User blog comment:FairyRaven/Fairy Tail Chapter 453: A Father's Job, Review and Commentary/@comment-25962249-20150920084756/@comment-5268982-20150920190751

It would make sense for Freed NOT to have set up any runes. They don't want to keep Alvarez out of the guild because this way they would hold hostage and put in danger the entire town. That said, he also probably did not have time to encircle the ENTIRE town in runes, because we don't know how long it took him to do that during the GMG.