Chapter 322 (1/2)

Chapter 322 Western Territory Security Bureau

Returning to the castle hall, Roland went to sit in the Lord’s seat that was overlooking the subjects gathered within the hall beneath him.

In his memory, the only time the 4th Prince has ever used his right to exercise a trial was the first time he had come to Border Town. Later, after his fallout with the nobles and his dissatisfaction with his current lifestyle in general, he had thrown everything into the hands of Barov, never asking him anything about it.

Seeing that everyone was present, Roland called for the trial to begin.

At first, he let all sides state their case, then he asked them questions of his own – with Nightingale there secretly assisting him it wasn’t necessary for him to determine who was deliberately lying and who spoke insincerely, nor did he need to have the meticulous mind of a grim reaper, concluding who was responsible became effortless and simple.

Soon the whole truth of the story was revealed.

At heart, Khoya Harvie was unwilling to accept that he was deprived of his identity as a knight, at the same time he had also grown tired of the tedious writing work at the City Hall, which resulted into a stomach full of resentment against the refugees. He made use of the opportunity presented by the distribution of the wheat porridge to purposely charge the refugees a fee and instigate dispute between both sides. He deliberately told them that it was because the serfs didn’t turn over all their grain that the wheat stock wasn’t enough and for that reason they could not give out porridge free of charge.

In fact, what made Roland the most aggravated was that Khoya was only able to charge them for several days because he had been wearing the eye-catching uniform of the City Hall and that the refugees had been worried about the possibility of retaliation from officials that they kept silent. Until today, when a refugee named Vader had stepped out in protest against his behavior, and from this commotion everything had then been exposed.

When Roland finally understood the whole situation he felt relieved.

An organization on the rise should be brimming with vitality, full of youthful energy. Later on, when the situation was more stable, corruption and rigidity would be inevitable, but that should only be something that happens after the unification with Longsong Stronghold. If those problems were to appear in the beginning, then the organization would be doomed to never go very far.

However, it now appeared that Khoya had acted on his own and that none of the other officials of the City Hall had been related to this matter. Furthermore, it was only a matter limited to extorting money, and not the thing he had feared the most, which was serfs selling and reselling grain in private.

Of course, to some extents, Roland was also the one responsible that the situation had develop to this. Due to City Hall originally being so desperately short of manpower, Roland had placed the surrendered Knights under Barov after only giving them a warning about the circumstances and no further screening or training. The result showed that not everyone had been able to accept the job without complaint or bare the great mental pain of dropping in rank from a knight to a civilian.

Roland called Barov to his side and asked him in a low voice: “What would other Lords do in this case?”

“Your Highness, there are two possibilities,” the latter respectfully replied, “If the offender is a nobleman, after paying a few gold royals the situation would be turned over and they could be let go without any further punishment. While the punishment for a civilian attacking a noble can be big or small, from cutting off one hand to flogging.”

“But Khoya is no nobleman,” the Prince responded, “I have deprived him of his title.”

“Yes, that’s true, Your Highness. In this way, the disposition will be based entirely on the mood of the Lord.”

“There are no fixed numbers?”

Barov shook his head.

Hearing this Roland began to frown, that it is entirely dependant on the mood of the Lord means that in the eyes of the nobility it doesn’t matter how civilians are treated, they do not consider them as “people” at all.

“In addition to cutting off hands, breaking feet, whipping and pulling fingernails are there any common punishments? For example, imprisonment?”

“Imprisonment?” Barov asked startled, “You mean to simply lock them away? What kind of punishment would that be? A prison is only a temporary place for holding the sinner, sooner or later they will be brought to trial and their case will be closed. During their imprisonment, you have to feed them the whole time, I’m afraid that it would be a reward for some people.”

Well, it seems that the general term of imprisonment used in later generation won’t be very useful here. After thinking about it for a moment, Roland decided to follow the rules of the castle. He stood up, and let his gaze wander over the people gathered beneath him, “I’m ready to give my verdict now.”

“Khoya Harvie, because of dereliction of duty, extortion of refugees, you are abolished of your position within City Hall, sentenced to work in the mine for ten years, and to be fined with three times the amount you have stolen.