Undercover in Snezhnaya, My Teyvat Spy Life [77]

Actually, it was two days earlier, The Ninth Harbinger, Pantalone—The "Regrator" and the Fatui's greatest financier—had already arrived quietly in Mondstadt with his retinue.

Yet after entering the city, Pantalone didn’t go to the Goth Grand Hotel to meet with Artem. Instead, he took his time touring the city, sending his subordinates to investigate the prices of goods and recent market fluctuations.

Not only that: they even managed to find out exactly how much spare mora the citizens of Mondstadt had on hand.

Once their investigation was complete, Pantalone personally wrote up a detailed economic report on Mondstadt.

Only then did he seek out Artem, questioning him closely about the city’s financial situation.

As for Artem’s earlier, rather conspicuous “money-splashing” that had caused rumors of him funneling funds to the enemy—Pantalone never mentioned it.

After hearing from Artem about Mondstadt’s dire fiscal straits and combining that with his own research, a spark of excitement lit up in Pantalone’s eyes.

As the greatest capitalist in all of Teyvat, he immediately sensed this was the perfect opportunity to extract profit from Mondstadt.

And when it came to the architect of all this chaos—

Pantalone made no effort to hide his admiration for Artem. He said outright that, if not for Artem’s current allegiance to Arlecchino, he would’ve tried to poach him for himself.

After that, Pantalone stayed up late drafting a set of guidelines and procedures for opening a Northland Bank branch, handing off preparations to his trusted aides.

But—

Plans were just that: plans. Turning them into reality would not be so easy.

Pantalone had actually tried to open a Northland Bank in Mondstadt more than a decade earlier. But relations between the two nations were hostile then. Mondstadt’s people boycotted the bank so fiercely that, after weighing the risks and profits, Pantalone had eventually given up on the idea.

Even now, anti-Snezhnayan sentiment still lingered in Mondstadt.
So despite the Fatui’s recent surge in popularity, unless Mondstadt was hit with truly dire pressure, opening a Northland Bank would still face fierce resistance.

And that was how, after some discussion, Artem’s current mission was set:

Target: Completely destroy Dawn Winery’s liquor trade, and leave Mondstadt with empty pockets.

To achieve this goal—

The simplest and most direct way was to kill Crepus and his two sons. Throwing the winery into chaos would deepen Mondstadt’s financial crisis.

Just as Pulcinella had once ordered.

It was the fastest, most effective method.

But the Knights of Favonius weren’t fools. They’d taken precautions against just this kind of risk.

Before Varka left Mondstadt, he’d already dispatched people to guard the Dawn Winery.
And after Jean brought in Albedo, the place was arguably the second-safest in all Mondstadt—second only to the city itself.

When Artem first set the mission, Leonid had spent days lurking around the estate, but never found a good opportunity to strike. Several times, he’d nearly been discovered.

If assassination wasn’t possible, there was still another option: kill Crepus during Ursa’s attack on the winery.

But the whole point of unleashing the dragon was to ruin the Knights’ reputation. If the dragon was used simply to murder Crepus, it would be as good as announcing to the world—“the Fatui are behind this!”

And in that case, the Knights’ opposition to the Northland Bank would only intensify. The plan would completely backfire.

Clearly, assassinating Crepus was anything but easy.

So, after much deliberation, Artem decided on a more unconventional approach.

---

Crepus sat hunched over a long ledger, sighing over and over.

Ever since his betrayal of Mondstadt had come to light, he’d donated much of his wealth—free of charge—to help the city resist Snezhnaya’s crushing conscription levies, hoping to restore the Ragnvindr family’s good name.

Then came the dragon disaster. Despite the winery’s own heavy losses, he’d made yet another large donation of supplies and mora.

The result: in just a few days, Dawn Winery’s liquid funds had been completely drained.

But Crepus could only swallow his bitterness and press on.

As a descendant of the Dawn Knights, once leaders of the rebellion against the Lawrences, his family—together with the Gunnhildrs—had controlled Mondstadt’s military, political, and commercial spheres for a thousand years. The Ragnvindr family had always been the economic pillar of the city.

Yet, by Crepus’s generation, their fortunes had faded.
Without a [Vision], without any remarkable talent, he’d never made it into the Knights of Favonius.

That left him no choice but to focus entirely on business, forever locked out of Mondstadt’s true halls of power.

And in those years, Snezhnaya had imposed economic blockades to force Mondstadt’s submission.

For the first time, the Dawn Winery ran into real financial trouble.

Desperate, Crepus had reached out to a Fatui Harbinger, trading away the futures of several children for Snezhnaya’s help—lifting the embargo on his wine and receiving a [Delusion] of his own.

With those ill-gotten gains, Dawn Winery, once freed, surged back with a vengeance, seizing near-monopoly over Mondstadt’s liquor trade.

And for all Crepus’s lack of personal strength, through sheer wealth, he’d finally managed to stand on equal footing with Varka and Seamus Pegg, restoring the Ragnvindr family’s name.

Yet that [Delusion] from the Fatui—while it brought him power—had also planted a hidden curse at the heart of the winery.

“Ah—”

Crepus let out a heavy sigh, his brows knotted tight.

Years later, the winery was once again deep in the red.

And this time, the shortfall was so great it seemed impossible to patch.

To make things worse, bad news just kept coming.

First, ten shiploads of wine bound for Inazuma were destroyed by Stormterror, and the destruction of Ginsborough Port had thrown shipping into chaos.

Next, the trade route to Liyue had been overrun by monsters; not even the Knights’ escorts could save the caravans.

Now the Dawn Winery was left with stock it couldn’t move and faced enormous penalty payments for breach of contract.

The Inazuman and Liyue merchants couldn’t care less that “force majeure” had delayed his shipments—

They saw a golden opportunity to squeeze him for every last mora, and they weren’t going to let it slip by.

“Damn it!”

“That blasted Stormterror dragon! If not for him, none of this would have happened!”

Crepus pounded the table in frustration.

But anger was useless.

Mondstadt, battered by the dragon’s rampage, was struggling to recover.
The local market just wasn’t enough to keep things afloat.
Both Mondstadt City and the winery were desperate for funds.

I have to find a way to bring in some big orders from abroad…

After much thought, Crepus reluctantly picked up his pen.

Contact all foreign merchants. Lower all wine prices to 70%—buyer handles shipping.

No sooner had he finished writing—

He felt his whole office jolt beneath him.

“!”

“An earthquake?”

He’d barely gotten to his feet when the shaking grew violent.
Furniture and ornaments crashed to the floor and shattered.

“Master!”

“Something’s wrong!”

“The dragon Ursa is attacking us!!”

With that agonized scream, Crepus collapsed to the floor, his heart pounding wildly.

---

This is a fan translation of 提瓦特之我在至冬做臥底 by 曉風殘月聽荷 All rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!