Take the mercenary's life.

Your deliberation comes to a quick and decisive end. Despite your gut feeling about the man, you have no reason to distrust Krenvich, and the mayor says this man is a pillager, hell-bent on money and plunder. And he's trying to satisfy that need with the innocent people of Barrowden. There's no telling what crimes Karl has committed, you tell yourself, and you'd be doing the world a favour by removing him. Further, this is the only way to kill him while escaping alive. After taking a moment to line up your blade, you suddenly rush forward. One of your hands wraps around the man's mouth, and the other drives your sword deep into the middle of his back, just left of his spine, piercing his heart. You see the man's eyes widen and feel his mouth open around your fingers, staring back at you in shock and horror. Both of his arms grab your hand and yank it away from his mouth, but the only sound that escapes his mouth is a low moan. Your sword struck true it seems, and it's only a few seconds before the man's struggles weaken, his legs stop kicking and he sags against the chair.

You feel... Dirty with how you handled this. Stabbing a man in the back with no chance to defend himself... You stare at the ground for a few seconds, pulling your sword out of his back and flicking the blood off your holy blade with a small flourish. That's when your eye fixes on the golden goblet you saw before. It has the symbol of a magpie adorned on either side of the goblet's bowl. You quickly swipe it off the table and stow it in your bag. Not to sell it or anything, but it would be useful to show to Krenvich as proof of a job well done. Not waiting for the mercenaries to check on their now dead leader, you quickly exit out of the gash you had made in the tent and walk to the area of the palisade closest to you. Now that you can take your time, you grab a nearby rock to stand on, spit on each of your hands, rub them together, and quickly vault over the wall. You give a simple nod to yourself as you set off back to Barrowden. You played it smart and got out of there scot-free. Nice job.

However, the moral questions of your actions still won't go away. You still have some unanswered questions about this whole affair, and you're almost certain Krenvich hasn't told you the whole story. Why did Karl bring his men here in such a flagrant spurning of the king's laws? Why did he stay for so long without turning tail and running or a royal battalion arriving? You intend to have these questions answered by the man who is waiting for you with a fat sack of gold. You resolve to knock on the mayor's door in the middle of the night once again, and this time he will meet you in person.