Undercover in Snezhnaya, My Teyvat Spy Life [31]

“Refusing to cooperate with us?”

“Grand Master Varka, is this how Mondstadt treats its guests?”

Hearing Frederica’s words, Artem couldn’t stay seated any longer. He shot to his feet, slamming his hand on the table and barking, “Is that really the attitude of Mondstadt?”

Varka’s own expression soured. He snapped, “Frederica, sit down.”

Once he’d put Frederica in her place, Varka turned to Artem with an apologetic face. “My apologies, Envoy. Frederica spoke out of turn, that’s all.”

“Hmph, a slip of the tongue, is it?”

Or was that what she really thinks?

Seeing Varka’s humble tone, Krupp, who had shrunk back just moments before, puffed himself up with arrogance again.

“Heh, Envoy, you must be joking,” Krupp drawled. “Of course she didn’t mean it.”

Varka ignored him completely, shrugging with feigned indifference. “It’s not that I don’t want to cooperate, but the truth is, Mondstadt’s citizens don’t know how to do anything except drink. I’m afraid it’ll be hard to meet Snezhnaya’s requirements.”

“That’s not a problem.”

“As long as they’re believers in the Seven, they can serve Her Majesty The Tsaritsa.”

“All you need to do is provide us with suitable young candidates. With our training, they’ll become the pride of the Fatui.”

Krupp cackled weirdly.

Varka’s expression darkened at that. Narrowing his eyes, he asked, “So the Fatui plan to forcibly conscript from Mondstadt now?”

“That’s only righ—”

Before Krupp could finish, Artem clamped a hand down on his shoulder, forcibly shoving him back into his chair.

“Artem, you son of a—!”

Krupp had barely started to curse when Artem glared coldly at him and cut in, his voice low and menacing. “Shut your filthy mouth. Haven’t you embarrassed us enough?”

Krupp froze, stunned by the reprimand.

He was about to snap back when he caught Artem shooting him a look. Following Artem’s gaze, Krupp suddenly realized that every Knight of Favonius in the room was staring at them with murder in their eyes.

The cold sweat he’d just managed to wipe away instantly returned in full force.

After putting Krupp in his place, Artem affected a thoughtful pause before smiling brightly.

“Well, since the Grand Master is so unwilling to show us any respect…”

“We’ll just have to do it our way.”

“The Fatui will set up our own recruitment stations right here in the city. If the Knights of Favonius have what it takes, then go ahead and keep your Mondstadters away from our recruitment lines.”

“I imagine a nation that prides itself on freedom wouldn’t stoop to forcibly twisting its people’s will, right?”

Recruit our own?

Those four words echoed in everyone’s minds, leaving a giant question mark hanging in the air.

It sounded innocuous enough, but in reality, there was so much room to maneuver.

And that phrase—the will of Mondstadt’s people—was even more slippery, the perfect loophole for endless debate.

What exactly did “the will of Mondstadt’s people” mean?

“Are you going to drag residents of Mondstadt away by force, then claim it was their own choice?”

Frederica snorted coldly, cutting straight to the heart of the matter.

Her aggressive tone actually earned Varka’s silent praise.

Bringing the hot-tempered head of the Gunnhildr Clan along had clearly been the right call. She’d said everything he’d wanted to say—no need for him to waste his breath.

“That won’t be necessary,” Artem replied with a faint smile. “Mondstadt may be weak, but we’ll still show you a bit of face.”

“We’ll stick to Snezhnaya’s recruitment methods. If you’re capable of keeping your citizens away, more power to you. But if you can’t, then those people will belong to the Fatui.”

“So, Grand Master, what do you say?”

“All right.” Varka didn’t argue as before; after only a brief pause, he nodded his agreement.

“Grand Master?!”

The rest of the Mondstadters erupted in protest.

Letting Snezhnayans recruit openly in Mondstadt was, to them, a humiliation—how could Varka agree to it so easily?

Varka raised a hand to silence them, then looked to Artem. “Is that sufficient for you to report to The Tsaritsa, Envoy?”

“You certainly know how to read the situation, Grand Master.”

Artem clapped politely and smiled. “In that case, we’ll establish our recruitment station in the city tomorrow.”

“Very well.”

Varka nodded again.

With that settled, they dove into hashing out the contract details.

Since The Doctor’s standards for “experimental materials” were so high, fierce arguments broke out over the recruitment criteria.

Krupp, meanwhile, was like a runaway horse.

His mouth fired off like a machine gun, laying into everyone in the room, one after another, for hours on end—never even pausing for water.

In the end, under his relentless barrage, Varka and the others grudgingly agreed on a proposal.

It still didn’t quite meet The Doctor’s full demands.

But it was a compromise both sides could accept.

And truthfully, the only reason it worked at all was the overwhelming pressure from the Knights of Favonius.

Especially Frederica, who had fixed them with a murderous stare the entire time.

More than once, whenever Krupp launched into his tirades, she’d shut him down with just a word—or, metaphorically, a sword.

Artem was happy to sit back and watch Krupp flounder, not lifting a finger to help.

Krupp could only fume and glower, but there was nothing he could do.

Once the agreement was finalized, Artem left the Grand Master’s office feeling thoroughly satisfied.

He and Krupp had barely left when, back in the meeting room, someone immediately voiced their dissatisfaction.

“Grand Master, why did we have to agree to Snezhnaya’s demands?!”

“Idiot!”

The one who snapped wasn’t Varka, but Frederica—the same Frederica who’d been the most outspoken critic.

Now, the resolute-faced knight only sighed, troubled. “We had no choice.”

“Didn’t you hear?”

“The Tsaritsa’s decree.”

“Do you know who the Tsaritsa is?”

“She’s a god!!!”

“When a god commands, and the Anemo Archon isn’t even present—how could we refuse?”

“We managed to get some conditions, and prevented Snezhnaya from just taking people by force. That’s already more than we could hope for.”

Varka nodded in agreement. “Frederica summed up my thoughts exactly.”

“All right, that’s enough. Everyone, go.”

“I’ll handle the Fatui from here.”

---

It wasn’t just the Knights who were unhappy about all this.

Even as he walked through the Knights’ headquarters, Krupp was grumbling.

In the face of Frederica’s killing intent, he was meek as a mouse.

But with Artem, who always wore a friendly smile, he was ready to throw punches.

“Artem, are you sleeping with the Grand Master or something?”

Krupp, annoyed that they hadn’t gotten what they wanted, began spreading malicious rumors.

At this, Artem stopped walking.

He leaned in close to Krupp, grinning. “Yeah, you caught me. So what? What are you gonna do about it?”

“You—!”

Krupp was at a loss for words.

If Artem had actually tried to deny it, Krupp might have believed he really was colluding with Varka.

But Artem’s shameless, unconcerned attitude left Krupp unsure what to think.

For all his efforts to dig up Artem’s faults—hoping to see him become just another “experimental material” on The Doctor’s table—Krupp understood one thing very well:

Artem was a high-ranking Inspector in the Fatui, just a step or two away from being named a Harbinger himself.

With The Knave, Arlecchino backing him, not even The Doctor could touch him easily.

No amount of rumor-mongering could shake his position. If Krupp wanted to bring him down, he’d have to find another way.

---

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!