The Crown Prince Who Raises a Side Character-Chapter 75: Phantom Thief Dauphin (19). What the Thief Unleashed

“The knights have lost it! They’re trying to kill us all!!”

“Aylin! Max! Where are you?! Answer me!!”

“R-Run! If you stay here, you’re dead!!”

Following the public declaration broadcast across all of Lebruk, the terrified citizens of the slums began to flee in a panic.

They tried desperately to escape their districts, to run somewhere—anywhere—beyond the knight order’s wrath.

But those who reached the edges of the slums first quickly found themselves confronted with something unexpected.

“...The roads are blocked?”

Scrap piles. Collapsed building debris. Even wagons.

All kinds of obstacles had been placed to prevent anyone from escaping the slums.

Maybe a few people could climb over them and get out, but it was utterly impossible for the entire slum population to escape through them.

At the major exits, fully armed knights, squires, and support troops of the Sarnos Order had already formed tight formations. Their eyes shone with a strange excitement and fanaticism.

“Advance.”

“Yes, sir!!”

THOOM.

With every synchronized step the knights took, the ground trembled. A deep, oppressive thud rang through the area.

“Uhh—aaaahhh!!”

Terrified citizens turned and ran the other way, deeper into the slums, but the knights made no move to chase them.

They didn’t have to.

The knights had surrounded the slums in a siege formation. With nowhere to escape, the people would inevitably be herded into a single point—like livestock to the slaughter.

But that didn’t mean the knights merely marched in silence.

CRACK! SMASH! CRASH!!

They kicked over stalls. Busted down doors. Wrecked interiors—or even razed whole buildings.

Officially, they claimed to be “searching for Dauphin,” who might be hiding in the structures. But that was obviously just an excuse.

This was a display.

A message to Dauphin—and to all of Lebruk—of what the knight order was. What kind of violence they wielded.

And the message worked.

Even citizens who, just that morning, had been shouting in protest, had gone utterly quiet.

Not only those within the slums—but those outside the perimeter watching the scene unfold were struck speechless.

Watching human beings dismantle buildings with their bare hands and turn structures into rubble was enough to inspire primal terror in anyone.

Sensing the fear spreading, the knights grew more aggressive. Their destruction only escalated.

The stress they’d endured recently gave them all the excuse they needed. Smashing things indiscriminately, terrifying the masses—this was cathartic. Joyful.

Watching screaming civilians scramble away in terror made their smiles grow wider. Their eyes glinted with madness.

This, they thought, was how things were supposed to be.

The weak had overstepped. Peasants daring to scorn the proud and powerful? Unthinkable.

This—this purge—was the natural order restored.

“Aaaahhh!!”

“No! Max!!”

A child tripped and began to wail. His father, already carrying a little girl, tried desperately to scoop him up, but his movements were clumsy, slow.

The knights’ eyes gleamed.

Smashing stalls and walls had been amusing—but now, they were ready to see blood.

A sword was raised high, ready to come down on the cowering family.

“—I must admit. I made a mistake.”

But before that sword could fall, a shadow came flying in from somewhere.

WHAM!

The knight was sent flying.

Life-sized mannequins rushed forward, grabbing the man and the children, whisking them to safety.

Between them and the knights, a man stood tall.

He muttered, his voice filled with a cold, almost funereal gravity.

“I underestimated you. I didn’t think men who call themselves knights could be this crude, this ignorant, this utterly shameless.”

A deep burgundy suit. A wide-brimmed hat. A short cloak draped over one shoulder.

Gone was the trademark playful smile.

In its place: cold, merciless eyes.

The knights of Sarnos widened their eyes.

“It’s Dauphin! Dauphin’s here!!”

“You bastard thief! Do you have any idea what shame you’ve brought on us!?”

“We were caught off guard last time—but this will be different!!”

BOOM!

Three knights shot forward like arrows.

Their speed and movement resembled wild beasts more than men.

But Dauphin dodged their blades with ease, slipping in between their swings and sliding several cards into the gaps in their armor.

ZZZZT!!

Lightning surged from the cards, locking up their limbs and driving them to their knees.

It looked like a perfect takedown, but Dauphin knew better.

Those cards were strong enough to knock out average people—but at best, they could only temporarily paralyze knights of the Fourth Rank.

Dauphin moved to follow up—but he had to stop.

From behind, squires fired a volley of crossbow bolts toward him.

WHIZZ-WHIZZ-WHIZZ!

He dodged, but in that brief moment, another knight rushed in to swing a blade at him.

He deflected. Then the next came. Then another.

They kept coming, again and again.

No matter how skilled he was, even Dauphin couldn’t take them all down at once.

“Don’t be afraid! His power isn’t that great—he just runs well!”

“Don’t hold back! Keep your enhancements at max! You can shrug off his tricks if you just power through!”

If Dauphin had stuck to what he was best at—ambushes, misdirection, hit-and-run tactics—he might still have stood a chance.

He had, after all, just humiliated the entire Sarnos Order in their own fortified mansion.

But this—this was war. freёweɓnovel.com

And not even Dauphin could fight a hundred knights head-on.

But even so, he did not retreat.

Because if he vanished now—if he slipped into the shadows again—the Sarnos Order would continue the massacre without hesitation.

So he stayed.

Even as his stash of magical tools dwindled.

Even as his once-pristine suit grew soaked with blood and grime.

Even as his body was cut and battered, barely holding together.

He fought on.

To take down just one more knight.

To buy just one more minute of escape time.

To save just one more life.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

“I’ve been looking for you. Took me long enough to see that smug face again.”

Dauphin’s desperate struggle was met only with mockery—until the commander of the knight order swung his sword and severed Dauphin’s right arm.

Shhhkk!

Blood erupted like a fountain. His cloak, once draped elegantly over half his body, crumpled to the floor in a heap.

Even the cloak that repelled sword force, even the tailor-made suit that reinforced his body, even all his carefully gathered gear—none of it mattered in front of a Fifth-Rank Sword Force that could slice through steel like tofu.

Clutching the bloody stump of his arm, Dauphin still managed to speak.

“...So, your goal was to draw me out. That much, I understand. But in that case, wouldn’t mere threats have sufficed? Even without turning your blades on the people, just giving a time and place would have been enough. I’d have appeared willingly.”

The knight commander’s eyes burned with fury as he replied.

“Perhaps. But why should I have done that?”

“What?”

The commander’s voice was cold. Steady. Unshaken.

“This city needed a warning. One that would make them remember who we are. That dared to mock the Sarnos Knight Order. That dared to defy us with protest and resentment. We can’t kill all the citizens—but an example? Oh, we can manage that.”

He meant every word.

The name Sarnos Knight Order was too heavy. Too powerful. If regaining the people's awe meant slaughtering a few poor commoners—then to him, it was worth it.

“—You think I’ll just let that happen?”

BOOOOM.

A violent hum filled the air. A spear swept forward, slicing through space and rushing toward the commander.

Twisting his body ever so slightly, the knight commander dodged with ease. But when he saw who the attacker was, his brow twitched.

“...Escaped custody. Assaulting a superior. Aiding a criminal. I don’t even know which crime to start with. Have you finally lost your mind? Or are you here to confess that you were Dauphin’s accomplice all along? Answer me—Captain of the 8th Squad.”

Dalía answered calmly.

“Neither. I’m here as a city guard. I’m here to stop the thieves threatening the lives of our citizens.”

“...Then I really don’t understand. Isn’t the thief standing right behind you?”

“No. That man may be a criminal—but the thief I need to stop right now... isn’t him.”

Step.

Dalía walked forward.

She wore no armor. No mask. Only a single spear held tightly in her hands.

With no hesitation. No doubt.

She declared:

“The true thieves—the ones calling themselves knights—are you. The Sarnos Knight Order.”

A collective gasp.

A mere city guard had just denounced the entire knight order—representatives of the Sarnos family—as a band of thieves.

And the knights’ reaction?

“...Don’t expect a peaceful death, bitch.”

Fury.

No—rage. Furious enough to murder.

The commander. The vice-commander. Every knight nearby radiated murderous bloodlust.

But Dalía didn’t flinch.

One knight stepped forward, unable to contain his disgust.

“Commander! There’s no need for you to dirty your hands. Please, allow me to handle this wench myself!”

The commander looked at him in silence, then nodded once.

“Fine. But don’t waste my time.”

“Thank you!”

Burning with vengeance—still bitter from the shame of being overpowered during Dalía’s arrest—the knight drew his sword.

Whoosh!

Even if Dalía had raw strength, it meant nothing if she couldn’t land a hit.

The knight zigzagged toward her, his movements erratic and unpredictable.

Seeing her ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) just stand there—unmoving, unarmored—the knight grinned.

‘Stupid girl. I’ll make you regret stepping onto a battlefield dressed like that!’

With magical reinforcement, he swung the high-grade longsword given by the Count himself.

A strike powerful enough to cleave through trees like butter crashed down on Dalía’s shoulder—

Thunk.

—and stopped.

“...?”

A question mark filled the knight’s mind.

Before he could figure out why, Dalía's spear slammed into his side.

WHAM!

It wasn’t even a metaphor. It looked like he’d been hit by a carriage.

The knight’s precious armor—pride of the Sarnos Order—crumpled like paper. The flesh, bones, and guts inside were crushed and folded along with it.

Unable to absorb the force, the knight bounced across the ground like a stone on water—his limbs bending in grotesque directions with each impact.

CRAAASH!

A wooden building that had taken the knights several minutes to “dismantle” was flattened instantly when the knight’s body slammed into it.

Silence.

Everyone was stunned.

And in that silence, Dalía spoke, flat and cold:

“When subduing a criminal in the city, we aim to take them alive whenever possible. However—”

“—if the life of the guard or a citizen is in danger, deadly force is justified.”

She was born strong.

But she spent her life binding that strength with law and order.

Now, that born warrior declared—unleashed—her judgment against those drunk on violence:

“If you understood that much—come at me. You filthy thieves.”