The human wakes up, but my grip on his face keeps his screams muffled. The two elven women wake up, but when they see me they stay quiet and just watch the human die. It takes a few minutes, but that is only a small fraction of what he deserves.
Once he is dead I heal the two elves and then say a quick prayer to get my divine energy refilled. Then I free the two elves and turn my back to them while they get dressed. As they are getting dressed I scan around the room to see if the human has any gold hidden away.
It turns out that he does, but when I locate it I have to struggle not to laugh. The gold is hidden in a secret compartment under the huge bathtub in the next room. Since there is no one nearby I go ahead and break the compartment open and empty it into my pouch.
By the time I am done the two elves are dressed and ready to go, so I quickly explain things to them. Surprisingly, they are willing to stay with me and go along to rescue the others. It seems that they are not as broken as some of the others I have rescued.
So I pick the two of them up, one in each arm, and jump down from the balcony. Then I carry them to the side of the estate that borders the other estate. I wait a few minutes until there is a gap in the patrols and then jump over the fence.
Only after I have moved through the patrols and gotten close to the main house do I put the two elves down. Then I send out my mana to find the elves and learn the layout of the estate. This time I find the elves in a basement room that has a big bed and several other things.
Immediately, my first instinct is to keep the girls with me from seeing that room. However, after thinking for a second I decide that isn't the right move, not after what they have been through. All four have been through things I can't even describe, it won't help for me to try and shelter them now.
So, with the two of them following me, I head around to the back of the estate house. There is a small set of stairs that leads to a basement access without going through the house. It is probably for bringing in bulk supplies, but right now it is the best way in for us.
Not only is it not guarded, but the door only has a simple physical lock on it. The lock doesn't even slow me down, but the door leads us into the far end of the basement from where the elves are. However, that doesn't present any problems since there is no one else in the basement.
All we have to do is walk across the basement, dodging stacks of crates, and open a door. The two elves we are looking for are locked in tiny cages that are suspended from the ceiling. They are naked and bound, but not as bruised as I was expecting them to be.
Their eyes light up when they spot us and even more so when I lower and open the cages. Once they are out of the cages I remove their restraints and heal them. Luckily, the two I rescued first explain things to the other two so I don't have to repeat myself, again.
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The last estate isn't anywhere near this one so I plan to send these four through the gate. In fact, the last estate is almost outside the nobles area, which is why I left it for last. There will be a lot of city guards patrolling between here and there.
That is the main reason I am going to open a gate here, it is harder for five people to sneak around. Again I use pure energy to enhance my mana and then use it to open the gate. Once the elves have gone through I close the gate, but I don't leave immediately.
While I didn't want to cause a fuss earlier, now it can be used to my advantage. After the earlier estates the city guard should be out in full force throughout the nobles area. However, if I do something flashy here it should draw the guards away from my target.
Besides, after what I am guessing was done to the elves, just leaving doesn't sit well with me. So I walk over to the exit, but before I leave I turn back and ignite all of the crates in the basement. A nice big fire should attract all of the city guard patrols and give me a clear path.
With the fire starting in the basement there shouldn't be much chance of the noble getting out. Just to be sure, once I am out of the house I hang around for a bit to watch. If the noble actually manages to get out of the house I will kill him before I leave.
However, it turns out that my caution wasn't necessary, no one makes it out of the house. It makes me feel kind of bad for the servants, but not enough that I will lose sleep over it. I feel like it should bother me more since I used to be a human, but for whatever reason it doesn't.
Once I am sure no one is getting out I jump over the fence and head for the last estate. On the way I have to dodge a lot of city guards, all running towards the fire. However, once I am past them I don't see anyone else on my way to my target.
When I reach the estate I am a little confused, it really doesn't look like much. It is not much bigger than a normal house, in fact I have seen bigger in the merchant's area. This either belongs to a really poor noble family, or a really rich merchant.
Considering what I was told about the cost of elves I am really surprised that there are two here. That makes me think that the estate belonging to a rich merchant is more likely. I just hope it isn't the merchant I had dinner with since I kind of liked him.
When I get closer to the estate and take a look at the guards my guess is confirmed. The guards are not wearing uniforms with a noble's symbol, the symbol is that of a merchant group. As such I decide to avoid killing the guards as much as I can, so I jump over the fence.
There are only a few guards patrolling the small grounds and they are easy enough to avoid. Once I am close to the house I scan with my mana to find out where the elves are. At first I can't find them, but after spending some more mana I find them in a secret room.
The reason I missed it at first is because the secret room isn't a part of the house. It is actually under the stables, which is the only outbuilding the estate has. From the scan I can tell there is no one in the stables and currently only the elves in the hidden room.
So I head over to the stables and then use a little more mana to keep the horses calm. Even shapeshifted I still smell like a predator so keeping the hoses from panicking is important. That kind of noise would definitely bring the guards running over to investigate.