Chapter 78
#Chapter 78: Phantom Thief Dauphin (22) - Dahlia's Ideal
The city was in an uproar.
As a member of the guard force responsible for maintaining public order, the deputy of the 8th Platoon could feel that fact keenly.
“…It isn't all that strange.”
At present, Lebruk was politically little more than a no-man's-land.
With everyone who could be called the leadership either left crippled or having fled the city, there was no one left who could govern and lead it.
Some argued that the city's leadership had only ever exploited the citizens and done nothing for them anyway, so it didn't matter if they were gone; in fact, the citizens were managing to live on without much trouble—but that, too, would only last a little while longer.
A city with a population of over one hundred thousand had voices as numerous as its people, and if no one mediated and led them, it was obvious that before long the city itself would come apart.
Even setting aside such a distant future, what were they supposed to do about taxes and diplomatic issues with the surrounding territories right now?
Inside the city, groups had begun to appear, quietly moving to seize the power left lying in the dirt, and all of them were trying to bring Dahlia over to their side.
With Dauphin having vanished without a trace, there was no other candidate who enjoyed the citizens' support as much as Dahlia did.
'But can our captain really handle politics?'
There was no doubt that she was kind, but their platoon leader was just as rigid.
If she kept showing only that she was bound by rules and merely doing her duty as a guard, then she would surely be used by those who found and exploited that gap.
The deputy and the rest of the platoon members would try their best to stop that, but it didn't seem likely to be easy.
Lost in that thought, the deputy sighed, and one day he blinked in confusion when he saw the book Dahlia handed him.
“Uh, um. Captain. I couldn't quite hear that, so could you say it again? What exactly is this?”
“The mana cultivation method you'll be learning. You do know what a mana cultivation method is, don't you?”
“I do know that much, yes….”
Mana is an innate talent.
As for physical strength or swordsmanship, if you keep running, rolling, and swinging a sword hard enough, they'll improve sooner or later—but mana is simply a matter of whether you awaken to it or not.
But if you have a mana cultivation method, then even those who weren't born with talent can acquire mana later on.
Of course, once they've obtained mana that way, the cruel yardstick called talent is shoved in front of them again, but at least they'll be able to stand on the starting line.
That was why mana cultivation methods were precious, and why nobles monopolized that knowledge with ruthless thoroughness.
I don't know about other countries, but at least in the Kingdom of Birka, it's not something you can just go out and get.
So where on earth did Dahlia get this?
Could it be... perhaps.
“We weren't cheated, so stop giving me those suspicious looks.”
“...Have you awakened to mind reading?”
“If I look at your faces right now, even a pretty dull fool could figure it out.”
The platoon members averted their eyes awkwardly, and Dahlia once again recommended the book to her subordinates.
“Read it first. Any member who can't read can have someone who can help them. The book itself has been written in as easy and straightforward a way as possible, so it shouldn't be that difficult. If there's anything you still don't understand, ask me.”
Suspicious in many ways as it was, Dahlia was the one recommending it to them, so there wasn't a single platoon member who would refuse outright.
They read the book with one another's help and even tried to put its contents into practice somehow.
And then, about a week later.
“Huh? Ah? It works, it works! It really works!!”
Among the many guards of the 8th Platoon, one female guard awakened to mana and bounced up and down, showing her joy.
Coincidentally, she was the very same guard who had delivered the book from the mysterious man to Dahlia while she was in prison.
The platoon members who had only half-believed it also widened their eyes once a comrade actually awakened to mana, and they began throwing themselves into training.
About fifteen days after training began, half of the platoon had succeeded in awakening, and a month later even the deputy, who had made the slowest progress, was able to use mana.
Considering that a mana cultivation method normally needed at least a year of preparation to truly show its effects, that was an almost insane rate of mastery.
“C-Captain. Just how did you, no, where did you get something like this….”
The platoon members seemed to feel both joy and fear at the same time.
To think they had gained with such ease a power they had believed they would never obtain in their entire lives?
“'Easily' isn't the word.”
Dahlia brushed aside her subordinates' concerns.
“This mana cultivation method is basically specialized in strengthening the body. More precisely, the more you cultivate it, the stronger it makes the body itself, and the stronger the body becomes, the more efficient that strengthening gets. The reason you learned it so quickly is because you've already trained your bodies that much in daily life.”
Every member of the 8th Platoon was already in the upper ranks of the 2nd tier.
They already had all the basic conditions in place except for mana, so they had picked it up quickly; even if other people learned the same cultivation method, it would be hard for them to see results this fast.
In the first place, a cultivation method is, strictly speaking, one form of 'training.'
Just as, even knowing that steady, repetitive exercise is good for the body, very few people actually put it into practice, Dahlia's mana cultivation method would also immediately decline the moment they neglected their training.
“Train hard. Before long, you'll have to teach it to other people yourselves.”
“...Are you planning to give this to people other than us?”
“With the current guard system, whatever they do about internal cleanup, they won't be able to stand against an outside invasion. Well, since it's work that uses the body, the guards will probably end up volunteering a lot no matter what.”
“Isn't that too dangerous? There might be people who only take the mana cultivation method and run. Maybe some might even misuse it. If that's the case—”
“─Rather, it would be better to give it only to followers who are thoroughly devoted to Dahlia.”
As if she had guessed the words the deputy had failed to say, Dahlia shook her head.
“Of course, I'll screen people. But the criterion won't be how loyal they are to me; it has to be how well they follow discipline and fulfill the role they've been given.”
A unit not of knights who swear loyalty to a lord, but of those who swear loyalty to order and discipline itself, protecting the peace and safety of the innocent.
It was an overly idealistic dream, lacking any real-world practicality.
Perhaps these people, too, would one day fall into corruption and become beings who oppressed the innocent for their own interests.
Even so, Dahlia intended to take on the challenge.
Even if this wasn't the 100-point correct answer, it was so she could walk the path she believed was right.
Perhaps that path might eventually lead her into self-righteousness, but even that would be fine.
If she lost sight of her original intentions and turned into an ugly power holder, then by then the cheerful phantom thief would definitely come to punish her.
***
Several more months passed after that.
“─Dahlia, was it? Want to work under me?”
At the words of the young lady who had come from the Redbell Marquess House, the air in the reception room froze.
The Lebruk side didn't know whether to show bewilderment or anger, while the Redbell side couldn't help but sigh, as if saying, 'The young lady's done it again.'
The only ones who remained calm were Dahlia herself, the young lady of the Redbell family, and the sky-blue-haired mage who served as that young lady's escort.
Dahlia replied indifferently.
“No.”
“Really? What a pity.”
That was all.
The Redbell young lady did not go so far as to throw a tantrum over a mere commoner rejecting her offer, nor did she show displeasure at Dahlia's indifferent answer.
She had simply expressed a slight regret, just as she had said.
At that utterly matter-of-fact reaction, Dahlia felt a strange emotion for a moment.
'Claudia Redbell. I heard she's one of the main figures in the massive political struggle unfolding in this country right now.'
Born of the Redbell Marquess House and the royal house of Birka, she was, in one sense, the woman with the noblest blood in this kingdom.
The fact that she had personally come all the way to Lebruk—which could, in one sense, be called enemy territory—after Dahlia refused the Redbell House's request to see her, and the fact that she was speaking with Dahlia, who was nothing more than a commoner, on equal footing despite being the representative of Lebruk, made 'unconventional' feel like too weak a word.
'And that person beside her—was it Blanca?'
Dahlia's gaze turned to the sky-blue-haired adventurer.
Eyes that somehow held both sorrow and the strength to overcome that sorrow and move on.
Compared with the rough sword at her waist, her build was rather slender, to the point of seeming fragile at a glance, but Dahlia had a hunch.
'...If we fought, I'd probably win, but I can't say for sure.'
Probably, at this point, Dahlia was objectively the one with the higher level.
But Blanca gave off something that made even strong people tense up—a giant-killer sort of presence.
She also gave the impression of still being in the middle of growth, rather than already complete.
Were all the high-ranking adventurers in the Adventurer's Guild like that? If so, the Guild might be far scarier than she had thought.
Whether she knew that Dahlia had fallen into a strange misunderstanding or not, Blanca remained silent.
She seemed to be acting as though she were merely a temporarily hired escort.
“Then, how about an alliance?”
At Claudia's new proposal, Dahlia asked in response.
“If it's an alliance, what exactly kind of alliance are you talking about?”
“You guys are currently isolated within Sarnos's sphere of influence, right? For now, because of our side's pressure the count can't move easily, so you're being left alone, but once the count falls, the other guys will start taking an interest. I'll keep that from happening.”
Indeed, it was rare for some fool to go sticking their head into territory protected by the Redbell Marquess House.
Even if they didn't openly send troops into Lebruk, there were plenty who tried to apply petty pressure through trade, transit, and the like, and perhaps even that pressure would disappear altogether.
“So you're saying you'll make Lebruk Redbell territory?”
“That's one way to do it. Honestly, this land has tremendous potential. With this population, this location, and all this farmland, you'd think the count must be a fool to have handled it that badly. But you don't want to be my subordinate, do you?”
Claudia leaned forward.
Her pink eyes stared straight into Dahlia's light-green ones.
“Looks like you're already having a pretty hard time not just with the political pressure around you, but also with administrative issues, so I'll take care of that. In return, I'd like you to provide us with military force and manpower. How about a contract at around this level?”
Dahlia's eyes widened as she looked at the document Claudia held out.
“...Is this really true?”
“Why, does it seem too cheap? But the first contract is always like that. How are you supposed to know whether you'll send capable people or total dead weight? You try them first, and if they're capable, you gradually raise the pay.”
Dahlia closed her mouth.
Rather than being too cheap, it was so much more generous than the terms the Sarnos count used when hiring people that she couldn't believe it, so it seemed better not to say that.
She'd heard that the marquess house was richer than a count's house, but even so, wasn't this gap a little too extreme?
Dahlia asked them to give her a day to think it over, and after the committee formed to govern Lebruk approved this contract, she nodded to Claudia.
It was the first joint operation of the three women who would one day hold sway over the Kingdom of Birka.