Chapter 68
#68 Chapter: Phantom Thief Dauphin (12) - Approaching Deadline
The Aijern Empire. The capital, Calastia.
The Golden Cloud Palace, the crown prince's residence.
"But isn't that mana cultivation method dangerous if it spreads carelessly?"
"Hmm?"
"It's a power that lets ordinary people gain tremendous strength, isn't it? If every commoner in the kingdom became knight-level strong, wouldn't that endanger not only the kingdom but the empire itself?"
At Lucidra's question, the crown prince stroked his chin for a moment before answering.
"The empire teaches the mana cultivation method to ordinary soldiers as well. Ah, of course, not to conscripts—only to professional soldiers. Don't misunderstand."
…….
"In the first place, the mana cultivation method isn't the kind of power that makes anyone suddenly strong just because they learn it in a flash. Some people learn it for only a year and can unleash sword aura, while others study for over ten years and can barely manage a clumsy body enhancement. If the same thing produces wildly different results depending on a person's aptitude, wouldn't it be more efficient to apply it to as many candidates as possible and raise the outstanding ones from there?"
If mana cultivation methods were taught only to the family's blood relatives, or to retainers and private soldiers who had been thoroughly trained from childhood in loyalty and obedience, as with the nobles of the Kingdom of Birka, the pool of talent would inevitably be extremely limited.
By contrast, if they opened it up even to ordinary citizens, the more times they ran it, the more winners they'd get.
Or even if it wasn't exactly a jackpot, the technique itself was still a gain from the perspective of national power.
Even a soldier with almost no aptitude for mana would be a little stronger than if they hadn't learned anything at all.
So why didn't the Kingdom of Birka use this method?
"Because the country is a mess. They're afraid of giving commoners power recklessly."
The Kingdom of Birka was a country full of problems.
To the point that you really wondered why it hadn't collapsed yet, discord was raging everywhere.
And yet, it didn't fall.
Because violence was monopolized at the top—more precisely, because people were kept down by the fear of it.
"So you're saying you want to teach people the mana cultivation method and give them the power to fight?"
"Well, if it were up to me, that's only a secondary factor; the core isn't that. Still, it would help."
The crown prince held his tongue.
As if to say that what came next was to be discussed not by the empire's crown prince, but by Sarnos's phantom thief and guard.
***
"It's Dauphin! Dauphin has appeared!"
"Well, of course. There was no way Dauphin would die that easily!!"
About three days after the day Dauphin had been stopped by Dalia.
Dauphin made a flashy appearance, completely overturning the whispers that he had definitely fallen into the river and died, and once again succeeded spectacularly in his crime, earning curses from the nobles and cheers from the commoners.
But that only lasted for a moment.
The very next day, Dauphin's crime was thwarted by Dalia, who had a subordinate soldier impersonate her while she hid elsewhere.
"Oh-ho, so now you're starting to use your head? Still, your brute-force style did make you look a bit like a wild boar!"
"Who are you calling a wild boar!!"
KWAANG!
Although a small bridge was destroyed in the course of the fight, both the protected person and their property were safely preserved, so if one had to score it, it was Dalia's victory.
Of course, that didn't mean Dauphin failed every single time.
"This time, I'll catch you—"
KRAK! SPLASH!
"C-Captain!!"
"Hahaha! At night, you should always watch your footing!"
On some days, he would slow Dalia down by tossing her into the river, then brazenly carry out the crime; on others, he would lure her with a fake Dauphin created by an illusion magic tool and then punish the target elsewhere.
"Is the current record 20 to 14? Dauphin has quite the edge."
"Still, the guard brigade's response and reaction speed have also improved a lot lately. More importantly, as time goes on the targets on the list will only shrink, so for Dauphin that will become an even harder challenge."
"Couldn't sleep at night, so I had a beer. Then I saw Dauphin and the captain of the 8th Squad chasing each other across the rooftops. Best snack I could've asked for."
"What? You lucky bastard! I've never seen it in person once!!"
By the time things had reached this point, some of Levruk's citizens had even begun to regard the clashes between Dauphin and Dalia as a kind of spectacle and deliberately enjoyed watching them at night.
From the guard brigade's point of view, it was an absurd situation.
"The guard and the thief are going back and forth like this—how is that reaction supposed to be normal?"
"It's better than being treated like a bastard who deserves to die just for stopping Dauphin like before. Well, there are still people who look at us like obstacles, but it's still much better than it was."
Dauphin's crimes, when judged purely by efficiency, were excessively wasteful and flashy.
There were times he descended from the sky to the target location using a huge kite, times he appeared by walking across a river as if it were solid ground, and times he made a building that had definitely existed seem to vanish by applying special paint to its surface, or conversely made a nonexistent building seem real by using tricks.
What had initially been crimes committed only in the dead of night gradually became more varied in timing, and sometimes he would suddenly abduct a target in the middle of the day while everyone else was out working and going about their lives.
People grew excited at Dauphin's thoroughly showy behavior and looked forward to his next move, and ironically this had the effect of turning even the image of the guard brigade opposing him into a caricature.
Their image changed from villains blocking righteous judgment to something like a rival who gets made to look foolish whenever he stands in Dauphin's way.
The targets whose names were on the list badgered Dalia and the guard brigade, but that didn't make Dalia's standing any lower.
That was because the targets weren't all fools; they clustered together to strengthen security and sometimes even brought knights from their own estates to try to catch Dauphin, but every result was a crushing defeat.
Unlike the other forces that went out only to lose every single time, Dalia could at least go back and forth with Dauphin whenever she took the field.
As for which side to trust and rely on, the answer was obvious.
People were swayed back and forth by stories about Dauphin and Dalia, and even the other guard squads, who had initially looked askance at her and the 8th Squad, gradually began trying to act friendly.
And Dalia would often confide the various emotions she felt in a certain man.
"Honestly, I think they're being too shameless. It wasn't even backbiting, since they were doing it so openly for me to hear—more like front-biting than gossip. Anyway, all those people who piled on mockery and every kind of insult changed their tune the moment it looked like this side was doing well."
"Well, isn't that proof that the guard lady is doing well?"
"If this is the kind of proof it takes, I'd really like to decline it."
Dalia wasn't like this from the very beginning.
She didn't visit 'him' every holiday, and sometimes they would only exchange dry, work-related conversation. Keeping on spilling her inner thoughts felt a little too mercenary.
But just as water keeps flowing once a dam has cracked, Dalia's feelings toward 'him' were the same.
He always listened to Dalia calmly, and even when she complained, grumbled, or showed an ugly side, he never really changed his attitude, responding to her frankly and straightforwardly.
Duty, mission, discipline, order.
For Dalia, who had bound herself tightly with such things and kept even negative emotions stuffed down inside without ever letting them out, a relationship where she could simply speak her heart while at ease was more addictive than narcotics.
Was that why?
She even found herself bringing up things her former self would never have said out loud, even at death's door.
"Sometimes, really, really rarely... I think things like this. That I wish this situation would go on forever."
'He' silently waited for Dalia to continue.
Beneath his calm eyes, which neither hurried nor pressed her, Dalia poured out things she could never bring herself to say in front of anyone else.
"Someone like me, who was ignored and left on the fringes in the guard brigade, is now handling an important role. The subordinates who suffered under an incompetent captain are being treated better than before. The upper-class residents who used to run wild and act like they owned the place are being more careful in their conduct, and the other squads are busy working while watching the higher-ups' moods. Even the people on the list are increasingly apologizing to their victims on their own."
There are still people who cheer for Dauphin and treat Dalia like an obstacle.
There are also people who blame Dalia for not catching the thief quickly enough.
But still.
Looking at Levruk as a whole, the number of people who seem gloomy has decreased, and the whole city feels as if it has been given some kind of vitality.
The city, which hadn't changed no matter how diligently Dalia carried out her duties and arrested criminals, feels as if it's slowly moving in a better direction.
So, even if only a little—just a tiny bit—Dalia couldn't stop herself from thinking it.
That maybe, truly, Dauphin might have been right.
Ashamed of herself, Dalia covered her face with both hands.
"…I'm so pathetic. I kept shouting about order and discipline, kept insisting that people shouldn't incite others through improper means, and yet the moment it looks like things are improving because of his existence, I want to change my stance that easily."
The beliefs she had so strongly insisted on, the mindset she had always considered right—Dalia could no longer firmly believe in them.
Had she really been upholding it because she truly thought it was right, or had she just been piling up excuses to justify her own surrender and resignation by saying there was no other way, that this was the best she could do?
Wasn't she really just lacking the resolve to fight, while using other people's excuses to look away from the answer?
At Dalia's almost confessional words, 'he' spoke.
"Guard lady."
That's right, he always called Dalia "guard lady."
Even though he probably already knew her name, he had never once called her Dalia or asked for her name.
And Dalia was the same.
She only ever called him "you" or "Mr. Trickster," and had never once asked his name.
As if that were some unspoken rule.
"Dauphin's ways are unconventional. He's an outlaw, someone who casually sets out his own justice outside the law."
"Because of that, people thrill at his actions and cheer him on. But, guard lady, there is one thing you must keep in mind."
"─A phantom thief can break order, but he cannot create a new order."
Dalia swallowed.
"If order is warped, rusted, and crushed until it only exists to make people suffer, then it would be better to break such a thing apart."
"But that doesn't mean order itself is unnecessary. If someone breaks order, then someone else has to build a new one in its place."
"A phantom thief is powerless when it comes to that. Because the very existence of a phantom thief is a symbol that says, 'My own justice matters more than laws and rules.'"
"Who would ever want to obey the laws made by an outlaw who doesn't even obey the law himself?"
Dalia unconsciously looked at his right arm.
Whenever 'he' spoke like this, as if he were Dauphin himself, she went through the same process of convincing herself.
It's okay.
When Dauphin's right arm had been broken, he had been using that arm perfectly normally.
So the two are different.
Even if there had been suspicious circumstances after that incident, even if one could say that Dauphin, who handled all sorts of bizarre tools, might have some way to move a broken arm, they had to be different.
They have to be.
"So, please don't belittle yourself too much. You're someone who can do things even Phantom Thief Dauphin can't."
"I'm not such an amazing person."
"No, you are an amazing person. At least, that's how I see it."
"Of course, if the guard lady says she can't trust my judgment, then there's nothing I can do," the man said with a playful shrug. Dalia looked at him with resentful eyes.
If he said it like that, how was she supposed to deny it?
Their conversation that day ended there.
Dalia's mind was still a mess, but she soon shook her head and scattered those stray thoughts away.
There would be another chance to talk next time.
She'd just clear up the questions piled up inside her then.
Dalia thought as much.
"─Knights from the count's house are coming."
The next day, at the company commander's deathly pale words, Dalia, too, froze without realizing it.
The moment to finally resolve the matter she'd been deliberately avoiding and putting off had finally drawn near.