31 Mondstadt economy is a work of art

"What happened to your face?" asked the Grandmaster Varka looking at my face. It was still red even after wiping all the blood.

"A damn hooligan hit me" I muttered. "Anyway, what did you want to talk about?".

"About our nations of course" he laughed.

"You want to talk about cooperation?" I wondered.

"Yes, we want to have some commerce with Inazuma. We have the best wine here after all" he said with a smile while licking his lips. I haven't met anyone in this city who didn't like wine.

"There is no commerce with Inazuma. Just tell your guys not to approach that cursed place" it was my honest opinion.

"Huh?" he looked stunned, I wonder why. "Aren't you here on behalf of Inazuma?. Shouldn't you be trying to promote your country?".

"Why should I?" now I was the confused one. "Inazuma is a cesspool right now, and the merchants from Mondstadt are being robbed in broad daylight. It's better for both sides if they don't come anymore".

"What?!" the one who raised her voice in indignation was Jean, who was learning from the Grandmaster, possibly being groomed as the next Grandmaster. "And your authorities are allowing it?"

"Jean, blonde goddess of the rising sun" I spoke gently to her, maybe she wasn't aware yet. "It's the authorities who are robbing them".

"How?" she was scowling at me now. "Is your God not saying anything about this?".

"No, she doesn't care. She leaves absolutely everything to those guys. I can't hope to understand how a being 2000+ years old thinks, but she allows them to do whatever they want for some obscure reason".

"That's a problem" said Varka, with a pondering expression.

"Of course it is. In that sense, despite our respective Archons being total opposites, the result is the same, the nation is left to the humans themselves. But of course, in Inazuma the guys in power are being backed by the God, while here you are exploited by the population" I said, shrugging my shoulders.

"We are not exploited!" Jean was still angry about their merchants.

"Then why did you spend all morning looking for a cat when you are already busy?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. "Looking for cats that escaped due to the negligence of their owners is not the job for a highly qualified knight like you".

"That's because I could help Margaret find her cat, and it's my duty as a Knight of Favonius to help" she said with a proud expression.

"Then when she loses that ball of fur again, she will ask you again. Then the people around will know about it too. 'Hey, you helped Margaret find her cat, you can also help me search for truffles', or 'help me search for the keys to my house', or 'help me clean my bathroom'. If you are still not seeing the problem, you fail as a future Grandmaster" I said with a straight face.

"...." she looked downcast.

"If you told Margaret 'no, it's your own fault your god damn cat is lost, search it yourself, I'm busy with more important things', she would be more careful next time. As it stands, she won't care if she lets it escape again" I advised her. "Anyway, as things stand you are better off leaving Inazuma out of your considerations for now. I have a business in Liyue, if you are that desperate for money I can get in touch with it to ask for cooperation".

"Nah, we are good" said Varka with a light-hearted smile again, forgetting all previous problems. "We caught a lot of treasure hoarders this month".

"What does that have to do with the money?" I was confused, giving wanted criminals over to Liyue could get you a bit of money, but nowhere near enough to pay the whole army of Mondstadt in the form of the Knights of Favonius, and the whole basic spending of the city.

"Everything of course. We get our money from the relics and things they have" Varka said with a smile while nodding to himself.

"Are you telling me that the whole economy of Mondstadt is based on the Treasure Hoarders?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

"Yes, and it's going good" Varka laughed at that.

"That's ....madness". I studied about economy in Inazuma and learned even more in Liyue so seeing a nation living off criminals was something else. "What if you don't catch enough, or they have no money, or they simply stop coming to Mondstadt?".

"We would be in trouble then" Varka shrugged. "But we are good for now, we will think about it when it happens"

That was stupid. They were going to start searching for solutions when they were already poor.

"Please Jean, tell me you understand how dangerous this is" I pleaded the one with a good head here.

"I understand what you are saying, but it has been this way for generations" she sided with Varka. "And we already know who the Treasure Hoarders are, when we catch them and steal what they have, we quickly release them so they can steal again".

"Wait, so you rob the criminals, and release them so you could rob them again?" I was extremely confused, there were too many wrong things there.

"We are not robbing, we are lawfully seizing their belongings" she nodded with a smile, seeing that I understood it.

"And they come back obediently to get lawfully robbed? They risk their life in dangerous and perilous dungeons only to 'give' you their earnings?" I tried to make sure I was understanding what was happening here.

"Yes" Jean nodded, but she thought that something was wrong with what I said.

"But your job was supposed to be protecting the population, how is releasing criminals that you know are going to rob the citizens helping?" this is too much madness for me.

"That's....true" Jean nodded slowly.

"Are you telling me that in years nobody thought about it?"

"Of course we have, we are not stupid" interjected Varka. "But our people seem happy, so they don't care about the robbing that much. Anyways, all money that they lose in robberies is going to go back into their pockets sooner or later".

"Of course they are happy, they are not losing that much money. 90% percent of the money the Treasure Hoarders have doesn't come from them" I wryly said. "It comes from the merchants of Liyue".

These guys were basically surviving thanks to the money of Liyue's merchants.

Basically, Mondstadt lives off the money Lliyue lost due to robberies, which should give you an idea of how much money Liyue was moving around.

"That's their problem" dismissed Varka.

"Of course not, it's yours too. You are not protecting your country, but I can understand that it's going well for you. But what if Liyue's quickly expanding market starts protecting the merchants? No more money for Treasure Hoarders, and no more money for Mondstadt too" I explained a thing that shouldn't need to be explained.

"Oh".

"Oh indeed" I nodded, satisfied that they saw the light.

"Then the Dawn Winery will help us, they are rich after all" and Varka laughed again.

I don't know what to think about that. A nation supported by a single business sounds like a recipe for disaster.

If I wanted to wage a war against Mondstadt, I would target that business, and ironically protect Mondstadt from Treasure Hoarders, that would be enough to cripple their economy, but again knowing how these people are, they would start bargaining and exchanging goods as if nothing happened.

"Okay, I give up. Do whatever you want" I resigned myself to consider this nation as an aberration.

"Of course!. We are in the city of Freedom! Hahaha!" and Varka laughed again.

"Something else?" I asked feeling drained.

"Yes, I learned about your little adventure, and now that Wopperflower is dead for good" Varka nodded gratefully.

"I only threw a random ball and disaster struck for that big plant" I shrugged. "It could very well have mutated again for all I know".

"And yet it died. So I wanted to thank you" he said with a serious face. "I will name you as an Honourary Knight of Favonius!"

"I don't even know what is that" I said, not feeling excited at all. A title you get this easily must not be that good of a thing, probably as useless as a newspaper business in Inazuma. Nothing happened, and if something did it was something stupid.

"Hahaha, it's a great thing you know!" Varka laughed again. "You will be a special member of the Knights of Favonius, don't worry, you don't need to do anything".

"That's a big fat lie" I said with a wry smile. "You are letting me use the name of the Knights, there is something I must do in exchange, nobody cared about that Wopperflower that much after all. For all your laughs, you are quite the devious person".

"Kenshin!" Jean looked scandalized hearing how I called the Grandmaster of Favonius, probably the most important person in the whole nation.

"Am I lying?" I asked Varka, who didn't lose his smile. "Even if I have no duties as a Knight, I'm still expected to act as one, that implies helping Mondstadt if something happens. Maybe is a drought, maybe it's those Fatuis doing weird shit, or maybe the Treasure Hoarders stopped coming. And I will need to lend a willing hand right?".

"It's like that?" Jean looked at Varka with a surprised look and a frown. "Grandmaster, you shouldn't be trying to fool someone like that!. Kenshin helped us with that Wopperflower, we should generously reward him, not trick him into a position he may not like".

"Jean, you are still naive" I told her, making her look at me. "Mondstadt is supporting itself in some very, very shaky foundations. Your most reliable incoming is that red-haired menace, what if he decides to stop supporting Mondstadt? It's the Grandmaster's job to make sure Mondstadt can be safe, and that includes the economy".

Jean nodded but didn't look convinced. The Ragnvindr family has been an integral part of Mondstadt since its founding, they won't forsake Mondstadt.

"Anyway, your Grandmaster saw a chance to rope a powerful individual like me" I said normally.

"You?. Powerful?" Jean looked at me strangely.

"I don't like how little you think of me" I replied with a frown. I was physically weak, but the rest? "I have enough authority to kick the official ambassador of Inazuma in the balls, I just said I own a business in Liyue and when I offered help I indirectly revealed that my business could be useful to Mondstadt, which means that my business is huge. And I was able to identify your little big funding problem, so I'm at least not stupid. In fact, I think I can help Mondstadt even more than you right now".

"...." Jean fell silent with a despondent look.

"As you said, that was my intention" Varka nodded with his smile unchanging. "So from now on you are an Honorary Knight of Favonius!".

I looked dryly at Varka, who didn't care about my look, and stood up.

"Now I have a lot of trouble to do. Jean, explain to Kenshin our inner workings, and be friends with him, you could learn a lot from him".

"No, you are trying to tie me down to Mondstadt with friendship, or a possible future honeytrap" I said dryly once again.

He didn't reply and just left the room.

"A honey-!. I wouldn't do that!. My mother taught me that I would need to be at least 25 to hold hands with a boy!" Jean said in indignation.

I didn't say anything, I just walked towards her and grabbed her hand, making her push me and step back blushing.

"Kenshin, how could you do this without asking for my permission! It's so lewd" she said stammering a bit.

I rolled my eyes, knowing now why she was so stiff. Her mother seems to be quite the specimen.

"Your adored Grandmaster said that I'm an Honorary Knight, does that mean that there have been other fools?" I asked curiously.

"Don't call them fools!. They were great people to help Mondstadt in their most difficult moments, treat their memory with respect" she scolded me.

"Of course they helped, they had no choice or they would be punished as 'Knights' for not doing their duty as ones" I wryly said. Even I was expected to help, probably in the economic part, but still.

"Of they are 'fools' as you put it, you are also one then?" she asked, trying to get back at me.

"Of course not, I'm the only smart one" I said smugly. "The fact that I got rich yesterday without lifting a finger means that they didn't use their chance correctly".

"What do you mean 'rich'?" she asked me with a confused look.

"Look at this" I said showing her the 'Eye of Blood', the crystallized blood that was shining, giving the whole room a reddish tinge.

"That's beautiful" was all Jean said.

If I showed this in Liyue, a 'Young Master' would be in front of me in record time, demanding that I surrender the gem in exchange for a disdainful look. I liked a lot the honesty and good nature of the people of Mondstadt, of course, there were exceptions, but still.

By the way, in Inazuma, I would be murdered only so another family could give this gem to the Shogun as a present to win her favor.

"And most of all, valuable" I replied to Jean.

"Really?. There are tons of things like that around" said Jean with a pondering look. "But who would spend money on it?. You can't eat them, and while they are beautiful, they are probably not something worth spending the money on".

I now understand the pain of the merchants of Liyue. They realize Mondstadt is a mine full of treasures, but the Treasures Hoarders use their insistence to rob them blind. In a way, Treasure Hoarders are 'protecting' Mondstadt from being scammed by those cunning merchants.

This is too weird for a normal person to understand.

'Good thing you are not one then'.