The street was in chaos. A captured thief was still crying and begging for mercy. "Let me go, please! All I did was steal a little money. You don't need to send an army after me..."
"You knew we were soldiers and still dared to steal?"
"Who knew you'd bother catching petty thieves..."
The thief should have kept his mouth shut. Brino Jana, who happened to be passing by, heard him and stormed over, dragging her spark-spitting Battle Axe behind her.
A Jana warrior hurriedly wrapped her arms around Brino's waist. "Clan Chief, you can't... Lord Annan won't let us punish people ourselves!"
Brino Jana sneered. "Lord Annan... Hah. Do you listen to your clan chief or Lord Annan?"
"Lord An—of course, you!"
The Jana warrior said one thing while thinking another. Lord Annan paid them, found them men, and was easy on the eyes. How could the clan chief compete with that?
"But if you punish him yourself, you'll have to answer questions when we get back. We'll waste more time, and we might even be confined to quarters..."
Once the clan chief had finally calmed down, the Jana warrior quickly had her comrades take away the thief who had come within a hair's breadth of the Hell Gate.
The village had only a handful of people. Brino Jana and her clanswomen made a circuit after splitting up, then prepared to return to the village entrance.
"Sister, my puppy's gone missing. Can you help me find him?"
Brino Jana looked down at the little girl pleading with her. "He's about this big, with three or four black spots. He ran off yesterday, and I haven't seen him since. Waaa..."
"Child, we're warriors, not apprentice mercenaries who find things for villagers." Brino Jana deliberately swung her Battle Axe, which was