"Ah, at last Loud, you've arrived..." he said with that maniacal grin he always seemed to have on his face.

"Y..yes sir," Rowd said with a bow. As he bowed, he hit his head on Ruka's desk, but tried to play it off as if it didn't happen.

"Guards, leave me and my good friend Loud alone for a minute or two," Ruka said to the two guards standing behind him. They both nodded, and left in unison. "Now, Loud. How have you been?"

"I, I've been well, sir," Rowd said, bowing yet again. This time he intentionally dodged the desk.

"Excellent. I'm about to make your day a whole lot better, you know..."

Rowd's eyes grew wide with excitement. This is it! The moment I've been waiting for! Thoughts raced through his head of living in a large house, and becoming the hero of great wars, and having statues built in his honor and...

"Loud!" Ruka interrupted his thoughts. "Are you paying attention? Perhaps I should find someone that has a longer attention span than that of a rock, hmm?"

"No, no sir," Rowd said, nearly sounding as if he were pleading. "I...I was merely thinking about how well kept your armor looks..." Ouch. That was definatley the wrong thing to say. Rowd cringed as he expected to be back-handed and sent flying across the camp.

"Heh. Heh heh. Hehehehe. Hahahahaha! Mwahahahaha! MWAHAHAHAHA!" Ruka burst out into a sudden laughter. It was the type of laugh that disturbed every last soul within a ten-mile radius. "You're stupid, Loud. For some reason, I like that."

Rowd sighed with relief.

"Let's get down to business, shall we?" Ruka said, arising from his chair. "I'll tell you your reward first..."

Rowd could feel himself shaking with excitement in his boots. This definatley was the moment Rowd's been waiting for, definatley.

"You know who my sister, Jillia, is, correct?" Ruka asked, one eyebrow raised.

"O...of course. Everyone knows who Princess Jillia is, but what does that have to do with my..." Rowd stopped himself before he could reveal his true intentions.

"You're what, Loud?" Ruka asked very quizzically.

Rowd thought fast, "My reward sir." Heh, heh. That was a good one...

"Ah, yes. I will allow you to accompany her to the Toran Republic. You will act as her bodyguard. Perhaps you could even put some moves on her. You know, use your charm"

Rowd has a very dissapointed look on his face, "Oh. I mean, thank you so much for this most excellent assignment, sir." Rowd bowed again, smacking his head right on the desk...again.

"Hahaha. Now, in order to recieve such an honor, you have to do something for me first..." Ruka had a most intimidating look on his face now.

Rowd nodded, "Of course, sir. Anything you wish."

Ruka's smile grew even more broad, "You have to slaughter every last one of these kids here. It's needed that you do so tommorow night."

"What?!" Rowd exclaimed, "Sir, I apologize for objecting, but they're just kids. What will we tell the public?"

"Loud, you musn't worry about these things. That's for us intelligent people," Ruka assured Rowd. Rowd sighed, then bowed and exited the tent. Heading towards his own.

Back in Rowd's tent, Rowd pondered his newfound duties. Slaughtering a bunch of kids was just...in-humane.

Frank suddenly appeared infront of him, "It seems you've got yourself into quite a moral dilemma here, eh brother?"

"Yeah..." Rowd muttered, still in disbelief of the matter.

"Well, would you like my opinion on the matter?" Frank offered. Rowd merely shrugged.

"I'm giving it to you anyway. I say go for it. You want to earn points with Ruka, correct? And you also want to recieve you're own company, correct? And also, you could look at it this way. If you do not carry-out this order, he'll most definatley remove that thick skull from your shoulders."

Rowd's eyes immediatley grew wide. He hadn't even thought about that part. He didn't even have a choice in the matter. That's always a pleasant thing to know...

"Well, Rowd?" Frank asked.