Approximately ten minutes later, half of which consisted of getting lost, Luca found his quarry, three men in what appeared to be a war council room, one of which was Jeremy. As he made his way over, he took a look at the two men he did not recognize: one was easy to recognize due to his resemblance to his son Bryce, Baronet Gerald Sheridan. The second was wearing E-grade leather armour reinforced with iron, an iron broadsword on his left hip. This man was most likely the Sheridan guard captain, Luca surmised.
The aforementioned guard captain was the first to notice the approaching lad, and his first action aside from leaning up from the table was to speak, "It seems our young hero has joined us."
Jeremy and the Baronet looked up from the map on the table upon hearing the captain, the latter of which smiled, "Young man, I must thank you for coming to our aid. Honestly, we would have lost otherwise, and badly at that."
Lightly shaking his head, Luca grinned as he bowed respectfully, "With all due respect, Sir Sheridan, our caravan was already within the potential area of danger, and it was too late to turn back. Going forward was risky, but it held the best chance to flank the bandits. The three men who rode with me were the only spares for the horses we had, making us the vanguard for our attempt to break the siege. I doubt we could pull off a stunt like that again."
Gerald could not help but guffaw at Luca's speech, finding him far too amusing for a child, "More humble than most men I've met in my entire life. Still, you came in our time of need and defeated the Mammoth Bandits, a group that has always been difficult to fend off. On top of that, you singlehanded slew Gadric the Bear, a Level 3 Warrior and a well-known criminal. It would not be wrong to say that there was no better person to change our disadvantage."
This time, Luca's denial was more apparent, "I barely managed to. I can't use that attack easily, my body can't handle just one use. The overuse of mana caused me to blackout and weaken my body. It'll be about a day before my body can use it again, even if I have the mana to cast it. My mentor would have done much better."
Jeremy chuckled, "Master Ysmir already admitted that your offensive ability exceeded most Level 3 single-target spells. The elder might be powerful, but he is not infallible. He also retired more than three decades ago, long past his prime."
Gerald stroked his beard, "Ah, he's Ysmir's pupil, eh? That already explains quite a bit. I would not force an old mage to do such work, especially not one as esteemed as he. Anyway, that's not what I'd like to talk about." He faced Luca again with a serious yet thankful expression, "No matter how anyone thinks about it, the fact remains that you saved my family and servants, along with killing the target of a Double Copper bounty. I must reward you, however, we have a dilemma. Gadric's bounty amounted to one gold coin and 250 silvers, a number we can ill afford. Your act of heroism is worth far more than this, but our coin is desperately needed to recover from this event." He bowed grimly, "For that, you have my apologies, as I cannot repay you."
Waving his hands so as to refuse, Luca was flustered, "I understand, I wouldn't take it even if you offered. Instead, can I ask to see your most detailed local maps? Maybe look at some spellbooks or some magic silver?"
Contemplating the boy's words, Gerald hmmed, "The maps are simple, they're all in the library. If there are any spellbooks, they'd be there as well. The only detailed ones pertain to my territory. If you want the entire province, you'll need to visit the capital, Bristol. While we do have magic silver, I cannot offer you any. I'd been planning to have a magic tool crafted that can create a barrier, but we haven't had much time to do so, not to mention we're short by a fair bit."
"Don't worry about the magic silver then, it was just a casual question. Do you know any areas nearby that have wild animals or magic beasts? I'm planning to go on a week-long journey for training."
Jeremy slammed his hands on the table, "What!? That is too dangerous! You're too young and inexperienced to go running off alone!"
Luca gave him a flat stare, "Do you think I don't know that, Jeremy? I need to know areas to avoid, then I'll check the maps so that I can remember their locations so as to steer clear. We'll be here for about a week anyway, so I need to do some real training. Training in safety all the time won't help me get stronger."
The caravan leader gaped like a fish before yelping as Gerald rapped his knuckled with a wooden pointer stick, "I already have enough to repair, don't go damaging my desk too." The nobleman then folded his arms, "I agree with the boy, Jeremy. Both Ysmir and I only became stronger through journeying, though we took different paths. I will take responsibility for this." Turning to Luca, he said, "Kept with the maps is a journal cataloguing dangerous locales discovered by myself or my subjects. Make sure to give it a look before you head out. However, you must return before your caravan departs, and no later. I don't want to deal with your mentor's wrath should you not return home."
The young lad nodded and made his way out to the library, though he'd likely get lost in the process. Five minutes after he left, however, one of the estate guards came knocking. Upon entering, he stated, "Master Gerald, I must bring this to your attention. The young master is in the infirmary."
"What, why?" Knowing his son, he had a bad feeling, but he asked anyway.
"According to witnesses, guards and servants alike, and young master Bryce himself, he managed to insult the young hero," the guard then began explaining the events to Gerald, who began fuming.
"He did what!?" The baronet's ears almost started spewing smoke.
Before Gerald could get past him, Richter, the guard captain, caught him, "Hold it, sir. I must say this, even if you don't want to hear it. If you and the mistress had not spoiled Bryce so much, this never would have occurred. He's very lucky it was Luca and not someone else. He sorely needed this lesson, so it is best to let him recover naturally in order to remember it."
Sighing in penance at his trusted friend's words, the Sheridan family head grumbled, "I know, Richter, I know. He has to go back to the academy in the capital next week since his leave time is almost over. I'm worried that it will hurt his performance in the long term. One of his instructors is a brutal one, I will never forget that man's tutelage, and I doubt he'd go easy on him because of his wound."
Jeremy offered, "Before the week comes to an end and the caravan heads back, I can run him back to our village for the elder to heal him. With four horses on one carriage instead of two, we can be back in a day."
The rest of the conversation was put on hold on the notion of going over it after the post-siege situation was handled.