"Um... I think what Lars means is that you shouldn't make him that relevant to your government anymore." Lumine interjected before anyone else misunderstood. "You guys should write policies assuming that he and his expedition won't return. And the emergency powers that he gave you would quietly become standard operating procedure."
"And once the system works without him, his relevance shrinks naturally. No confrontation required. But it seems you've already done that." Jean nodded. It was true. By now, Jean doesn't need Varka's approval if the city, the Knights, the Church, and key figures already trust her judgment.
"Then by using your logic that titles lag behind reality, if people already look to Jean for decisions, then functionally, you are saying she is technically the Grand Master, not one that is acting in place for Varka." Lars shrugged at Lisa's words.
"I mean, to me it seems that way. Just look at how everyone actually respects her during the rescue efforts. They all look to her for help. If that isn't them silently acknowledging you, I don't know what is."
Jean looked down silently. She can't believe that she's taking political advice from outsiders. But maybe this was needed, someone needed to call it out. Better late than never it seems.
"At this point, it's better to treat him as an unknown variable consuming manpower and horses while providing zero strategic value to the city's present."
"Wow, way to call someone a burden." Paimon commented. Lars chuckled at that.
"Power doesn't always overthrow. Sometimes it simply adapts and leaves the old assumptions behind. So what about it, Jean?" Jean sighed. Now she really was in a dilemma, a really painful one at that.
On one side is duty as she understands it. Jean was raised on the idea that when something is wrong, you step forward and fix it yourself. You don't wait for committees. You don't risk delay. You don't let people get hurt because the process wasn't ready yet. In crises, her instincts have saved lives. They've also trained everyone around her to lean on her without realizing it.
On the other side is duty as she's beginning to understand it. The realization that by always stepping in, she is teaching Mondstadt the wrong lesson, that it's acceptable for systems to be fragile as long as someone heroic exists to patch them. That's a brutal insight for someone whose identity is built around being reliable.
That's the dilemma. If Jean continues as she is, she protects people now but weakens the city later. If she pulls back to build structure, she risks short-term failures that could hurt real people. She hated that trade-off, it feels morally wrong either way.
There's also a deeper emotional conflict. Jean's sense of worth is tied to usefulness. Delegating authority and letting others fail even safely feels like shirking responsibility.
Intellectually, she can see that decentralization is necessary. Emotionally, it feels like abandonment. The same city that depends on her is the one she's being asked to stop saving personally.
And then there's Varka. Oh how she has so much to say about that.
Every reform she considers implicitly critiques his choice to leave. Jean doesn't want her reforms to look like accusation. She respects him, genuinely. But she also knows respect doesn't equal agreement. That tension makes every structural change feel politically charged, even when it's just common sense.
She got up, and stood near the window, staring at the city that she loved dearly. She saw that tents were being set up, and noticed that there were some bards singing around the campfire, with people gathering around and clapping with the beat, some even dancing. Even though the people suffered, they're finding small ways to get back up.
That made her really realize something Mondstadt can rebuild itself. She's seen it happen, in old history books, and now im front of her. After old tyrannies fell, after disasters, after gods stepped back, the city didn't collapse into chaos.
Ordinary people picked up tools, reopened shops, sang songs again. Mondstadt has institutional memory for survival that doesn't rely on a single ruler or a single miracle.
"Maybe...I need to learn restraint...." She trusts its people. What she struggles with is trusting herself to not interfere when things go wrong in small, survivable ways. Letting a city rebuild is easy in theory. Letting it stumble when she knows she could catch it is the agonizing part.
'Loving Mondstadt doesn't mean suffering for it alone.' She exhaled before looking at Lars, Lumine and Paimon.
"May I please have a moment with them." She beckoned towards Lisa and Kaeya with a smile. The two nodded before exiting the room. Jean sighed as she sat back down on her seat, Lisa and Kaeya now in front of her.
"I won't let this city depend on my suffering to survive, not anymore." She declared before taking out a pen and paper. Lisa and Kaeya's eyes widened a little as their Grand Master smiled at them.
"C'mon, won't you two help me build a better Mondstadt?"
...
"Well I'm glad that went well." Lumine mumbled as they stepped out of the headquarters.
"Never thought I would actually change her mind." Lumine looked at him with a strange gaze.
"Why did you bring it up in the first place? What was the point? I don't see you gaining anything out of this." Lars shrugged.
"Meh, It's just who I am. I call out bullshit when I see it. And I'd like this city to still be standing and not implode on itself thank you very much."
"You do realize that by doing this, you'll be making her more and more unnecessary."
"Well I wouldn't say that, in fact I think she'd become more of a living legend than she already is. Varka's legend is heroic and directional, he's the knight who goes out to face the unknown. Meanwhile Jean's legend is gravitational, she's the one who keeps everything from flying apart. Both can exist, but only one is reproducible."
"So if future leaders look at Varka, they see a standard they can't safely copy. If they look at Jean, they see a model they can learn from. Her legacy would matter more in the long run, because she changed what Mondstadt considers admirable. She'd be remembered as the one who held when there was nothing to lean on."
"Take it this way, a city that once idolized absence learns to honor presence, that once relied on singular heroes learns to value shared responsibility. Jean would literally rewrite what the word 'legend' means. And in a place like Mondstadt? That's about as immortal as anyone gets." Lumine nodded, her lifts pursing a little.
"That's nice.... Well now I'm glad you said something." Lumine smiled at him before glancing at a campfire. They stopped to see a small concert happening. People dancing, eating and singing together.
"Wanna dance, milady?" Lumine gasped as Lars suddenly held out his hand to her. She blushed, before reluctantly taking his hand as they rushed towards the camp together.
The people were surprised to say the least, to see the two heroes dancing together, albeit awkwardly.
But really, what'd they expect? The two don't even know how to dance.
To be continued.....
(Hmm maybe overboard with the politics and Varka slander. But hey, nation building is fun to write.)
( Jean definitely has all three types of Haki though. But my take is her conqueror's isn't advanced, only her observation and armament Haki are advanced.)