The arrival of the logistics team at the smugglers' base was very smooth, there wasn't even a big problem even when the logistics team was accompanied by four paladins and a priest. All paladins were in the final stage of the green core and the priest who was a light and life element mage were in the initial stage of the orange core, it was obvious that the priest was leading this team which is a bit unusual.
According to what I learned about the ways that temples act and that paladins have their own hierarchy separate from the priests and nuns of the temples, usually when a quest involves heretics like our current quest has it been normal to see that paladins usually lead this type mission even when a priest has a stronger core than the templars or when his level in the temple's hierarchical chain is higher than the nobles.
Priests tend to have a preference for missions such as diplomacy, humanitarianism, and the propagation of their god's faith. But from the way those paladins are behaving the priest is obviously the leader in this quest.
Aside from the church group the kingdom logistics group tended to be more gray core warriors and a few green core warriors leading them, but it wasn't a very big team either.
Ana led the interactions with both groups, to my surprise the priest who kept a neutral and serious face the entire time was extremely patient and polite. He made it very clear that it was completely fine for Ana to finish dealing with the logistics leader, in his own words the current focus should be on dealing with the slaves who are victims of the malevolent schemes that happened here after he listened to Ana's explanations. what happened during the mission.
Only after Ana had passed the report on the entire base what had happened and what she needed the help of the logistics group on, it didn't take long for the soldiers to enter the base to organize and move everything that will be taken from that base, which they are mostly slaves.
From what I've heard most slaves will be freed to go their way after undergoing processing at one of the northern military bases, but for those unable to go it alone they will be relocated to the south being hired as servants by several noble families.
The only major interference from the priest during the entire conversation Ana had as the head of the logistics unit was that the captured smugglers must be held by the Templars, but to my surprise the priest seems to have no intention of interrogating them now.
I thought he'd be pretty excited to start the interrogation so he can get his own 'truth' from the smugglers, but from his calm demeanor it looks like he's not in the slightest bit in a hurry to try and track down the necromancer who decided to create this base.
I only found out the reason for this calm attitude of the priest and caused because they already have two tracking teams made up of templars in the neighboring country tracking all of Mitus' business contacts, when the message that avia 'bad' elements arrived at the northern military base the temple has already begun to make its move to investigate our mission target and all connected with it.
They really don't play around when it comes to their targets, as well as the apparent disappearance of this type of figure in recent months. Finding a solid lead on a necromancer must be very exciting for them, I wouldn't be surprised if there were several templars offering to investigate a necromancer.
My team just managed to leave quickly because everything is basically ready so we can travel, taking off our gear Ana let us get some items from the smugglers. We can't take too many things as it would be too apparent if we took a wagon full of smuggled goods, I took some alchemy ingredients that have a good value on the market.
Nothing too illegal, as selling prohibited products is a crime, but selling expensive products that are allowed is not. I tried to get small and valuable vials so I could fill two medium bags that wouldn't stand out on my horse, I already carry a lot of luggage normally and my stock has decreased a lot during the mission, so I don't think anyone has noticed that I'll recover some contraband for I.
The rest of the team seems to have subtracted some items except Carmilla who I didn't see take anything, this worries me a lot if she doesn't take anything it can have two not very good meanings. The first is that she is from a ridiculously wealthy family that provides everything for her, these types of people tend to be troublesome when money is involved in some problem or mission.
The second is that she is extremely correct and thinks our actions are sawed off, she may resent and judge team members in a negative way which can cause great stress among group members or she may end up denouncing our actions in her report, even that our superior intends and accepts our actions is not good for this to be recorded in an official report, and asking to cause trouble for everyone.
When we were leaving, the logistics group was already completing its train, which would take a long time to reach the nearest city. Because of the large number of slaves, he will have to make sure that the healthy slaves who are the majority of the slaves as they have been treated well in the last few days will have to go along with the convoy.
This will cause the convoy's speed to drop drastically, because of this both our group and the templars led by the priest will leave the logistics group behind. The Templar group has a high-quality prison wagon to keep the smugglers trapped and safe on a very fast journey, but something tells me they'll end up separating us too.
My team will head straight to the northern main barracks to deliver the report and pick up the next mission, while the templars and the priest will take the smugglers to some temple to begin the long interrogation that will probably be quite brutal.
The priest might be a light and life elemental mage which would be a great combination for a healer or defensive mage, but I feel he is someone quite cruel and should be specialized in fighting mages and creatures of the death and shadow element.
There's no way they can put a priest who focuses on healing as a team leader like this one that has the goal of killing a necromancer, I'm sure this guy is a priest focused on combat.
Leaving the logistics group behind, both my group and the templar's left at full speed, normally Ana would cover our tracks, but because of the templars' rush and the fact that the logistics group will be going the same way as us, she ended up leaving that aside and focus on traveling at the maximum speed we could.
We even had to use acceleration magic on a grand scale to be able to keep up with the templars who used some sort of magical tool on their mounts and chariot to increase speed. It appears to be a magical tool that has the same effect as the magic of Quinn is using on us.
Ana has already warned that using this type of magic leaves a trail of elemental energy of the wind element behind and it penetrates the ground because of the packing of the mounts' paws that are being targeted by the magic. But even though we followed the templars hard during the trip, we ended up being left behind by them, the templars didn't care about the health of their mounts and continued on their journey.
These horses can be seriously injured as a result of this decision by the Templars, in the event the horse will no longer serve as a high-quality mount with it. I know they are prey but this is a bit of a stretch in my opinion.
After being left behind, Ana pointed out that we should never talk about what happened here, but I don't think she was talking about the quest, but what the Templar group did or whatever opinion anyone has about them.
Criticizing the church or being the source of rumors is not a wise decision.
Our trip ended in a much shorter period of time than we spent before to find the smugglers, apart from some magical animals that we killed on the way, we arrived quietly at the northern base. Arriving there we were quickly separated; each member of the group was sent to a separate room to do the mission report.
Apart from me and Ana that the team leader must do a written report and go through an interview, the others just need to do a written report that will be read by the superiors and compared to the report and interview that Ana and I had to do.
Normally this process isn't as straightforward and intense as it was, I felt like I was being interrogated as if I was committing a crime by the officer who walked into my office. He asked more than once if I thought Ana's tactics were too aggressive, he even asked if I thought she had crossed the line.
I don't know if I'm being tested or he really was with a clear goal to iron Ana, but no matter the answer I wouldn't criticize Ana. Mainly because I don't think she made a mistake or did something immoral and unethical, she may have gone a little overboard with Mitus after we got the information about the necromancer, but I don't think she was acting out of her right.
He even asked if I felt horrible for having obeyed the order to use my lightning element on Mitus by destroying his hand, this guy was acting very strange and didn't even try to hide his disappointment in me when he left the room leaving me alone.
I'm not excited to repeat this kind of process again, but tomorrow we'll be off to do another quest with not even a break period other than a good night's rest. According to Ana, the more active we are, the better it will be for all of us and I don't disagree with her.