"Why am I going in my regular clothes? Do they already know our identity?" Eous questioned, slipping on his parka with a frown.

"They're associates of Nicole now. And besides, with an opportunity like this, we'd make another valuable connection. Think of this like your ties with the Victoria Houskeeping Agency." Wise explained.

"I guess that tracks. It's a bit weird for people to see... well, me."

Belle slipped in front of him and began 'fixing' his hair with a grin. "Just be yourself little bro. You'll knock them dead!"

"At the rate he's going, I wouldn't be shocked if he comes home with another girl's number—"

"Quit being jealous." Belle sent Wise a glare, but it was clear the two were teasing.

"How do you even know about those...?" Eous asked with a sigh.

The two turned to him in confusion before crossing their arms in disbelief. "We were joking, Eous."

"Oh." Eous smiled and wagged his head in relief. "Of course. Me too."

The two squinted their eyes, hoping that their brother wasn't becoming a womanizer under their care. Little did they know the vigilante had been charming his way into success unbeknownst to even himself.

Pfft. Not really.

"Partner, we have two minutes before the designated meeting time." Fairy informed.

"Oh, thanks, Fairy." Eous waved to his siblings and dashed down the stairs with a grin.

...

Wise rubbed his nape in concern. "He... was joking, right?"

"We can only hope that little rascal isn't leading women on..." Belle gave up trying to figure it out.

•

"Y-You're the guy? The infamous Proxy Nova is... a kid?" Anton muttered skeptically.

The imposing man stood across from Eous at the same playground as the day prior, leering at him with deep concern.

"That gonna be a problem?"

"Well, nah, kid, just not everyday some famous illegal Proxy vigilante is someone your age. If anything, I'm impressed." Anton smirked.

Eous gave a glance of doubt, before sighing. "Well, thanks. I accept the commission."

"Great! The President can explain the situation better when we get to the construction site." Anton waved him forward as he jogged away from the playground.

"Construction site? At 5 am? You Belobog guys insane?" Eous questioned in disbelief.

"Everyone starts their shift around 5am at the site..." Anton sounded offended by the question.

"Fine, fine. Just send my account the location, I'll take us there." Eous grimaced at having to drive without a license, but it was way better than taking the metro just to have to walk half the way anyway.

"Oh, man, thanks for the lift! Already in my good books for that." Anton cheered and let Eous take the lead.

•

Arriving at the Brant Street Construction site, Eous hummed quietly in awe at the place. He'd never seen construction technology not corrupted by a Hollow.

Arriving at the gate of the Maintenance Area, Anton pat Eous' shoulder with a determined glare.

"Our president is just ahead. She may be young like you, but she's a real beast! It's okay if you're nervous."

"Very reassuring. I'm emboldened by your words." Eous muttered with a thin smile that was soon washed away by shock seeing the gate burst open.

A massive four-legged machine began scrambling toward the two with a woman sitting on top.

"W-Watch out!" She squealed, fumbling around with a tablet.

"Stay back!" Anton shouted as he rushed forward. But of course, Eous was far more inclined to help, racing after him in full stride.

The two suddenly clutched the closest legs and held the machine in place with deep grunts of exertion. They slid on their heels as the woman peeked over the main body with a smile.

"What have you done now?!" Anton shouted in annoyance.

"Oh, it's you Anton! The diagnostic is almost done!" The woman atop announced. "Can you two stay just like that? Don't move!"

Eous' face spelled only disinterest as he held back the jittering piston-powered ligament with little to no strain. Anton on the other hand was nearly wrestling with how rowdy the machine was.

"Don't worry, kiddo. I'm just gonna install a firewall plug-in."

As if panicking upon hearing these words, the flat main body suddenly bucked the woman off and into the air.

Anton gasped and let go of the leg he held to pace back and catch her.

Eous began skidding along the ground as the machine began scrambling back in the opposite direction, barreling straight towards steel scaffolding in the center of the maintenance area.

"Uh, what do I do now?!" Eous asked, trying to draw out the limited Ether he was capable of outside of a Hollow.

"Make some room!" A gruff a voice shouted.

Eous leapt back just in time to see a Bear Thiren slam down a concrete pillar into the main body of the machine, planting it in place in a digital daze.

"Phew, looks like that's it..." Anton waved away the smoke from the collision and began walking over with the woman he caught.

Eous landed with a huff, stumbling on his feet as the smoke began to clear.

"Sorry I was late." He looked up and saw the bear Thiren sporting his unique pillar weapon over his shoulder. A gold chain around his neck that hung over his company jumpsuit and a scar over his left eye.

Intimidating, Eous had to admit.

"The leader's gotta be a dinosaur if this beast ain't it." Eous mumbled, extending his hand to the bear.

"What did you say?!" A scratchy girl's voice erupted from behind him, making Eous flinch.

"Ah, hello, Mr. Proxy! It's great to finally meet you!" The bear shook his hand before stepping aside and gesturing to a girl his age, being given jazz hands from Anton and the other woman.

"O-Oh, uh, I'm president of Belobog Industries— Koleda Belobog." She placed her hands on her hips in pride.

The four waited a few seconds for Eous' reaction, and were more than satisfied to see him start clapping far more genuinely than they expected.

"Sick." He said with a tired smile.

"I-It's great to meet you, Nova. Sorry to have you witness the chaos just now. I hope it hasn't got you questioning our professionalism."

"It definitely does but," He gestured to himself. "who am I to judge, huh?"

Koleda stifled a chuckle before clearing her throat. "We got the call from Anton earlier. Everyone is so relieved to hear an infamous Proxy such as yourself is here to help.

As I'm sure you're aware because of your involvement in the Vision scandal being brought to light, our company is taking over the metro project. However, it's not going as smooth as we'd like because enemies keep getting in the way..."

"Uh, President... do you really think we should refer to them as 'enemies' in front of Mr. Proxy?" The Bear Thiren, Ben Bigger, questioned.

"Huh? Ben, you're too soft!" Anton shook his head. "Those crooks've done so many rotten things that we're well beyond being polite!"

Eous rubbed his nape as they bickered.

"Besides, the Proxy already accepted our commission, which makes 'em one of us. We don't need to keep secrets." Anton strut over and pat Eous' back.

"You guys already have my secret identity, so it's only fair." He shrugged with a chuckle.

"Sound logic." Grace Howard, the woman Anton saved, replied.

"Well you see, we're considered an up-and-coming manufacturing and construction company that's climbing the ranks in the industry. Thanks to that, we won the rights to the metro renovation project.

But since we won the bid, we've become a thorn in the sides of many established companies. They'd like to see us run into trouble and lose the project so they can take it over.

At first, these companies convinced banks not to give us low-interest loans. Then they sent thugs to the site to cause trouble before trying to block our construction and fire code permits. And then there was that stunt they pulled on TV." Ben explained.

Grace and Koleda began to leer at Anton, making him jerk his head away and cross his arms.

"As if all that wasn't bad enough, during all this scrutiny, there was an 'accident' on the construction site..." Ben scratched behind his ear with shame.

"Three kids went missing in a Hollow!" Grace exclaimed in dramatic fashion.

"...I feel like this is PubSec's jurisdiction." Eous replied.

"Easy there, Grace. You're gonna give our guest the wrong impression." Ben waved off the notion. "Have you heard of our company's self-developed heavy duty, smart construction machines for in-Hollow use?"

"Read an article the other day, yeah. Cool tech." Eous couldn't brag he had his own partner who helped him in the Hollows.

Grace burst forward and held Eous' shoulder, eager to explain. "Our primary edge comes from these intelligent machines that can operate safely in the Hollows for extended periods of time. I'm very proud of my kids!"

She spun him around and gestured to the fallen machine Ben toppled not to long ago. "Not only can they effectively resist Ether corruption, they're nearly autonomous according to the situation within a Hollow. They're even equipped with specially designed language modules allowing them to talk!"

Once again she turned him back to herself and placed a hand on her chest in pride. "I've always taken care of them, and I'm the one who improved upon the prototype so they'd be fit for specific jobs. I'm responsible for their routine maintenance and upgrades as well— They're like my children!"

'There's doctors for cases like this—'

"But a few days ago, after updating their logic cores, three of them ignored my orders and went deeper into the Hollow while working. They still haven't come back." She definitely sounded like a worried mother.

"So it's between a malfunction and ether corruption?" Eous wondered.

"We aren't sure of the cause, but both are probable conclusions. It wouldn't be new for companies operating in the Hollows, but people talk. Especially when it's us..." She replied.

"The machines were working fine before. This update was unnecessary." Koleda muttered. "If you hadn't uploaded the code he left behind into the logic cores, none of this would've happened..."

"Now wait a minute, sweet pea. We aren't sure it's a problem with the core, right?" Grace sounded a bit offended. "Beautiful and powerful machines deserve a matching soul! As the president of a smart machinery development company, don't you agree?"

"It doesn't matter whether they have a soul. Because I'm the president it's only appropriate for me to consider them as assets." Koleda wasn't humoring her in the slightest.

Eous was out of his realm, but the money was far too good. According to Wise, this commission alone was worth an entire month's worth of income and then some.

They were even gave a down payment of 20% of the total sum.

He was knocked out of his greedy thoughts by Koleda crossing her arms and addressing him. "Proxy, we'd like to formally commission you to lead us deep into the Hollow and retrieve the three machines that got lost."

"Clean." Eous smirked, before suddenly swapping to his Bangboo uniform in a flash.

"Wh-What the?!" Koleda and the others took a step back in shock.

Save for Grace.

"Darling, what level of technology is this?! Nanomachines? A high-density mesh? I must know!" She scooped him up under his arms and spun him around.

"I-It's... me." Eous answered in a daze.

"How does that work? Like, magic?" Anton asked.

"Literally. You could call it that and not be too far off." Eous was set down before reverting back to his casual clothes in an instant.

"Partner, should we be giving away 'trade secrets'?" Fairy asked, peeking out from his parka's hood.

Grace gasped in delight seeing what she thought was a hologram, but upon trying to lift it up, she found Fairy was clearly solid.

"Who is this little lady?"

"Fairy. AI partner in the Proxy biz. My rock in the Hollow." Eous held out a knuckle, and Fairy flew over and bumped it with her tiny fist.

"What many would call— the brains— of the operation." Fairy added, somehow sounds smug beneath the monotone.

"This guy's got it all. Superhero costume, AI assistant, and he took out that Butcher thing..." Anton awed.

"It's a warm welcome to see a Proxy so capable is helping us." Ben agreed.

"You're staying back after this commission is over with, darling. We have much to discuss." Grace brought a finger across Eous' jaw with a half-lidded gaze.

"Uh oh. This guy might be Grace's wet dream..." Koleda couldn't help but pity him as he was dragged away.