Giovanni of the Medici Family

The three walked in and Leon was amazed to see what he saw. The actual interior of the house was very different compared to what one might think when they say the grandness of everything on the outside. The interior was actually not as extravagant as one think from a huge mansion like this, the inside wasn't completely barren, however, there were only a few painting and statues scattered throughout the house. These were only enough to make the walls not completely devoid of decoration.

Suddenly a pretty tall and well-built man similar to Leon's height walked in, his clothes were similar to Amans however his silk robes had golden embroidery compared to Aman's silver embroidery.

He immediately ran up to Aman the moment he saw him and gave him a huge hug

"Aman, my son, you are finally back. Never do that again, do you know how worried I was? How could you do that to an old man like myself."

Looking slightly embarrassed, Aman's face saw a bit of color rush up.

"I am sorry father, I will never do it again. So, uh… Could you let me go? After all, we have guests to entertain."

Looking at Erik and Leon standing in the room, Aman's father let him go and sized up the two. After a quick glance at Erik, his eyes lit up.

Giving a slight chuckle, the man walked up to Erik only reaching his chest with his hand stuck out.

"It's an honor to see the Giant adventurer. Please indulge me with a handshake, I insist."

Erik gave a hearty laugh.

"Are you sure respected merchant? I am not even an S Tier adventurer."

The man also gave a laugh back.

"Ah who cares about those stuck-up fools, even those arrogant adventurers barely give me a glance from my very few experiences with them. To be able to meet an A Tier adventurer is refreshing for me, especially one with a reputation like yours, also please call me Giovanni."

Erik shook his hand, nodding in his mind at the humble attitude the head of the Medici family, Giovanni Medici, had even though he was one of the most respected and accomplished Merchant family's within Partha.

Giovanni took back his hand and gave a glance over towards Leon.

"Meeting the Giant of Partha is something any merchant wouldn't mind, even those snobs that call themselves my competition would still greet you. So nonetheless I would naturally pay my respects to you, who might this young gentleman be?"

Following Giovanni's gaze at Leon, Erik gave a nice hard slap on Leon's back which would definitely leave a handprint later.

"This right here is the young adventurer who accompanied this old fool in turning in the taxes for Verin. Although, he is also like an adopted son to me."

Giovanni gave an acknowledging nod towards Leon, as Aman spoke up.

"Father, Erik, and Leon here are who allowed me to come back to you in one piece."

Aman told the whole story from how he was walking back home after a day in the city exploring the market and the shops until he was ambushed by a bunch of kidnappers who took out his bodyguard and cornered him into an ally. Then how Leon fought the kidnappers until Erik arrived and stunningly showed his might towards the leader of the kidnappers.

By the time Aman had finished the whole story, Giovanni had gotten on one knee towards Erik and Leon.

"I, Giovanni Medici, head of the Medici family and Medici trading company, thank you two for your kindness."

Erik immediately walked up towards Giovanni who was kneeling and softly pulled him up.

"There's no need to kneel, we were only doing what some other good samaritan would have done."

Giovanni took out a handkerchief from his breast pocket in his silk robe and wiped his hands.

"Hmph, you wouldn't believe some of these 'good samaritans' in the city here. They are all greedy fools who wouldn't have the bravery to even intervene and if they did. They would definitely ask my son for some extravagant price before even helping him. People like you are in shortage around here."

Taking the compliment with a humble nod, Erik asked a question that had been bugging him and Leon.

"Who wanted to kidnap your son?"

Giovanni crossed his arms.

"It's most likely one of my competitors. Most ordinary kidnappers wouldn't even have the gall to even glance at the floor of someone from the Medici family stood on, let alone kidnap. Either it's inexperienced and unknowledgeable people who didn't know they were dealing with."

Thinking back on everything that happened, Leon didn't think those kidnappers were inexperienced or unknowledgeable, plus they seemed like they knew who they were kidnapping like Aman was a target.

Continuing Giovanni walked deeper into the house.

"Anyways, I will get the governor and city guards to look into this matter in the morning. Please come in, it doesn't look like you guys have eaten yet and how can I be a host if I don't at least feed and house my guests."

Giovanni shouted for his maid and butlers to let the chef know he had an additional two guests and led the group deeper into the house. After crossing multiple different rooms that all had their own unique purposes, they finally made it into the biggest room they had seen so far. It was the size of the entire guildhall, however in the middle of it was a large wooden table with intricate carvings etched into it, with comfortable and padded seats symmetrically placed around the table.

After they had taken their seats near the head of the table close to Aman and Giovanni, Leon also noted this was perhaps the most decorated room he had seen so far with more statues and large paintings in this one room than every other room he had seen combined.

As they were waiting for the meal to be served, Giovanni saw Leon looking at the decoration and with his amazing intuition knew exactly what Leon was thinking of.

"I see you noticed that the house doesn't have nearly as many decorations a house of this size and a family of this prestige would have. However, this is something that is a part of my Medici family and myself. We of the Medici family proudly pride ourselves in, that we take the usually expensive and irrelevant things like decorations within the house to a minimum and rather put all that money that would be used for big and excessive decorations back into our business. That's how our Medici family has been a long-lasting Merchant family since we never get complacent or lazy for our position. Plus, we don't host guests often, and if we do they just eat in our dining hall hence the more decorations here."

Erik gave a very approving nod and before Leon could speak. A heavenly aroma like something that could only ever be described as if it was from a legend or myth invaded everyone's noses as the door opened with many maids and butlers entering with the food.