are gone, there will be other lives continuing to pursue the same things we pursued."
"Inheritance is also Eternal."
"Across countless worlds, there are always similar lives doing the same things."
"Life itself is Eternal."
"Coming and going, fallen leaves returning to roots, the cycle of life and death. From birth to death, everything rushes headlong toward its ending."
"Death is also Eternal."
Hu Tao blinked and smiled.
"You see: there is no Eternity in the absolute sense. But there is absolutely a sense in which pursuit is Eternal. How can Eternity be said not to exist?"
"The momentary fireworks that light up the night sky: that beauty stays forever in the hearts of those who saw it."
"Even a fleeting instant is Eternal."
"Being fixated on whether Eternity exists or not is already getting stuck in a dead end. This Director's advice is..."
Hu Tao turned a deeply sage expression on the Shogun. The Shogun looked back at her with genuine anticipation.
After a long pause, Hu Tao's face broke into a grin.
"This Director's advice is: no advice!"
"..."
The Shogun stared at her. Something in her expression suggested she suspected she was being made a fool of.
Hu Tao turned back to hug Ryen's arm, and said with cheerful exasperation:
"In this Director's view, you people have simply had too much free time. Philosophy is what bored people do to make themselves miserable."
"Is the world really so full of things that need defining?"
"With all this time, why not sit down to a proper meal, fall in love, or do some actual work?"
"Everyone else is making progress, and you are here contemplating life and chasing Eternity? Could you be any less interesting?"
"The reason this Director has grown up this happy is entirely due to this Director's excellent personal philosophy!"
Hu Tao lifted her chin with great pride.
"Don't give others advice. Don't involve yourself in other people's business. Don't think about all that chaotic philosophical nonsense."
"Do what needs doing when it needs doing. If truly bored, sit down and stare at the sea."
"Stare long enough and even a crab wandering aimlessly across the beach can put on a fascinating show!"
"Be optimistic. This Director, as head of Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, doesn't spend time wondering when she'll die."
"You people, as the management of Inazuma, have so many people depending on you for their livelihoods and their happiness."
"Spending every day wondering about Eternity: what good does it do?"
"You would do better to hand out some Mora. At least that would make them happy for a while."
"And who knows: maybe their happiness is a form of Eternity in itself?"
Hu Tao spread her hands.
"There it is. Eternity, found."
"If you cannot find meaning, make your own."
"Ryen, Ryen, what was that saying from your world again?"
Ryen blinked, puzzled.
"Life is precious, love is worth more?"
"Not that one!"
Hu Tao's face scrunched with the effort of trying to remember, the words clearly right on the tip of her tongue.
Ryen understood.
"Empty talk ruins nations, hard work builds them!"
"Yes! That one!"
Hu Tao clapped her hands with delight, then turned back to look at Ei and the Shogun with an expression of profound pity.
"Empty talk ruins nations, hard work builds them! You two have absolutely ruined your nation!"