The Rescue

As the pair leave the baron's destroyed mansion, Hanalee asks Haalfrin, "Why'd you intentionally give away the element of surprise by telling the criminals that we already know everything? We have their hideout locations and real identities. Bringing them to justice is guaranteed by now. But now? They'll just relocate all their stuff and flee to another country."

Haalfrin shakes his head, "The baron's letter implied that he knows more personal information about them than he's supposed to. Kirst especially has some emotional ties he'd go crazy trying to protect."

Haalfrin adds, "When people are under duress and afraid, they'll make rash decisions. It's best to scare the criminals out of their hiding places and cause a little chaos… And of course, we're not going to send the letter to Kirst immediately; we'll only do it after we've taken out some of the key areas and rescued Ria, Galla, and the other kidnapped townsfolk."

The man frowns and adds one last thing. "Also, you're not a mage, so you'll just slow me down. Go back to Randel's house and wait there."

Hanalee shakes her head and counters, "Sure, I can't travel as fast as you, I can't contribute to a fight, and I'd make you waste precious mana if I made you carry me. However, I should stay here in the manor. Your little deception plan won't work if the syndicate already learns that the baron and his estate have been wiped out."

"So... You'll clean the place up?" he asks.

She nods.

"…Sounds good." Haalfrin hands her a spare far speak medallion. "Tell me if any danger comes, or if anyone spots the dead bodies."

The girl rolls her eyes. "I'll try to clean up the blood on the outer walls and move the corpses in the courtyard out of eyesight at least while you're gone." Cleaning the place up in its entirety IS too much for one person, after all.

Haalfrin gives her one last nod before he's on his way.

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Now knowing all the relevant locations to visit, Haalfrin makes short work of it all. Since using his Names costs no mana, he doesn't have to worry about running himself dry right before a fight. Upon arriving, his collection of Wills always makes short work of the criminals, while he leaves his own mana pool relatively untouched.

With all the moving about and constant battling, no other mage could've done it all in one night, even if they dropped dead from exhaustion. One person's mana pool just isn't big enough.

Since Borin only knew the relevant spots, but not the exact contents of the stashes, Haalfrin has to depopulate several hideouts before he finally finds where the kidnaped people are.

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Stepping over a blood-soaked ground, Haalfrin is genuinely surprised at how many people there are here – at least several hundred. 'Hmm,' Haalfrin guesses, 'I haven't noticed too many villagers disappearing… so that means these criminals must be getting their merchandise from multiple provinces.'

Haalfrin's guess is confirmed when he walks up to some of the fear-stricken children and wary men. "Oi," Haalfrin addresses the man in the cage closest to the door, "Where're you from?"

"Halgraad Barony," the man answers back hesitantly. Perhaps it's because he just saw this mage slaughter dozens of people in seconds, or perhaps it's because Haalfrin still has a whisp of Death Aura around him. Either way, none of the prisoners feel at ease, despite a potential rescuer showing up.

Haalfrin shrugs and rips off the lock with his bare hands. After going through all the cages, he finally finds Ria and Galla huddled in the back of a cage near the rear of the storehouse… which means they, fortunately, didn't see the massacre that just happened. They probably heard it, though.

… Well, at least Galla heard the slaughter. When Haalfrin bends down and sees the children, the older brother has his hands clamped so tightly over the little girl's ears that his hands are pale and trembling, while Ria is looking around in curiosity - completely unaware of why her brother is covering her ears.

After Haalfrin breaks open their cage, Galla steps out with his arms crossed while anxiously looking left and right. Little Ria, on the other hand, squeals out, "Haalfrin!" as she runs forward and hugs him around the knees.

… Of course, being four, Ria should've been able to reach his thighs instead, but Haalfrin IS abnormally tall - thus, she can only hug his knees.

Haalfrin carefully picks Ria up and covers her eyes with one of his hands.

"Why're you doing that, Haalfrin?" the child asks.

"Umm… Because the bad guys won't be able to notice you if you're not looking at them," Haalfrin replies. In reality, Haalfrin was keeping in mind that the little girl is only 4; he doesn't want her to see the corpses.

Galla hears Haalfrin's response and rolls his eyes. Before Galla can refute Haalfrin, the mage shoots him a glare to shut him up.

In all honestly, Haalfrin thought about keeping Galla's eyes shut as well, but Galla is 12, and he's definitely old enough to understand bandits and death pretty well. In Haalfrin's opinion, your teenage years is when you're supposed to grow up anyway, so this might be an important experience for the boy.

... Haalfrin's first killing happened when he was 12 as well. It was rough, but looking back on it, he feels it was a completely necessary thing to go through.

Upon stepping outside the warehouse, Haalfrin looks around at all the lost faces of the villagers. None of them even know where they are or how to get back home.

And so, Haalfrin pulls out the Far speak medallion his master left him. After a few moments, Kalastros responds, "What is it, Haalfrin? Did you run out of study materials already?"

"Umm… Listen, master…"

"Did you do something stupid?" the archmage asks warily.

"No!" Haalfrin shoots back, "I just need some innocent help with something. You see…"

After Haalfrin finishes explaining about the slave traders and the plethora of stolen villagers, Haalfrin finishes up with, "…and that's why I'm wondering if you have any people near here who can escort these people back to their homes safely. With all these bandits around, I don't think they can get home on their own. Plus, I have some extremely urgent business that can't wait."

"…" Honestly, Kalastros had a small urge to scold Haalfrin for going out and seeking trouble, but upon hearing that he just rescued hundreds of people from illegal slavery, he can't bring himself to be mad at all.

Besides, from the way Haalfrin had described it, these bandits seemed far too weak to pose a threat to his disciple, so there is no need to worry about his disciple getting himself killed somewhere.

With a heavy sigh, the old man replies, "Just get them away from that warehouse. I have some friends in Halgraad Barony who can get there by tomorrow… Just make sure to leave your far-speak medallion with them, since it can act as a tracker."

"…What?"

"Ehem!" Kalastros coughs out, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about that."

Haalfrin rolls his eyes and jokes, "After all these years you still don't trust me?"

"Should I trust you won't wander off and get yourself killed?" the old man retorts. "Besides, I only put it in so that I could find you in an emergency... Why do you think I found you so quickly after you killed Querry? It's not like I knew which direction of the forest you'd be coming out of when I found you."

Haalfrin chuckles again, then reaffirms, "So, I'll just leave the medallion with the villagers and point them in the direction of the nearest village. With the medallion, your friend will find them easily enough. Thanks, old man."

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After Haalfrin got all the almost slaves down the road he came from, he picks up Galla in one hand and Ria in the other and straps them to Kaalhyme's spear.

… With all this running about, Haalfrin's mana is nearly exhausted; if he wants to bring them back home with a flight spell, he won't be able to make the entire journey without dropping out of the sky.

It's now that Haalfrin recalls a desperate maneuver he pulled off while escaping Querry. Back then, he had Kaalhyme impale the crook of his armor and help propel him forward. 'Perhaps I can use the Wills to help move things instead of just kill stuff?'

Haalfrin briefly looks up and drools a little as he imagines himself flying through the sky while standing imposingly on a sword. 'So cool…'

Fortunately, all the Wills seem to have their own mana reserves… Though, through his experimentation over the years, he's learned that the Wills have a smaller mana pool than they had in life. Well, Kaalhyme's Will has a mana reserve much closer to his living self, so maybe the strength they preserve in death depends on how strong Willed they are?

And thus, Haalfrin notes Galla's confusion and Ria's curiosity as he ties them tightly to the spear. "What're you doing?" Galla asks.

"…It'll be fun. I promise," Haalfrin reassures them.

Once the children are properly secured to the spear, he wills the spear to lift off the ground – just to make sure it could carry them…

Two pairs of legs swing about in fear as they're lifted off the ground. "Ah!" Ria screams out.

Haalfrin smiles. "Ah! Test successful," he mutters. 'Well, I suppose you two are pretty light… and Kaalhyme is my only 2nd gate Will. I can't just chuck the children off over the horizon on the spear, since I have to direct the Wills…'

The mage looks up and thinks more in-depth, 'I already know my May Name will give the Wills their intelligence back… and if I had it, I could just send Kaalhyme off on his own, and he could direct himself…'

He shakes his head at this. 'Well, they say many hands make light work. With all these weapons lying around, I could just strap a couple of dozen possessed weapons on me, and they could all lift me together,' he surmises. 'Sure, it would look terrible, but it works, right?'

Haalfrin takes out the rest of his enchanted rope, and he spends a few minutes tying dozens of daggers and small axes onto himself, thinking that he can fit more Wills on his body if he uses smaller weapons.

While Haalfrin is preparing himself, Ria starts jumping up and down, "Haalfrin! Can you untie me, please? This is uncomfortable."

"No. I'm almost done. I have to do this to get you home."

"…Ok."

Galla remains silent, as he's already figured out what Haalfrin is planning as soon as the spear briefly lifted them both off the ground.

"Ah! Done!" Haalfrin exclaims. "All right! It's time to set off."