Page 265 of The Wild Prince's Favorite
“I-I-I am merely concerned for the lady’s safety!” he hurriedly said. “She’s b-been really nice to us, and, uh... I-I admire her as a leader. F-from what I gathered, Lady Alezya went through a lot...”
He went quiet and looked down, probably thinking he had said too much, but Kassein kept his gaze on the young Captain. At eighteen, Kassein was younger than most of the men he gave orders to. But Dajan was among the younger men too, and he didn’t look more than five years older at most.
“...Why are you here?”
Dajan blinked at his question, looking confused for a second.
“I-I won’t shy away from a battle, Commander,” he said, his voice growing firmer. “It’s my duty, and I’m proud to fight for our army–”
“The north,” Kassein cut him off. “Why were you sent?”
Dajan’s chest deflated right away, and he was back to staring at his feet. After a second, he inhaled and lifted his eyes again.
“...I killed a man, sir,” he said with a hoarse voice. “I was sentenced for murder.”
“Why?”
There was no judgment in Kassein’s tone, but this time, a flash of anger passed over Dajan’s face.
“He killed my mother, sir,” he said, holding Kassein’s gaze. “So I killed him. I was condemned for patricide.”
He kept staring back at Kassein with his fists clenched for several long seconds, and for once, he was visibly making an effort not to look away. He didn’t give any more information, but the clench in his jaw and his tense shoulders said it all.
“...I would kill anyone who harmed my mother too,” Kassein finally said.
Dajan said nothing, pressing his lips together, but his shoulders relaxed slightly.
Kassein’s gaze went behind him to his men, who were all ready for battle, leaving or about to, in tight ranks, wearing the same uniform and armor. Some looked tense and silent, others chatted hurriedly. He caught some men bumping fists, exchanging determined nods, and even sharing a couple of hugs with their brothers in arms.
He wondered how many of those men had been sent here because their crimes were too bad to stay in the Empire but not bad enough to die.
The Dragon Empire still had the death penalty. It wasn’t applied often because the law required that the crime had to be the worst, and there had to be no doubt about the culprit.
He knew some real criminals would have been dead already if there hadn’t been reasonable doubt or a lack of witnesses. Rapists whose word had been against their victims’, for example. Those who had killed without witnesses and those who hadclaimed self-defense. Those who had no history before their crime. And those, like Dajan, whose crime was motivated by another crime and whose circumstances were somewhat understandable but not to be forgiven.
The North Army had become an open-air penitentiary, the one where no more mistakes were allowed. It was like a final trial, where those who never committed a crime again could survive, and those who did died. Kein had killed men trying to run away from the camp more than once, and enough that they’d stopped trying. The threat of an angry dragon was enough to keep most men behind invisible walls, and the threat of its owner was just as efficient in keeping them in line most days.
Kassein was well-aware that there was second-hand justice served in the ranks; if a man had been sent here for rape, he usually only survived as long as it wasn’t known. The violent ones didn’t make it long either if they didn’t save their urges for battles and training.
He had never spent time thinking about why all those men were sent to the north; he just knew they were here for a second chance some of them didn’t deserve. He and Kein were the judge and jury for a years-long trial.
This was the first time he realized some of them did deserve that second chance and thought sincerely about those men. Dajan was a murderer, but right here, in the north, he could stand among other men guilty of similar crimes and fight for his second chance.
And unbeknownst to most, Kassein wasn’t any different.
“Will you go back to the Empire once this is over?” Kassein asked, his eyes back on the rift.
“I don’t think so, sir,” Dajan said after a short hesitation. “No one is waiting for me there... I don’t think I’d want to go back.”
“What about a new life here? Once this war is over, if you get your freedom?”
“...That would be nice, Commander.”
Kassein remained silent for a few seconds, and Dajan waited for him, his eyes hopeful. After a few seconds, Kassein cracked his neck and suddenly moved, patting Dajan’s shoulder once as he walked past him.
“Make sure you survive. She likes you.”
“Yes, Commander!”
