The breakfast passed with the idle pleasantries of everyone. It wasn't until they finished eating that they all became serious.
Isla knew what was coming and she decided to give the group a step so they could explain what they wanted. She looked towards the group and spoke solemnly, "Sila and I would like to thank you all for saving our lives. If it hadn't been for you, maybe only our bones would be left right now. If there's anything we can do to repay you, please let us know".
Harold could sense Isla's intention and his serious face showed a hint of amiability. 'What a clever girl' he thought. Settling his expression, he said righteously "It's not worth mentioning. If we can help those in distress, then it isn't a problem.
However there is something that we'd like to speak to you about".
"What might that be?" Isla asked, as if confused.
Sila really wanted to roll her eyes at the moment after seeing the act between the two, but she wouldn't allow her sister to lose face in front of outsiders. She'd just use it to tease Isla when they were alone.
" Well to introduce our group, we are the 'Golden Unit'. You may or may not have heard of us in your time at the guild, but we are one of the Gold ranked groups in Rusvil.
We haven't been back to the city for almost a year and our time to guard Rusvil is soon to arrive. But we have a quest that hasn't yet been completed, and we're uncertain if we can complete it in the amount of time we have left" Harold explained.
Isla put on a pensive look before replying, "Mr. Harold, my sister and I are only silver rank adventurers. Are we of any ability to help?"
Harold smiled before continuing, "The task itself should only accept gold ranks, but the only other adventurers of that level have either left the city, or they are in various groups that have current engagements.
But we don't need the rank itself. If the people have the ability of a gold rank adventurer, then that is what we need.
We noticed the damage to the forest when we found you. You two dealt with an earth bear by yourselves, which is not a feat that silver ranks could complete, even if they wanted to".
Isla couldn't help being embarrassed, "Even if we could defeat it, we were almost killed just dealing with it".
"Indeed, but you were surely unprepared for such a powerful magic beast to appear here. Even so you managed to defeat it. I believe if you had time to prepare, as well as an understanding of its full abilities, you never would have incurred such serious injuries" Harold said confidently.
The group, including Sila, watched the two chatting and couldn't help getting bored. Wishing they would just get on with the point so they could proceed with the quest. Their bones had started to feel dull with the time spent just staying here.
"Well we appreciate Mr. Harold's trust in our abilities, but what might be the task that we could possibly assist you with?" Isla asked with confusion.
Harold began to frown, "This task is really a little tricky. We received a report from the guild leader, that there was suspicious activity coming from a certain place deeper into the Rind forest.
It appears that the city closest to us, Torrel, had sent a few groups of silver ranks to the location of the activity, but time and time again they disappeared. To this day they haven't been seen again.
The position of the suspicious activity is pretty much right between Torrel and Rusvil, so after losing those few groups, the head of the Torrel guild asked our leader for assistance.
The guilds agreed to send a gold ranked group each, to try and figure out what the anomaly is, as well as to find the whereabouts of the missing groups, if possible".
After listening to Harold mention the strange place, Isla and Sila could see the group became somewhat gloomy, even showing avoidance. However they didn't have time to ask before Harold continued.
"At first we didn't think there would be anything too worrisome. Perhaps like you, those groups met an earth bear, or some other gold ranked monster that had wandered from its usual territory. So after receiving the task from the guild leader, since we were already on our way back to Rusvil, we decided meet up with Torrel's gold ranks and explore the area.
When we began the exploration, we didn't see anything out of the ordinary, and at that time we just glossed over it. Perhaps we had become a little complacent, so we didn't realise that being ordinary, was the strangest part of that place.
Everything seemed too normal, which finally made us suspicious and before we knew it, we were lost. Not only were we lost, but at some time, Torrel's gold ranks had disappeared. Right from under our noses, but we hadn't felt any other presences in that entire time we were there".
Seeing the groups increasingly ugly expressions, the twins could tell that this experience had left an indelible mark in their minds.
"We had been lost for what seemed like only a few days before finally finding an area we were familiar with, but after realising it, what we thought were just a matter of days, somehow became a month.
We felt little hunger during the time, and because the forest blocked out the sky, we couldn't tell how many days had passed, which led to our confusion when we realised. So now we only have one month left to figure out the issue and complete the task before we need to return to Rusvil. But now we've also added the task of finding the lost gold ranks on top of the already existing tasks, so you can finally see why time is tight" Harold said, his voice showing signs of exhaustion.
Isla and Sila looked at each other, thinking about how strange this quest was, but Isla noticed Sila's eyes full of interest and sighed.