Rescue plan

"So what should we do?" asked Turek

"I don't know. There were at least 40 bandits, including the bandit queen and her female guard. There is no way we can fight them." I replied.

"We can't just leave them! There has to be a way to save them." exclaimed Leana.

It seems Leana wanted to rescue them. Turek was probably asking if it was possible for us in the first place. I looked at Cleo and saw her thinking.

"We can't fight them head on. If we wanted to rescue them, we would have to do that by stealth." said Cleo.

It looked like she thinks it was possible. Everyone perked up to see if see what way she had.

Cleo looked at the hopeful faced and said grimly, "It would be very dangerous. Based on what Ren has said, the bandit queen and her guard are very strong by themselves. Even if we are able to get past the bandits, we might not be able to avoid fighting with the two of them. If it comes to that, I don't know if we will be able to win."

She took a deep breath and continued.

"I don't think we will be able to save Tien if he is still with the bandit queen. All we can hope for is to save Nina."

Leana seemed dejected but I was happy since this was more than what I was hoping for. I didn't think we would be able to save anyone. The only two fighters in our party were Cleo and Leana. While I could sneak in and scout, Turek still hadn't learned any magic yet. So if do get attacked, even running away might not be possible.

"We will need to first find out if Nina is still in the cell. We can use the air hole that Ren used to escape to find that out. If she is not in her cell, we will leave right away. All we can hope at that point is that the guild is able to rescue them."

I said "But it might take too long to gather a party strong enough to take on the bandits."

"We don't have to rely on just adventurers. The city guard should be willing to raid the bandits along with the adventurers for such a large group" added Leana.

"But that will depend on whether they believe us or not. We might need to bring proof to convince the people in charge." said Turek.

That was a good point. This is the first time we were entering Tiaanway. No one there knew us. Why would anyone believe some strangers that came in all of a sudden and started talking about around 40 bandits hiding in the mountains?

Cleo considered that. "You are right. If we do not bring any proof, people will not believe us. Even if they did, they might not take us seriously and send only a small party to scout. After all they will need to gather a lot of people for this kind of raid and they won't do it just on our words alone."

"So what kind of proof can we bring?"

"First, us being adventurers should have some value. If we start talking nonsense and it turns out that we were lying, wouldn't we be banned from the guild? Then why would we do such a thing?". Cleo continued, "But the biggest proof we can bring is Nina and Tien. If we can bring both of them, that's good but even bring Nina should help. Since she is an adventurer, she should be from Tiaanway. That means she will be believed much more easily compared to us. So, even if we are unable to rescue Tien, we should rescue Nina. That can eventually lead to the rescue of Tien and anyone else that might still be there."

Cleo looked around and saw that we agreed with this reasoning.

"So how do we do this rescue?" asked Leana.

"We will not know for sure until we look at the situation. But if the situation is the same as how it was when Ren left, then it is possible to do this rescue. There are only 2 guards between us and Nina. They are standing in front of the cave entrance. If we can take them out silently, we can free Nina from her cell and take her out of the entrance."

"What if there are more people that we find on the way?' I asked.

"Yes, that's possible." Cleo looked at Leana and asked "Leana, how good are you at stealth? Will you be able to sneak in with me?"

Leana looked uncomfortable and said "I am sorry Cleo. I trained as a guard and never learned to use stealth. After all, a city guard need to be visible. So stealth defeats the purpose."

"Then I will need to go in alone," said Cleo.

"No. I will come with you Cleo. I am good at stealth. Even if I can't fight, I can still scout and keep an eye on the surroundings. I can also get Leana quickly if I think we have to fight." I said.

Cleo thought for a moment and asked "Are you sure Ren?"

"Yes, I already did this once. There should be no problem."

"Then what about me?" asked Turek. He obviously didn't want to be left out.

"You can wait with our supplied near the bandit camp. Once we have freed Nina and maybe even Tien, we will leave quickly and make way for Tiaanway. Hopefully the bandits don't realize that their prisoners are gone before we get there."

Turek seemed sad that he couldn't do more than that.

"Its alright Turek, you will get to learn magic soon. I promise." Cleo tried to reassure Turek.

Turek gave her a smile and nodded.

"So, let's continue with the plan," said Leana.

"Yes. We can plan to strike around midnight. Leana and I will take out the guards at the entrance at the same time. Hopefully there are only two. If there are more, I will take two of them. If there are four, we might have to abandon the plan. We do not want to take the risk at that point. Even three might be too much. It's not like we can't win against them. What matters is if we can do this without alerting the rest of the bandits."

"Once the guards at the entrance are down, Ren will sneak in to see if there are more. If there aren't any, I will sneak in as well. I will go to Nina's prison and open the lock. Now here is the tricky part. If we find keys nearby, this will be easy. If we don't see them there, we might have to search. Our last resort, is to try and break the lock. I assume no one here knows how to pick a lock?"

I raised my hand with a bit of shame "Ah… I actually might be able to pick it."

Leana raised her eyebrows "You know how to pick locks? What did you do before becoming an adventurer?"

"Uh.. um...I…"

"Leana, we don't have to force Ren to talk about something he doesn't want to," said Cleo.

"Ah… I am sorry Ren. I …" Leana seemed a bit embarrassed.

"Its fine Leana. I have a bit of shameful history. Anyway, so I might be able to pick it. I have the tools for it as well."

"Good. Then we have another option instead of simply breaking the lock. Breaking it will alert everyone after all." said Cleo, clearly relieved.

"Its only around 6 right now. We will need around 15 minutes to get to the bandit base. What should we do until then?" I asked Cleo.

"We should rest. We will need to run quickly after freeing the prisoners. We will not be stopping a lot since we need to put as much distance as possible between us and the bandits."

"But what if we are able to rescue both Nina and Tien and they are unable to walk?" asked Turek.

"Hm… we will have to carry them," said Cleo

Since Cleo and Leana were the only ones that will be able to achieve that, they probably need the rest more than us. But Cleo had other plans.

"Turek and Ren, you two should rest. Leana and me had a good rest already. "

"But…" I started.

"Ren, you need the rest more than anyone. You have been scouting and you will be coming with me again."

"Sigh, you are right. I will go to sleep now." Cleo was right, so I decided to listen to her.

"Leana, you will keep watch. I am going to go and scout the bandit camp from far away. I want to see if they have any patrols. Ren didn't see any but that doesn't mean they don't have any. "

Since the plan was decided, I laid down the blanket and tried to sleep. It was difficult to go to sleep but I fell asleep at last.