The man who had tripped Ares earlier had a large gleeful smile on his face as he stood in front of Ares in the familiar garment that he had seen before, but still mesmerized Ares. This time, the man was alone with no men standing near him this time, and with a happy expression, he began to talk.

"Ah hello! You seem to be finally awake - this was pretty good timing," he said. "I was getting a bit concerned when the last two times I knocked on your door that I asked the blimp attendants about seemed to not be leading me anywhere."

"Oh... yeah! You're that guy I tripped on!" Ares replied, in an embarrassed voice, he tried to look away from the man's blinding looks - but he laughed it off and gave an outwardly hand for Ares to shake.

"No worries! You seemed to be a bit frazzled... by the looks of it," he said and Ares reciprocated the hand shake, in a very awkward way with a loose grip. After the handshake, Ares was silent and was starting to turn his body away and say goodbye to the man before heading to the diner by himself, but the man's voice spoke again, "Oh yeah, I forgot to ask you something!"

"Huh? What is it?" Ares said, turning his head back.

The man, with a confident face said, "I'm inviting you to have dinner with me, after all - I feel like it's fair after I tripped you over."

"Oh no no - it's fine really! I don't need-" Ares said, before getting cut off.

"Ah, I know what you're thinking," the man said, ready to say something completely inaccurate to what Ares was thinking. "After all - eating out with such a prestigious person would be a bit embarrassing, but it's really alright! It's my treat after tripping you over." He said all of this while having a massive smile on his face that he seemed to try to hide, Ares had no idea who this man was - but it seemed he would be persistent, regardless what Ares chose.

So Ares quietly nodded and said, "Sure... I'll go with you."

And so, Ares' hand was quickly taken away by the man as they headed towards the large buffet.

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After being seated by the pristine man, a massive covered plate with a supposedly large amount of an assortment of foods was delivered to the both of them by the gear bot. Ares had not ordered the food, and had instead let the mysterious man order for him, he pondered if it was the right decision to make as he waited for a signal that it was ready for both of them to eat, after the man stared at his face for a while he said.

"Ah, it's alright - I'm not too picky on eating order, come on! Try the food!" he said, with a courteous smile.

Ares nodded back at the man and lifted up the plate. What Ares has expected was a somewhat extravagant meal, decked out with all of the fanciest things he could ever think of. However, a more subdued meal appeared - it was a meal he had never seen before personally, but the ingredients look rather common. A huge bowl of rich golden soup rested on the platter in front of him. A piece of rare meat and well-done beef brisket, complemented by some basic green onions, finished with red chilly flakes and noodles.

He glanced quickly at the man to make sure he wasn't getting hoodwinked, the small meal seemed highly suspicious of a man with that aura, but he decided to just trust his gut and go for it. He raised the spoon up to his mouth with the soup, and then took a huge bite of the beef and just let it simmer in his mouth for a while. The beef tasted so savoury that it could make even a person who usually hated eating food let out a large sigh of relief. Ares began eating like a pig as he quickly threw the soup into his mouth along with eating more and more pieces of beef, causing Ares to accidentally spill some pieces on top of the iron table they sat at. The other man began to smile, and as Ares looked at the other bowl, he realised that the man had eaten roughly 1/4th of it.

"Wow, I guess people from Upper Nimbia really have a hearty stomach, I felt full after just a few bites," he said. "I was going to ask for another one, but I think it's not necessary to ask." With an aura of confidence, the man casually called for a flight attendant and asked them to bring a gear bot with more food.

Ares quickly thanked the man again, which the man responded by bowing his head down. He had ate three to four more bowls of the food before he felt like his stomach was about to explode and he would throw up all of the food later. It would all be worth it since he would never get an experience like this again.

"Mmmh," Ares muttered from his side of the table, his legs splayed out and his hands on his freshly developed tummy. "Many thanks, friend..."

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"No worries, after all - it was partly my fault with the entire... stumbling thing," the stranger solemnly stated.

"Oh, I already said that I was fine, it was mostly my fault anyways," Ares said this as he leaned forward to take another bite of the table's leftovers. "Oh yes, I realise this is a little late, but my name is Ares, and I just wanted to say thank you for all of this - I know it's all free for some sort of... royal like you?" Ares responded, noticing he had no idea who this man was or why he thought Ares would recognise him.

The man's diplomatic grin turned into a small giggle as he seemed to realise that Ares had no idea who he was, he said "A royal? That would be nice..." He then decided to lean forward closer to Ares and said "So, how did you find yourself onto to this ship?"

Ares thought carefully on his words for a bit, before deciding that even though he would probably never see this man ever again, it would probably be best to keep his black magic a secret. "Ah, I'm just there for a change of pace for my life - you know, I heard it was very... vibrant." Ares said, not lying - but not telling the full truth.

The man responded quickly, "Oh yeah, Upper Nimbia was not too bad from my visit of it, it was quite clean and everything - but I heard that Strata City is unreal."

"Oh, are you not from Strata City?" Ares said.

"No I am not, I'm just going there for my academic pursuance," he said. "Ah, you look around my age I think? It's quite a weird time to be heading out to go somewhere."

Ares replied in an embarrassed voice, "Uhh... actually, I've never been to any schooling..."

The man seemed startled "You've never been to school? How in the world did you end yourself in a situation like this?" he said, with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh..." Ares thought of a response that would satisfy the man, and he thought how he ended up in a situation like this, and well - there was really only one answer. "I just got really lucky and saw the opportunity I suppose. I don't think things need to have a reason."

Ares didn't think much of his comment and expected the man to give back a light response and continue on with the conversation, but the man to whom he uttered the words to had an overdramatic expression on his face, as if they were the most powerful words he had ever heard. He said, "That was really profound, I guess when you put it like that..." he paused while having a scrunched look on his face before quickly switching to another diplomatic smile, "I hope you have fun on your trip!"

Ares wasn't sure what sparked the conversation to develop further , but they'd been sitting there for an hour chatting about everything. He learnt a lot about the man, about how he was travelling through all of these different locations to head to Strata City, his favourite snacks, and how enthusiastic he was about learning; how academics were the most important thing for someone. Ares didn't really agree with that idea - but watching him talk about how strong knowledge was made him nearly agree with him in his head for a second.

Eventually, a little knock on the bell indicated that it was night time, a large monotone voice on the intercom quickly stated, "Hello patrons of the blimp, it is now 20:00, please head towards you rooms so that the attendees can clean up, we thank you for choosing Enyo Blimps."

"Well, that was a quite pleasant time I would say - thank you for allocating your time with me Ares." the man said as he quickly stood up to bow, and then he headed away.

Are waved goodbye, but then realised something... he then said, "Hey!"

The man turned to reply, his robe shining through the moonlight coming from the pain, "Pardon?"

"Uhh... sorry if this is a bit late - but I don't think I ever caught your name..." Ares said while looking down.

"Oh! My utmost apologies, my name is Isao." he said, doing another courteous head nod, "Hope our paths cross again!"

Ares grinned and then proceeded on his own. Ares was surprised that he could make a friend, given that it was someone he would probably never see again, and that he didn't really start the discussion, but he was pleased of himself for not stumbling over his words in the talk. As he returned to his room, he swiftly walked to his bed, dropped face first onto the bed, and simply lay down, slowly slipping deeper and deeper into a slumber.

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"Hello, we are presently in Strata City, we will now be requesting our passengers to exit from this blimp in around 30 minutes, thank you for selecting Enyo Blimps," said a huge voice on the intercom. Ares awoke to a large bustle of footsteps, and a bustling amount of voices outside, he peered out his window and saw the large skyline of Strata City with large skyscrapers and a large red tower piercing into the sky.

It finally hit Ares...

A new chapter of his life has begun.