From Londoner To Lord-Chapter 149:147. Incompetence

The guards uneasily looked at each other. The taller one gazed at Kivamus and spoke in a low voice, "We also wanted to see the medal ceremony, milord!"

Hudan glared at him. "Then you should have asked someone else to take your place!"

The other guard protested, "But we weren’t even supposed to be on duty at this time. The senior guards who were on duty called us over and told us to watch the gates while they went to watch the award ceremony."

Hudan gazed at Kerel. "Find out who it was and bring them here. I’ll deal with them after this."

Kerel nodded, and jogged away from them.

Hudan asked the guards again. "But why did you just leave the gates open?"

"No, sir!" The shorter guard gave a reluctant answer, "We barred the eastern manor gates from inside, and then we went to watch the ceremony as well. This was the first time that medals were being given to someone in the village, and we really didn’t want to miss it."

The tall guard added, "We thought it wouldn’t do any harm. Those gates are hardly used these days since the coal mining has stopped. But we did bar them from the inside!"

"No you didn’t," Feroy remarked. "If you had really barred those gates then whoever killed Sejkil would never have gotten inside the manor."

"But we did!" Then the taller guard hesitated and looked at the other one, "You did lock them, right?"

Feroy tilted his head. "And why are you asking him? Weren’t you there as well?"

"I really had to take a leak at that time..." the tall guard mumbled, "so I left first, and told him to lock the gates."

Hudan frowned at them. "Shouldn’t you both have closed it together? The hinges of those gates are old, and it takes two men to close and bar those heavy gates."

The taller guard looked surprised. After a moment, he muttered, "I didn’t know that it couldn’t be locked by one person... Those gates are only barred by the guards who get the night shifts, and we have never gotten that duty since we were recruited." He looked at the other guard. "Did you know about this?"

The shorter guard just shook his head and sighed. "You know that I’d have stopped you from leaving if I had known."

"So were you really able to bar the gates from inside just by yourself?" Feroy asked the shorter guard.

"I did close the gates, but when I tried to bar them from inside," the guard mumbled, "it got stuck in a position and I couldn’t put the iron bar in place. I also heard the sound of cheering from the ceremony at that time, and I really didn’t want to be the only one to miss it! And when I still couldn’t do it after trying many times, I just put the bar on the side and went to see the medal ceremony..." He added in a low voice, "I thought nobody would even find out from outside the gates that it wasn’t barred, since the gates would still seem locked from the outside."

"You are an idiot!" Hudan growled at them after hearing their stories. "Both of you! You left your post in the middle of duty, and then went to watch the ceremony for your entertainment without even locking the gates properly!" He angrily looked at the other guards who had been watching quietly. "Didn’t any of you think of reporting to me that the gates were already open, when we found out that Sejkil had been murdered?"

Most of the guards just gazed downwards, while one of them protested, "But the gates are supposed to be open at this time!" He pointed at the two guards who were being questioned until now. "And those two were already back at the gates when I found them to be open, so I didn’t think it was anything odd that the gates were still open at this time."

Hudan stared back at the two earlier guards and growled, "I’ll show you what it means to leave your post! I’m going to..."

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As Kivamus listened to the guard captain berate the guards while threatening to train them until they fell down from exhaustion, he realized that these guards were not really corrupt or even complicit in the death of Sejkil - just like Duvas was telling him earlier - but their actions certainly showed gross incompetence by them. Hopefully some serious disciplinary training in the future should instill in them the importance of following their orders and not leaving their posts in the middle of their watch duties.

Then he remembered something and looked at the guards. "I was told that Sejkil didn’t die an easy death, which means he must have screamed a lot. Didn’t any of you hear anything?"

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Most of the guards just shook their heads, while a few muttered that they hadn’t heard anything, since there was a lot of sound because of the crowd for the medal giving ceremony.

However, one of the guards, whom Kivamus had given a medal for getting injured in the line of duty, was looking to the side hesitantly.

Hudan barked at him. "What is it that you are hiding?"

The guard looked towards them with indecision. Then he muttered in a low voice, "After I had gotten my medal, I was feeling thirsty so I came to the well to get some water to drink, and I did hear some sounds from that barn."

Hudan took a step towards the guard in anger, but Kivamus put a hand on his arm to hold him back. The guard captain - who resembled a raging bull more than a human right now - took a deep breath to calm himself and stopped. Then he growled at that guard in a voice seething with fury. "You didn’t think of trying to take a look and see what was happening? What if it was something even worse? What if someone was trying to harm or kill one of our maids? "

The guard looked down with shame. "I didn’t think about that... But I knew that Sejkil had been tied up inside that barn, so I just thought it must be one of the guards roughing him up a little. But I never thought he would die! And I didn’t even do anything myself! I didn’t even go inside that barn!"

"Even if you thought it was Sejkil," Feroy asked him, "you still should have gone to take a look. Or at least you should have reported it to someone!"

"But I thought..." The guard’s face showed anger for a moment before he controlled his expression. "That bastard Sejkil and the other bandits had tried to kill us! I thought it was only fair to rough him up in return. And I didn’t even do anything to him myself! I just didn’t think it was worth reporting."

That response surprised Kivamus. Did the guards really hold that much fury against the bandits? But then he immediately realized that he was being foolish. Of course they would be furious at the bandits! He had been sitting safe inside the manor, but the guards had risked their lives against the lowlifes. Some of them had gotten injured and had barely returned alive, so of course they would want to take revenge against the bandits.

He sighed. His modern mindset was habitual of a fair justice system and he just hadn’t been able to execute either Sejkil or Levalo without a proper trial and judgement, so he had given a second chance to them after giving them some time to contemplate on their life choices - hoping they would change their habits and try to live a good life. But since there was no permanent prison here, his order had basically meant forgiving the bandits for raiding the village and trying to kill people of Tiranat. His people.

He looked in the eyes of the guards standing there, and he thought he saw resentment there, as if they had felt betrayed by his decision to essentially forgive Sejkil without any punishment, but perhaps it was only his imagination.

He shook his head. Maybe... just maybe, he had been too forgiving. And perhaps it was a mistake for him to give a second chance to Sejkil to work as a laborer here, without even giving him any serious punishment. He did have his reasons for that - since they didn’t have a proper prison at the time - but more importantly, he was just happy that an extra worker would help to get the longhouses and other buildings made even faster, which would mean that the villagers wouldn’t have to live in cramped conditions with their neighbors for too long. But perhaps it was a mistake for him to not consider the other aspects of that decision.

More importantly, could he really have ordered someone to be executed? He knew that the bandit deserved to be punished as severely as possible, but that was the task of trained judges who knew the law, but he was just an engineer dammit! How was he supposed to give an order to end someone’s life? Did he even have the right to do something like that?

He took a deep breath. Despite everything that had happened, he still believed that a human life was precious - no matter what the standards were in this cut-throat medieval world - and shouldn’t be extinguished without being completely sure that the person didn’t deserve to live anymore.

No matter what the nobles used as a form of justice in this world, and even if the majority of villagers would have supported him executing someone immediately - either for entertainment or revenge - he would try his best to stick to his principles of morality. But still, this incident had made him realize that he couldn’t continue to behave like he was living in twenty-first century Earth. Just like others were adapting to his views and ideals, he would also have to try to adapt to this world as well.

That meant while he still wasn’t going to order his guards to execute someone without a due process - something which wasn’t feasible here without a well-written book of law as well as trained judges who were experienced in diligently carrying out that law - something still had to be done to punish criminals and lawbreakers.

Earlier, he had thought of postponing making the jail for the future, after the more important construction projects were completed. But it seemed like he couldn’t do that anymore. This was still a harsh medieval world, and while he would do his best to stick to his values and ideals of justice, the people needed a way to see that the wrongdoers would be punished, even if it was just locking them up for a long time. Despite the fact that feeding a prisoner for a long time without them working for it would be an extra load on their food stores which they didn’t really need, it was a price he had to pay if he didn’t want something like this to repeat again.

Of course, there was always the option of immediate execution if such a thing happened again in the future, but he’d keep that as the very last resort, and it would be done only after he had consulted with all his advisors on what the best punishment would be. A life would only be taken if and only if there really was no better way left, but he did have to keep that option open in the future, despite all his qualms against it.

He nodded to himself, his resolve strengthened. Then he looked at the small crowd gathered around him and began to speak.