"No, not much, young master," answered Sir Allister. "We lost five men, two horses, and we captured twenty-six of their men. The people you mentioned were also captured alive. They are in the tent right now. Do you want to go in?"
"Yes, I want to see them. Huddle the rest of them together. We may not need them anyway."
"Don't need them?" Sir Allister said with confusion. "You mean..."
"Yes, disregard them. They are of no use. Just some expendable trashes that are born just to make a mess of this world." said Damien.
Sir Allister looked at him like he was some sort of monster. He saw the way he was standing with the sword hanging loosely around his hand. The way the blood was splattered across the side of his face and clothes. Then he remembered the way he killed the bandit, like he doesn't even regard them as a fellow living and breathing being.
There was a truth in killing a sentinal being but he was all false.
This was not the same guy who visited them a year and a half ago. No, he was not him. This was completely someone different.
"With all due respect young lord," he said. "These bandits, regardless of what they were plotting, deserve a fair trial and punishment. They are not some kind of animals to be slaughtered for a crime like this."
"A crime like this?" Damien scoffed like he just heard the most ridiculous thing in the world. "Sir Allister, if you have forgotten about the crime they were about to execute, allow me to reignite your old memory."
He started to count on his fingers. "One, they wanted to kill the duchess. Two, they wanted to kill the duchess. Three, they wanted to kill the duchess. Four, they wanted to kill the duchess. Five, they wanted to kill the duchess. Six, they wanted to kill the duchess. Seven, they wanted to kill the duchess."
"I can still count more," said Damien. "Is that the sort of crime you are talking about?"
"They did not commit the crime yet!" protested Allister.
"And yet they had the intention to do so," countered Damien. "Do you think there is something wrong with me? Am I wrong?"
Allister shook his head.
"Then what do you mean?" Damien asked again. "The only thing you can do with them is to kill them or put them in jail. I don't see how else you can punish them, especially when they were about to kill the duchess.
"And you know what happens next?" He continued without giving Sir Allister a chance to speak up. "One of them will go around and will find a way to finish what they couldn't the last time and only that time, Sir Allister...only that time will you learn anything at all. That is what you get from this kind of punishment. This is why we can't have nice things."
Damien shook his head and walked off to the captured bandits.
"Let's talk about this later, Sir Allister," said Damien.
Sir Allister looked at the receding back of the young man. His frame was built like a warrior, powerful and imposing. But he also saw the face of the young man. There was an air of indifference and arrogance surrounding him.
All the surrounding people, regardless of titles and whatnot, were watching the exchange like their entire fate hung in the result of the conversation.
Luther had a confused and perplexed expression on his face as he watched the heated argument of his lord with the commander. This was the first time he was seeing something like this from the young master. The kind and cowardly young master had turned into something entirely else in a span of months.
As a knight, the first code of conduct they were taught by their commander was that "every life is important, regardless of their origin and reasons." It was one of the most fundamental truths that they learned when they first started their training.
He understood that it was right to show mercy and kindness to the helpless. However, he also understood that there is a time and place for everything. And when that time comes, he would never let his guard down.
If he had to protect someone, then he would protect them, even if it cost him his life.
Sir Allister took a deep breath and looked at the faces of the people. As an experienced knight, he knew what the young master had said was right. Leaving scums like this alive will only cause more problems and yet he couldn't do anything regarding them because he was trained to be human, he was trained to be better than these bounded men.
"Bind them and send them to the prison cell. We will decide what to do with them later," ordered Sir Allister.
They obeyed his command and tied them up. No one protested this as everyone was sure what was the alternative. They silently thanked the commander from the bottom of their heart.
Damien shook his head in disappointment upon hearing the orders. He felt like killing the bandits. There was nothing else to do but to kill them. They only had the intention of the fall of the duchy and the kingdom and yet they are going to have a trial.
Why are they even allowed to live?
Many questions passed through his mind but he shoved them deep inside the back of his mind and entered the tent.
It was cleared for him and there were no knights inside it.
The two bandits were bounded on a chair beside a table.
They both tensed upon seeing him. He took the chair on the opposite and sat down on it and looked at the bandits for a long moment.
The silence felt like an eternity to the bandits. For them, sitting in front of this monster, with all the blood and stains from their comrade was suffocating. More than that there was something beside it, something primal. Fear. And Damien reveled seeing it.
"So which one among you wants to die first?" He smiled, a menacing one at that.
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