Chapter 66
The citizens of Levruk gathered every day to chatter about Phantom Thief Dauphin.
“There haven’t been any warning letters from Dauphin lately.”
“Maybe he’s being more cautious after that failure? Last time he got away with just a failure, but next time he might get caught for real.”
“There are plenty of nobles who grind their teeth at Dauphin. If he gets caught, he won’t die easily.”
“Sigh. I guess there’s no helping it….”
People thought Dauphin would no longer appear.
Until now, the targets had all been people who were no match for Dauphin, so it had been fine. But now, someone capable of going head-to-head with him had appeared.
In the first place, because Dauphin always returned everything he stole to the victims, most of his crimes brought him no benefit at all.
If the job already brought no profit, and the risk had now become enormous on top of that, there was no reason for Dauphin to appear.
And Dauphin shattered those expectations without a care.
“It’s Dauphin! Dauphin’s warning letter is posted in the square!”
“He, he’s back!? This time who is it? Who’s he targeting? The tax collector again?”
“W-well… it wasn’t just one or two people?”
“Huh?”
「Laurent de Valmois, Bernard de Charre, Guyon Barbere. Dritero Gisha... (omitted) ... Garon de Sarnos.
To the 87 sinners listed above. Your crimes are so numerous and so grave that even writing them down one by one has become tiring.
So, I’ll write your names all at once like this and give you a single warning.
Also, keep in mind that the order in which I visit you will change from time to time, so don’t be gloomy just because your name is near the front, and don’t be happy just because it’s near the back.
But rest assured. If you repent your wrongdoings and make proper apologies and compensation to the victims, your name will be erased from the list as well.
If you don’t even have the faintest idea what you did wrong, tie a white cloth high up on the building you live in and let it flutter.
Then I shall write down and explain your misdeeds one by one.
The list will be updated regularly, and those whose names are erased from it should understand that they have successfully made amends.
Of course, if erasing is possible, then adding new names is only natural.
I sincerely hope there isn’t some fool who thinks that because their name isn’t written here, they won’t be targeted and can go around causing trouble.
If there is, that fool’s name will either be written at the very top of the list anew, or I’ll come for them myself before it even makes the list.
-Phantom Thief Dauphin-」
The city was thrown into an uproar.
Dauphin’s flashy return alone was enough to draw people’s attention, but the names on the list he announced were all exceptionally formidable.
Those whose names were on it felt anger or fear, and those whose names weren’t on it let out sighs of relief.
People gathered in small groups and gossiped about whether those on the list would yield to Dauphin’s warning.
Of course, the ones most bewildered by this situation were none other than the guard brigade.
“That fucking bastard...!!”
A string of crude curses poured out of the company commander’s mouth.
He had no choice.
“So how the hell are we supposed to catch him!!”
From the guard brigade’s point of view, Dauphin’s “warning letter” was both a provocation that seemed to mock them and, at the same time, a kind of guidebook.
Because it openly revealed when and whom he was targeting, they could focus all their effort on guarding only the target and the target’s property.
But now?
They had no way of knowing which of the 87 people on the list he was after.
They had no way of knowing exactly when he would strike.
Worse, depending on the situation, someone not even on the list could end up being the target.
At this rate, close protection like before would be impossible, and more importantly, they could no longer keep their strongest asset, Dalia, posted right beside the target.
“Company Commander! Lord Valmois has requested close protection! He emphasized several times that he doesn’t want that Dauphin bastard anywhere near him...!”
“Treasurer Gisha has come to see you! He says he has something urgent to discuss with you, Company Commander!”
“Company Commander! Viscount Charr said that if anything happens to my son’s body, he’ll never stand idly by!”
“Company Commander! The envoys are swarming in now-”
“Company Commander!”
“Aaaaaagh! I only have one body!!”
At the very moment the company commander was clutching his head, in the 8th Squad waiting room.
“Wow, no matter how you look at it, isn’t this him using his head to avoid our squad leader?”
“Well, after seeing her smash a building with one spear thrust right in front of him, it wouldn’t be strange if he got spooked. Honestly, I want to applaud the nerve it takes to show up again.”
“At this rate, everyone’s going to be fighting over who gets to take the captain.”
“Not in the future—already. People from one place or another claiming to be envoys keep coming around asking to meet our captain. The sort who normally wouldn’t even talk to us are bending over backward to be polite.”
“That doesn’t mean you take anything from them. It’ll come back to bite you.”
“You think I don’t know that?”
“Everyone, quiet.”
At Dalia’s one word, the noisy squad members all shut their mouths at once.
“Dauphin’s target and the time of his attack can’t be known? That’s how it’s always been when dealing with other criminals. We’ve blocked them just fine before.”
At Dalia’s words, the squad members nodded.
Come to think of it, the situation up until now had been the strange one. A thief was, by nature, someone you could never know when or where he would strike.
They were only rattled because the name Dauphin carried so much weight; if you looked at it calmly, it wasn’t that different from what they had always been doing.
“Patrol often, stay vigilant, and if something happens, don’t handle it alone—tell the people around you. Just do what you always do, and I’ll go stop him.”
“Yes!!”
“Then I’m going to the meeting, so everyone do your own prep.”
After saying that, Dalia strode away with a refreshing motion, and the squad members watched her back with strange looks.
“Hey.”
“Yeah?”
“Doesn’t the squad leader look kind of happy?”
“I don’t know whether she’s happy or not, but she does look a little more relieved than before. She always seemed full of worry. This time, maybe she came back after getting comforted by someone.”
“Could it be a man...?!“
“No way. Someone actually dared challenge that embodiment of sternness?”
“Hey, hey, cut it out, cut it out. She’s probably just feeling energized because she finally got to rest after always overworking herself without ever really being able to relax. You guys are the same.”
“Fair enough.”
***
“Damn it, it’d be convenient if all the protection targets were crammed together in one place! Tighten nighttime security! If you spot Dauphin, report it to the 8th Squad captain immediately!”
Constant patrols and reinforced vigilance. And calling in Dalia, who could take on Dauphin directly.
The countermeasure the company commander came up with was extremely standard and obvious, but in fact, there was nothing else he could do.
If some groundbreaking way to catch Dauphin were going to suddenly appear out of nowhere, the company commander wouldn’t have been driven into such a corner to begin with.
In that sense, the situation that unfolded was a time battle for both the thief and the guards.
The guard brigade had to notice Dauphin’s attack as quickly as possible and inform the waiting Dalia, while Dauphin had to steal the target’s safety and property before Dalia could come after him.
And in this contest, it was Dauphin’s side that seized the initiative first.
Because he had completely stripped no fewer than four targets bare before the guard brigade could even react properly.
By the time Dalia finally received the call and arrived at the scene, everything was already over.
No matter how strong Dalia’s power was, it was impossible to catch Dauphin once he had already left the scene and vanished.
Dauphin’s fame among the commoners once again shot to the heavens, and the guard brigade’s honor once again plunged to the ground, but ironically, the value of Dalia and the 8th Squad rose even higher.
First, on Dalia’s side, once the idea spread that even the great Dauphin couldn’t raid them if Dalia was nearby, the power brokers whose names were on the list scrambled to bring her over.
As for the members of the 8th Squad, they didn’t have combat power like Dalia’s that could directly stop Dauphin, but they were overwhelmingly faster than the other squads at spotting Dauphin and relaying the news to headquarters.
Unlike the other squads, which basically lived leisurely lives in the upper-class districts, the 8th Squad, together with Dalia, covered the broad commoner districts with a small number of people and, through instinct and experience, had come to know which places were vulnerable at which times.
On the day Dauphin targeted his fifth victim, this ability of the 8th Squad was displayed without fail as well, and Dalia was finally able to run into him before he left the scene.
KWAANG!
Whoops!
Dauphin’s hand, which had been reaching for a spoiled young master of a noble house, was blocked by the spear Dalia swung.
As Dauphin backstepped with a flashy somersault, Dalia watched him in silence.
“O-oh! You’re here! You’re here! Now hurry and catch that damned thief already!!”
The target, who had been looking half-dead, clung to her and begged as if Dalia were his savior.
Knowing that this target had once gotten drunk, caused a scene in the street, and even beaten the 8th Squad guards who tried to stop him, Dalia felt even gloomier.
The man himself, however, didn’t seem to remember any of that happening at all.
“Please step back. You might get caught up in this.”
That short sentence was the best Dalia could manage.
“R-right!”
Perhaps not wanting to see anything unpleasant, the target quickly put some distance between them, and only Dauphin and Dalia remained at the scene.
Beneath the mask covering her face, Dalia studied Dauphin’s face.
If judged by appearance alone, he looked nothing like the “he” she knew.
However, Dauphin had changed his appearance many times in his crimes so far, so that alone could not be any proof.
If, just if.
If Dauphin were to try to persuade her by bringing up what happened to her on her day off—
“—This makes it the second time, does it not? My fearsome guard lady.”
Second.
The instant she heard that word, the unpleasant, heavy feeling in Dalia’s heart melted away, and she felt lighter inside.
That’s right.
‘He’ and this phantom thief are different people.
Then the thing Dalia had to do as a guard was decided.
“You sure did run wild. There won’t be a third time. Thief.”
“If possible, I’d rather you call me a ‘phantom thief,’ though?”
“You criminal, and you still have demands!!”
Dalia’s spear sliced through the air and rushed at Dauphin.
Using trump cards packed with all kinds of spells to deflect the attack that carried terrifying power, Dauphin shouted.
“Criminal, you say! I won’t deny it! It’s true that my actions may disregard convention and undermine order! But there are far too many villains in this world who cannot be punished by strictly obeying the law! If that’s the case, isn’t it fine to ignore a little law for the sake of a greater good!”
If it had been the Dalia of before, she would have been unable to offer any rebuttal to Dauphin’s claim and could only grit her teeth and swing her spear.
But the Dalia of now was not like that.
“If ‘good intentions make it okay’ and ‘as long as it’s to punish bad guys, anything goes’—if everyone ignored the rules and acted however they pleased, the end result would be hopeless chaos and fear! When that happens, the ones hurt most are the weak people you keep saying you’re helping!”
Whatever had only vaguely swirled around inside her chest before, the current Dalia could now put into proper words.
She could refute Dauphin’s claim and point out exactly where his logic was flawed.
It was still immature, and all the more immature for turning a blind eye to the sins she herself committed, but even so, it was proof of her growth.
Realizing that, a faint smile also appeared at the phantom thief’s mouth.
However, unlike the two on the holiday who had fought with words and logic, right now they were on the scene, spear and cards locked against each other.
Therefore, that argument too had no choice but to be accompanied not by words alone, but by force and violence.
“Your words are certainly polished, but I wonder whether your skill can back them up!”
Dauphin’s trump cards scattered through the air, soon turning into a whirlwind as they moved.
The cards, strengthened with mana, sliced apart everything blocking the way—garden trees, walls—charging straight toward the target.
In the midst of that dazzling attack, Dauphin quickly prepared his next move.
It would be impossible to block or evade that cutting whirlwind with the target’s ability, so the only way would be for Dalia to snatch the target and flee.
Dauphin’s plan was to shower her, slowed by the burden she was carrying, with new magic tools and render her helpless.
“Haaap!”
And Dalia, ignoring that expectation of Dauphin’s completely, simply crashed her body straight into the whirlwind.
“…?!”
Dauphin’s eyes went wide.
Startled, he tried to weaken the whirlwind’s output, but soon realized there was no need to.
The cards that could cut through trees, stone, and even metal were, in fact, being stopped cold and unable to pierce Dalia’s skin.
‘Aura?’
Warriors of rank 5 and above can not only infuse mana into weapons or armor to strengthen them, but can also give mana itself physical force and use it for attack and defense.
Dauphin had thought Dalia was in that realm as well, but soon realized that was a mistake.
Dalia had not unleashed aura. No—before that, Dauphin had never even seen her use sword aura, no, spear aura.
All she had shown was pure hand-to-hand combat.
‘Rank 3 body enhancement? You’re saying that just with that, she can have defense greater than metal with nothing but her bare body?’
It isn’t a level you can reach just by being physically tough.
It’s the very definition of an exceptional constitution.
But before Dauphin could analyze it in more detail, Dalia, who had by then torn the whirlwind apart with brute force, was already faster in swinging her spear at him.
Dauphin hurriedly blocked the spear with the cloth wrapped around his arm as a shield, but even cloth with the defense of a large shield and the elasticity of a rubber band could not fully withstand Dalia’s monstrous strength.
The body of the flung-back Dauphin struck one thing after another before plunging into a river in the middle of the city.
Leaving behind the commotion from beyond the water’s surface, Dauphin’s eyes gleamed.
Because he had realized that the wildflower he had discovered might, perhaps, become a towering tree beyond imagination.
notes":"Adjusted the chapter title to match the nearby English pattern and the split-chapter format: Base Title (10). Fixed a few natural-English points and one true repetition/wording issue, and kept gender-neutral references where the Korean context only clearly indicated ‘he’ for the other figure but not for Dalia. Note: the source draft line count is not usable as-is in this interface, so the provided finalLines follow the supplied nonblank source order as closely as possible."}]}