The pair waited in silence until patrol vehicles appeared on the horizon. Two heavily armored all-terrain cars approached. One car left to pick up the dead body and tug the truck of civilians back to base, while the second car picked up the people and wolfkins. Kate found a place for herself in the car, turning her back to everything inside, while Aranea sat in one of the chairs and spent her time scrolling through reports. More and more forces of the Reclamation Army arrived from the Core Lands and Wastes, the ranks of the third army were swelling with recruits. Wyrm Lord was busy directing new forces to newly joined settlements, as civil workers were busy turning them into proper defensive positions. Work was underway, many locals were forcibly relocated to new homes as old buildings were torn down, but surprisingly few locals complained about this fact. The state was flooding the area with resources and was busy creating new jobs and training locals. For the first time in many years, food, medicine, and water were in abundance in this part of the Ravaged Lands.

It took several hours for the cars to arrive back to the base. Still located in the formerly ruined city, this place has undergone massive changes. The former half-stone, half wooden wall was torn, now a solid wall of reinforced concrete surrounded the place, watchtowers were built in the most important places, bunkers and trenches surrounded the space outside of the wall.

The ruined buildings were either smashed or remodeled, and the city now has twenty gray-colored, square-shaped, four-story-tall buildings, with many more under construction. The Reclamation Army allowed some reporters from World Without Borders, one of Iterna's news agencies, to arrive in order to photograph and question locals. The locals had voted for a new mayor, that weird looking guy who initially greeted Janine, and sent him with an official complaint to warlord Janine. The mayor stated that their city now starts to look like some lifeless grey cog, and people are unhappy with this. Janine silently glared at the mayor, promising nothing about his complaints. Yet on the next day, a few teams of wolfkins were sent to paint buildings in different colors.

That is where the horrible happened. Olesya and her pack were put in charge of this task. Olesya and her pack were originally supposed to guard the city, but with the arrival of the army, she and her pack were constantly on leave, so Ironjaw saw using them as a good way to keep them busy. Nobody bothered to explain to the wolf hag what exactly her task was. This was a mistake. Instead of coloring each building one color, Olesya and her pack turned each building into a toxic-looking tapestry of multiple colors. And nobody thought to report Janine about this while the warlord herself was busy solving never-ending problems. People reported that the warlord had a nervous tick when she received the report from Olesya about the task's completion. Surprisingly, locals loved this new look of their city, and reporters from World Without Borders named this design choice "unorthodox but brave".

As a punishment, Ironjaw sent Olesya and her pack to help workers in an orphanage, while the warlord herself tried to do her best to hide herself from this design choice. Each time someone saw Janine on the streets, she was always looking down, refusing to even look at the buildings.

The water supply was restored in the city, worker teams were currently busy renovating the roads. New settlers arrived, breathing new life into the place. Traders from the Core Lands flooded in, bringing new goods and opening enterprises. New workshops were built, and three new bakeries were established in the city. After a shipment of cusacks, animals capable of surviving in the harsh climate of Ravaged Lands, arrived, the locals were able to reopen two ruined farms. All in all, in just a month, life came back to the city.

The car arrived through the main gate, and Aranea and Kate jumped from it onto the road, while soldiers took civilians to a hospital. The traders will stay there until agents from the investigation bureau finish with their questions. Lost goods will be compensated, and the families of the deceased will be informed. In the past few days, Janine has spent all her time writing letters to the families of the deceased, both civilians and military members, all who died under her command in the past few months. With a regular army here, the warlord finally had enough free time to do this.

Kaleb was waiting for them near the front gates, standing at attention. Aranea nodded to him, allowing him to speak freely.

"Welcome back!" The smaller wolfkin smiled happily, "We returned half an hour before you, Yuki had most likely already finished her report to the warlord. I trust that your mission was a success as well?"

"I had one job and I failed to do it," Kate responded bluntly, "Because of my incompetence, the enemy sniper is dead."

"Kate, I was wondering if you would like to go to…" Kaleb tried to ask her, but the scout pushed past him, taking off her cloak.

"Kate, hold on for a minute," Aranea said, and the scout froze in place, "Scout Kate saved my life today and helped in protecting the traders."

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"Wolf hag, with all due respect, this is a lie," Kate responded in a monotonous tone, turning to her. "I was tasked with suppressing and capturing potential human foes…"

"If the situation allows it," Aranea corrected her in a steely voice, "I gave you these orders, so I remember them. You acted with the necessary professionalism and managed to eliminate the target before I was in danger. I say the success of our past days calls for a celebration. "Find Yuki, Kostya, and Sly, we're going to have a little feast in this new bakery," Aranea said, nodding at the building across the street, "And this is an order. On with it, we meet at four today."

"Wolf hag, I am a bit short on tokens lately…" Once again, a hint of genuine emotion was heard in the scout's voice. It was frustration and embarrassment this time: "I really need to balance my budget before next pay in this month. I can’t afford…"

"I will pay for us all, no problem," Shrugged Aranea. She smiled in Kate's back. I ain’t letting you off the hook. I will find a way to bring you back into shape. The wolf hag decided in her mind.

"She still…" Kaleb asked when Kate left in a hurry.

"She's my dear comrade and a capable soldier. Everything else...We will have to work on it," She called Kaleb away from people, into a nearby alley. She pressed her back against the stone wall, looking up, "What is going on with her? Kaleb, I know that you have not told me everything. I need to know: What is the mystery behind her beads? Why does she carry them anywhere? Where did she get the original ones?"

"They are…" Kaleb stopped himself and slapped himself across the snout, "No. I already told you too much, and as a result, Kate feels even worse. I know this is not your fault and all…" He moved his paws up, stopping Aranea from speaking. "But I refuse to add to her misery anymore. Please don’t look into it."

"Nope," Aranea jokingly hit him across the shoulder, "I will look into it, I will find the truth, and will find a way to make both her and you feel better. You’ve been shouldering this by yourself for far too long, and I ruined everything for you and her. Put your mind at ease, this time I will not fuck up the situation," She closed on Kaleb, her snout almost touching his face as she looked into his eyes, "Now tell me one thing, however, where did Kate’s tokens go? I know how much she earns, and I know that she also takes additional jobs. If someone dares to bully a member of my pack out of their tokens…"

Once, members from another pack beat the living hell of Aranea and took her monthly payment of tokens. Aranea refused to admit to Sonya what happened, but the wolf hag had really… strong methods of interrogation. Sonya went to another pack after squeezing information from Aranea and broke the legs of both warriors involved in this and tore the eye of the wolf hag in charge of that pack. After that, Sonya reported the situation to the warlord, who punished Sonya for maiming a fellow officer and punished two other soldiers for unworthy behavior.

"It’s nothing like that!" Kaleb looked up before continuing in a shy voice, "I suppose there is no harm in telling." Kate used to take jobs to pay for procedures."

"Procedures? Is she ill?"

"No!" Kaleb almost screamed, before looking around in fear that someone might overhear them, "You know how the state pays for our recovery, right? Painkillers, antibiotics, augmentation in place of lost limbs… But the state does not pay for cosmetic operations," He pointed at the scar over Aranea’s eye, "You have to pay for this yourself. Kate used to take jobs to pay for operations that removed scars from her body. I get the impression that she wants to forget her time as a cub, and the scars reminded her of that time."

"Used to…" Aranea repeated these words, as if tasting them. Kaleb was startled and looked down, understanding that he let out too much, "But not anymore, am I right?"

"She… she donated her last savings to the cubs in the orphanage and took no jobs this month. She is either busy training or sulking away in her den nowadays after…." He stopped.

"After I gored her." Aranea pressed her hands against a stone wall above Kaleb's head, claws slipping from her paws. She felt the stone crumble underneath her sharp weapons.

She wanted to break something but forced herself to be calm and retract her claws. Kaleb was just as much of a victim as Kate was. Childhood of both wolfkins was horrible, she had no right to blame any of them right now.

"Kaleb, I understand why you never told me this. I know that you think about me as unstable now…" Kaleb wanted to say something, but the wolf hag silenced him with a glance, "…And I can’t blame you for this. Hopefully, in time, I will regain your trust. But you must understand that I need to know this kind of information now. I truly, truly do not want to hurt Kate, but I need to know more to help her."

"I am sorry," The soldier answered honestly, "For what it is worth, I am trusting you. But I can’t, just can’t reveal her secret to you. She also trusted me."

"It’s fine," Aranea lightly slapped him across the shoulder to show that she was not angry, "Go and have a rest, we need everyone in top shape today."

Aranea left Kaleb and caught a ride to the command center. She could easily get there faster by simply running, but the warlord forbade such shows of power and speed in order not to scare the locals. Thus, wolfkins could only go all out in a training area, during a deep night, in remote areas of the city, or during missions. On the streets and during the day, they were forced to move at the same speed as normies. This caused most wolfkins to either sulk in their dens or spend time training. While the Wolf Tribe tolerated other humans in this day and age, the younger generation hated being restricted in any way.

The command center was no longer a single building, it was now a sprawling complex of buildings where countless officers were working. The Intelligence Division, the Investigation Bureau, state officers, and state officials were all in attendance. Janine expected to be sidelined as before; however, as per Wyrm Lord's orders, all operations and changes in the city could only take place with Ironjaw's approval. Clearly, the commander wanted to make amends with the Wolf Tribe, but something was telling Aranea that this was not working out.