Burn (Part-2)

"Please save our children..."

We had just arrived. The light of the setting sun was down to dusk, and after a long day of travel, the situation had just become considerably more complicated.

"Tell us about it." Elaina was the first to get off the caravan and approach the villagers, followed by us.

Suddenly the old man's demeanor changed. As if he realized he shouldn't have said what he just did. The old man refused to meet our eyes. He was the one who first approached us but now he hesitated to elaborate. The villagers around him gave the old man a look of helpless disapproval, as if they didn't want him to say anything, but even they knew nothing else could be done.

"We are here to help." I tried to assure.

The sense of uneasiness continued among the villagers.

Ren didn't like this collective act of emotional stupidity by the villagers. If children were truly in danger, there was no time to be wasted.

"What. Happened?" Keeping his hands to himself, Ren said with a clear tone of hostility, glaring down at the old man.

Fear of mortality showed on the old man's face. "I... the monsters... they..."

"Adventurers! Adventurers! Please help!" A woman's voice cried out from far behind the crowd.

"Luca." Ren said looking over the crowd towards the cry for help.

Luca immediately sped forward in that direction and went behind a couple of houses. Sounds of punching and men grunting were heard before a woman walked out followed by Luca.

Ren lightly shoved the old man away with a distasteful tsk and we approached the woman.

"Can you tell us what happened?" I asked the woman.

"My son and daughter... they went into the forest."

"When did this happen? How long have they been in there?" Elaina followed up on her reply.

"A few hours ago. Please save them."

"Wait. Why did they go into the forest?" Luca asked.

Even he could sense something was fundamentally wrong with this place. The people were definitely worried, they wanted help, but something held them back. Fear that made them hold their tongues. Even a mother, clearly distraught by the disappearance of her children into the forest, wasn't giving enough information.

"We want to help we really do, but the chances of your children being saved will be very low if you don't tell us what we need to know." I said with a calming voice.

There. The same fear of death again took over the woman. Even the other villagers were glaring daggers at the woman.

Elaina stood between the villagers and the woman, glaring back at them. She pulled out a copy of our quest. "The man who filed this request with the Adventurer's Guild, Pan Deit, where is he?"

"He... He left the village." Replied someone from the crowd.

"Really?"

The villagers again refused to look at her.

I decided to use the one card I usually don't.

"My name is Liam Everhart. Heir to the Everhart domain and son of the Hero of Asella, William Everhart. I am a Descendant of Light."

The villagers were shocked. Fear still showed but this time it wasn't death they were afraid of. They were afraid of me. Not exactly the effect I was expecting, but I don't mind, for it led to exactly the thing I desired.

Tears slowly rolled down her face as she stared at me with a look of happiness, relief, and veneration. "You are a blessing from the gods..."

"The gods are no more, but I am here. And I promise I will bring back your children. So will you tell me exactly what happened?"

She nodded. "They... they took him. I usually don't let my children out of the home alone, but the sun was out and it was just past noon so I thought it will be fine. Then suddenly I heard my daughter cry out. The forest goblins charged out of the forest towards the village. Everyone rushed indoors. I called out to my children. I called out to them again and again, but only my daughter returned. They had taken my son. My daughter kept crying to go after him, but I told her to stay at home while I went out to look for my son around the village. When I returned, she was already gone..."

"How old are your children?" I asked.

"Gyuwen is 9 and Momo my daughter is 11 years old."

"Gyuwen and Momo. I see..."

"They must be so scared... Please save them. Please, Lord Everhart. I beg you." The woman broke down in tears.

"Thank you."

Ren came up beside me. "Just a minute, Liam. I want to ask one more thing."

He knelt down to the woman with a kind expression and helped her up. "My name is Ren Kaizel. I am here as a part of Liam's team of adventurers. We are here to help as well. I have a question and it's important you answer carefully and honestly."

The woman nodded, ready to accept the question.

"Were the monsters... corrupted?"

There again. The wave of fear washed over the villagers again. The woman trembled at the mention of the word corrupted. Her face ashened as she looked up to Ren.

"No! No the goblins were not corrupted." Yelled out the old man from the crowd.

Ren turned back to the old man with a look of disgust. "You shut up, old man."

The old man tried to rush forward towards the woman but was held back by Luca. "Tell them Martha! Tell them the goblins were not corrupted."

"He is right... The goblins were not corrupted."

Now that this woman had given in, there was nothing more to be gained.

I turn to my teammates as we gather aside for a discussion.

"The old man was really weird. First, he approaches us for help, now he refuses to say anything."

"They know a lot more than they are telling. I don't like how they are withholding information." Luca said exactly what was on all our minds.

"It's clear they are scared of something. Maybe if we can..." Elaina pointed out.

"Nothing like that will work anymore, the more they keep their mouth shut, the more dangerous the situation gets for the kids. But those dumbheads apparently don't understand that." Luca replied.

"Luca..."

"I'm gonna be blunt about this Elaina. If there is something really that dangerous out there that makes it worth risking the lives of the children, then we need to know about it."

"Does it matter though? Whatever they are scared of, we have to save the children, right?" Sylvie said.

I sighed. "Sylvie is right. We have our duty to fulfill."

There was an air of silent agreement among us.

I turned to Ren. "Ren you have been unusually quiet."

Ren was rolling a rock on the ground with his boot tip as he silently leaned against a wall. For a few moments he said nothing then turned to us. "They are obviously holding back secrets. But it doesn't matter. Looking at the current situation itself, you realize what just happened right?"

"The quest rank just went up to Silver." I replied grimly.

That's right. Any quest that involves securing civilians against monsters is classified as silver rank or above. There was a reason why we had taken a bronze rank quest, but now that won't be happening. We could just abandon the quest since the rank had escalated, but obviously we weren't gonna do that.

Ren kicked off the dirt and stood up straight, looking at us with a smile. "Like Sylvie said, it doesn't matter. Y'all wanted a silver-ranked quest, you have it now. This will be a quick search and rescue. Extermination can wait for later. What do you say? Shall we do this?"

I let out a deep breath and nodded. "You bet. I made a promise to save her children. Gyuwen and Momo. And it's a promise I shall fulfill. Let's do this."

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[QUEST RANK : SILVER.]