"A good person?" Ronava looked somewhat surprised to hear those words. "Heh, aren't I a being you mortals go to great lengths to avoid? Why would you think that?"
"Because a gentleman judges people by their deeds, not their hearts." Tang Wang continued explaining his view. "Judging by your actions, you were the only one of the Four Shades who faithfully fulfilled her duties, and you absolutely counted as a good person in the ordinary sense."
"Besides, as a matter of objective fact, you did save Natlan."
"Saved?" Though her expression had softened considerably, her tone remained sharp. "I don't understand. In the eyes of Natlan's people, wasn't I the greatest and most evil disaster of all?"
"...If that's really what they think, they don't know how good they had it." Tang Wang couldn't help wiping the sweat from his brow. "You weren't the one who brought the Abyss's disaster, and the Lord of the Night never planned to send Natlan's people to the front lines in the first place."
"What I mean is, under the Lord of the Night's plan, there wouldn't have been any living people on Natlan's land at all-if not for you and Xbalanque."
"In a sense, you and Xbalanque were both founders of Natlan. Without your righteous deeds, the nation of Natlan probably wouldn't exist."
"You're quite reasonable," Ronava said, sounding a little dejected. "But in His eyes, my actions amounted to overstepping..."
"Wait, did you just mention the Lord of the Night and the Sacred Plan?" At that moment, Ronava suddenly sensed something was wrong. "You know 'that name'?"
"Of course I do." He nodded. "Ms. Ronava, I even know about the year the dove held a branch in its beak..."
"Shut up! Don't say it!" Her expression turned panicked at once. "I don't care whether you live or die, but this should be Liyue, shouldn't it? If you drag the God of Contracts' people into this, even if you manage to escape, he won't spare you."
"My goodness, Ms. Ronava, you even believe I can escape a Celestial Nail." Tang Wang gave her a faintly teasing smile. "And since when have you cared so much about whether ordinary people live or die?"
"..." Ronava answered him by turning away and falling into an awkward silence.
"Tang Wang... Your name is Tang Wang, right?" she asked after a while. "You also think I don't understand the weight of life, don't you?"
"Yes." He nodded. "You despise life because you're the Ruler of Death. That's all."
"But," Tang Wang continued, changing tack, "how should I put it? Most people have the right to criticize you for that, except for The Jester, who lives up to his name."
"Heh, funny enough, at first I really thought he was a nice old man who treated Paimon well. When version 7.0 had just come out, I even argued with people in the community about it."
"Then he proved me wrong through his own actions... You're right, but! Eye of the Fatui, release!"
"Oh my god, he knew Khaenri'ah had already blown itself up playing with the Abyss, so how did he dare make Delusions and the Eye of the Fatui? You know, Delusions themselves were made by using the Abyss to imitate the authority of death within the Crimson Moon."
"That's not right." Ronava's voice was low. "Contact with the Abyss is not absolutely forbidden. As long as mortals do not succumb to temptation, the heavenly order does not mind them using it."
"But that's a paradox, like drinking poison to quench your thirst." Tang Wang shook his head. "As far as I remember, everyone who played with the Abyss ended up blowing themselves up."
"But so far, they have not crossed the line." Perhaps simply to refute Tang Wang, Ronava was actually speaking up for The Jester. "So your accusation does not hold."
"I know." Tang Wang nodded. "That was just a complaint on the side."
"What really makes me think The Jester has no right to say that is chiefly what the Fatui have done, and what they themselves have done."
"As the Fatui's director, he let The Doctor cause the Mikage Furnace Incident in Inazuma, let the previous Knave commit atrocities in Fontaine, and personally distributed Delusions, taking countless lives."
"In other words, people from the other six nations all have the right to accuse you of despising life. Only Snezhnaya, especially that Jester himself, has no right to say it."
"Oh?" For once, an interested expression appeared on her face. "I really haven't heard much about these things."
So, under her somewhat eager gaze, Tang Wang gave her a rough account of the rotten things he remembered the Fatui doing.
"Interesting." After listening, Ronava looked somewhat thoughtful. "I didn't expect them to go so far for the Cryo Archon's plan to defy the Heavenly Principles."
"...All right, Ms. Ronava, you really do need to learn to respect life." Seeing that her attention was focused entirely on the wrong thing, Tang Wang couldn't help the violent twitch at the corner of his eye.
"What I mean is, if he can allow those atrocities, he has no right to accuse a guardian who faithfully fulfilled her duties of despising life."
"Of course, what's even more ridiculous is... The Jester himself has disavowed all the dedication and sacrifices of the people you mentioned. According to him, those were all the Harbingers' personal actions and had nothing to do with Snezhnaya."
"As I see it, that's utterly ridiculous. If he can say that, Ms. Ronava, you can also say that everything you did was demanded by Celestia and had nothing to do with your own will."
"Since I decided to do those things, I don't think they had nothing at all to do with my will." Ronava finally turned to face Tang Wang again. "But you are quite upright, like that captain from Natlan."
"Upright? I don't deserve that." Tang Wang gave a wry smile and shook his head slightly. "I'm just a person in the ordinary sense, that's all."
"Simple, straightforward words like good and bad probably aren't enough to define my actions."
"All right." After talking for so long, Ronava seemed finally to have let down her guard around him. She got out of bed and took a few steps forward.
"Human." Looking Tang Wang straight in the eye, she suddenly wore a somewhat inexplicable smile. "Standing before you is the villain who destroyed the Celestial Nails and tried to turn all of Teyvat into sacred land."
"I imagine you didn't know about that yet, did you?" Then she spoke frankly about her own actions, and also explained to Tang Wang the harm that turning the land sacred would cause.
"Once that is done, many people will die because of it."
"After I've done such a thing, do you still think I'm a good person in the ordinary sense you spoke of, one of the Four Shades who faithfully fulfilled her duties?"
After saying this, she stared fixedly at Tang Wang's face. Her gaze held both anticipation and fear. Rather than a "Ruler," she looked more like a child who had botched an exam and was anxious about the teacher's assessment.
"Those who hold an office should attend to its duties." Under her stare, Tang Wang instinctively took a step back. "Celestia had already stripped you of your authority by then, so naturally you no longer had any responsibility to it."
"Besides... logically speaking, there really wasn't anything wrong with what you did."
"Since Snezhnaya is dead set on defying the Heavenly Principles, and the other six nations have all expressed their support openly or otherwise, they have to face a world without the Heavenly Principles."
"What I mean is," Tang Wang said, raising a hand to point at the sky, "the Celestial Nails are protection bestowed by the Heavenly Principles. They can't defy the Heavenly Principles while still enjoying that protection."
"In other words, if they can't even deal with what happens after the Celestial Nails disappear... they might as well give up on defying the Heavenly Principles and go to bed."
When Tang Wang spoke his last word, an eerie silence settled over the room.
Ronava slowly turned away, a few inexplicable tears clinging to her cheeks. In all her long years, this was the first time she had received another person's understanding and acceptance.