Surprise.

"Ah? You finally woke up!" Shurl smiled. "I tried waking you, but it didn't really work! I was also tempted to see what you would look like behind that mask, but even I respect privacy!" Shurl laughed.

"...GET OUT!" Ari screamed and shoved Shurl outside the tent. Ari was very spooked when he was suddenly transported, and he was met with the demonic kid's face. Ari was shivering from the shock, and he tried to calm his heart.

"Let me in! Let me in!" Shurl pouted and starting pounding on the tent, causing it to shake.

"Go away!" Ari burst out of the tent and ran off to the forest. When Ari saw that Shurl didn't follow him, he sighed in relief. As he was leaning on a tree, he saw someone approach him.

"Huh? Do you need anything?" Ari saw the white haired young man approach him.

"A-Ah, no..I just wanted to see if you needed anything I could help with." The young man was a bit shy.

"Aww why did you ask me that though?" Ari didn't know what he did to receive such honors. (he was also a tad suspicious.)

"Oh uh...I admired on how you bravely went and restocked the soldiers supplies! Plus I was a kinda mad at that person who tried to use you as a shield...so I wanted to help you with something..." He fidgeted nervously.

"Haha, it's fine! You don't have to help me with some...wait. Maybe I do have something for you to do. I won't ask you to do it for free though, i'll reward you when you're done. Also, what's your name? Mine's Ari." Ari smiled.

"M-My name is BluncheZ!" BluncheZ smiled. Ari kinda "ah"-ed at his strange name.

"Nice to meet you Blunche, but anyways. Can you deliver a note to Shurl? Or wait, do you know who Shurl is?"

"I-I know! You mean his Excellency Shurlon right?"

"Yup." Ari nodded and took out a piece of paper. He hurriedly wrote : "Shurlon you are...don't surprise me like that. If you continue doing that, I will no longer talk to you. This is the first strike, do that again and it's over." Ari handed it to BluncheZ.

"Y-You can trust me to do it!" BluncheZ saluted and ran back to the camp. Ari smiled to himself. "What a cute random encounter."

---

BluncheZ POV

Blunche was fidgeting nervously. He had saw Ari, the masked guild member. And Shurlon, the young master of the Duke. He quickly clicked record. He followed Ari secretly and talked to him.

(After the talking.)

BluncheZ hurrahed. He managed to get a secret quest from one of the most unknown NPCs in the game! Plus, he was delivering it to one of the most important people in the game! BluncheZ wanted to post this on the internet.

He arrived at the camp and wandered around, before finding Shurlon. As he was heading there, a guard stopped him.

"Halt, what is your business with His Excellency?" The guard asked.

"U-Uh Ari told me to deliver this letter to His Excellency Shurlon." BluncheZ hesitantly held up the note. For some reason, in this game, you had to address the aristocrat NPCs with their title, or it could lead in defavorability.

The guard looked taken aback, before going to inform Shurlon.

Shurlon was lazing around, eating some rice. Then, one of his guards came up to him.

"Your Excellency, a man is claiming to have a letter from Mr. Ari." The guard added Mr, to add some respect.

"Oho? That's not too surprising, since he would probably avoid me for the time being. Let the messenger in." Shurlon was amused. Such teasing evoked such a reaction...He smiled.

BluncheZ came in nervously and greeted him. "G-Greetings Your Excellency, here's the letter Ari told me to give y-you..." Mind you, BluncheZ was a normal person. He had no etiquette lessons to help him. Shurlon was a bit annoyed on how a common person like him, called Ari (Who he held a important place in his heart) by his first name.

"It's Mr. Ari to you." Shurlon's feelings slightly changed.

"Y-Yes! You're correct, sorry!" BluncheZ bowed profusely.

"Sigh, it doesn't matter anymore. Just hand me the letter." Shurlon reached his hand out. BluncheZ carefully handed the letter to him.

"Alright, you may go now." Shurlon waved his hand, and BluncheZ hurriedly went out. Once BluncheZ was gone, Shurlon smirked.

"How amusing...heh it's really such a shame that i'll have to share you..." Shurlon grinned, looking like the Cheshire cat from "Alice in Wonderland".

"Sigh...though I really wonder what's hiding beneath that mask." Shurlon furrowed his brows and shrugged. "Well, I guess time will tell." He continued on with his buisness.

Ari wanted to get stronger still, so he also grinded up some animals...wait. Koru fix my wording.

(Basically grinding is a slang for leveling up by killing things, or like leveling up by gathering things. Stuff like that. When Kist is using this term, Ari doesn't mean he's LITERALLY grinding up animals. He's just..putting animals to forever sleep inorder to get stronger. -Koru)

...

Ari returned to the camp. They were planning to leave tomorrow morning, so Ari went to sleep early.