Joan needed some time to make sense of what had happened and how things worked in the Broken Mining District.
She had only just arrived. Somehow, she had gone from miner to enforcer. Before she could even meet the boss, a rival gang attacked, the boss died in an ambush, and she became the new head of the Fire Dragon Gang.
The Fire Dragon Gang was weak. Apart from its dead boss, it had no other Professionals.
But...
"Why me?"
She had only just arrived... Could a newcomer really be the boss?
Harding said that was how things worked in the Broken Mining District. Gangs changed, bosses changed, and enforcers like them could only stick close to someone strong. When a boss died, they either surrendered or ran.
The rival gang had shouted, "Kill them." They had offered no chance to surrender, so the Fire Dragon Gang had turned and fled.
The gang members cleared the battlefield—mostly by scavenging valuables and weapons—then returned to the mine tunnel enclosed by a crude fence.
"So I'm your boss now?" Joan asked.
"Yes, boss."
"And what I say goes?"
"Yes, boss."
"Good. Bring all the laborers to me!"
"Right away, boss!"
Harding, already acting like her new lackey, ran into the mine tunnel under the jealous gaze of the old lackey.
Before long, more than fifty laborers were driven out of the mine tunnel with blows and curses.
They wore thin, filthy clothes and shivered in the snow.
Joan couldn't bear the sight. She got straight to the point. "How many hours do you work each day? How many meals do you get? How much are you paid?"
No one answered. At last, one man, shaking too hard from the cold, stammered, "I... I can work for a few dozen minutes."
Joan was