Chapter 73
#Chapter 73: Phantom Thief Dauphin (17) - Top Secret. No External Disclosure
The powerful people of Levruk are trash.
As for the people gathered at the grand mansion now, they were the trashiest of that trash—trash among trash.
This wasn't because Dauphin liked to save the best for last; rather, it was the result of those whose crimes were sloppy or still had room for improvement paying up of their own accord early on—in other words, following Dauphin's 'advice.'.
In aristocratic society, where honor and face were practically assets in themselves, failing to withstand mere 'thief' extortion and apologizing to a 'commoner' while even bringing compensation money was an enormous social loss.
But no matter how humiliating an apology was, it still wasn't something that could be compared to getting beaten senseless by a thief like a dog on the hottest day of summer and then bound up like a bagworm and put on display in the middle of the street.
If only one of them submitted, they'd be treated as a fool who buckled under threats or as a traitor, but if there were others joining the apology, there was all the more reason not to hesitate.
In other words, if they were still holding out even now, with only ten targets left, then they were either fools whose vain pride or stubbornness had eaten into their marrow, or the worst of the worst—utter scum whose crimes were so grave that an apology alone could never cover them.
And those trashy people were currently showing their vile personalities to the fullest.
“Because of one measly thief, I don’t know what kind of hardship we’re all being put through.”
“If the guard unit had just done its job, we wouldn’t have had to go through all this. Then again, what can you expect from an organization that was raising an informant and the like?”
“Just thinking about that shameless woman standing at our side makes me shudder.”
“Exactly. We’ll have to carry out a strict execution ceremony to make sure this never happens again.”
Most of them had, until just a little while ago, reached out to Dahlia and asked her to stand beside them, and some had even actually received her help—but no one brought up such trivial matters.
A lowly guard like her protecting their noble selves was just 'something she had to do, of course.'
Even failing to perfectly carry out even that obvious task and letting Dauphin slip away several times, they had shown more than enough mercy and grace by not executing Dahlia on the spot.
And now it turned out all of that had been a lie!
How could this not be a matter that outraged heaven and men alike!
They sincerely thought so and enthusiastically trashed Dahlia for it, delighted that the others gladly shared the same opinion.
‘What a despicable woman. I even offered to take you as my mistress myself, and yet as a mere commoner you held your nose so high—so it turns out you were scheming all that behind our backs?’
‘You kept refusing my scouting offer, saying you wanted to focus on guard duty or whatever, but who knew you’d been hiding such a nature. So you were staging all that on purpose, weren’t you? Of course you’d be afraid the truth would come out!’
Absolutely, absolutely no private grudges are mixed in. Anyway, that’s how it is.
On top of that, they already had the knight order's tacit permission to badmouth Dahlia to their hearts' content.
“Besides, that woman’s father─”
“Damn it! The more I think about it, the angrier I get!!”
The moment one man was just about to begin speaking in a muted tone, a boisterous roar rang out across the banquet seating prepared for the honored guests.
The honored guests flinched, then soon made displeased faces.
Who in the world was committing such rude and outrageous behavior here, where Levruk’s power brokers had gathered?
The guests who turned to offer even a single rebuke soon identified the source of the commotion and, with a cough, looked away.
Though there was no one here who wasn't powerful, the man currently bellowing at the top of his lungs held a position even more exceptional than the rest.
The tax commissioner of Levruk. One of Count Sarnos’s children.
Truth be told, the former wasn't all that important, but the latter was very important indeed.
‘I don’t know about his looks, but his voice is a dead ringer for his real father’s. My heart pounds every time he raises his voice.’
‘I heard he’s been stress-eating nonstop because of Dauphin’s harassment, and he’s gotten hugely fat… Good grief. If this goes on for another year, he’ll turn into a ball.’
Whether he knew of the surrounding gazes or not, the tax commissioner kept venting his complaints nonstop.
“I trusted that guard so much! I was even moved a little when I saw her protecting me from that evil fiend Dauphin’s clutches! And you trample all over my heart like this? How could you possibly do that!?”
Crash-bang!
As if he could no longer suppress his rage, the tax commissioner carelessly hurled the glass he was holding to the floor.
If someone from the Redbell marquisate had been here, they might have seen the shadow of some ill-tempered Lady C in that motion—but unfortunately, in this place, one of Count Sarnos’s strongholds, there was no one with that kind of eye for detail.
They could only shake their heads at such a textbook rogue.
Unable to get over his anger, the tax commissioner trembled his thick belly and cheeks, then swept his bulging eyes around the room.
“You there.”
While everyone around him instinctively averted their eyes, the moment the tax commissioner pointed at one knight, that knight’s face began to sour rapidly.
“…Why is that?”
“I don’t get it, so let me ask. I moved around with that guard a few times, you know? But she definitely split a building in half with a spear. If everything she’s done so far was just a setup, was that building-splitting fake too?”
“That would naturally be a trick. Buildings are normally built with weak points prepared in advance, so even a little impact can destroy them.”
“Really? You’re sure?”
“Yes. Otherwise, how could a mere guard display such monstrous strength?”
“Then we’ll have to go back and rough up the servants.”
“Pardon?”
At the tax commissioner’s words, question marks blossomed in the minds of not only the knight but everyone nearby who had been listening to the conversation.
Because they couldn’t understand the flow of the conversation at all.
But the tax commissioner spoke as if it were only natural.
“The building I suffered damage to was my building, wasn’t it? Then that means the thief must have already been plotting something from inside before he even attacked, right? Whether they colluded or just failed to manage things properly, either way they deserve punishment. Am I wrong?”
“N-no, that is correct. As you say.”
“Hmph, but the servants there were sent by the main house, so if I mess with them too carelessly, it’ll be a nuisance…. Hey, are you sure what you just said is right? That all that guard’s strength was fake? If we check later and it turns out 'actually, that wasn’t the case,' it won’t be fun, you know? Hm?”
“That is….”
The knight couldn’t answer easily.
If the 'servants' being spoken of meant lowly attendants, then there was no real issue.
But if that referred to personal stewards, head maids, and the like—including retainers—then things got complicated.
If they had been brought over from the count family’s main house, then they were likely from fairly reputable families themselves.
The tax commissioner’s eyes narrowed.
“Why can’t you just speak properly? Hey, shit. Don’t tell me you’re just spouting whatever comes to mind? Do I look like a joke to you?”
“N-no, sir!”
“Something feels very suspicious.”
The tax commissioner tilted his head this way and that, then pointed at another knight and asked his question.
“You there. You answer. That damned thief definitely used all sorts of bizarre tricks—exploding cards, lightning, and every other strange method under the sun—but that guard just took it head-on with brute force, right? That was all fake too, wasn’t it?”
“Of course it was.”
“How did he do it?”
“Wouldn’t we know once we investigated it through interrogation?”
“Really? Then share the results with me too.”
“Pardon?”
“No, if it’s a 'trick' that can make even a mere guard show that kind of toughness, then that’s a technique in its own right, isn’t it? Then of course we should figure out that technique and use it.”
“Mm.”
“Haah, how can your head be this slow? Swinging a sword is all you think about, huh. Nothing in that skull at all. Tsk tsk.”
“…….”
“Oh? What’s with that look? Got a problem?”
“No, sir!”
“I’ll let you off just this once.”
As if he’d just done them a huge favor, the tax commissioner turned away, and even after that he kept grabbing one knight after another as they passed by to question them about Dahlia’s 'trick.'
The knights could only answer each of his questions with distinctly sour expressions.
Dahlia’s abilities are all a fraud.
Dahlia has no such power.
There was no way a mere guard could do something that even they themselves couldn’t.
Only after pulling that stunt on nearly every knight at the banquet tables did the tax commissioner finally look satisfied, and the other guests stared at the sight in disbelief.
After making such a scene, the tax commissioner soon noticed the strange looks aimed at him and frowned as if to say, Huh?
The guests flinched for no reason.
Thinking about their status and position, in truth it was unlikely the tax commissioner would hurl abuse at them as well, but if you looked at it that way, then it was also absurd that someone whose official rank was merely tax commissioner would treat the Sarnos knights, the pride of the count family, like that.
However, the guests’ worries fortunately proved to be unfounded.
Because the tax commissioner suddenly broke into a slight smile.
“Oh dear, I’m sorry. There are others here as well, and I’ve gone and caused too much trouble. I just had so much built up, and so much that didn’t make sense, that I did it without thinking.”
“Haha, well, that can happen. We understand.”
“As compensation, if not exactly compensation, then let’s call it my mood today! For the next three days, I’ll pay for absolutely everything you eat and drink here! Let’s bring out every rare wine Levruk has and enjoy ourselves!”
“Ooh…!!”
Nobles aren’t exactly the type to hate free things.
Much less when, thanks to Dauphin’s recent rampages, they’d been unable to properly indulge in luxury—being able to enjoy it here without any worry, under the knight order’s airtight protection, would be an indescribably special pleasure.
Of course, that would mean more hardship for the knights and servants, but that wasn’t their problem, was it? If they didn’t like it, they should have handled the situation properly from the start and caught Dauphin.
The banquet continued to grow livelier, and one by one even those who were eating and drinking so lavishly it was hard to believe they were the ones being targeted were eventually carried off to their rooms, dead drunk.
In front of their doors.
The knights were all thoroughly fed up.
“Isn’t this just too much? To treat us so carelessly like this!”
“Especially that pig bastard. He kept clinging to us and being a nuisance until the very end—I thought I was going to die of annoyance.”
“It’s the deputy commander’s orders, so endure it a little longer. These people here may not amount to much individually, but if they all start rebelling together, it becomes a headache. Revenge can wait until later.”
Normally, even as honored guests, they wouldn’t have dared speak so carelessly to the knight order, one of the core centers of power, but this banquet was different.
As if the tax commissioner’s behavior had become some sort of guideline, one intoxicated guest after another started throwing sneers and picking fights.
The knights, who were no less proud than the honored guests, wanted nothing more than to cut down those people who weren’t even worth a single punch, but unfortunately, the situation was bad right now.
“Room 104. No issues.”
“Room 107 is the same. Aside from the hideously loud snoring, they’re sleeping like the dead.”
“They drank that much, so it can’t be helped. Be careful not to wake them. If they start picking fights like earlier, we’re the ones who’ll suffer.”
“Understood.”
Normally, if you cram a bunch of people into one building, there are always a few who stay awake and do other things, but not a single guest was wandering around at night.
The knights didn’t think this was strange. If they’d drunk that much, it was only natural they’d be out cold.
“Aaaahhh!”
“What is it? What happened!?”
Thus, it was only the next morning that they realized something was wrong.
After hearing the scream of a maid who had entered the room to attend her master and going inside, they found a doll lying on the bed, crafted with exquisite skill to imitate a person.
“N-no way!”
One of the knights, as if refusing to accept reality, touched the body of one of the guests—but that was an even worse move than doing nothing.
Boom!
Along with the sound of something bursting, the guest’s body turned into a thin, bizarre membrane-like material fluttering in the air.
The human-shaped membrane. Inside what Dauphin would call a specially made balloon, there was a meticulously drawn card, and on that card, all the noises the knights had heard through the night—snoring, teeth grinding, sleep-talking, and more—were being replayed in various patterns.
The knights’ faces all went pale.
“They’re all gone? Not a single one of the escort targets is left, and no one noticed? So you couldn’t even report it to me? What the hell kind of bullshit is that!!”
“S-sorry. We’re currently backtracking through the underground passage we believe the bastard used—”
“W-wait, please! Commander! Deputy Commander!! Right now, on the street!!”
***
The citizens of Levruk stared blankly at the ten bagworms displayed throughout the city and the strange cards hanging from their necks, all making sounds.
《Y-yeah, the Eighth Squad leader’s abilities are all fake. A monstrous strength that smashed buildings?》
《It’s all a trick. I can swear that on the name of the Sarnos Knight Order.》
《Something like that is impossible even for our knights. The fact that a mere guard could do what even a knight can’t is ridiculous!》
Click.
《You said you were close with the 8th Squad, right? Heh, no way. They were common trash anyway. It’s only natural that commoners serve us.》
《That bitch? Don’t even get me started. I offered her more than once to stay right by my side, but she kept refusing to the very end, saying she had to patrol other areas too. No, isn’t it only natural that she should pay more attention to us than to those lowlifes? What an idiot.》
《Just you wait. Right now the lowborn may be acting all high and mighty, but the moment we catch this Dauphin or whatever he’s called, I’m going to cut them all down! A backlash? Ha! If we drag a few of the ringleader types out and make an example of them, the rest will have no choice but to bow their heads. That’s just how the lowborn are! No pride, no shame!》
Click.
《Hey, tell me. No, seriously, knight. Be honest with me. I’m curious and I just can’t hold it in.》
《This is problematic.》
《Just give me a little hint on the side. I’m entitled to know that much, aren’t I? Or should I really tell my father about this?》
《Haaah…. You absolutely, absolutely must not tell anyone outside.》
《I get it, so hurry up!》
《(zzzt) Your guess is correct.》
《Ooh! I knew it. So the guard’s abilities really weren’t fake? And the story that he was colluding with Dauphin was made up too? Exactly, there’s no way my eyes were wrong! Haha, to think the knight order would fool even me—what an extraordinary scheme!》
《Let me emphasize this once more: you must absolutely not let anyone outside know. Even if it’s (zzzt)-nim, the commander won’t let this slide if it gets out.》
《Got it, I won’t let a peep out of my mouth.》
Click.
After telling the story in one go, the card returned to the beginning and repeated the same content.
Even though they had already heard it, the people didn’t grow bored.
Over and over, again and again, they engraved the content into their ears.
Other citizens who saw them standing frozen in the street came over, wondering if something had happened, and soon showed the same reaction as the citizens already there.
And then, one of them finally spoke up.
“—Would you look at these fucking bastards?”