“Forgive me,” Janine said to a heartbroken family, bringing the remains of their cub to them.
The cub was no older than two years old, if Janine understood something about the normies’ children. Like all high-ranking Wolfkins, she occasionally helped with lifegiving in the settlements near their villages. Medics were in short supply, and deaths among mothers and cubs were increasing without aid.
Normies were strange people. At first, they were afraid of sharing lands with the Wolfkins. After shamans and later other Wolfkins helped some of their settlements, some normies started bringing food to the villages and even making statues of the Wolfkins who had helped them, almost competing with other settlements in praising the “champions”, as they named the Wolfkins who were coming to their aid, of their settlement. In the past, several sculptors had been bothering Janine with a request for her to make an inspiration pose so they could make a proper statue in her honor to inspire future generations.
Out of them all, only Zero and Onyxia loved accepting this weird gesture of gratitude. The rest felt themselves out of place when outsiders were driving carts with freshly culled cusacks to their villages and gifting treats to the cubs as a gesture of thanks for being saved from a raider’s attack or after delivery of medicaments. Did normies assume that the state did not care for its servants? Such gifts were always turned away; the Spirits knew that the locals needed them far more than the Wolfkins. But attempts never ceased, making the villagers nervous. They lived to keep normies safe. Why would normies try to get into their lives?
Janine bowed her head, expecting a curse, a hit, or anything from a sobbing woman who took up a small body in her hands. The girl’s head was smashed like a clay plate, and her brains were left on the pavement along with her teeth. Janine had used her weapon to evaporate them in order not to stress the family any longer. If they had lashed out on her, the family might feel better about finding an object to their hatred.
A father, mother, and their son all simply bowed to her in exchange, whispering thanks and curses at the attackers. The son fell to his knees, cradling the cold body of his sister with weak hands and begging for forgiveness for being too weak.
“It’s not your fault.” Janine hesitated but put her paw on the boy’s shoulder. Her single finger was almost as big as his entire body. “Hate the raiders who have done it. Hate us for failing to come in time. But do not hate yourself. She wished for you all to live. I am sure of it.” Janine looked at the family, feeling unashamed at lying to them. “Find a reason to do so.”
In all reality, the little girl felt nothing but terror and pain in her last moments, no doubt calling her Mommy and Daddy if she had been able to speak and think yet. But… Cruel things sometimes happen in the world, and if honesty will cause further pain, then honesty must be abandoned. All for the sake of the living.
After the battle, Janine sent Eled back with the wounded and allowed Ignacy to use one of the raider’s trucks for it. Predaig volunteered to guard the perimeter, and Impatient One left to help with the wounded, leaving Janine and the others to search the ruins, unearthing the buried and hidden people. Thank the Spirits, there were a lot of untouched families still hidden in their basements. Janine left the family and went on to help her troops. In a few minutes, the main force should come here to relieve them.
“Warlord,” Devourer called her over the communication, his voice sounding strained. “How bad was the settlement hit?”
“Sir!” Janine replied, digging through the rubble, only to find a dead boy’s body beneath. The little one had choked to death, hugging his house cat in a vain attempt to save him. The animal was still alive, barely, and Janine performed basic CPR on the small, furry body before handing it over to a citizen. Animal, human, she cared not. Someone had to survive. Must survive. “It’s not my area of expertise to answer. The last time an attack of such magnitude happened was back when I was a cub.”
“I got the memo, Warlord,” Devourer hissed, continuing in a calm tone. “Off the record, Janine. Speak your mind.”
“Sir, I wasn’t intending to insult or imply a lack of competence on your part,” Janine said quickly, carefully taking a man with broken legs out of the destroyed house. “We have hundreds of dead and many more injured, all done by a group that numbered less than a hundred strong. They had time to mutilate both the guards and civilians, destroyed our defenses like they were nothing, and had at least one strong new breed at their side. This shouldn’t have happened.”
“I will whip the Investigation Bureau for sleeping about something of this magnitude,” Devourer sighed. “All survivors will be granted passage to the Core Lands. Those who decide to stay will have their homes restored. I will see this place turned into paradise, and I will find whoever did this and eliminate…”
“The Blessed Mother has probably already beaten you to it, sire,” Janine swallowed, seeing two cubs hugging each other beneath a chunk of stone. Their home got ruined when one arrow destroyed the tower during the attack. No injury marred their flesh, but both cubs were undeniably dead. And their parents lay nearby in a pool of red and bone, pulverized by the stone. “Sir, your rivalry with Commander Ravager has to stop. Personal glory is irrelevant when it comes to our duty.”
“There is no rivalry, Janine. A rivalry implies a struggle between two equals, with each trying to come out on top. I am far superior to her in any way possible. Mere notions of jealousy, anger, or incompetence are alien concepts to the likes of me. It is Ravager who is jealous of me, and therefore she always tries to one-up me.”
“And this is exactly why you have struck the Blessed Mother? Because you can control your anger? She handled the meeting with more dignity than you did, sir!” Janine pushed, hearing a deadly silence in response. Devourer did not hiss; he did not explode in anger; he simply listened to her, and this scared her to the bone. What if he does something to her pack? Her life was expendable, but her people… Janine’s eyes looked at the dead cubs, and she forced herself to keep going. “Sir, we are all servants of the state. Yes, the Blessed Mother is unstable, and yes, she was running our army into a meat grinder of war. I admit, the Commander should have waited for you before attacking the city!”
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“But you can’t deny our experience! Our soldiers live here; they know every nook and cranny in these parts, and there is no way the foe could have reached the settlement without once revealing themselves. This region was under a pack’s protection until they were forced to move back to our villages on your orders. And with them away, the Second Army’s groups haven’t arrived to resume the patrol routes. I am in no way trying to say that a pack would’ve been able to save the people here; Abyss, I faced an enemy leader, and I know that the Wolf Hag and her troops would’ve died. But some civilians could’ve potentially survived, and the call for help would’ve been sent earlier. Sir, please do not disregard our experience! Let us can help you. We don’t want to steal your glory; we don’t care if you will be remembered, and we don’t, but the bickering between you and Ravager has created a blind spot in our defenses, and the foe immediately took advantage of it. Our forces must work together. Please, I beseech you, allow some part of the Third Army to stay behind. Take a few squads of the normies if you distrust us, but allow the soldiers of the Third Army to ease the burden of your troops and share their experience. This will save lives.”
She closed her eyes. “I am ready to commit a ritual self-sacrifice for my words, sir. I am only asking you to postpone my punishment until the help arrives.”
“There will be no punishment, Warlord,” Devourer replied icily. “There is a seed of wisdom in your words. I may have been a bit… too rash in my assessment of the Third Army’s value. The pack will be recalled, and I will demand… ask for a few regulars to stay behind and aid with the Second Army’s training and protection of our lands. Janine, I am once again inviting you to think of a transfer to the Second Army. Your expertise is wasted on someone like Ravager.”
“With all due respect, sir, I must decline the offer. My life is for the nation and my tribe. This is how I lived; this is how I will die.”
“I will remember this,” Devourer said, switching off the communication.
Shortly after, Commander Devourer contacted the army group, still seething with bile, and praised Ravager, Cristobo, and even Janine for their quick thinking and aid. Janine made the prediction that, in the future, the region would see some serious purges against bandits. Devourer may have been the most civilized of the Dynast’s champions, yet when it came down to it, he could easily surpass even Ravager in cruelty. Both the raiders and the local military forces will pay for allowing this to happen. Hopefully, that archer was the Mad Hatter.
Janine used her nose and ears to hear hushed voices at the settlement’s edge. Grabbing a steel plate that blocked the exit, Janine threw it away, hearing first frightened screams, followed by a gunshot that ricocheted off her armor, before the people started apologizing and thanking her after the Warlord explained the situation.
The ridiculousness of the situation felt maddening to her. Thanks? Some settlers even hugged the Wolfkins, making them stiff from shock. Why? Why were they thanking them? Janine and the others failed them; they let the people die; they failed the Oath again… And the people were still happy to see them, praising them as if… as if they were heroes. I need to visit Lacerated One and confess my sins. Janine decided, hoping to receive a proper punishment.
Janine stirred from her thoughts, hearing screaming behind her. A group of settlers converged on a woman wearing an officer’s coat. Two Wolfkins stood by the soldier’s side, not allowing the lynching and even grabbing a rifle away from one of the people.
“The bitch helped them!” Kit, the store owner’s daughter, shouted, pointing at the officer. The woman survived the fight, but the smack against a wall left numerous fractures in her skull. Despite all the shock and pain that she had suffered, the girl fiercely tried to help anywhere she could, and Janine had a thought that perhaps she was seeing a future mayor before herself. “I saw how one of the soldiers tried to ask her to get the others into the bunker, and she just shot him in the leg, closing the door before anyone could get in! And when the raiders broke inside, she pleaded with them and helped them find the people in hiding!”
“This is a lie! She is lying to you! No, you are all lying; this is… I had no choice!” The officer shouted, shrinking down when Janine came upon her. The woman licked her lips and continued in a trembling voice. “This was the only way I could’ve kept the people safe!”
“And when you saw them killing cubs—infants, as you call them—have you grabbed your weapon and tried to protect them?” Janine asked emotionlessly, clenching her grip around the shaft tighter and tighter until her skin finally busted and she felt blood running down her fist.
Betrayal. The mere thought of this sent fire rushing through her veins. The situation started to make more sense. How does a small raider group get to attack a settlement this big with no request for aid coming instantly? How did the raiders know which parts to strike first?
“I… You don’t understand; there was only one way to…” The officer tried to take a step back, and Janine showered her snout closer, casting the light from her eyes on the scared face.
“I will give you a choice. We can send you off to the Torment.” Janine smiled, seeing the animal horror in the woman’s face. The Torment. The maximum-security prison of the state, known for its inhumane treatment of the prisoners. Even those who are released from it are nothing more than broken shadows of their former selves. “Or you may work with the Investigation Bureau, telling them everything you know without lying or hiding anything, even once. Do so, and you will be sent to a normal prison for life. Lie just once, and you will be burned alive.”
The woman nodded, and Janine has left her in the Wolfkins’ care, ignoring the angry looks that the villagers have been throwing at her. She contacted the Investigation Bureau and told them the details of the deal, including the fact that the former officer had lied to her and tried to deny the accusation. She started walking away to help with the excavation efforts when a strong paw grabbed her by the shoulder.
“I know what you are doing.” Camelia turned Janine around and hissed in her face. Their helmets fully closed around their snouts, allowing both to speak on a secure channel. “This isn’t just! This is just revenge, not justice! A clean hit with a sword…”
“Will deny us any information, Sword Saint. And you are right. This is not justice, merely retribution we deliver to our foes,” Janine cut her off, slamming her axe down to show that all discussion is over.
“And if we do this, how would we persuade others to work with us in the future? One lie might cause long-lasting consequences, Janine!” Camelia warned her, but the Warlord only shrugged.
“How will anyone know? It’s not like we will tell anyone.”
“Cruelty inflicted does not excuse cruelty in return! There is a reason why the Twins preached mercy and a fair trial, even toward the worst scum!”
“Believe whatever delusions you want,” Janine told her tiredly, and stomped away, leaving to help the wounded.