70 – Phantom Thief Dauphin (14) – A Plausible Pretext

“The guard will cease all operations in the Dauphin manhunt, effective immediately.”

Commander Bobert’s decree sent a wave of bewildered dismay through the squad leaders of Le Brucq.

“Withdraw? Are you saying we are to abandon the pursuit of the Dauphin?”

“It is *we* who have fought the Dauphin until now, Commander!”

Bobert’s brow furrowed at their protests. He’d been in foul spirits since arriving in Le Brucq. The very idea of being dragged here to fill the void of some incompetent major, when he should be issuing orders from his family estate to his own company commanders, grated on him.

Thus, he offered no euphemisms, stating it plainly.

“Orders from Knight Commander Sarnos himself. He believes your presence only hinders the operation and that you should remove yourselves. Must I elaborate further?”

“…”

The squad leaders fell silent.

The Knight Commander led the Knights, the Guard Commander led the Guard. Both held positions of authority over their respective organizations, but the Knights, predominantly of noble birth, and the Guard, comprised mainly of commoners, occupied vastly different strata.

Commander Bobert, too, resented the Guard’s relegation to the sidelines, but with a direct order from the Knight Commander, not even a common knight, Bobert had no choice but to comply.

Amidst the silence, only Dahlia quietly raised her hand.

The Commander acknowledged her.

“Something to say?”

“If the Knights are to maintain the perimeter alone, their numbers will be insufficient.”

“The scoundrel’s ‘targets’ now number less than fifty, wouldn’t you say? We have a hundred Knights Errant in the region, so with two assigned to each person, night and day, it should be more than adequate.”

“Insufficient,” Dahlia affirmed.

“…What?”

“I am saying, a single Knight cannot withstand him. Furthermore, such an arrangement would create vast distances between the Knights, delaying any aid from without. Instead of waiting beside each target for the Dauphin to appear, constant reconnaissance and vigilance is needed, to identify the Dauphin before he reaches his target and request reinforcements.”

“Hold on, hold your horses,” Commander Bobert interjected, his face contorted with a frustrated incomprehension. “Are you even aware of the requirements to become a Knight Errant, after passing the stage of Squire, in the Order of Sarnos?”

“Not precisely, no.”

“There are many minor conditions, of course, but the core tenet, if you will, is this: To manifest the *aura*. That is to say, each of them is a powerhouse of Fourth Rank.”

Fourth Rank talents were rare.

Even a lord with a substantial domain – one worthy of being called a ‘city’ – within Virka would be fortunate to have even one such individual as a trump card. The Adventurer’s Guild, with its sprawling network across the kingdom, could barely muster fifty or so who were truly Fourth Rank, beyond just in adventurer rating.

In that sense, the Order of Sarnos, dispatching not even its entire strength, but a mere contingent (albeit a majority) of a hundred Fourth Ranks, could rightly boast of being the most formidable force in all of Virka.

“Are you suggesting these powerhouses are so readily defeated by a mere brigand? That they cannot even hold out alone until reinforcements arrive?”

“Dauphin is a master of surprise and deception. Once he gains the upper hand by striking at the chinks in your mental armor, even the most skilled knight can be reduced to half their ability, utterly overwhelmed.”

Dahlia collected herself, striving to persuade the Battalion Commander with reason.

The problem was that a logical argument didn’t guarantee a receptive ear.

Indeed, the Battalion Commander waved his hand dismissively, cutting Dahlia off.

“Enough. The matter is settled, so don’t make a fuss. Engage in pointless actions, and I will consider it insubordination, punishing you accordingly.”

Seeing no intention of continuing the discussion, Dahlia sighed inwardly.

Perhaps she was worrying needlessly.

Surely, the kingdom of Birka’s strongest Knights, no matter what, wouldn’t be defeated so ignominiously.

*

Meanwhile, at that very moment, the Sarnos Knights…

“Honestly, is this something that warrants us all rushing out here like this?”

“The guards’ incompetence is nothing new. Besides, if we think of it as a leisurely outing instead of our daily training, it’s not so bad, eh?”

“Tch, I thought I’d finally get a chance to swing my sword, but it’s just a single thief. It’d be nice if it were a band of hundreds, setting everything ablaze.”

Supported by the Count, the knights honed their skills daily, but the opportunities to wield their power were scarce.

War? Sarnos was fiercely competitive with Redbell, but not to the extent of sending knights to instigate armed conflict on a whim. Only as a last resort.

Maintaining order? Such menial tasks were for the guards, not the knights. Why use an ox-cleaver to slaughter a paltry chicken?

Well, if the opponent was a sizeable band of thieves, it might be worth considering, but thieves had a survival instinct and weren’t inclined to linger near Count Sarnos’ territory. In the Birka kingdom, with its generally chaotic public order, there were plenty of other places to rob.

Escort duty? It was rare for someone to target Count Sarnos, Birka’s most powerful noble and a Rank 4 knight himself. And even if one were guarding against assassination, it didn’t warrant the full force of a knightly order numbering in the hundreds. Not because the importance was low, but because there was an excess of manpower.

Thus, many among the Sarnos Knights secretly yearned for a grand battle, a chance to achieve glory.

Count Sarnos was known to treat his knights exceptionally well, so there were no complaints about their treatment, but satisfying their burning passion and desire for heroic deeds was another matter entirely.

And for those knights, this mission was, frankly, uninspired.

After all, how could anyone find expectation or excitement in mobilizing over a hundred men to capture a single thief?

“Still, I hear he’s quite skilled. Maybe there’ll be a decent fight?”

“Skilled or not, it’s probably overblown. If he’s struggling against mere guards, it’s obvious, right?”

“I suppose you’re right.”

Of course, they were still the cream of the crop, carefully selected by Count Sarnos.

Regardless of their lack of enthusiasm or motivation, they were utterly devoted to the task at hand.

The nobles who found themselves under the constant protection of the kingdom’s most distinguished knights expressed great satisfaction.

“Indeed, having a knight by one’s side offers a different sense of security! I’ve been kept awake every night until now, but now!”

“Haha, rest assured. As long as I stand by your side, no thief would dare approach you.”

“Happy news for me, but aren’t you all in a bind? If the rogue gets spooked and doesn’t surface, you can’t nab him, can you?”

“Blast, that’s a blind spot!”

“Hahahaha!”

Knights, nobles, commoners – none doubted the Sarnoss Knights would triumph.

How could proper knights be undone by a thief that even mere guards had held at bay? So they thought.

“…Strange. Why does it feel like the difficulty tanked after advancing to the next stage? Why move the competent guards elsewhere? Is this some elaborate trap I haven’t detected?”

[So, you’ll surrender?]

“Never! Not on the honor of a phantom thief! If they’re challenging me like this, I have no choice but to repay them with something even bigger and bolder!”

Roughly three days later.

Six more targets vanished, courtesy of D’Aupin, reappearing as a human pyramid on display. The knights guarding them? Unconscious, sprawled in alleyways, discovered by passersby.

The city erupted.

*

People have expectations.

If the grub you buy for a pittance from a shabby stall tastes bad, people aren’t overly incensed.

But if the food you purchase at a premium price from a top-tier restaurant is awful, fury will follow.

The current state of the Sarnoss Knights aligned perfectly.

The kingdom’s strongest military force.

Comprised of powerhouses at least Rank 4 and above.

The symbol of power held by the Sarnoss Earldom.

Countless lofty titles inflated expectations, suggesting they’d deliver something remarkable. The reality proved woefully inadequate.

As if the initial six simultaneous disappearances served as a springboard, D’Aupin repeated his attacks almost daily, successfully pulling off each caper.

The first defeat could be excused as a lapse in vigilance.

The second, attributed to insufficient adaptation.

But with the third instance of being outmaneuvered by D’Aupin, the Sarnoss Knights found themselves without any justification.

Or rather, no one listened to their excuses anymore.

“At least the guards managed some kind of response. These guys are just getting steamrolled one-sidedly?”

“They came in here bragging about how the guards weren’t doing their jobs, but they’re the ones failing to perform.”

“They crippled the guard captain as ‘punishment,’ yet they themselves face no repercussions? Astounding.”

People weren’t brazen enough to voice such things directly to the knights’ faces.

But the veiled glances, the hushed whispers from a distance, made it abundantly clear what their standing was in Levroucq.

“Fucking idiots…!!”

The Captain of the Guard raged.

It was fury directed at the bandit who dared to run rampant at this very moment, but it was also fury directed at his own men, who had displayed such pathetic ineptitude.

He hadn’t asked for anything extraordinary.

Simply to alert him when Dauphin arrived, and to hold their positions until he reached the scene.

Were those two things truly so impossible?

The excuses the members of his guard offered were diverse and pathetic.

A hand reaching out from the water and dragging them under, a person appearing from what was clearly a wall, cutting down what they thought was a person but was just a doll, and so on.

“Even a squad leader of a mere town guard could have managed this, yet my expensively trained men cannot.”

The Vice-Captain responded to the Captain’s lament.

“Speaking of which, we have discovered a slightly…suspicious circumstance.”

“Suspicious circumstance?”

“Yes, about the 8th squad leader, who reportedly engaged in a fierce battle with Dauphin before our arrival. She is none other than the daughter of ‘Ark’s Traitor’.”

Ark’s Traitor.

The Captain’s eyes glinted sharply at the sound of that name.

“Is that true? That man’s daughter is serving as a guard here? How?”

“There was a royal decree stating that the commoners and associates involved in the rebellion would be pardoned if the traitor surrendered without resistance and took his own life, wasn’t there? Thanks to that, she wasn’t executed and wandered around before settling down here, it seems.”

“Even so, you’re telling me they took in the kin of a man who seduced the ignorant masses into pointing their swords at the nobles? Ah, did she hide her identity?”

“No, she apparently revealed it herself when joining the guard. Thanks to that, some of the older nobles have looked upon her with suspicion until recently.”

“That’s only to be expected. The question is how she was even allowed to serve as a guard in the first place. Was the one who granted permission an imbecile?”

“Well, according to the records, it seems that the Earl, who happened to be visiting Levruk at the time, thought it would be interesting and gave his approval…”

“…Hmm. Ahem! Quite the Earl he is. A man of truly profound benevolence.”

The Captain of the Guard acted as if he wanted to take back the curse he had just uttered, and the Vice-Captain did not bother to point it out.

“So, could it be that the guard is someone the Earl is taking an interest in?”

“No, that’s not the case. It seems that when she first joined the guard, everyone suspected that was the reason and was cautiously supportive, but since there have been no comments or instructions in the years that have passed, it is most likely not the case.”

Earl Sarnos was one to prefer spontaneous actions over meticulous and planned ones, so there was a distinct possibility that he had simply forgotten about Dahlia’s existence altogether.

The Captain, understanding the situation, wore a peculiar smile.

“How coincidentally ironic. The daughter of a traitor who spouted nonsense about the rights of the common people and turned his sword against the nobles. And the bandit, similarly raging for the sake of the wretches.”

“It wouldn’t be surprising if the bandit was connected to the Ark incident, loyally pushing the credit to the daughter of the man who was the leader at the time.”

“Truly a terrifying thought. Does it mean that a guard who should be maintaining law and order and a bandit who threatens the safety of the citizens are, in fact, in cahoots?”

It was all just conspiracy, lacking any credible proof.

Yet the two were unmoved.

Lest the esteemed Sarnos Knights be judged less than common guardsmen, Dalia had to be a traitor, colluding with bandits, for the sake of their honor.

“We must contact the Count. If he gives no special instruction regarding this soldier, we’ll have to proceed with ‘appropriate measures’.”

Authority derived from violence becomes meaningless the moment it loses the people’s fear.

To maintain that authority, the innocence of one mere guardsman was of no consequence.