In Teyvat, it all begins with rescuing the grass god.

Rhodes nodded and replied, "Someone will come to solve this problem."

"?"

This ambiguous statement made Qin frown slightly.

Lisa, however, seemed to be thinking about something and said, "The blonde traveler you asked me about before?"

A blonde traveler?

Qin turned to look at Lisa, her eyes showing confusion.

She hadn't heard Lisa mention this to her.

So Rhodes described the general characteristics of the traveler to her. He didn't know whether the traveler in this world was male or female, so he didn't say the gender, but only mentioned that the traveler had blonde hair and carried a talking flying object.

"This traveler can clean the poisonous blood off Dvalin's back without taking any damage. All you need to do is find a way to get her to Dvalin, and then keep Dvalin occupied so that she has enough time to cleanse herself of the poisonous blood."

Rhodes's confident attitude did not completely convince Jean.

in contrast.

She was still somewhat skeptical.

From Rhodes' words, he didn't know the traveler, so what made him so sure that the traveler could cleanse Dvalin's poisonous blood?

for all this.

Rhodes still belongs to the omniscience and omnipotence of the grass god.

"The Grass Goddess is an all-knowing and all-powerful goddess of wisdom. What she approves of will not go wrong, so you can rest assured."

then.

Rod changed the subject, moving on to two other things.

"Leaving aside the Tvalin matter."

"What you need to pay the most attention to right now are the Fools and the Abyss Order."

"I've already heard some of the rumors circulating in the city."

"It's obvious that someone deliberately spread this message to incite conflict between the Mondstadt people and the East Wind Dragon, so that your Knights of Favonius can't use goodwill to persuade Dvalin to give up his continued attacks on Mondstadt."

"The beneficiaries of this matter."

“There are fools, there is the order of the abyss.”

"But the Abyss Order doesn't need to do that, because they only need to continue using the power of the Abyss to corrupt Dvalin. In time, Dvalin will naturally go mad and become uncontrollable, until he becomes a weapon of the Abyss."

"Therefore, I am 90% certain that these rumors are being spread by fools."

Rhodes methodically analyzed the situation in Mondstadt.

And he quickly came up with a solution.

"We want to address this kind of rumor."

"It's useless for you to explain to the people of Mondstadt that Stormterror is actually the Dragon of the East that was cursed and turned into this state. They are now convinced that Stormterror is a monster that is causing chaos. As long as the Knights of Favonius do not go to defeat it, you are incompetent, useless and cowardly trash. You will be condemned by the people of Mondstadt until you are forced to go to war with Stormterror."

"And we want to reverse this disadvantage in public opinion."

"You'd better give them a taste of their own medicine."

Treat someone as they treat you?

This statement, which no one had ever heard before, left both Qin and Lisa momentarily stunned.

However, being as clever as they were, they quickly realized what was going on and asked, "You mean, we should also spread rumors about the Fools, preferably to the point that they won't have the energy to target us anymore?"

"Yes."

Rhodes nodded and offered advice: "The Fatui are very shady and have done a lot of evil deeds over the years. You can use these things as a topic of conversation. If you do it well, the Fatui will not only be unable to use rumors against you, but they may also be unable to stay in Mondstadt safely any longer."

"for example."

"The Fools plotted an attack on Lord Cripps and Young Master Diluc at the Dawn Winery, which resulted in Lord Cripps's death."

"For example."

"Irok, the chief inspector of the Knights of Favonius, accepted bribes from the Fools and deliberately provoked young master Diluc with his words, ultimately causing the Knights of Favonius to lose this brilliant cavalry captain."

"Oh, so you can spread messages like that."

"The Fatui's recruitment in Mondstadt was actually a way to take people to Winter Solstice for human experimentation, making them the test subjects for their development of biological weapons."

Jean stopped writing as soon as Rhodes began recounting the events surrounding Cripps' death and attack, and looked at Rhodes with utter astonishment.

Lisa is relatively better.

However, he had a serious expression, and his fingers were unconsciously tapping the armrest of the chair, clearly deep in thought.

The things Rod said were not baseless smears or slanders.

All of these are genuine events that actually happened.

four years ago.

Cripps Legenfender, the richest man in Mondstadt and owner of Château de la Dawn, was attacked by a dragon on his way home after celebrating his son Diluc Legenfender's coming-of-age ceremony. Cripps fought bravely but died.

afterwards.

His son, Diluc Legnfind, the youngest captain-level warrior in the history of the Knights of Favonius, had a big argument with Inspector General Ylock and then angrily left the Knights of Favonius, even discarding his Eye of God.

This incident caused a huge uproar at the time.

Everyone is speculating about who the murderer is.

It wasn't until the Grand Master ordered a thorough investigation into the matter and began to punish Yrok, the culprit who had stolen Cripps's credit and caused Diluc's departure from the Knights of Favonius, and returned the honor of defeating the dragon to Cripps, that the truth of the matter came to light.

Qin was in charge of investigating this matter.

But from beginning to end.

She found no connection between these two events and the Fools.

Even said.

Because the person who killed the dragon to avenge Kripps was the second executor of the Fatui, Dr., Mondstadt owed him a huge favor and had no choice but to grant the Fatui's request to recruit soldiers in Mondstadt.

Now that Rhodes said that...

Qin suddenly realized.

If all these things are attributed to the Fools, it seems that they can all be explained.

The Doctor releases a dragon to kill Cripps. Yrox takes a bribe and deliberately provokes Diluc, causing the Knights of Favonius to lose Diluc after losing Cripps. The Doctor then kills the dragon, gaining favor with Mondstadt, and uses this to collect test subjects for the Fatui's human experiments.

They're all connected!

"How...how do you know all this?"

Qin could no longer sit still and asked anxiously.

The stakes are high.

If it is indeed confirmed that what happened back then was the work of the Fools, then given the Grand Master's personality, he will not let this go easily.

However, Rhodes vehemently denied the veracity of these claims.

He spread his hands and said, "I already said it, spreading rumors. Rumors, who knows if they're true or false? I've thought about it and there are a few things that are very strange about Mondstadt, and they're related to the Fatui. They're quite suitable to use as a basis for our argument."

That's what it says.

But Rhodes knew very well that apart from whether Irok had actually accepted bribes from the Fools, everything else was an undeniable fact that the Fools couldn't easily deny.

This trick works very well.

Qin thought about it again and again, but she still had some concerns.

"If this rumor gets out, it will affect Diluc's side."

Based on my understanding of this senior, I know that once he learns of this, he will probably take his sword and go directly to the Fools' Sect to demand an explanation.

If this is not handled properly, it could lead to a diplomatic conflict.

However, her concerns only made Rod laugh and say, "That's exactly the effect I wanted."

"ah--?"

Qin paused for a moment.

"Oh~ I understand."

"What a great move to kill someone with a borrowed knife."

Lisa laughed along, looking at Rhodes with admiration, and said, "Not a bad idea, we can give it a try."

"Lisa, why are you saying that too!"

Lisa's attitude drew some dissatisfaction from Qin.

As for the zither.

Peace and tranquility in Mondstadt are more important than anything else.

Sending Diluc into conflict with the Fatui is not a good thing.

"Oops——"

"Qin, it's because you worry about too many things that you've been bullied like this by the Fools."

Lisa explained the situation to Rhodes: "Diluc is no longer a member of the Knights of Favonius, and since it involves his father's murder, even if he has a conflict with the Fatui, it can be done in a personal capacity and is unlikely to escalate to a diplomatic level. If the Fatui raise objections, you can smooth things over or simply side with Diluc, saying that the Knights of Favonius also have suspicions about the matter and hope that the Fatui can cooperate with the investigation. Faced with public pressure, even if the Fatui are unwilling, they will have to cooperate and let Diluc thoroughly investigate this old case. In this way, with Diluc's hands tied, they won't have time to make trouble for us."

Say it.

She added a final compliment: "If the truth is really as you say, Junior Brother, then the Fatui will have to pay the price for their blood debt from back then. If the truth isn't as you say, Junior Brother, while the Fatui are dealing with Diluc, we can quickly find Stormterror's location and see if we can use the Traveler's power to remove the poisonous blood from its back. This is a rare opportunity, a truly brilliant solution that kills two birds with one stone."

Qin reluctantly accepted this explanation.

Although she didn't want Diluc to get involved in this mess, she really couldn't think of a good way to deal with the increasing diplomatic pressure from the Fatui.

These troublesome matters made it difficult for her to focus all her energy on Stormterror.

"Then let's do it."

"Mr. Rhodes, could you please draft a detailed document for me? I'll find someone to do it."

Having made her decision, Qin asked, "Mr. Rhodes just mentioned that the Abyss Order is secretly instigating the East Wind Dragon. Do you have any leads on this?"