I was delaying the punishment of the slave traders for one simple reason: there was an unidentified individual I had to escort to an unknown destination within a thirty-six-hour time limit. 0

If my earlier assumption was correct, which seemed likely, then the escort target was one of the slaves. Plus, that also implied that an enemy ambush was inevitable, whether the slave traders were present or not.0

There are about thirty slaves.0

I still had no information about how many enemies there would be, their strength, or even what they would look like. Hence, punishing the slave traders now would mean I would have to move through this scorching desert with civilians incapable of fighting. It would be too dangerous to face an attack from unknown enemies without knowing which of the over thirty slaves was the escort target. 0

Since I couldn’t afford to risk the escortee getting hurt, I had to stick with the caravan until more information was revealed. Rushing in without understanding the situation rarely ended well.0

Of course, if rescuing the slaves turns out to be a hidden mission, who knows where...0