"High-profile?"
"Lumine, you seem to have forgotten what my identity is right now."
"I'm Mondstadt's Knight King—the King of Mondstadt personally appointed by Barbatos."
"This status may not compare to Morax, but it's on equal footing with Tianquan Ningguang."
"As Mondstadt's highest leader traveling to another nation, if I'm not a little high-profile, people will only look down on Mondstadt."
"Mondstadt already has a bad reputation in other nations' eyes. If I don't present myself with some flair, they'll think Mondstadt is still that weak, easy-to-bully Mondstadt."
Rowan looked at Lumine strangely. He could understand her ignorance.
Lumine was better suited to being an adventurer—not to getting involved in politics.
Her political sensitivity was really low.
To be fair, Rowan was about the same… but who was he?
He'd read through five thousand years of Chinese history—who could out-politics the Chinese heartland?
After seeing enough of it, even a dog would know how to deter other nations.
Not to mention—Rowan being this high-profile was exactly so the other nations could see what Mondstadt was like now.
Even without Barbatos, he—Mondstadt's Knight King Rowan—could still protect Mondstadt.
So don't get any funny ideas. Otherwise, their fate wouldn't be much better than the Fatui.
Now Mondstadt's wine prices for the Fatui and Snezhnayan merchants had been doubled, making them suffer bitterly.
Of course, someone quickly thought of using middlemen to get around it, but that kind of thing couldn't be hidden.
Once an investigation found you had dealings with the Fatui, your merchant guild would be put directly on the "unwelcome" list—and they simply wouldn't sell you alcohol at all.
Especially after the new distilled wine was successfully developed, Snezhnaya's demand for Mondstadt's alcohol became downright frantic.
But facing those sky-high prices, Snezhnaya truly had no solution.
This was the sin the Fatui had created—now it was their turn to repay it.
Even the Tsaritsa had no choice. She could only pay out of her own pocket to subsidize the price difference.
Fortunately, the Fatui Harbinger "Regrator" was still capable. Since there was no more profit to squeeze from Mondstadt—
Then he'd earn it back from Inazuma, from Sumeru, from Fontaine.
Especially Inazuma and Sumeru, which had been infiltrated into sieves—those two places were so rich they practically leaked oil.
"Regrator" directly took back what he'd lost in Mondstadt from them.
There was no helping it—those two nations' leaders weren't exactly great at using their brains.
One nation had its god fall into isolation after all her friends died, and under the Fatui's schemes, issued the Vision Hunt Decree and the Sakoku Decree—
Basically walking the country into a dead end.
If it weren't for one of the Three Commissions still holding the line and refusing to join the Fatui, then even if Narukami Shrine acted, even if Yae Miko stepped in, it still wouldn't have fixed Inazuma's rotten mess.
If Inazuma was a case of a god actively giving up governing—
Then Sumeru was the complete opposite.
Sumeru's Akademiya "geniuses" had imprisoned the Little Grass God in the Sanctuary of Surasthana for five hundred years.
They had no intention of letting her learn or grow—trying instead to use the Gnōsis to create a god of their own.
Leaving aside how insanely difficult it was to manufacture a god—and whether it could even succeed—
Even if it did succeed, why did they think that being would listen to them?
A bunch of arrogant fools. Even the God of Wisdom had been a clueless child at the start.
Only through constant learning and progress did she become the brilliant, all-knowing Greater Lord Rukkhadevata.
These people not only had no intention of teaching the newborn grass god—
They actually wanted to create a god who "knew all wisdom."
And the key point: they used Scaramouche—that ungrateful traitor—as the experiment.
Idiots among idiots.
They didn't want to pay any price, yet wanted the best outcome. Wasn't that hilarious?
Did they really think the Akademiya was Phanes?
And besides, just look at Scaramouche's way of speaking and acting—his personality was obvious.
Arrogant, domineering—calling that "praise" was already generous.
A person like that was never someone others could easily control.
Yet those so-called wise sages of the Akademiya believed Doctor's casual sweet-talking, and truly thought that after Scaramouche became a god, he would listen to them.
They had water in their brains… and worse.
With those two nations suffering like that, if "Regrator" didn't seize the chance to fleece them, it would be an insult to his position as Snezhnaya's top financial minister.
"Oh… I see."
"Sorry. I didn't think about that layer."
After Rowan's explanation, Lumine finally understood why he was being so high-profile this time.
After living in Mondstadt for a while, she had a rough idea of what Mondstadt used to be like before Rowan arrived.
It was basically the lowest-tier nation on Teyvat—clearly Mondstadt, yet Fatui were everywhere.
It almost felt like it was about to become a vassal state of Snezhnaya.
If Rowan hadn't appeared out of nowhere, driven the Fatui out of Mondstadt, and declared war—clashing with the Tsaritsa on Snezhnaya's border—
How could Mondstadt be as thriving as it was now?
"It's fine. If you're not in that position, you don't have to think about governing."
"You just didn't think that far, that's all."
"Let's go. Let's get on."
"I'll show you Mondstadt's scenery properly, then we'll travel from Stone Gate all the way to Wangshu Inn."
"We'll aim to arrive before noon so we can eat delicious Liyue cuisine at Wangshu Inn."
The most authentic Liyue food was naturally in Liyue Harbor—
But that didn't mean only Liyue Harbor had authentic Liyue dishes.
As the most crucial hub between Liyue and Mondstadt, Wangshu Inn's position spoke for itself.
So the Liyue cuisine there was also top-tier—extremely authentic.
Especially the Almond Tofu there—an immortal's favorite dish.
And because the food and scenery there were both excellent, Wangshu Inn was a very key place.
All kinds of people gathered there, making it the best place to gather intelligence.
So in fact, it was Tianquan Ningguang's intelligence network.
From top to bottom—aside from Xiao, who lived in seclusion on the top floor—everyone there was Ningguang's agent.
It was ridiculous.
Especially the boss there, Verr Goldet.
Rowan knew the situation there extremely well.
But he wasn't avoiding it at all. After all, it was Ningguang who invited them to Liyue for the Rite of Descension.
They could just go openly.
Ningguang had likely already told Verr Goldet and the others that Rowan and his group would be coming to Liyue for the Rite.
And even if she hadn't, seeing Rowan travel to Liyue so high-profile—
Verr Goldet would report it to Ningguang anyway.
They had a special method of contact between them—basically an adeptus artifact developed from a family heirloom of Yelan's.
"Alright, then—let's set off."
"Mm! Let's ride on the West Wind and depart!"
(End of Chapter)
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