User blog comment:IamJakuhoRaikoben/Chapter 441: Caracole Island, Review./@comment-49.149.40.11-20150622192422/@comment-7418318-20150625154012

The problem is that as far as we know Mest can't teleport others. He can only teleport himself and someone he touches.

So yes he could have teleported to the child and teleported away together with the child, but how would that have been much different?

The soldiers already saw Mest together with the other FT mages, so the troops would most likely have arrested (or tried to anyway) the FT mages to question them about how Mest disappeared, appearted beside the child and disappeared again into thin air.