Genshin Impact: Watch me turn the tables and kill my servants at the start!

As Fanes was squatting on the old sofa in the Mond office, flipping through a report on the production capacity of the new mine in winter, the terminal panel suddenly vibrated.

Fanes picked it up and glanced at it—it was a communication request from Yakoda, marked "urgent." He pressed the answer button, and Yakoda's voice came through at least two beats faster than he usually heard: "Boss, something's happened. The special operations team's training time has been leaked."

Fanes stopped flipping through the report.

Fanes slowly placed the report on his lap and sat up straight: "Say it again."

The background noise from Yakoda's side was very quiet, probably because she had found a secluded corner: "Liyue obtained our special operations team's training schedule, including the start and end times of each training session, as well as the approximate number of personnel. Names weren't leaked because training uses numbers. But the timelines and number of personnel were indeed leaked."

Fanes leaned back on the sofa and went over the sentence in his mind.

The special operations team was personally formed by Fanes. The training location was a closed facility in the northern border region of winter. All participants used digital code names and communicated through encrypted terminal channels.

He personally participated in the design of every part of this system, and all communication protocols and encryption standards have been repeatedly verified. In theory, there should be no path that can be intercepted.

"Wait... how did they know? Aren't we all using terminal devices? How could Liyue intercept even the electrical signals? Or are there a bunch of primitive people who can't even build their own terminal devices! They hacked my network?"

There was a moment of silence on Yakoda's end, as if she was confirming her next words.

"Boss, we're investigating this too. We've checked all the personnel involved in the training plan's development and scheduling, and haven't found anything unusual. There's also no record of external access to the terminal device's background logs."

Fanes stood up from the sofa and walked to the window, looking out at the afternoon streets of Mondstadt through the glass. He mentally reviewed the entire chain of information: "Could there be a mole within?"

Yakoda's voice came back from the other end: "It shouldn't be. I've questioned everyone involved in this operation—from planning to logistics to site maintenance, I've spoken to each and every one of them in person, including their daily communication records and activity logs. There are no problems. If someone leaked information, it wouldn't be in such an untraceable way."

Fanes stood by the window, watching as the orange cat across the street, which had been sunbathing in front of the bakery, was startled by a passing child, jumped down the steps, and disappeared into the alley.

"...Where is the servant? We must find out this as soon as possible; her intelligence network has a wider coverage than ours."

There was another moment of silence on Yakoda's end: "Um... it seems my servant went on a sea vacation with Clementine recently. They said he won't be back for a month."

Fanes stood by the window for a moment. The orange cat had reappeared at the alley entrance, circled back along the wall to its original spot in front of the bakery, and squatted down again, its tail swaying slowly on the edge of the threshold. Fanes turned back and sat down on the sofa.

"Fine. Let's use Plan B then."

Fanes picked up the half-cold cup of tea on the table and took a sip. "Have that little brother of yours named Nefer, whom you recently took in, investigate him."

There was a moment of silence on Yakoda's end: "...Nefer?"

Fanes put the teacup back on the table: "Right. Doesn't she own a secret archive? She should be able to find something out, right?"

Akoda's voice carried a hesitation rarely seen in Fanes: "Boss... how should I put it, Nefer does run a secret archive and does run an intelligence business—but her style is quite different from the Fools'. She operates on a 'take what you need' principle, not the kind of person who would work for you for free."

Fanes picked up the report again and turned a page: "Then let her name her price. Intelligence is expensive for a reason. As long as she can find the source of the leak, money is not a problem."

Yakoda thought for a moment and said, "...Okay, I'll contact her. But boss, I have to tell you beforehand—Nefell is a bit roundabout in her way of speaking. When you talk to her, you'd better be mentally prepared. She won't give you direct answers, she'll only give you some 'clues' and you'll have to piece them together yourself."

Fanes turned a page of the report: "Is that the kind of speaking style she's good at? Hiding the answers in a bunch of nonsense and making you pick and choose what to hear?"

Yakoda corrected her: "Pretty much. But she's a bit higher—she doesn't even talk nonsense, she just says things that seem completely unrelated, and then you have to figure out the answer yourself. The first time I dealt with her, it took me three days to figure out what her first sentence meant."

Fanes closed the report and placed it on the corner of the table: "That's even better. The fact that this kind of person isn't easily tricked into revealing information shows that she's also good at protecting her intelligence sources. Let her name her price; you don't need her to provide the final conclusion, just the direction of the investigation. We'll handle the rest ourselves."

Yakoda replied, "Okay. I'll go find her now."

After the call ended, Fanes placed the terminal panel on the table. The orange cat was still squatting at the entrance of the bakery, its tail dangling gently on the edge of the threshold, its eyes half-closed as it watched the pedestrians coming and going on the street.

Fanes leaned back in his chair, his gaze fixed on the orange cat dozing in the sunlight outside the window. He thought about Jakoda's last words about Nefertari—her roundabout way of speaking, her tendency to hide answers in unrelated things—but what he needed wasn't a direct answer. He just wanted a clue, a direction, a starting point to know which way to investigate.

That evening, Yakoda's communication returned. Her voice was lighter than in the afternoon: "Boss, Nefertari took the job. She said she doesn't want Mora, but wants to open a branch on the vacant lot next to the training facility in the Winter's End North."

Fanes was putting a signed document into a folder when he heard this and paused: "...A branch? What would she need that for? She's not short of money, how many Mora would she earn by opening a branch?"

From Yakoda's end came the sound of papers turning: "She said that place has 'a high enough density of information flow' to be suitable as an intelligence hub. She also said that if you agree, she can also set up her own monitoring network around that facility for you, so that she can cut off any information leaks at the source."

Fanes put the folder back on the table, leaned back in his chair for a while, and said, "...Okay. Tell her the land is fine with her, and she can set up the monitoring network. But there's one condition—her monitoring network data must be shared with us."

There was a moment of silence on Yakoda's end, as if she were writing down those words. After a while, her voice rang out again: "She said it's okay. She asked me to tell you something—'A snake doesn't coil itself in a tree to admire the view, but to know which way the wind is blowing.'"

Fanes paused for a moment on the other end of the phone: "...Give her a message for me—'If the roots of that tree are eaten away by insects, the snake won't stay long either.'"

After the call ended, Fanes remained seated on the sofa, not getting up immediately. The twilight outside the window was slowly settling along the street's outline. The orange cat across the street was no longer at the bakery; he wondered if it had gone home or found a warmer spot to sit.

Fanes picked up the cup of tea, which had gone completely cold, took another sip, and then stood up and put the cup back on the table.

Nefer's Secret Archives is a stronghold of the intelligence community. If we can bring her into our system, then the intelligence network in the northern region until winter will be fully formed.

Fanes glanced again at the street outside the window, which had become completely dark. The streetlights were on, casting a warm yellow glow around the bakery where the orange cat had squatted, covering a warm-colored area on the ground roughly the same size as the area the cat had occupied during the day.