"I'm sorry? Could you say that again? I may have misheard you." Silas said with his heart beating fast.
"Silas Ryd would you like to be a mage knight for the House Silvaren?" The young Lady repeated
The butler spoke up before Silas could "My Lady, forgive me but I cannot let this happen. This is mage of unknown origin and no known feats. Besides we don't even know where he comes from. He may even be from the Braethis Kingdom sent here as a trap!"
"Then you could conduct a thorough investigation on him and his origin then, Renard. He's still standing here, why not just do it now?" The Lady said "Silas, I am Selene Silvaren of House Silvaren, the eldest daughter of Ranco Silvaren, the Count. By the authority vested in me, I command you to reveal your intentions" and pointed a ring at Silas.
Silas felled a mana collection around his neck and before he could react a mana rope formed around his neck, the rope was heating and tightening the more he moved or pulled at it. Guards around him brought him to his knees.
"This is the Veritas Band, a ring of honesty if you will. Answer appropriately and honestly and the rope around your neck will no tighten. Renard, get to work" Selene said.
"My Lady, this is too sudden and this quite unnecessary for you to do. This is an excessive use of force as well. We need more proof before we take any such drastic steps. Please release that man before it escalates to a problem." the Butler said but Selene seemed uninterested in his words.
"Fuck, is every noble a fucking lunatic?" Silas thought to himself
"That was quite crass of you, Silas. Calling a noble lady lunatic would seem a grave offense in some eyes. The Ring also let's me read your mind, if you didn't understand yet" Selene said, locking her eyes with Silas
"Get the fuck out of my head!" Silas yelled "I was here for a package delivery and nothing else. Let me go!"
As soon as Silas said that the Veritas Band shined in a blue hue. Selene looked at the ring and said "Well, that was one truth from you. Now, answer me, do you bear ill intentions toward me or those present here?"
"Who wouldn't after being bound and threatened for no apparent reason?" Silas said boiling with anger and the ring once again shined blue.
"Are you a threat to the House Silvaren or have any intention to bring harm to it?" Selene asked
"My only intention right now is to leave if i can or escape if i should. And if i have to hurt someone to do that then I will not hesitate" Silas yelled back and the ring once again shined blue.
"Release" Selene said, with a hint of awkward regret on her face "My apologies, with the war on our heads we can never be too sure. Well? Would you like to be a knight then?"
Silas made a puzzled expression as though he had just seen a blind man juggle knives and said "Yeah, no, I wasn't interested in that position even before you threatened me. I'm not one to pledge my loyalty to anyone. I carve my path the same way my path carves me." Silas said, firmly.
"Do you know how the currency works, Silas? Pennars for the peasants, Lunars for the traders, Solars for the businessmen and Crowns for nobility and the royalty. Someone with a unique magecraft shouldn't have to deal with struggle for survival and food. Take your place as a knight in our House and you will know boundless comfort. You could earn in Solars every year" Selene said, trying her best to still win him over.
"My Lady, ever since i have arrived at this manor, I have been nothing but respectful but what you said just now, is a grave offense to me. As i mentioned before, my loyalty is only to myself and cannot be bought with materialistic promises or temptations. Should you need anyone capable, the Mercenary Guild shall be more of a help than i ever will be. Goodbye." Silas said and darted out of the door, nimbly dodging the guards around him. He rushed forward and jumped the wall of the manor and ran off into the large and dense crowd. 
Selene was upset and called on her guards and commanded them to bring him back if they find him again.
The butler was confused at why the Lady was being so uncharacteristically fixated on Silas and asked "Lady Selene, why is that man of such interest to you? You have never ever pushed so much against the customs you follow. Why is that man's loyalty so important to you?"
"Renard, your service has last 32 years so far with House Silvaren, you must have understood that we value loyalty above all else in this household by now. You must think I had reverted to a petulant child throwing tantrums but it was was excuse to be able to see his intentions. The Veritas Band also let's me feel the emotions of the person as well and to say his resolve is.....strong, would be an understatement. I want you to try and bring him to favor us, Renard. Father must have heard the commotion from upstairs as well, fill him in on the current situation and tell him about Silas Ryd"

Silas moved quickly, he did not need to deal with the bullshit drama of the nobles. If it wasn't for the bag of lunars then he would have regretted going there. Money was the goal for now, for which he and Tormac had to work hard. The bag of a coins was a little relief to him. He went through the same market as he had come through before, looking at stuff he could possibly buy for dinner, hopefully something lavish as celebration. Since it was night and most of the stalls were closed he just picked some fresh fruits and headed back to the Guild for the completion report. The Guild clerk saw him, smiled and said "Well? How was your first quest experience? Were you paid well? Your friend came before you and he seemed to have a good time"
Silas just sighed and gave the completed request paper and said "Nightmare. If they hadn't paid how much they paid me, i would've regretted joining as an adventurer."
"That bad huh? Did they insult or berate you?" the clerk asked putting the paper below the desk into a drawer.
"Nope. I was tied down and questioned about where my loyalty lie" Silas said and leaned on the table
The clerk's smile disappeared "They tied you up?! Were you attacked? Did you say anything rude?" she asked.
"Nope, the excuse they gave was: "Can't be too careful nowadays". Fucking idiots. Now, excuse me but i would like to rest after today's ordeal" Silas said and got up
"Well, ok. Take rest and take care but please come again tomorrow. I have some important information for you and your friend regarding your ranks and magecraft" the clerk waved as he left.

Tormac was back at the lodge and in the room cleaning his boots from the mud and blood.
"You're back. How was the delivery quest?"
"Delivery was to a noble manor. Fuckers, tied me up and used some kind of truth spell to ask me if i was spy and whatnot" Silas said as he sat down and removed his gear and sword.
"Wait, they know about the academy?" Tormac said, alarmed
"No, they don't. They only asked if i was a threat to their family or had any ill intentions toward them. I just said that i was there to deliver a package, get paid and leave. They believed me and let loose the binding spell. The second the bind loosened i fucking bolted with my payment. Nobles are lunatics" Silas said.
Tormac heard this, sat down heaving a sigh of relief and said "Well, they are serving dinner downstairs. Let's go"
"Alright, but i bought us fresh fruits too. Finished up on dinner and let's eat these in our rooms." Silas said and got up for dinner.
The duo went downstairs and greeted the Innkeeper, Duncan who greeted the boys back and sat them down to serve them meat porridge.
"Old man, the porridge smells good. What did you put in it?" Tormac asked, mouth watering
"Oh, I had a little bit of everything leftover so i mixed it up into porridge. Duck fat, chicken, potatoes, cabbage and some herbs and spices." the old man said, smiling at his new food creation.
The boys took a bite, it wasn't the best thing they ate in the world but it was one of the best they could afford and was enough for now. Silas said to Tormac when Duncan moved away for a moment "I got paid well, you know, after all that bullshit."
"How much? If you're saying it's good, it means it's a couple of Lunars then?" Tormac asked absolutely demolishing his meal.
"Higher. 18 Lunars" Silas said and smiled wide
Tormac stopped eating and looked at Silas, porridge still dripping from the edge of mouth.
"Yeah. 18 Lunars. It's a good start. We better be holding onto this amount for now. We could get an escort or even a wagon to get to Austrand for about 1 or 1.5 Solars." Silas said "How much did you get for extermination?"
"1 Lunar. I thought it was small rats i had to kill but it was deer nibbling away a poor man's farm. I whacked their necks just like you told me. I gave the all the carcasses i could collect to the butcher so we might get the meat. He told me to come get it tomorrow." Tormac said, licking his bowl clean.
"Good, give the meat to Duncan to prepare something for us. More to go around, less to spend. If meat falls short we can always go hunt them again." Silas said "Also, the Guild clerk called us tomorrow morning. Something about us being mages and something related to out rank."
"Think we could ask for rank advancement?" Tormac chuckled.
"Wouldn't that be something." Silas said, smiling as well.

The next day,
"Congrats on the promotion" the Guild clerk said, brightly smiling "Being mages would mean you would advance a whole rank to F. Your proficiency doesn't matter, anyways. I didn't know you were mages or i would have given you an F-rank to begin with. I only found out as you mentioned it as you left the Guild premises yesterday for your quest. Sorry~"
"Are they any higher rank quests for F-rank available now?" Silas said
"Not at the moment but it's red wolf breeding season from today. Requests should be available in a day or two and so many quests would come flooding in that we may not even be able to handle so many. Even Julie over there, my assistant won't be there from tomorrow so, i expect to be busy the whole time." The clerk said with an apologetic smile.
"Well, alright. Is there an archive or library nearby, preferably pertaining to mana or mageworks and some on flora and fauna?" Silas said
"Yes, Of course! There is a huge archive right beside the spice market. There's an entry fee of about 10 Pennar. It should be enough as it is quite extensive in it's records and such" The clerk said
"Alright, thank you. We'll be leaving to go there for now. Good day" Silas said and walked with Tormac, headed to the library. 
Both of them lacked proficiency in their respective mana usage and needed perspective on potential applications. Silas hoped he could find something for Tormac as Tormac's unique condition only let's him use mana as a force and can't materialize other elements from mana itself, hence hoping to find ingenious ways for his unique magecraft.
Both of them were silent in their own thoughts towards the archive, each on a different train of thought.
"I think i may know a way to force my body to bleed by command and without needing to cut myself" Silas thought
"We need to get the game meat from the butcher, i want to eat meat tonight as well" Tormac thought