Hand-picking and appointing someone myself is best.
Ability aside, by the standards I'd set, loyalty and conscience carried the most weight. Besides, these men were ordinary nobles, not knights, which made them the type who desperately needed opportunities.
That's why they had joined the interception force without realizing it was a cesspool and nearly gotten themselves killed. For the desperate, opportunity is that precious.
"Our family served as a duchy knight family for seven generations, but my father was stripped of his knighthood, and now he works as a low-ranking bureaucrat at the south gate of Breisburg."
"Stripped of his knighthood? What in the world did he do?"
"...He got involved in gambling. It was all because of debt."
Beort's face was dark with shame.
