Our reputation is everything. If it gets around that we rob and kill civilians we will be stuck on this fringe stuff forever.
If we wanna grow and get rich we need to prove our skill and build a reputation for loyalty and honor.
Then we'll get more recruits and better contracts.
I never said kill them. Just forcefully divide them of their valuables. We just captured a city, and it is customary to reap the benefits of such. Even a well disciplined army (such as the Romans, for example) pillage a town that they have conquered. Hell, I'm surprised our men
haven't begun looting yet. It takes great amounts of restriction on the part of commanding officers to restrain their men. Our reputation won't suffer, as this
is to be expected. this is not unheard of 'massacring the inhabitants' sort of thing. It is expected, almost, of the victor to take what he gained from the siege, and it usually increases the morale of the troops. If we make sure no harm comes to the inhabitants, then our reputation will probably
increase, due to no blood shed among the civilians.
Loyalty - we're loyal to the Count whom we took the castle for, not the commoners within the walls. Our honor is to restrict the bloodshed, not restrict our men from taking the spoils of war. Besides, how will we pay our men? If we want to have enough money to recruit more, this is a good way of doing that. We'll get better contracts by getting results, and success. Not how we left the inhabitants of an enemy town to themselves. It's not as if we're here as an occupational force, or it may be different.
I mean, seriously, who hires mercenaries - who fight for money only - and expect them not to loot the town they just captured?
The person who's paying them.
Then let's ask the Count, and see if he gives two craps about us looting a town that he doesn't plan on occupying.