-Callen-

  With the new details on Sis’s circumstances, I was able to entirely redo my plans. Information from the prisoners we captured more or less gave me a general idea of what the bandit remnants could have. The majority of the decent scouts died before they marched to Port Town, but they still had spotters. People who didn’t specialize in stealth themselves but could identify threats. However, the majority of the spotters were forcibly recruited from the town's inspection group and had homes to return to.

  The majority of the bandits would likely be stragglers invited by the Snatcher’s guild to join in the rare opportunity to legally pillage towns. These people were mainly a mix of thieves, but a decent number would be enforcers like the men who had ambushed Dad. Their skills likely included perception, stealth, and combat, but there were no specialists, and everyone would likely have a greater emphasis on combat skills.

  Sis put the cause of her capture on exhaustion from having spent the previous days without rest, but I thought it would be likely that a specialist spotter was present and stationed at the highest-risk zone. Right where recruits were being funneled. If Sis had approached the enemy encampment from any other direction, she might’ve seen a lot more success, but I’m sure she still would’ve gone in over her head.

  I knew where Sis was, and I knew roughly where she had been ambushed from her description, so approaching the bandits shouldn’t be a problem. As long as I prepared sufficient stealth cloaks for the team, it wasn’t a problem.

  The next issue is how to extract Sis quietly. Sis is locked in a cave, and even moderate skill will likely see any team I send inside. Nobody I knew other than Sis was any good at stealth, so my alternative was using wands to quietly burrow in from above. This would take longer but made for a good plan A.

  As long as we can retreat from there, I’ll consider it a win, but Sis wasn’t the only hostage. Therefore, I also had to consider approaches for the side objectives. How to rescue the hostages and how to eliminate the bandits.

  Hostages were the tricky part. If it was just killing everyone, then we could rig the cave to collapse by setting explosives around it. It would take longer, but since the plan was to burrow in, it wouldn’t be a big alteration. He could try to design some kind of sleep emitter like the mushrooms, but it would be less effective the higher level someone is. Mass hostage situations were an absolute pain to work around.

  The big question was how carefully were the captives being watched? I vaguely understood just how tight a lockdown was set on anyone with perceived value. Sis had described to me just how paranoid they had been in her restraints. If the same level of caution was levied against the others, there was no way we could quietly extract them, but these weren’t professional jailers, and the people we wanted to rescue were likely not considered a threat. If Sis passed on the location, we could likely try to bring them out with Sis through a tunnel.

  The only problem there being it would almost certainly be noticed. Whoever went would need the means of facing off against potentially a hundred disgruntled brigands. Just as I thought that, Nixie burst into the living room happily announcing her return home. Right, we only needed to convince any pursuers that it wasn’t worth it. Nixie’s cheerful mood freezes as she notices my intense look.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “Um, bro, is something wrong? I heard everyone was fine, so why are you so intense?” Nixie was a bit put off, but that didn’t matter.

  “Callia went off and got herself captured by bandits. She isn’t in imminent danger, but I’ve got the basics of a plan, and I need someone to discourage pursuit. I almost forgot we had a specialist in the family.” My words reach her, and she begins to grin back.

  “Good! Lia, Sia, and you have been hogging all the personal adventures lately. Give me the details, and I’ll get my gear prepped.”

  With Nixie joining, I’ll have to adjust our transportation. Using a glider to get there was fine, but it wouldn’t work for escorting the civilians. I didn’t have time for a huge project, but a car was simple enough, and I could leave the basic work to the town's craftsmen. I pulled out a worksheet and drafted a prototype car. It would be an electric and mana Jeep-like car. I planned to have an earthkin mana battery mounted inside, which would act as a secondary battery and could be used to empower runes on stealth cloth to hide the car when we approached.

  I rushed off to the craftsmen and felt like crying as the rushed custom job of high complexity really hit me right in the wallet. I really hope my new battle buggy earns its keep. If it dies in one mission, I fully plan to saddle Callia with the full responsibility of paying me back. Still the whole family got to work; Mom prepared the cloth, I got to work imbuing runes, Nixie was off in her workshop making new trap parts, and Reesia was trying to make us a dinner. The smell of smoke from the kitchen was all the information I needed to know she might be trying a bit too hard.

  -Callia-

  I most definitely regret trying to cozy up to Ralf. While status was changed, I didn’t plan to change from no motion permitted maximum detention level to prized pet. I was permitted to walk, but my arms were still bound behind my back, and my legs were hobbled so I couldn't spread them more than a foot apart. I also still had the gag, but I got to see more of the encampment.

  The captives were kept in a nearby cave whenever they were permitted to rest, but most of their time was spent clearing out a base zone and setting up a rudimentary wall that was honestly kind of sad. It was more in line with an earth-scale wall since nobody had the skills relevant to architecture or even carpentry.

  However, the worst part was how the bandits chose to keep their boss entertained. Organizing fights to the death among the captive soldiers who couldn’t participate in the base construction, and beating random captives. The worst part was how some of the men started looking at me. I didn’t see much of the other female captives, but I could hear them. When night finally came, I started decaying my ropes. At least I now knew where everything was. My plan was to break out and quietly clear the guards near the main cave of captives. Then I would break everyone out in mass. Callen should be able to catch up to us with support and force the bandits to flee.

  March of the Defeated

  Lexia slowed her pace after it was clear that the worm didn’t intend to chase her and peacefully made her way to the next town. On the way a large group of ragged soldiers led by some cloaked man passed her by. Some seemed interested in why she was out there, but most only cared about putting one foot in front of the other.

  She roughly guessed about a thousand soldiers who had likely lost whatever battle they had. It wasn’t any of her business, but the idea that some small town had kicked the ass of what was clearly the baron of Eldraine’s army filled her with interest. She watched their backs for a bit as they shuffled off towards an even worse destination. Still, she didn’t feel inclined to warn them. That was their city, and their fault for being incompetent. It was best to let the men become worm food.

  Lexia eventually arrived at the next town. Its walls were relatively undamaged from what should’ve been a serious invasion. There were some signs of battle arrows in the field and the burnt remains of what were likely ladders, but otherwise the town was unharmed. She vaguely heard some guard on the wall calling down to others about my arrival. The gates opened and inspectors came out. She really wasn’t surprised when a guard cut into her leg and pulled out a worm. They, however, were very alarmed.

  They started asking Lexia all sorts of questions but stopped short after she described her visit to the city. She wasn't surprised it had such a strong reaction, all things considered, but she didn’t really care. She did, however, learn about what happened to this town. How a pair of twins managed to break the siege and save the city. She finally knew who her father had mentioned. She wanted to meet these twins. Instead of staying the night, she set out to meet them.