I approached Hasbel, my blood boilings as I planned to get to the bottom of the mess that I had just witnessed. But to fully understand the cause of my frustration, I need but explain what happened that irked me so.

The previous night, according to my employee Hasbel, the meeting with the firefighters in training was successful in training them properly. I did have some doubts as to the veracity of these claims, so I decided to devise a test of sorts to see whether they would be effective or not. The test would include them locating Hasbel which would be a stand in for a burning building that they would have to rescue. They would also have to muster all five men with their ten buckets and then create a bucket brigade that would come from a nearby well to Hasbel.

Since the men were divided into two shifts, the test would be done twice to make sure that they are all tested. The thing that would make this difficult was that they wouldn’t know when or where Hasbel would be, so they have to patrol effectively to make sure that their response is quick.

I would be watching incognito to see how well they were trained, and observe if anything needs to be improved. After going over the details with Hasbel privately, he finally understood how to proctor the test and so I watched as he went over what the men needed to know. He placed ten buckets to be used in front of the property where they were trained, so they could retrieve it when it was necessary.

After he placed the buckets, he went to me and hid from their sight. He waited for about an hour until he decided to go to his house. After he disappeared, I followed him and watched the street around him to watch the men find him.

However, there was one problem.

I had been watching him for over an hour, yet I hadn’t seen any sight of the men. Confused, I navigated my way through Murgi’s simple roads to attempt to find them. After a while, I eventually caught a glimpse of what looked like one of the candidates. But when I followed him, I found the rest of the men distracted in jovial conversation.

Needless to say, I was disappointed.

I assumed that Hasbel trained them on what to do, but it doesn’t seem like they were especially disciplined or really cared about their task. Though after a while, they seemed to remember that they had a test to complete and started wandering the village. They leisurely paced with no hint of being any sort of perceptive.

By sheer luck, they eventually find Hasbel and run towards him. All the while clumsily dropping the buckets, then struggling to pick them up and run again.

When they finally managed to all get to Hasbel, he asked something of them then they proceeded to prepare to do what seemed to be the bucket brigade procedure. They found the nearest well, then made a line going towards their trainer.

They got their buckets then gave it all to the man nearest to the well, then he began filling the buckets with water then passing it. The problem there was that when they passed the buckets around, they kept on spilling the contents. So when it finally reached the end of the line, it barely had any of it left.

After a while, Hasbel said something to them then they left. The test had obviously concluded with sub-par results. It happened again, and the second batch of men performed just as badly as the first. So when they were all gone, I went to Hasbel wanting to know what just happened.

"Hasbel… What was that?" I asked, my eyebrows knitting together in frustration.

“They’re probably not motivated enough. You know… since they haven’t been paid yet?” he suggested.

That was actually quite logical, maybe a little push would make them more motivated.

“That might actually be it.” I said, “Maybe we can pay them a bonus, to show that we actually intend to pay them.”

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“How much?”

“Maybe two silvers?” I suggested.

He put a finger to his chin in thought and after a while said, “That’ll work.”

“Are you sure that there are any other reasons why the training wasn’t effective?” I asked.

“They don’t take me seriously, so they don’t care what I say.”

As he said this, I realized how strange it was for a boy of his age to be in charge of a troupe of men many years his senior. No wonder they didn’t listen, he was probably the same age as one of their children. I needed to give them a reason for them to listen and follow what he had to say.

“Give the two silvers only to people who actually listen to do the procedures right.” I said.

“I can do that,” he nodded.

It seemed like the number that I had just made up was adequate enough for Hasbel, but I didn’t know exactly what the right amount was so I just trusted his burgher upbringing.

“We have around two months until the carpenters are done, make sure that they are ready for action before then.” I said, “But in the meantime, sell some insurance so that we have adequate funding.”

I wasn’t sure what date exactly the carpenters would finish, but I knew that it would take around two months according to their head. So, I needed to use that time to make sure that the firefighters are leagues ahead of their earlier performance when it comes time to actually start the business.

“Alright.” I said, “But don’t rush, we have a bit of time.”

He met with them again, under the cover at night in the yard outside Halel’s house as usual. I watched as he said something to them and showed them the glistering silver coins that he held in his hands.

I gave him around twenty silver to use as a starting bonus, two silvers for every man which would hopefully motivate the men into taking the training seriously. I came over to watch for a bit, just to make sure that the training went smoothly. And so far, it went better than I assumed it would. Perhaps it was the promise of coin, or Hasbel’s renewed determination which changed things but either way, it was probably better than last time.

As I watched him, I wondered if I had made a mistake hiring him. He didn’t seem to be incompetent, but it was very clear that he failed to teach them properly last time. Maybe it really wasn’t his fault as he claimed, or some other reason that I couldn’t think of. It wasn’t any specific behavior he showed, but my gut feeling told me that something was suspect. There wasn’t any logical reason for this suspicion, but I felt like I needed to make sure that he was telling the truth. So, I waited until the training was over until I went behind Hasbel’s back to find out the truth.

Combined with what Shur talked about last time, I had a feeling that something was off.Thus, I had to make sure that Hasbel didn’t spot me, lest he catch on to the fact that I had my suspicions on him. After I was sure that the coast was clear, I approached a firefighter in training who seemed like he would be receptive to my offer, and then I asked him a few questions.

“What’s your name?” I asked the man.

“Mim.” he replied, his eyes narrowed as he responded.

A flicker of recognition crossed his face, as if he knew me from somewhere. This was odd, but I ignored it to get straight to the point.

“Can I talk to you about something?”

“Alright, **** ** you ****?”

I had completely forgotten how it was like to not understand someone after speaking so much with Hasbel, perhaps it was because he too was a foreigner like me. So we both were able to understand each other more easily. But still, I needed to get used to not understanding people like Mim to learning more about the language.

“I work with the owner. I want to know what’s happening in the group, and how Hasbel is teaching you.”

“Sure **** can be ********.”

I took his words as a sign of affirmation then took out five glistening silvers, then placed them in his hand.

“Tell me.” I urged.

“Hasbel told us to **** a ******* for a boy with your **********, so **** of the first meeting was ***** trying to ***** us how we would ****** to him.”

“I see.” I said, “Thanks for the information.”

While his somewhat lower-class style of speech caused me to not understand a few words, I got the general gist of his message from the terms that I did know. From what I had gathered, Hasbel was trying to use the fire-fighting force to keep tabs on me. His reason for doing so was still unknown, but it verified Shur’s claim that something odd was afoot.

After he said his piece, I dismissed him with the promise that I’d meet him again next week.

As I watched him disappear into the night’s dark cloak, I reflected on what he had just told me. If it was true, then I definitely couldn’t completely trust Hasbel as much as I did Shur, or Qaton. If I was right, the main reason why the men had performed poorly on the test wasn’t because of his age or a lack of motivation but because of putting more time on tasks that they shouldn’t be doing. He wasn’t bad at his job after all, but what I discovered instead was a lot more concerning to me. I had a lot of trust in him to be honest with me, but from then on, I would need to keep an eye on him to find out what he’s planning.

There was always the chance that the man was mistaken or lying, however he didn’t have much incentive to make up falsehoods. Even if he did, what he said seemed way too oddly specific to not have at least a grain of truth to it. This convinced me that Hasbel was a sort of loose cannon that needed to be watched with a keen gaze.

Yet, I had no intention of throwing him away just yet.

As the old saying goes… keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.

However, I still needed Hasbel to train the men, so I couldn’t just let him go. Especially since he had the skills for the job that I wasn’t certain that most people had. I wasn’t even sure if he was an enemy yet, since there was always the possibility that he was just curious about me. So I needed to be consistent in making sure that the men were trained, and that he didn't do any more bizarre things. I couldn’t do everything in just a day after all. I needed the patience to be certain that everything was done properly.