He wanted to try again, but there wouldn’t be enough time before he had to leave for school. Instead, he stood and went for his bag. He pulled out the welding mask.
‘I guess that’s yours now, unless you’ve thought of a way to explain that bullet hole.’
He rolled the mask over in his hands. “This... isn’t...”
‘Hmm?’
“I need more than... just a mask... don’t I?”
‘What do you mean?’
“My brain is my weak point,” he said. “I need something strong... something that will actually protect my head...”
‘Ah! That would be fantastic. But what, exactly? And not to sound pessimistic, but I don’t see how you could get your hands on anything that strong. Your metal might serve one day, but not anytime soon.’
“I have to rejoin the carpentry club.”
Garovel’s brow receded. ‘You’re just full of ideas today, aren’t you? It’s starting to annoy me.’
“I’m sorry... I’ll be sure to act stupider from now on.”
‘Most of the elements in the periodic table are metals, you know.’
“That’s very interesting, Garovel.”
‘You piece of shit,’ he laughed. ‘I have thousands of years of knowledge and experience.’
“I’m sure that’ll come in handy one day.”
‘I hope you start shitting metal turds.’
“That... th-that’s not really gonna happen, right...?”
‘Beats me. I don’t know anything useful.’
He readied himself for school. He was a bit dubious about bringing the mask with him, wondering what might happen if someone caught him with it, but he decided to take the risk. In the event of some emergency, he would be glad to have it.
To Hector's surprise, Garovel accompanied him.
A dark serial novel. Set in a modern fantasy world called Eleg. Mature language. Updates every night at midnight PST by ~400 words.