Oh no

I should have figured out something was wrong when the kids were scared of Raihan and Ziril, even a little scared of Lancer and I. Some of the corrupt knights were being overly aggressive towards the people living in the slums (like their lives aren't already hard enough). We tracked the knights down of course but instead of talking it through I just got so mad and ended up making everything worse.
 
The poor kids had it even worse the next day so when we confronted them again we were a bit more successful, and ended up challenging them by saying we could do their job better than they could. I ended up betting my knighthood on it saying we could find the smugglers and bring them in in three days. Unfortunately we were ordered to not take any credit for doing so and the only way to challenge that order would be to fight one on one with their squad leader which I am not strong enough for.
 
So far two days have passed and I’ve hit a wall. I feel awful. I just wanted to help the kids out but I know by the end of tomorrow if we don’t succeed the people of the slums will be suffering and I won't have any leverage to use to help without my rank.
 
We know they are using some sort of earth-touched animal to burrow around potentially using the sewer system but if that’s not it we fail.