The Crown Prince Who Raises a Side Character-Chapter 74: Phantom Thief Dauphin (18). For Order, Against Order
They may have taken a hit from Dauphin, but the Sarnos Knight Order was still one of the strongest, most influential forces in the Birka Kingdom. Whether it was noble heritage, personal strength, or sheer reputation as an organization, there were few who could rival them. Unless you were the son of the lord himself, they rarely showed anyone a hint of humility.
If they could beat and replace the Guard Commander just to vent their frustration, it was obvious how they would treat commoners.
But at this moment, the oppressive, seething atmosphere that hung over all of Lebruk had even these knights glancing nervously around.
“Fine. People can show off. People can make mistakes. But what kind of twisted bastard fucks up and then dumps the blame on someone else? Someone who was doing their job before they showed up? How is that even human?”
“You call yourselves knights? The pride of Sarnos? When the fuck did that become something to brag about?!”
“Hey! You goddamn thugs! Don’t you even know what shame is?!”
The knights' reputation, already not great to begin with, had now plummeted to rock bottom.
Where people used to grumble behind their backs, now they hurled insults to their faces.
Even the other nobles weren’t defending them this time.
“Idiots! If you were going to do it, you should’ve kept it hidden!”
“Ugh! Bunch of muscle-brained morons trying to play mind games—dragging our reputations down with them!”
“Brother! Oh, Brother! How did it come to this?! The knight order took our people for safekeeping, so what the hell were they doing?!”
That they'd tried to manipulate things behind the scenes? No one really cared about that.
In fact, people could even accept it—at least they’d tried to act.
But to have their own base hit in a single night, and have their "private conversations" leaked publicly? That kind of incompetence was unforgivable.
Now all the nobles in Lebruk had been branded as bastards. Thanks to them.
The knight order tried to explain—“It was all magic trickery! Forgeries!”—but no one bought it.
If there had only been the cards, sure. But the targets themselves were right there, displayed alongside them. Claiming the voices were fake made no sense.
This is a failure beyond explanation.
Inside the mansion.
The Knight Commander, who had always carried himself with cold pride, was visibly trembling.
They’d failed to protect the nobles.
Their trap had been turned against them.
Either incident alone would be a disgrace to report to the Count. But both happened—at once.
And there was no way to fix it.
He still couldn’t understand.
“How... How is this possible...?”
Dauphin had used underground ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ tunnels.
And tunnels like that took massive effort and time to prepare.
Even with magic, if someone were digging like that beneath them, the Commander should have felt the vibrations, the mana.
There was only one answer.
“He planned it from the start. He predicted we’d gather the nobles in that mansion the moment the situation turned against him!”
The realization that they'd been dancing in the palm of a common thief made the Commander’s blood boil—and his spine go cold.
As he sat, dazed in unthinkable confusion, the Vice-Commander carefully spoke.
“Regardless of how Dauphin pulled it off, what matters now is what we do next.”
“Now? It’s already over. What the hell is there left to do?”
“Have you forgotten? The Count’s orders were to bring back Dauphin’s head. We only protected the nobles as a means to lure him. That was never the core mission.”
A distortion of the truth.
Sure, the Count had asked for Dauphin’s head. But it was clearly understood that they were to restore order to the city and deliver the head.
“You think the Count will forgive us for this?”
“If the knight order ends this mess looking like we were beaten by Dauphin, that’s what the Count will never forgive. You know this!”
The Sarnos Knight Order was the pride of the family.
They weren't everything, but they were the most symbolic extension of the Count’s power.
And that symbol had been utterly humiliated by a mere thief?
After this, who would still fear them? Who would still respect them?
Would the Count even tolerate those who turned his pride into a laughingstock?
The Commander’s expression chilled.
“...Is there a way?”
“Dauphin is deeply protective of the common people. In the past, some nobles tried to retaliate against civilians after being humiliated by him—but he always intervened.”
In other words, causing physical harm to the citizens could draw Dauphin out.
“Target the slums. They have nothing worth taxing anyway. And once people see blood in the streets, all this shouting will stop.”
To turn swords on one’s own people—citizens of their own territory—when they were supposed to be defenders of peace? It was an insane proposal.
But the Commander knew the truth. frёewebnoѵēl.com
A military force that’s feared can be useful.
A military force that’s laughed at is worth nothing.
“Call the knights. All of them.”
Grinding his teeth, the Knight Commander gripped the hilt at his waist with deadly force.
***
The Guard prison.
“So right now, the whole city’s cursing out the knights and the nobles, and everyone’s talking about how they miss you, Captain! The truth’s out now, so it’s just a matter of time before you’re free!”
“...I see.”
Dahlia gave a faint, awkward smile behind the bars as the female squad member from the 8th Squad excitedly relayed the outside news.
She was glad the false charges had been lifted.
She was grateful the citizens missed her.
And she couldn’t deny the slight thrill of seeing the knights take a hit.
And yet, Dahlia couldn’t bring herself to smile.
“In the end, it ended in Dauphin’s victory.”
She had tried to stop him. She had fought with everything she had to catch him.
But while she was locked away, the phantom thief had seized a dazzling, undisputed victory.
From here on, Dahlia would still be a guard, and Dauphin would still be a thief. But they would never face each other again.
Judging by his previous behavior, he’d be on to another territory by now.
That bitter taste lingering in her chest—Dahlia finally realized what it was.
It wasn’t the defeat as a guard that stung.
This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.
It was the regret, as a person, that she couldn’t see their fight through to the end.
“I guess I’m in no position to scold the squad members who’ve started rooting for Dauphin.”
Just as Dahlia let out a deep sigh, her subordinate perked up with an “Oh, right!” and pulled something out.
It looked like a book. Dahlia tilted her head.
“What’s that?”
“It’s a gift for you, Captain. Apparently he meant to give it to you in person once it was finished, but now only we squad members are allowed visitation, so he asked me to pass it along. Um... he was a little older than you, pretty plain-looking, but with this kind of mischievous glint in his eyes? Sound familiar?”
Dahlia’s pale green eyes widened.
She reached through the bars and accepted the book, flipping it open.
Truth be told, Dahlia was never much of a reader.
Her father had taught her to read, but he wasn’t particularly cultured himself. She could manage simple text, but complex language had always been difficult.
But this book posed no such trouble.
A large portion of the pages were illustrations. The accompanying text avoided all difficult or noble-style vocabulary, and...
More than anything, Dahlia already knew what this book was saying.
Not as knowledge, but as instinct.
“Is something wrong, Captain? I skimmed through it earlier, and there weren’t any weird drawings or anything...”
Her squadmate was worried, unsure how to interpret the dazed look on Dahlia’s face.
But before she could respond, a voice echoed in both of their ears.
《—To all citizens of Lebruk.》
A strange, cave-like echo wrapped around the words.
Realizing it was a magically amplified broadcast, Dahlia reflexively focused her hearing.
She didn’t have to. The voice rang throughout the entire city.
《Right now, Dauphin and his cohorts are spreading crude lies to deceive the people.》
《The Sarnos Knight Order has always acted in accordance with honor and pride to protect Lebruk. But because of Dauphin’s vile schemes, we’ve been unjustly slandered. We can no longer continue with our current methods.》
《Therefore, from this moment forward, our Knight Order will purge the city’s slums.》
Dahlia couldn’t believe her ears.
But judging from her subordinate’s horrified face, she hadn’t imagined it.
《The slum-dwellers are nothing but parasites, failing to fulfill even their duties as citizens while leeching off the city. Dauphin throws stolen goods at them like handouts to satisfy his ego.》
《Some residents, swayed by this pathetic charity, willingly became his pawns. Every act of cooperating with a thief to gain personal benefit is, naturally, a crime.》
《Thus, we of the Sarnos Knight Order will rectify this in the name of justice.》
Justice.
The moment that word hit her ears, Dahlia felt something crawling over her skin. Disgust. Not from the word itself, but from how they were using it.
《This is for Lebruk. And for the House of Sarnos as a whole.》
《Anyone who gets in our way—regardless of who they may be—will be seen as Dauphin in disguise or a collaborator with his thievery, and will be cut down.》
《Innocent citizens, we urge you not to panic. Continue your work. We hope no misunderstandings lead to unnecessary harm.》
《That is all.》
Dahlia couldn’t take it anymore.
CRACK!
She shattered the special shackles designed to hold guards in an instant and strode toward the cell door.
No—she ripped the steel door clean off its hinges.
KWAJIK!
“W-What are you d—U-Urk...”
The guard tried to intervene, but faltered before the overwhelming scene.
Her subordinate was just as frozen.
“C-Captain?”
“My armor. Or at least my spear. Where is it?”
“U-Um, it—it’s in the 8th Squad ready room!”
Dahlia kicked off the ground.
She knew full well her actions now qualified as criminal.
She was breaking the very ‘law and order’ she had always vowed to uphold, even when furious, even when wrongly accused.
But she moved anyway.
She had to.
“No matter what anyone says, I believe what I’m doing leans toward good. Even if it’s not absolute or perfect, I believe it tips the scales more toward good than evil. That’s enough reason to act, isn’t it? Simple, right?”
“Just because it’s a ‘game’ doesn’t mean it’s useless. Maybe you can’t act it out now, but someday it might help you decide what to do.”
Two voices, different and yet perhaps not so different, rang through her heart.
She ignored them.
And she ran.
Ran, and ran again, so she would not be too late.
For the laws and justice she had forged—
together with him.
