Chapter 64
#64 Phantom Thief Dauphin (8) - Law Play
Dahlia cautiously opened her eyes again when the shock she had braced for never came.
The first thing that entered her field of vision was a man who had blocked the blade meant to strike Dahlia down.
“Please stop here. I can understand how wronged and frustrated you feel, but taking that out on this young lady is not right.”
“Y-You! Let go! Let go of this right now!?”
The old woman flailed nearly her whole body, trying to wrench her wrist free from the man’s grip, but all she managed was to make his arm sway a little.
The old woman changed tactics and began to hurl abuse at the man.
“Who the hell are you!? What do you know, barging in like this!! If it weren’t for this bitch, everything would’ve been fine! If it weren’t for this bitch, that bastard would have been punished! If it’s not this bitch’s fault for stopping that, then whose fault is it!!”
“Madam, you said that yourself just now. Why are you asking me for the answer?”
“What?”
At the old woman’s words, the man replied calmly.
“If you’re asking who’s at fault, then of course it would be the ‘that bastard’ you mentioned—that is, the tax inspector.”
The people around them gasped.
For an enraged old woman screaming herself hoarse to have a perfectly ordinary-looking man state the obvious in such a calm tone, the impact was completely different even if the content was the same.
Even as the people around them unconsciously looked around, the man continued speaking without a care.
“As for who’s second-most at fault, that’s somewhat debatable. You could say it’s the lord, who bears the ultimate responsibility for the domain, or the company commander representing the guard, or even the magistrate who acquitted the tax inspector.”
The man explained it to the old woman in a composed tone.
“It’s hard to say this young lady here is completely blameless, but at the very least, I can’t say her guilt exceeds that of the people before her. Ah, of course, that doesn’t mean she lacks appeal as a target for revenge compared to the others. If the others had been here, the moment you charged at them with a knife—or even the moment you splashed that first bucket of water—they’d have killed you on the spot. She didn’t do that. In that sense, you made a fairly wise choice.”
The old woman’s wrinkled eyes trembled violently.
Having that fact she had been trying so hard to ignore forced back into view, the old woman seemed to lose the strength in her legs and collapse on the spot.
At the sight of the old woman, like a candle burned all the way down and gone out, the people around her shook their heads. Some even clicked their tongues.
Then, right by the old woman’s ear, the man quietly added,
“And besides, although Dauphin failed, he still hasn’t been caught. From here on out, those ‘real bastards’ I mentioned will be punished one by one, so wouldn’t it be a waste to leave without seeing that?”
The old woman’s eyes flew wide open.
As if she had recovered the will to live she had been about to let go of, the man shrugged and stood up.
Right after that, guards who had noticed the commotion nearby came over and shouted,
“Hey there, what’s all the racket!!”
At the guards’ words, the man answered them with an oddly deferential attitude.
“Ah, the old lady here was trying to give this young lady a gift of sorts, but she must have gotten flustered and fallen over.”
“Hmm.”
The guard’s gaze moved to the fruit rolling around here and there, the old woman sitting on the floor with a dazed face, and Dahlia with a tomato splattered over her head.
Not recognizing Dahlia in her plain clothes, the guard asked her,
“Is that true?”
The shopkeepers nearby all swallowed nervously.
Dahlia was usually friendly and considerate toward them, but that did not change the fact that she was one of the guard force’s squad leaders.
Not just any squad leader, either—if she confessed the truth, the old woman, and possibly even the shopkeepers around them, could get dragged into the mess for no reason and end up suffering for it.
And yet, instead of revealing her identity or accusing the old woman, Dahlia nodded obediently.
“Yes. It was just an accident on the old lady’s part, so you don’t need to worry about it.”
“...?”
The guard who heard Dahlia’s voice made a strange face for a moment, but since it wasn’t the stiff tone she normally used on duty, he seemed to think it was just his imagination.
“Hmm, well then, if there’s no problem, that’s fine.”
After the guard left,
the man said to Dahlia, who had ended up looking rather disheveled,
“First, I think you should wash up. The place I’m staying at happens to be nearby. If you don’t mind, would you come with me?”
Dahlia stared at the man for a moment, then nodded.
***
In Levruk, the term “upper-class district” carries a double meaning.
It refers to a district where well-off people live, whether in terms of social standing or wealth, but at the same time it also means people living in the physical upper reaches of the river.
Levruk is a city built around a river running through its center and the bridges spanning it, and the farther upstream you go, the better the various water purification and sewage treatment facilities do their jobs; but the farther downstream you go, the more their scale and maintenance deteriorate.
So one way to distinguish districts in Levruk is to look at whether the buildings there have bath-related facilities installed.
In the upper-class district, people spare no water even when washing themselves, so mansions of a certain size practically always have such facilities, but the farther downstream you go, the more precious even drinking water becomes, and not only do private homes lack bath facilities, even public bathhouses become hard to find.
In that sense, the mansion the man brought Dahlia to was roughly the realization of a middle-class dream of being recognized as upper class.
The mansion’s overall size and splendor were small and shabby compared with the lavish buildings in the upper-class district, but at least the bath facilities were set up so properly that they seemed almost excessive for the building’s size.
Honestly, a showerhead that pours water down from above like rain is missing from quite a few mansions even in the upper-class district.
-Shaaashhh.
As water poured down over her head, Dahlia thought.
‘...Did I follow him too readily?’
No matter the circumstances, a woman going straight to a man’s house, especially on their first meeting, and bathing there wasn’t exactly behavior society would consider proper.
If the 8th Squad subordinates learned the details, they would probably make a huge fuss about her lacking caution and about all men being wolves.
Even so, the reason Dahlia hadn’t refused the man’s offer was clear.
If she had received a favor, then at the very least she ought to properly express her gratitude.
Besides, if the other person really had ulterior motives, she would deal with it then.
She was confident she could protect her own body with her bare hands if it came to that.
Step.
After finishing her shower and going to the place where she had left her clothes, Dahlia blinked at the new clothes placed there, neatly folded beside a nearby hourglass.
「─I briefly considered washing your dirty clothes, but even that seemed like the sort of kindness that would become rude if taken too far, so I left them as they were. The clothes next to them were bought cheaply at a clothing shop, so please use them without much concern. Something urgent came up, so I had to step out for a little while. I expect to be back before the hourglass runs out, so please wait just a bit longer.」
“…Very proper.”
Though Dahlia couldn’t be called especially sharp when it came to men and women, she wasn’t so dull that she wouldn’t realize the “urgent business” mentioned here wasn’t meant literally.
He must have known that, from a woman’s perspective, changing clothes or showing damp skin in the same house as a man she’d just met could be awkward, and had deliberately stepped away.
Dahlia hesitated for a moment between the clothes she had been wearing and the new ones, then chose the new outfit in the end.
The discomfort of putting on dirty clothes again after bathing could be endured by simply bearing with it, but ignoring such a politely offered kindness was the harder thing for Dahlia.
The clothes were a little larger than her build, probably judged by eye, but not so much that they would be uncomfortable to wear.
In fact, if they had fit perfectly, that might have felt even worse.
After tidying herself up and sitting in a chair in the center of the mansion to wait for a while,
the front door opened almost exactly when the hourglass ran out, and the man appeared again.
He said to Dahlia with a somewhat embarrassed smile,
“Haha, I’m sorry. To invite a guest and then disappear like that, what a terrible host I am.”
“You don’t need to go out of your way to lie for my sake.”
“A lie? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Then I’ll take it that way.”
After confirming that the man sat down in the seat across from her, Dahlia bowed deeply.
“Thank you very much for earlier. If you hadn’t helped me, I would have been in all kinds of serious trouble.”
“No, no, no need for thanks. I just took it upon myself to intervene.”
The man waved a hand.
“I only arrived in this city not long ago, but even so I could tell that you and the 8th Squad guards have been working to protect people’s safety and peace. And yet, the price of that being criticism from the very people you protect is something I can’t make sense of, no matter how I look at it.”
“…For that person, it probably couldn’t be helped. Even saying complaints or gripes out loud would have been dangerous in that situation, so the pain probably festered inside.”
“Even so, that’s no reason to pin the mistakes of those above on the people working hard on the ground.”
The man’s assertion was unhesitating.
It was the sort of attitude that could only come from absolute certainty in his own words.
“The guilt for hurting that old woman and her family and driving them to their deaths should be borne by the people who actually did it. It shouldn’t be borne by you in their place.”
It was words defending Dahlia, but Dahlia herself could not agree with them.
Her expression grew a little more severe.
“Thank you for saying that. But you should be a little more careful with your words. Talking like that about the city’s nobles and officials can get you arrested for insult.”
“Oh? Does this city’s statute actually say that?”
“More precisely, that’s the law of the Kingdom of Virka.”
“Understood. I’ll keep that in mind.”
At the man’s surprisingly obedient nod, Dahlia loosened her shoulders a little.
But that was too early.
“Then may I ask a few questions?”
“If it’s something I can answer, I will.”
“Under Kingdom of Virka law, how is the crime of dishonoring an old woman’s daughter and driving her to death handled?”
“……”
A shadow crossed Dahlia’s eyes for an instant.
“If a noble murders a commoner who has faithfully paid their taxes, the punishment is three years in prison, or a fine of 24 kingdom gold coins.”
“Then did the tax inspector serve three years in prison, or did he pay the fine?”
“…There was no evidence that the old woman’s daughter had been harmed by the tax inspector. Therefore, the case was handled as a simple suicide.”
“I see.”
The man’s response was matter-of-fact.
As if he had expected that already, Dahlia lowered her gaze in shame.
“Then if evidence had actually surfaced, that tax inspector would have chosen the fine, wouldn’t he? After all, that would be better than prison.”
Dahlia thought for a moment, then nodded.
That was because she thought the tax inspector probably would have done just that.
“But does any part of that fine go to the victim or the bereaved family? No—even if it isn’t the fine itself, is there at least some compensation for the surviving family? Like a condolence payment from the domain, or at the very least a verbal apology?”
“…I’ve heard that in some domains, such grants are given at the lord’s or the lord’s deputy’s personal discretion.”
“So at the very least, there’s nothing about that in the law itself.”
“……Yes.”
In a voice as though she were squeezing the words out, Dahlia affirmed it.
The man tilted his head with a hmm and continued.
“The tax inspector was Count Sarnos’s bastard... ahem, the count’s son, yes? The legally prescribed ‘fine’ would go to the lord ruling that domain.”
“Yes.”
“In other words, Count Sarnos’s child killed someone, and the dead person or their family gets no compensation at all, while the perpetrator just hands his own money to his father and that’s the end of it. Is that correct?”
“… …Yes.”
With her eyes squeezed shut, Dahlia continued answering as if confessing.
Though she was afraid of what question might come next, she couldn’t bring herself to get up from her seat or get angry either, and in her ears she heard the man’s voice.
“—Then let’s play a little game.”
A game.
At that completely unexpected word, Dahlia lifted her head.
“What I mean is, let’s just talk about how you’d change the law. Whether it’s fantasy or idle chatter doesn’t matter, so go ahead and ramble.”
“What on earth do you mean...?”
The man with the utterly ordinary face looked at her with a mischievous glint in his eyes, somehow reminiscent of someone from her memories, and said,
“I’d set the first law like this. 『All bastards who make other people cry shall be executed, no mitigating circumstances or bullshit allowed!』”
“What did you just say, you bastard?”
Whatever gloomy expression she had been wearing vanished, and Dahlia’s eyes blazed.