I'd have to question how one would get merits when their order didn't sortie out. I could understand if the Order of Knights sallied out and rescued the soldiers defending the gates in the nick of time, but we didn't even get that.
In this world, attacks and invasions from hostile races are a constant. Unless they are planning to "blame" the traitor for the "delayed" response from the Knight Order, even then, that excuse is really flimsy considering the "traitor" is just a low ranking knight. Frankly, it speaks more to the incompetence of the order more than anything else that a low ranking soldier managed to somehow paralyze an entire organization's response to such a dire emergency.