Freeing the Captured

[Rupert's Point of View]

Oof

The trio stumbled and fell forward and onto my body with tears in their eyes before slowly falling asleep.

"It's alright; you are saved now", sighing as I gently stroked them one by one, calming their nerves before carrying all three of them in my arms and strolling in the direction of Old Eddie. As I walked toward Old Eddie, the trio curled themselves up like a baby whimpering in their sleep as if they were having a nightmare.

"Shhh" as I rocked like a baby hoping to clear their bad dreams, just like how I remember soothing the babies when I went to an orphanage before, using the techniques taught to me by their caregivers. As luck would have it, their whimpers slowly subsided, replaced with a smile on their faces. Now that I really examined them, it made me realise that all three of them looked really similar. No, similar is an understatement. They look like people cut out from the same mould with the same icy blue hair colour and pale white skin. If I were to use mana and examine them, it would look like they have the same aura and wavelength, making them seem like they are one and the same.

This reminds me of the mad scientist I met years ago who tried to create a body or medium to hold his soul in order to clone himself so that he could be in two places at once and learn things twice as fast as their soul is connected with one another. According to him, he has witnessed twins having a telepathic connection with one another, being able to share their thoughts and memories with each other. However, it is memory, so even though they might have the memory and theory, their body constitution would be different. Every human's body is unique to themselves, like an ID chip; hence, they would still need some time to master spells and themselves.

But what that mad scientist wanted to do was to create an exact replica of his body and use a medium to split his soul into two and place one of them in the other body, sort of like cloning himself, which is in accordance with him, theoretically, it should work.

"oh, thank god, are they alright" Old Eddie's shaky but relieved voice sounded, snapping me out of my thoughts, realising that I had unknowingly reached him.

"Yes, they're just tired. A little rest would do the trick," I replied before passing them over to Old Eddie for him to look after them.

"nrh"

"nrh"

"nrh"

All three of them whimpered as they clenched their fists tightly on my robes, desperately holding onto their precious doll, refusing to let go of it.

After seeing such action, an average person would make an "aww" sound and let them have their way and continue to carry them. Unfortunately for them, it only made me frown in displeasure as I pulled back my robe from their grasp and smoothed off the wrinkles before turning towards the direction of Samantha.

"Samantha! Come back! I have found them!" I called out to her.

Hearing my call, I could hear Samantha's rapid footstep becoming louder as she approached my location.

"Huff, huff, huff, I'm glad we found them," Samantha said as she came towards us. Her eyes moved, scanning the area for the three little ones. Once she spotted them, she smiled and heaved a sigh of relief when she spotted three identical little ones in the arms of Old Eddie.

"Oh, let me carry them. Aww, look at them go sucking their thumbs," she excitedly whispered, ensuring that she does not wake up the triplets as Old Eddie passed them over to Samantha to let her hold them for a bit.

'Something about Samantha did not seem right to me, especially her sigh of relief. It felt like she was worried for them, not for their well-being but for something else… Like… like…' I thought as I rummaged through my memories for the memory of the same sigh that I had heard before.

Bang

Creak

Clink

Clack

"Go, you are free," Samantha's voice snapped me out of my thoughts as I turned to look at what she was doing.

Upon seeing her actions, I immediately went forward and grabbed her hand in an attempt to stop what she was doing. Realising that I was holding her hand, she gave me a quizzical look, wondering why I disapproved of her actions.

"It's better to leave them here than freeing them. Let's go," I responded to her quizzical look before turning to Old Eddie with the triplets in his arms and signalling him that it was time to go. Upon seeing my hand signal, Old Eddie walked towards me and in the direction of the exit. After taking the first few steps, I realised that Samantha was not trailing behind. Thinking that she did not hear my last words, I turned around and called out to her again, "Let's Go!" Before turning back and continued walking.

"No," Samantha retorted and went to the next cage, broke the lock and let the imprisoned out of their cage.

Hearing her reply, I gestured for Old Eddie to leave the place first before turning around and confronting Samantha.

"Listen to me. What you are doing is meaningless. Even if you set them free, where would they go? Even if they have a place to go, Do you think other merchants or even the same one will snatch them up again? Have you thought of the consequences of what would happen if they were caught again? You also do not know what would happen if you set them free; driven by desperation, they might end up killing and nicking away others. Do you wish to see the children in Old Eddie's care being killed?" I listed on while Samantha ignored and continued letting people out right until I mentioned the children in Old Eddie's care that she stopped and hesitated.