"You want me to withdraw Mondstadt's declaration of war against Snezhnaya?"
"That's right!"
Under the Tsaritsa's faintly expectant gaze, Rowan spoke slowly.
"Simple. Ten billion mora."
"Don't push your luck!"
At "ten billion mora," the Tsaritsa's face went cold.
For Snezhnaya, ten billion wasn't insurmountable.
For the Fatui, it wasn't even outrageous.
Each Harbinger on assignment had a fixed operating budget—
About ten billion, give or take.
Especially a certain Tartaglia—just to cozy up to Zhongli, he'd already burned well over ten billion.
Regrator could only grumble a few lines, then still dutifully bankroll Tartaglia.
What could he do? The Northland Bank had branches across all Seven Nations, a monopoly none could match.
How much sat in Snezhnaya's treasury—even the Tsaritsa herself couldn't say.
At the very least, it rivaled wealthy Liyue.
But with the Traveler soon to wake and the Gnosis plan gearing up,
Costs would spike geometrically.
To keep the plan intact, the Tsaritsa had to keep Snezhnaya's coffers full.
If Rowan put the Gnosis on the table to exchange for that ten billion, she might have let it pass.
But he was only talking about withdrawing a declaration of war.
The Gnosis wasn't included—that she could not accept.
She glared and snapped:
"Heh… heh heh heh—"
"You think I'm going too far? Hahahahaha!"
Rowan's anger sharpened, rolling into bitter laughter that rang across the Snezhnayan Sea.
Morax looked at him, puzzled by the fury.
Venti's expression, though, didn't change—he already understood why Rowan wanted that much mora.
With his usual laid-back nature, he would've cracked a joke to muddy the water, or even spoken up for the Tsaritsa.
But, unusually, he only traded a glance with Morax that said "wait," and held his tongue.
The Tsaritsa didn't understand what Rowan found funny. Her voice turned colder.
"What are you laughing at? What's so funny?"
"Oh, it's very funny."
"Funny enough to make my sides hurt."
Rowan's face chilled; his eyes locked on the Tsaritsa.
"You dare ask why I want ten billion?"
"Then let me ask you—do you remember when the Fatui came to Mondstadt to conscript a few years ago?"
Without waiting for her reply, Rowan pressed on.
"To force Mondstadt to agree to your 'official conscription'—which was, in truth, a plan to use those people for human experimentation."
"The Doctor triggered Durin's rampage, which led to Crepus, Diluc's father, falling in battle."
"Do you know how many Mondstadters died in that attack?"
Because of that, the sunny, openhearted boy that Diluc should have been changed completely,
Becoming the man who now wore a perpetual cat-cold expression.
It was after that he left the Knights of Favonius and began hunting the Fatui's trail.
Under Rowan's questions, the Tsaritsa stayed silent.
She had no words.
"..."
She'd heard of the Doctor's methods.
When Pierro first brought him into the Fatui, the First Harbinger opposed it vehemently.
But the Tsaritsa had been curious about the Doctor's capabilities; when he demonstrated an ability to massively boost Fatui combat power,
Snezhnaya—desperate then to harness any usable strength—saw it as a pure upgrade.
She set aside the Captain's objections,
Let the Doctor join the Fatui, and even granted him a top-three seat—with power nigh to a god.
Because of this, the Captain refused to return to Snezhnaya for years,
Haunting the Silent Sea or fighting the Abyss in Natlan,
But never coming home.
His quiet resistance to the Tsaritsa's decision.
"If that had been the end of it, perhaps we could have let it go—but the Doctor didn't stop."
"He returned to Mondstadt to crawl through the gutters again—only to be thwarted once more."
"Yet every year, people still vanish from Mondstadt. Can you swear that has nothing to do with your Fatui?"
"Not just Mondstadt—Liyue, Inazuma, Sumeru, Fontaine. Where have you not infiltrated?"
"Have you done too few human experiments?"
"Ten billion is nothing more than justice I'm claiming for Mondstadt!"
"Cryo Queen—if you won't settle this, then let's go to war."
"Fight, or don't—your choice."
Rowan finished and said no more.
He simply drank his tea, as if all those words had parched his throat.
Those accusations were deductions drawn from the known tale.
The Fatui's reputation across the Seven was abysmal—not merely for arrogance,
But for inhuman deeds.
The Doctor's work was something no person should do.
Rowan dared say there was not a single nation in Teyvat whose people the Doctor had not "studied."
Even Snezhnaya would not be an exception.
Those wielding Delusions were all his experimental fodder.
The least harmed, perhaps, were mighty Liyue and closed-off Natlan.
Natlan had the Captain stationed long-term—the Doctor wouldn't dare.
However he rated himself, before a superior like the Captain, he wouldn't make waves.
The Captain already disliked him; if he showed up unprovoked, he'd likely be cut down without hesitation.
Plenty of Doctor "slices" anyway—what's one more dead?
As for Liyue, the old man watched constantly; should the Doctor overstep, a single Ten-Thousand-Rocks-Fall would end him.
You could tell by how the Fatui base in Liyue hid out in the wasteland near the ruins of Jueyun Karst.
They feared being noticed by Zhongli—and flattened beneath a falling mountain.
In the end, the Tsaritsa could not decide alone. She spoke:
"I'll return and discuss it."
"As you please."
(End of Chapter)
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