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

Nefer did indeed resolve the matter. This was the only feedback Yakoda received three days later. There were no details, no description of the process, and no indication of the specific location of the leak.

Nefert's original words were, "The problem has been resolved and similar situations will not occur again," and that was it.

Yakoda sat in her office, looking at the message over and over again, then put down the panel and stared at the ceiling in silence for a while.

Given her aura when discussing cooperation with Nefer, Yakoda couldn't possibly press her with questions like "How did you solve it?" or "What exactly did you find out?"—such questioning would cause her to lose some of the pressure she had painstakingly built up in the dynamic relationship. So she didn't ask, simply replying "I understand," then placed the panel on the table and began comparing the differences in various data at the training base before and after Nefer's intervention.

Yakoda spent three whole days reviewing the logs and records. From personnel entry and exit registration to material consumption lists, from the time distribution of communication traffic to the abnormal fluctuations of sensors in the base's surrounding environment, she pulled up all the data she could find, compared it line by line, and cross-verified it. Finally, she came to the conclusion that there was no change.

The data curves before and after Nefertory's intervention were completely consistent, and all records maintained their original frequency and distribution, as if nothing had happened.

Yakoda sat at her desk piled high with printed papers, rubbed her temples, and then dialed Fanes's number.

After listening to her report over the phone, Fanes was silent for a moment: "She solved it, and then you didn't ask her how she solved it?"

Yakoda's voice carried a knowing helplessness: "My aura at the time was there. If I had gone back and asked her, 'How did you find out?' all the pressure I had built up at the negotiating table would have been for nothing."

From Fanes's side came the sound of a chair being pushed back: "Okay. I'll come and see."

The next day, Fanes arrived at the training base in the North of Winter and squatted in the base's data room to review the batch of data that Yakoda had compared again.

From the purchase order records to the training ground usage registration form, from the connection time of the communication terminal to the statistics of the number of diners in the canteen, Fanes spent two whole days checking each item one by one, and then stacked the printed data sheets on the table.

"There is no difference. All data curves remain within the normal fluctuation range, with no outliers."

Yakoda leaned against the doorframe and looked at him: "Right? I told you, we can't find anything."

Fanes rearranged the printed paper and put it back in the file box: "The methods of someone like Nefer probably never intended for us to understand from the beginning."

Yakoda stood on the edge of the doorway: "So, we're just leaving it at that?"

Fanes closed the file box: "What else can you do? You can't exactly go back and ask her 'How did you do that?'—you'll never be able to hold your head up in front of her again."

So the matter of the intelligence leak was temporarily put on hold. Until a month later, the servant returned from his vacation overseas.

One afternoon in the second week after the servant returned, Fanes was in his office looking through a report on the progress of the new port area's construction when there was a knock on the door.

Fanes looked up and saw the servant standing in the doorway, holding a stack of papers. The servant's expression was not much different from usual, but Fanes noticed that she entered with a slightly faster pace than usual, as if she already held a definite conclusion in her hand and was considering the order in which to unfold it—she walked to the sofa, sat down, and placed the stack of papers on the coffee table.

"We have results regarding the source of the leak you investigated earlier."

Fanes put down the report and sat down opposite her: "...You found it? We've been comparing data for a month and haven't found anything."

The servant sat on the sofa, picked up the top sheet of paper, flipped it over, revealing a handwritten note on the back: "Supplier. The supplier for the small shop at the entrance of the training base. You checked the communication records, the personnel coming and going, and the material consumption—but you didn't check the purchase ledger of the only shop on the street at the entrance of the base."

Fanes picked up the paper and looked at it. It listed a row of numbers, with each line indicating the date and the corresponding quantity of goods. "You mean, someone calculated the number of trainees and the training time based on the supply volume of the convenience store?"

The servant leaned back in the sofa cushions: "The supplier delivers goods once a week. The sales volume of goods at the shop at the base entrance differs greatly between training and rest periods. When the training team is not at the base, the shop's daily turnover is roughly fixed. Once the training team returns to the base, a group of people go out to buy snacks and daily necessities every afternoon and evening, and the same shelves are replenished much faster than during the rest period."

The servant pointed to several dates on the paper. "Look at these dates. Each delivery showed a clear peak. If you compare the training schedule you have with the dates recorded for this batch of goods, you'll find that they match perfectly in terms of time intervals."

Fanes looked down at the records on the paper. He could indeed see a pattern in the intervals and quantities of each purchase record—the supply increased slightly about three days before training began, remained at a high level for two to three weeks after training started, and then decreased slightly about a week before training ended. He put the paper back on the coffee table and looked up at the servant.

"...Is this the true value of the older generation of intelligence personnel?"

The servant picked up his teacup and took a sip: "It's not about the monetary value, it's about experience. You see the supply records, but all you see are a bunch of numbers. What I see are the behavioral patterns behind those numbers. A supplier doesn't need to know what this team is doing; he only needs to know when and how much they buy each month to deduce their activity cycle and scale."

Fanes leaned back on the sofa in silence for a long while: "...Replace the entire supply chain with my own people. From supply to transportation to warehousing, replace everything with personnel from within the Fools."

The servant looked up from above the teacup: "But you already had Pantalone connect several transit accounts of the Northern Bank to the base's logistics system. If you replace them all with your own people, those approved funds will need to be resubmitted for approval."

Fanes waved his hand: "Then let's resubmit the application. It's better to spend a little more time than for this to happen again."

The servant placed the teacup back on the coffee table: "Leave the intelligence matters to me. You're not suited for this."

The servant paused for a moment, then said, "You just need to focus on earning money to support your family."

Fanes leaned back into the sofa, and this statement wasn't exactly off-topic in his description of his work.

In recent years, he has been mainly responsible for economic management within the Fools' Clique, including foreign procurement, material allocation, and foreign trade negotiations. By winter, the local production capacity has been expanded, and his main task now is to ensure that the sales channels for those products are open and that prices are kept within a reasonable range.

Pantalone would occasionally raise the price slightly above the benchmark he had agreed upon, but that was the Northern Bank's own doing, and Fanes usually pretended not to know.

As for Akoda, her responsibilities are more clearly defined. As the only Demon God-level fighter among the Fatui Executors besides the top three, her work mainly focuses on matters requiring direct military intervention—in cases where negotiations or economic pressure are not feasible, she steps in to complete the final cleanup.

This division of labor has been maintained within the Fools for some time without much controversy.

Fanes stood up from the sofa, walked to the window and looked at the row of birch trees swaying gently in the evening breeze outside the base's perimeter wall. He then looked down at the copy of the supply record that hadn't been put away on the coffee table, picked it up, folded it, and put it in the drawer.

"This kind of intelligence leak will never happen again. From now on, the entire supply chain will be staffed with our own people!"