"Masashi...!"
The moment the name left his mouth, the expressions of the few people who had been watching their exchange leisurely from the side changed.
They still did not know which kanji made up the name, but that pronunciation... wasn't it practically...!
"What is it?" Seeing their strange expressions, Haga Kyosuke's hand resting on Asai Narumi shrank back a little nervously. "You've heard of Masashi? That's rare. He's never been very well-known in Japan."
"Perhaps I've heard a little about him. You know, I'm somewhat different from most of my peers." Asai Narumi smoothed the half of his hair that had been sprayed a glaring white with temporary dye. "That may be more famous than my reputation itself."
After thinking it over, he deliberately imitated Tangze's Phantom Thief form and gave the people staring endlessly at him a rather flamboyant wink to make himself more convincing.
Tangze, who knew perfectly well who was under that costume, successfully felt a chill run down his spine.
He acted very well. He should never act again.
Whether or not Mori Kogoro and the others could be fooled, Asai Narumi simply turned around and raised his chin at the butler with a reserved yet arrogant air. "I heard from Haga that your family would be bringing out that Stradivarius at tomorrow's banquet, so I came to see the spectacle and broaden my horizons. What, are guests not welcome? Or does your family's banquet displaying a famous violin have some special threshold for entry?"
He glanced at Haga Kyosuke's expression from the corner of his eye, then at the somewhat stiff-faced female butler, Tsukamari Kurenō, and waved a hand. "I didn't want to come uninvited either, but what could I do? None of your family's previous generation had any famous performers, so there was no