True Fullface Maskman
The next morning, I woke Mary up and had her get ready.
Then after we ate breakfast, Mary headed out again full of energy today too.
After seeing Mary off, I was getting the shop ready to open when Angela came in.
“Mor~ Mornings are brutally rough, but for the sake of the shop, your poster girl Beaty An has arrived for work.”
Today too, flashy little An struck some gyaru-like pose.
“Morning. Poster girl An, there’s something I want you to see, so come here.”
“What, what~? I’m praying it’s not Fullface Maskman and is actually a surprise present.”
Sorry about that...
“Want some fruit?”
“I’ll take it.”
I brought Angela into the living room and took an apple out of the refrigerator.
“Here.”
I set the apple on the table, and Angela started eating it.
“Thanks~ So wha’s this thing ya wanna show me?”
“Don’t talk while you’re eating.”
“......... Gulp. So? What’re you showing me?”
Angela asked while resting her cheek on one hand.
“Look at this.”
I showed her the bracelet attached to my right arm.
“Kinda black, huh. Wouldn’t silver be better? Boss, you really like black, don’t you?”
I guess I probably do.
Maybe because I used to be in the Black Shadow Corps.
“The color doesn’t matter. There’s a switch here. If I press this...”
The moment I pressed the switch, my field of vision narrowed.
Or rather, in an instant, I was wearing the full-face helmet, my clothes had turned black, and a black cape hung over me.
Yes... a dark hero had suddenly appeared.
“Huh? Did you turn into someone else? Boss?”
“No. I am Fullface Maskman.”
“Huh? Even your voice isn’t the boss’s... Did you swap places with someone else using teleportation~?”
Heh, heh, heh.
If even Angela, who’d known me for years, was fooled, then it was perfect.
“No, it’s me.”
I took off the helmet.
“Oh, Boss... what’s going on? Your appearance changed all of a sudden, and your voice was different too.”
Angela tilted her head.
“I reviewed the problems with the last disguise and improved it. It was hot, so I added a cooling device, and since my voice might give me away, I added a voice changer too. Also, under the cape I looked normal, so I fixed that.”
I was properly dressed in black now.
“You’re way too into this, lol~”
It was true that modifying it had been fun.
“I’m the meticulous type.”
Little details always bothered me.
Probably an occupational hazard.
“I get that, but this is overdoing it. Especially that instant quick-change device. What even is that?”
“Changing clothes was bulky, and if someone saw me changing, that’d be bad.”
Especially if I was changing at home and Mary found me, it’d all be over.
“No, not the motive~ the mechanism. How does it work?”
“It’s basically an application of teleportation.”
I teleported the clothes onto myself.
The clothes I’d been wearing were inside storage magic.
“What a waste of technology... You could probably make something amazing with that.”
I hadn’t not thought that last night too.
But it couldn’t be helped.
Invention comes from inspiration, and you never know when it’ll strike.
“So anyway, with this, Fullface Maskman shouldn’t be linked to Eric Lowell.”
“... Yeah, guess so. You’re going out like that today?”
“Yeah. First things first, let’s head to the guild. I want to check on things before noon.”
I said that and put the helmet on.
“You’re going to the guild too? You’re just checking on them, so couldn’t you just go by yourself?”
“No. My backstory is that I became an adventurer because I ran out of travel money. It’d be bad if I didn’t work. I’ll take some random jobs.”
A couple goblins. Three maybe.
Three seconds and done.
“I feel like you’re gradually reaching a point where there’s no going back...”
“It’s fine. I’ll check on things for a bit, and if everything looks okay, Fullface Maskman will quietly move on to the next town before anyone realizes.”
And secretly save people...
“You’re saying it like some hero story, but what you’re actually doing is stalking fifteen-year-old girls like a pervert.”
It’s fine.
I’m aware of that.
“I’m just taking a quick look. I don’t know Shirley’s ability yet.”
I’d heard she was strong, but still...
“Yeah, yeah~ Let’s go fast and come back fast... seriously, we have work.”
What a dependable employee.
We left the shop and walked through town.
As expected, people stared at us strangely, and I could tell they were whispering.
“Boss... the whispering is pretty bad.”
Angela lowered her voice and informed me of the surroundings.
“They’ll get used to it soon enough.”
“Will they...? If only the helmet stood out a little less...”
“Relax. People are creatures that adapt.”
Even I couldn’t have imagined my current life ten years ago.
And the one who adapted most to this life was my girl.
“Don’t wanna adapt...”
Angela really didn’t approve.
She usually wasn’t the kind of girl who said negative things much...
Was it really that lame?
“I chose this in the beginning, so it can’t be helped.”
“You could’ve just gone spying normally. If it’s you, Boss, you could watch Mary without her noticing.”
Yeah... not exactly.
“Mary can be weirdly sharp sometimes. Her instincts are good in strange ways...”
Put nicely, she was a genius type who relied on intuition.
“Ahh~... yeah, she does have that side. It’s a good thing for an adventurer, though.”
That kind of instinct matters.
I had it too, and if I hadn’t, I might not have survived the war.
“Do you have it, Angela?”
“Not for adventuring.”
“You have it for something else?”
Magic?
“I might’ve had a good eye for people? Though right now I can’t help thinking I might be massively wrong.”
… Sorry about that.
What do you think about this chapter?
