Chapter 72
#72 Phantom Thief Dauphin (16) - Infiltration
Rumors, in the course of spreading, inevitably acquire all kinds of exaggeration, distortion, and embellishment.
In that sense, the rumor that spread through Lebruk was rather unusual, because its contents were remarkably consistent.
─The 8th Squad Captain was in collusion with Dauphin! The reason the 8th Squad Captain had been able to shine all this time was because she’d been running a scam with Dauphin!
─But when the righteous knight order appeared and her position was put at risk, she leaked information from inside and helped the crime along!
─What a vile, filthy act! The 8th Squad Captain must be punished at once!
In that rumor, the knight order were competent victims who couldn’t show their true ability because of the betrayal of a vile ally, while Dalia was trash who envied such a knight order and plotted a filthy conspiracy.
That much was only to be expected.
After all, the ones who had been leading that rumor were the hype men hired by the knight order.
“How are people reacting?”
“Everyone still seems bewildered, but that’s only a matter of time.”
At the vice commander’s answer, the knight commander smiled in satisfaction.
If you thought about it coldly, there were quite a few suspicious points in the rumor currently sweeping through Lebruk.
After all, could such an elaborate crime really be pulled off with only one accomplice?
Could they really fool all of the many people who had directly watched the duel between Dauphin and Dalia, people who had laughed and cried over it?
Even if the rumor were true, wouldn’t that still make the knight order a group that had been toyed with by one traitor inside their ranks? Could they really say they bore no responsibility for that?
In fact, some of the people who heard the rumor did object with that sort of logic, but their voices never became the dominant opinion.
─What, are you taking the side of the thief and the traitor? You’re one of them too, aren’t you?
Whenever they tried to say even a little of their piece, the hype men hired by the knight order would accuse them of siding with the traitor and bulldoze them.
By forcibly crushing those voices of resistance and making the voices cursing Dalia louder and louder, even those who had initially tilted their heads and thought, ‘Is this really right?’ were gradually being swept along by the current.
For now it was still only a ‘rumor,’ but it wouldn’t be long before that rumor was turned into the truth.
“The other places don’t matter. Focus especially on controlling public opinion in the upper-class district. The other bumpkins are just a bonus; what really matters is how the powerful take this incident.”
“Understood.”
The deputy commander nodded briskly, and the knight commander’s eyes gleamed.
“From now on is the crucial part. For the time being, don’t let that bastard Dauphin see even a single opening!”
The knight order had dodged responsibility by dumping all of their past disgrace onto Dalia.
But that also meant that if Dalia stayed captured and Dauphin managed to get the better of them again, then there would truly be no excuse left.
It would be easy to think that simply changing their mindset wouldn’t make anything work after having been beaten helplessly all this time, but the knight commander wasn’t thinking without a plan.
Because some of the targets, terrified by the sight of the knight order getting beaten down left and right, had all but abandoned their pride and bowed their heads to the victims, the number of people the knight order now had to escort had dropped to fewer than ten.
Normally that would mean they’d failed to protect that many people, so it wouldn’t be a good thing, but from the standpoint of escort duty, it was overwhelmingly advantageous.
On top of that, for about a month, they’d also succeeded in keeping all of the escort targets in a single building.
No matter how capable Dauphin was, he surely wouldn’t dare set foot in a place swarming with a hundred knights, not to mention the knight commander himself.
And if Dauphin hesitated to act, then they could further solidify the claim that ‘Dauphin got scared and backed down because the internal accomplice was gone.’
Of course, after a month passed they’d have to resume their troublesome fight with Dauphin, but at least they could erase the disgraceful label of being ‘a knight order inferior to the Guard.’
“This time, we’ll show the true power of the Sarnos Knight Order!”
“Yes, Commander!”
The knight order had, in their own minds, devised a fairly plausible plan, but they didn’t understand properly.
What it was they had just provoked.
***
As the knight order intended, public opinion in the upper-class district toward Dalia had certainly worsened.
But in the other districts, voices completely different from the knight order’s intentions were also seeping out, and you could tell that by listening to a certain conversation from the commoners’ district.
“So the 8th Squad Captain and Dauphin are actually on the same side? Then they’re on our side?”
At the words of the somewhat dim-looking young man, the expressions of the other young men at the same table subtly changed.
“You weren’t the one who, just the other day, was happily trash-talking her as some villain blocking the righteous Dauphin, or some dirty stooge hooked up with the nobles?”
That was a rebuke for flipping his stance so easily, but the young man with the dim look was utterly brazen.
“That’s because I thought she was blocking Dauphin! But it turns out she was helping him! Then she’s an ally!”
“Uh….”
The young man who’d first objected seemed to be momentarily at a loss for words, and the other young men beside him jumped in.
“No, but it’s not that simple, is it? If this incident was something Dauphin and the 8th Squad Captain cooked up together, then that’s basically the same as deceiving and betraying us.”
“And stabbing the organization you belong to in the back from the inside is a little iffy too.”
At that opinion, the young man with the dim look asked back as though he couldn’t understand what the problem was.
“Why is that betrayal? I didn’t lose anything, and if anything I’m just glad the nobles got hit. And anyway, the Guard was trash except for the 8th Squad, and the knight order are just thugs who treat us like bugs whenever they see us, right? What’s wrong with hitting those bastards from behind?”
“Well, of course that would be… uh.”
The young men who had reflexively tried to continue their rebuttal fell silent for a moment, lost in thought.
‘It sounds a little rough, but isn’t the actual content not really wrong?’
Suppose Dalia really was a collaborator.
Had they suffered any loss because of it?
After all, Dauphin’s main targets were the cruel power holders and the bastards who victimized others; the citizens who had been directly harmed were compensated, and even those who weren’t had received indirect benefits.
Betrayed the Guard? The knight order’s honor fell to the ground? What did that have to do with us? If those bastards took a hit, wasn’t that a good thing?
If Dalia had been cooperating in that, then from their perspective it was something to praise rather than criticize, wasn’t it?
Voices openly criticizing nobles and the knight order like drunken youths were rare, not because there were no complaints, but because they were worried about the eyes around them. Still, there were plenty who were secretly pleased to hear that Dalia and Dauphin had actually been on the same side.
“I knew it. The only ones in the Guard who took care of us were that lady and her subordinates, weren’t they?”
“Goodness, goodness, I talked all that smack without knowing? How am I supposed to make up for that?”
Originally, to the citizens of Lebruk, the 8th Squad had been something like the ‘conscience of the Guard.’
After all, while the other guard units mostly just hovered around the upper-class district and left them alone, these were the only ones protecting them from crime, so it couldn’t be helped.
So when Dalia, whom they had inwardly considered one of their own, was seen blocking Dauphin and they felt even more disappointed, hearing that Dalia had actually been on Dauphin’s side made them brighten up as if they had finally learned her true intentions.
In one sense this reaction was also far removed from the truth, but it was also proof that they needed a reason not to hate Dalia, or some basis for believing she was on their side.
If Dalia or the 8th Squad had truly been detestable to them, then even if such a rumor spread, everyone would either have barely reacted or just kept cursing them; they wouldn’t have tried to interpret it positively.
The kindling was being stacked steadily, piece by piece.
***
A large manor north of the upper-class district.
It was the place Count Sarnos used when staying in Lebruk, and now a young man was striding boldly toward the building where the knight order was staying.
The fact that he hadn’t even brought a carriage, let alone attendants or escorts, made the knight guarding the front gate block the young man’s way.
“Halt. No unauthorized personnel may enter this area.”
“Authorization? You mean me? Have you lost your mind?”
The young man clicked his tongue in disbelief, and at that irritated reaction the knight also showed displeasure.
The knights of the Sarnos Knight Order were all nobles of the Kingdom of Virka, and each one was a powerhouse with at least Rank 4 skill, so they were all famous for being arrogant.
Just as he was about to bristle and say something, another gatekeeper who had been looking at the young man’s face with uncertainty jumped forward in alarm.
“I greet the tax commissioner of Lebruk!”
At his fellow knight’s words, something cold ran down the back of the knight who had just been about to start a scuffle.
It wasn’t because of the office of tax commissioner. Rather, his lineage was what mattered more.
The tax commissioner of Lebruk was one of Count Sarnos’s children.
Though not a legitimate son but a child of a concubine, he was someone the count treasured enough to place in a key position in an important territory.
“You’re the ones who told me to come here. You invite a guest and then what the hell is this? Huh?”
At that exceptionally prickly reaction, the two knights began sweating coldly.
They might behave like tyrants toward commoners, but even so, they weren’t so stiff-necked that they could boldly act up in front of a son treasured by the count.
Especially since the tax commissioner was famous for having a very finicky personality and a temper as changeable as boiling soup.
“S-sorry. We were slow to realize it because we couldn’t see anyone else there to escort someone of your stature.”
“From what I’ve seen so far, if everyone crowds around, they actually get taken down more easily. Quietly sneaking around is best. The ones with the luggage will come later separately, so just keep that in mind. More importantly, you—what’s your name?”
“Pardon?”
“What’s your name?”
The knight’s eyes darted around.
He clearly didn’t want to answer, but he also looked worried that if he did, even worse trouble might come crashing down on him.
The tax commissioner clicked his tongue.
“Hah, fine. I’ll let it slide just this once, so hurry up and open the gate.”
The two knights exchanged a quick glance.
They were also desperate to get past this situation quickly, but the commander had issued strict orders.
“S-sorry, Tax Commissioner. Before entering the manor, you must undergo a body search.”
“Dauphin is skilled at disguise and has used it to fool people more than once or twice. This is a measure to ensure the safety of everyone staying in the manor, so we’d appreciate your cooperation.”
“Shit, so now you’re saying you suspect me of being that bastard Dauphin, huh?”
“Please understand. This is for your safety, Tax Commissioner, and the safety of the other nobles!”
The tax commissioner raged, cursing nonstop, but the knights, though flustered, still didn’t let him through.
In the end, the first to give in was the tax commissioner.
“This is fucking awful. Damn it, all because of that thief bastard, what the hell is this.”
Because they didn’t know when the tax commissioner would start taking his frustrations out on them, the two knights finished the inspection with quick skill.
They checked whether there were any strange tools hidden inside his clothes, and even pulled at his cheeks to make sure they weren’t fake.
“Ah! Aah! Take it easy, you bastard!?”
Smack!
The knight’s cheek twitched as the tax commissioner repeatedly thumped him on the head with the palm of his hand.
A strong knight’s body wouldn’t be injured that much by something like this, but being in a foul mood was another matter.
The knights had secretly hoped that this man might actually be Dauphin, so they could immediately swing their swords without any trouble, but sadly there was nothing suspicious.
Even after the inspection was over, the tax commissioner still had no intention of going in and spent quite a while railing at the knights, and the two knights, after finally letting him through, couldn’t bring themselves to open their mouths and could only silently curse him with their eyes.
A little while later, just as the tax commissioner had said, his attendants hurriedly brought their luggage and approached the manor.
This time, the knights finally bared their teeth as usual.
“How can you leave the person you serve wandering around alone in such a dangerous situation? Have you lost your minds?”
“S-sorry. It was decided so suddenly that we didn’t have time to react.”
“Tsk. You all have to undergo body searches too, so line up. If anyone does anything suspicious, we’ll deal with them without mercy, understood!”
The rather rough inspection, close to venting their anger, drew screams from the servants, but this time too the result was clean.
Before long, all the people scheduled to stay there and their attendants had finished the inspection and gone inside the building, and the knight order firmly locked the manor’s front gate.
This gate would absolutely not open until sunrise tomorrow.
The manor had a design resembling a small fortress, tailored to the count’s tastes.
A hundred elite knights guarding it, along with the apprentice knights who followed them. And the commander himself, the strongest of the Sarnos Knight Order.
No matter how great Dauphin’s abilities were, he would never dare even step foot inside here.
The knight order was certain of it.
***
[But why him of all people? How lame.]
He’s so pleasantly plump that it’s easy to hide all sorts of things under the custom-made skin.