She's blonde and few inches shorter than Nina, with blue eyes and a petite build, but she looks roughed up. She's staring at me with a very conflicted expression.
"Thank you for helping me, human. My name is Alto. I'll trust you long enough to release the others and get us out of here…unless you give me a reason not to." (Alto)
I smile at her appreciatively.
"Thanks, Alto, you won't regret it, I promise. Could you help me by going around and explaining the situation to everyone? Make sure to tell them that they need to be quiet, and what the contract breaking procedure will feel like, so they don't get too scared. Can you do that, and then I'll follow behind you and release them?" (Mizuki)
Alto nods, then goes around doing as I asked. Eventually, all the slaves seem excited and are murmuring quietly. A few of the elves are looking at me suspiciously, but I can deal with that later.
I begin breaking the contracts one by one, but I leave the cages closed. I'm vulnerable when focusing on the magic draining spell, and ten of them could really cause trouble if they wanted to. They need a few minutes to rest after the spell anyway.
After all the contracts are broken, I make a second trip around and start breaking open cages. Eventually, everyone is free and mobile, and they are standing in a group at Alto's direction. She turns towards me with suspicious eyes.
"Why did you leave them in their cages after breaking the contracts like that?" (Alto)
"Because they're all rightfully desperate, most of the elves seem to hate my guts on principle, and the wolf-kin are scared children. I didn't trust them not to attack me while I was focused on breaking your contracts. I know that sounds mean, but I promised not to lie to you." (Mizuki)
The honesty approach seems to work well with Alto, and she nods her agreement.
"Okay, I need you to get them to follow us into the warehouse area upstairs. My partner is up there, so make sure everyone knows that she's a friend. After that, we're going to move you all to a safe place and get you set up with some food and shelter. I'll explain anything else that you want to know once we're there. Are you okay with that?" (Mizuki)
Alto appears to think it over, then nods her agreement. I make my way back into the warehouse upstairs, with everyone following behind me. As we emerge from downstairs, Nina smiles and waves, and I sense surprise from her.
"My, my Mizuki, I can't believe that you managed to break the contracts. Fufufu…I expect an explanation later." (Nina)
"Yeah, sure thing. Let's get everyone here to safety first. Alto, I know it's going to be awkward, and I can see that a lot of them don't trust me, but this is extremely important. I need you all to crowd around me as tightly as you can, okay?" (Mizuki)
This time, Alto nods without hesitation. She tells everyone what to do, then steps in and hugs me tightly as a show of good faith. Nina raises an eyebrow at that, but she says nothing and just joins her.
Eventually, all twelve of us are in a tight circle.
"Alright, everyone needs to stay really still until I say otherwise. You're going to be surprised, but try to stay calm!" (Mizuki)
With that, I teleport us all back to Nina's clearing.
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
Back at the clearing, I have all the kids stay huddled near the forest's edge while Nina makes a series of huts in a circle using her weird earth magic. Meanwhile, I go around collecting firewood from trees I cut down, then pile it into the center of that circle of huts. I use a few fireball spells to set the logs ablaze, and eventually we have shelters arranged around a warm bonfire.
I tell all the refugees that they can start picking huts to sleep in and hang around the bonfire. After a few minutes, Alto comes up to me.
"Mizuki, was it? I'm almost afraid to ask, but where are we?" (Alto)
They'll find out anyways, so no harm in telling Alto.
"We're deep in the Delmura Forest." (Mizuki)
She goes pale, but she recovers surprisingly quickly.
"That's…no, it's obviously possible. Sorry. Are we safe here with all the dangerous monsters and minimal shelter?" (Alto)
Man, she's really rolling with the punches.
"Yeah, don't worry. No other monsters would dare come around here, it's the nest of the Elder Dragon of earth." (Mizuki)
Alto shows a healthy amount of fear and shock at that, but she presses on with her questions anyway.
"A-A-And…is the dragon going to come back and be upset that we're here?" (Alto)
Oh, I can't miss this chance.
[Hey, Nina, can you come here?] (Mizuki)
Nina was making sure children didn't get too close to the bonfire or lake, but she leaves an older elf in charge of that and comes over to me smiling.
"Hey, Mizuki, did you miss me?" (Nina)
She addresses me with a coy voice, and Alto looks on in confusion.
"Of course, but Alto wanted to know if them being at your nest was going to be a problem." (Mizuki)
Nina smiles at Alto as she walks up behind me and hugs me. How unusually restrained.
"Fufufufu…no, I don't mind. I live with Mizuki now anyways." (Nina)
As this exchange happens, Alto's face progresses from confusion to shock, to fear, and back to confusion. After a moment, she addresses Nina.
"S-So, you're Nedonera?" (Alto)
Nina nods at her and smiles. Alto looks back to me, and I nod as well. After a minute, her expression turns somewhat fearful, and she addresses me.
"Mizuki, who are you really? What do you want with us?" (Alto)
Well, that's a little hurtful, but I get it.