A moment later, Dash and Shel were following the wolf-girl toward the fortress that marked the border of the Grandias Kingdom.
"Hey, why are we coming here?" Shel asked, running beside the white wolf-girl.
"The carriage carrying the illegal slaves is almost at the border fort," the white wolf-girl shouted.
"Hmm… I see, so we have to hurry," Dash muttered.
"Exactly! If it wasn't for those guys earlier, I could have already freed my siblings," the wolf-girl said.
"Alright, both of you hold on," Dash replied.
Without another word, Dash immediately ran between Shel and the wolf-girl, positioning them both at his right and left sides. Then he squeezed both of their waists, lifting them both off the ground.
"Hey… what are you doingggggggg,"
Before the wolf-girl could finish speaking, Dash had already leaped far away, then ran through the air to cut down the travel time, terrifying the wolf-girl. After a few moments, they spotted three horse-drawn carriages: one that looked like a noble's coach, one passenger carriage, and behind them was an open-topped cart with cages on it, all moving toward the border fortress, which was still a bit distant.
"That's them… over there," the girl pointed to the three carriages.
Dash landed, then leaped one more time, and "BUM," he landed directly in front of the lead carriage, which appeared to be a noble's coach. "HIIHIEE," the horses pulling the carriage immediately reared up, startled by Dash's sudden landing right in front of them. Dash set down the wolf-girl, who immediately generated a snow-white aura from both hands, forming two blades of ice.
"Hey… what's the meaning of this?" shouted a Human man with neatly combed hair, sticking his head out from inside the carriage.
However, when the man saw Dash, Shel, and the wolf-girl standing in front of their carriage, his face turned pale, and he froze with his mouth gaping open. The knights immediately dismounted from the passenger carriage behind them. They instantly surrounded Dash, Shel, and the wolf-girl. One mounted knight immediately shot past the three of them, speeding toward the border with the clear intention of asking for help from the border army.
"Oh no, you are not going anywhere," Shel said, understanding the knight's intention.
Shel immediately aimed her hand at the accelerating horse. Rocks instantly rose and shot like bullets toward the fast-moving horse and knight before the distance grew too great. "SMACK," the knight immediately fell, his head pierced by a rock-bullet. Seeing their comrade down and his horse running off somewhere, the other knights immediately charged to attack.
But "BLAM," Dash punched the ground, making the earth vibrate and launching the knights high into the air. Dash immediately lunged forward, hitting them with two fists and sweeping his legs right and left. Four knights were instantly knocked far away, who knows where.
When he landed, Dash turned to look at the three remaining terrified knights, but suddenly, "DUAK," the wolf-girl stiffened all three of them by hitting the back of their heads simultaneously with her long, blunt ice swords. Meanwhile, the drivers of the three carriages fled to who knows where.
After ensuring no other knights were causing trouble, they immediately headed for the cage cart in the back. Dash and Shel saw eight children, maybe between 8 and 12 years old, from the Snow Wolf Tribe, both boys and girls. All of them looked scared and were crying, but when the wolf-girl stepped out from behind Dash, they all looked happy and immediately smiled.
"Big Sister Marle!" everyone shouted.
"You're safe now. I'll open the chains," said Marle, the wolf-girl.
"Let me," Dash said.
"CLANG," Dash tore the chain binding the cage door and squeezed the padlock. "BUM," the padlock, which had been enchanted with magic, exploded in Dash's hand without him knowing it. Marle, the children inside, and Shel who saw it were all dumbfounded.
"Oh… did it explode?" Dash asked, opening his smoking hand casually.
"Hey… don't just randomly do that! Next time look first. I told you I would open it," Marle yelled.
"Ah… I thought it was just a regular padlock," Dash muttered, looking at his hand.
"It's fine. Your siblings are free, right? I'm going to that noble's carriage; I think I know him," Shel said.
Without waiting, Shel walked to the noble's carriage up front. She opened the door and saw a man, roughly 30 years old, wearing fine, neat clothes, with slicked-back blonde hair, looking terrified inside the carriage. The man pointed at Shel with a trembling hand.
"Y-you… the Half-Orc from yesterday," the noble stammered.
"Yes, you were there yesterday, helping attack my house, killing my parents, and ordering the knights to take me, weren't you?" Shel retorted furiously, both her hands now radiating a yellow aura, and her eyes also emitting a yellow aura mist.
"I... I'm not guilty, it was all my father's doing, I was just following his orders, I can pay you a fortune... so let me go," the noble said, raising his palms with a pale face.
"Fine, I won't kill you," Shel said, closing the carriage door again.
The noble felt relieved, but then he heard the sound of his horses being released and, "BUM," "WHUAAAAA," he immediately screamed because he felt himself falling with his carriage, and suddenly the carriage was crushed by a chasm that was closing.
"No… no," the noble screamed.
"BLAM," the ground slammed shut again, the noble's carriage falling into the chasm and crushed by the closing earth. Shel lifted both her hands from the ground, immediately dusted them off, and then she stared at the dirt that had just closed and smiled.
"I meant, I wasn't going to kill you directly," Shel muttered.
After that, she walked back toward the cart in the rear. Dash was seen helping Marle get the white wolf children down; they immediately hugged Marle and then stood behind her.
"All done?" Shel asked, walking up to Dash.
"Yep, everyone is out," Dash replied.
"Thank you for helping me free my siblings. Now I'll show you the Mafia headquarters, but is it okay if I take my siblings back to the city first to rest?" Marle asked.
Dash and Shel glanced at each other, then turned back to Marle.
"Alright. My name is Dash," Dash said.
"And I'm Shelorg, just call me Shel," Shel added.
"My name is Marle Frostwind, just call me Marle," Marle replied, introducing herself.
"We'll go to the city first. Tomorrow, we'll head to that Mafia headquarters," Dash said.
"Yep, that's right," Shel added.
"Alright, thank you," Marle replied.
Finally, they used the slave transport carriage to return to the city, without the cages. Dash sat in the back leaning against the side, with Shel driving the horse. Dash watched Marle, who was holding her siblings close without letting go.
Her siblings, dressed in sackcloth and looking ragged, didn't move away from Marle at all. Although Dash was happy to see Marle reunited with her siblings, he remembered how Marle had asked for help in the city of Forshville.
"Hmm… if she had submitted a request to the Guild and talked to the authorities, her siblings would definitely have ended up as slaves. This world is messed up," Dash thought.
After that, Dash turned to the side, looking at the view he enjoyed so much, without realizing that Marle kept glancing at him with a slightly red face. Meanwhile, Shel, who was driving the carriage, kept glancing at Marle, who occasionally stared at Dash without Dash noticing.