Beckoning for the woman to follow me as I went to open up the rest of the cages, I tentatively asked "They... presumably weren't... kind to you then, no?", earning a breath before she nodded, confirming my suspicions.
"Yes, they did; they tortured me and they also abused me repeatedly. A lot of us, actually... some were more willing, others were definitely not. It is... very regrettable that this was able to happen. We should have been more prepared, but also..."
The bitterness in her voice made me nod slowly as I yanked one of the many locks free, opening one of the cages and ushering the dozens of captives out; statistically speaking, the amount of people here should have been more than capable of holding off these mercenaries, and yet... they hadn't.
It wasn't their fault either since they were a group of miners, smelters, metalworkers and little else, with the few guards and adventurers they had tending to be on the downside of their careers to earn a post like this.
The Duchesses should have done more to keep this place and its people safe, but these people should have also been more prepared for this sort of thing considering the value of what they were doing.
However I couldn't really find a way to blame them since the Leopardkin and the leather clad slut weren't exactly the sort of enemies that these people were supposed to be expected to face anyways...
As more and more of her friends and acquaintances were freed, the red head slowly got more and more relaxed, which led to her being far more open to expressing far more of her emotions as they started to hit her now that she was free.
By the time I had opened the second cage she was choking back sobs as she just kept trailing behind me, and although I wanted to comfort the poor woman I still had to get everyone out, while Aethisia was keeping her eyes on our two captives.
It didn't take me that long to free everyone though, so upon all of the cages being I gathered everyone in the middle of the cave and reassured them that they were free and that there were no more threats around us at this time.
At least, according to what I had seen before coming inside; diligence was still something that should be maintained and they should begin to arm themselves and fortify the town just in case, because until the small squad of soldiers that the Lionkin Duchess was sending here arrived they were only going to have Aethisia and I.
Depending on the actual goal that these mercenaries had we could be enough, or maybe us and the townsfolk could do well enough to hold the town for the foreseeable future... but it would be better to be safe rather than sorry, so I wanted them to get everything ready as soon as possible.
Giving them something to do and focus all of their effort and mind on would hopefully help them push through everything that happened, at least for now, and at the very least it would keep them busy enough to not have too much time to spend stuck inside their own heads.
If you were too exhausted from physical labor then there was little you could do to care about the mind when your body was demanding you rest and slip into the blissful embrace of unconsciousness.
With the rest of the town now free and slowly walking about as they came to the realization that they were actually free, I finally turned towards the red haired woman and approached her, stopping just short of her and murmuring "Would you like a hug?"
She was still sniffling and trembling, uncertain of how to handle herself as she grappled with her emotions and her responsibility as she watched her fellow townsfolk start leaving the cave to return to their homes.
I didn't really want them out of my sight just yet but I was also feeling the mental drain beginning to set in after everything that had happened today, so I just wanted to finally settle down and begin resting.
It felt almost guaranteed that there was something else that was going to happen here just because that was how these things tended to go, which if I was correct about that then I was going to want to rest up as much as I can now...
When she nodded I took another step forwards and wrapped my arms around her, pulling the woman close and suddenly finding myself in a bit of a predicament as I came to the realization that she was actually quite the woman...
Her breasts pressed against my body while her heat seeped into me, reminding me that it had been oh so long since I had been this close to a woman... though what she had gone through stayed my hand, so to speak.
It was hard - thankfully I wasn't - but I was trying my best to keep it that way as I just pat her back and murmured comforting things to her, letting her cry for as long as she wanted before she did something that I wasn't entirely expecting.
Bunching my collar up with her fists, the red head finally pulled away from my chest and stared up at me, her wet azure eyes sparkling with need as she whispered "Please, I... after what happened, I just... I need you to fuck me, please..!"
I blinked a few times at that, staring at her and wondering if I heard it right, only to raise a brow as she yanked on my collar and pulled me down so that she could kiss me, sliding her tongue between my lips and sucking away the rest of my reluctance.
Before I 'slipped away' completely I glanced over at Aethisia and caught her eye, getting a somewhat exasperated nod as she stood over our two captives with her spear in hand; with that I walked the woman back towards one of the cages, raised a wall of rock and then began to help myself to my due reward.