Akugyaku no Black Maria c12

The color of the moon in this world changes every night according to the day of the week.

In this dead of night, the moon was radiating a white brilliance.
In a corner of the slums, several people had gathered.

“Ah …”

Ludmila sitting on a broken wooden box, stifling a yawn.
Lady taking a form similar to Richelieu, sending a vicious glare toward Casca with golden pupils.
Casca, sending her an annoyed glare every now and again.

And finally s.h.i.+zuru, looking at the three with a strained smile.

“… it’s about time, let’s finish up the final preparations”
“Hah? Oy s.h.i.+zu, Elizabeth still isn’t here”

s.h.i.+zuru said with a clap, but Casca tilted her head.

That said, it’s a bit late now to be asking about Elizabeth’s lateness.
They decided to proceed under the a.s.sumption that she will be here within that time.

“Our target this time is a crime syndicate that had taken root in the slums. Their numbers are at most 150 people”
“— ha?”

s.h.i.+zuru reported as if it were nothing big.
n.o.body here had heard about the details of today’s operation. Ludmila widened her eyes.
Her clear violet pupils were bathed in moonlight, reflecting it.

“H, hold on right there. W, what did you say just now?”
“There are 150 targets. It’s going to take a lot of work if we let the day pa.s.s and they became scattered, so today is our chance to round them all up”

According to the intel s.h.i.+zuru gathered, most of the targets were gathered in their base tonight.
He sent Lady to scout earlier, and found out that they were throwing an organization-wide banquet with some of them throwing their weight around and their defense lax.

“They don’t have enough professionalism, my dear”
“Well, even though they styled themselves a syndicate, they’re something of a team of bandits after all. It’s a mistake to expect them to have any semblance of order”
“That’s not what I’m asking! What are you, an idiot!?”

Cutting into Lady and s.h.i.+zuru’s conversation, Ludmila yelled.
It was rare for this low blood pressure woman to shout out like that.

“Are you telling me the four of us are going to take on 150 people!?”
“Hah? Elizabeth will be here too, so that makes five, right?”
“Four or five people makes no difference!”

What to do, Ludmila muttered inwardly.
Even though she was certain of herself as an excellent sniper, she still wouldn’t consider attacking 150 people with just five.
To begin with,

“And you! You don’t even count since you don’t really have any combat power!”

She said and pointed to s.h.i.+zuru.
Even though he was a rare person to have healing magic, his combat power was low.
Of course, he wasn’t inferior to small fry like these, but he was still within the bounds of a normal person.

“Well, you’re not wrong. The best I can take is three people, I’ll leave the rest to you guys”
“Stop fooling around!”

It’s like they’re heading to certain death.
She didn’t understand the reason why they would take on such a ridiculous job.

“You can take it easy, Ludmila. You’re right that if it’s just the two of us they would have done us in instead, but look, we have Ca.s.sie and Lady, and Elizabeth’s also coming as well”
“Oh? What’s wrong newbie? Could you actually be afraid? You can go s.h.i.+ver in a corner if you are”

Casca flashed her a mean, scornful grin as she put her arm around Ludmila’s shoulder.
Waving her off, Ludmila glared up at Casca who was taller than she was.

“tsk … what? You think I’m going to show an ugly side like that? How about you yourself? You nursing that hangover alright? How about not forcing yourself and getting a rest if you’re drunk?”
“Haa? Why do I even hafta get told that by you!! Anyway, I’m not drunk!!”
“Lies”
“Don’t b.u.t.t in!!”

Lady muttered off-hand, and Casca growled at her, pressing her face close.
Seriously, which one’s the animal here?

“But you’re obviously drunk aren’t you? You’re not young anymore, so shouldn’t you give it a rest already?”
“I’m still 24! Aren’t you the one who’s going to go old and die soon!?”
“Unfortunately, I’m still 3 years old, and magic beasts live far longer than normal beasts. What, you didn’t know? Ever read a book?”
“Hmph, I don’t read! It’s boring!”

They were loudly yelling at each other.
Having an insigificant quarrel right before a ridiculous job that targeted 150 people.
Ludmila clicked her tongue, not bothering to hide her displeasure.

“We’re not going to pull it off … Why do I have to go with this stupid …”

Aside her grumbling, a person and a beast continued their quarreling.
It was getting more and more derailed.

“Rather than that, how dare you lay your hand on my husband last time! You want to die!?”
“The pet that doesn’t know her place tries to act the wife, don’t make me laugh! Whatever, I was probably the one who called dibs on him first!”

“… ahaha”

Hearing Casca’s line, s.h.i.+zuru let out a strained smile.
Yes, she didn’t know. Immediately after Richelieu picked him up, she immediately figured out that he had little talent for combat. Instead, she personally drilled him with all sorts of tricks.

This includes how to handle women, his first practice target was — Richelieu herself.
If he could handle the almost frigid Richelieu, she logically judged that he could seduce any woman.

It took him half a year to make Richelieu purr.
During that time he spent almost every night in bed with her.
Then, his next designated “sparring partner” was Casca.

Which means s.h.i.+zuru’s first went to Richelieu.

“And why didn’t you ever say anything to boss! If you’re going to complain about me laying my hands on s.h.i.+zuru, then boss does it too!”
“I’m not going to complain to the boss! She’ll kill me!”
“Well yeah!!”

The person and the beast agreed on a strange point.
It wouldn’t’ve become an argument had he rejected Casca’s invitation, but he was a former j.a.panese who couldn’t say no.
Being at heart a receptive person who liked to please, he could not do something that would shame a woman like refusing an invitation to bed.

“Haah … but seeing how it turned out, I wonder if that was the right thing …”
“It doesn’t matter, just stop those two … My head’s hurting”

The hypotensive Ludmila who was weak to loud noises made it sound easy, but trying to stop those two would invite danger on oneself at times.
s.h.i.+zuru decided to wait and look for a chance when they’ve calmed down a little bit.

“There are two entrances here and here, first, Lady and Casca will each take one …”
“What about me? You’re not going to make the sniper fight indoors are you?”
“I’ve identified several spotting points, so I’m thinking you could handle the lot that got outside”

With the two who were on the verge of a fist fight at a respectable distance, s.h.i.+zuru explained the overall plan to Ludmila.
It was around that time that they heard footsteps.

“I, I’m sorry~! I’m late~!

Not long after, they heard a possibly apologetic voice.
Everyone including Casca and Lady who were fighting turned their heads, they saw a pet.i.te young girl rus.h.i.+ng up to them.

Because of her youth, she looked like she hadn’t grown into her suit.
The two swords each hanging on either hip was a bizzare sight to see.
Her fluffy brown well-kempt hair made her look to be a well raised girl at first glance.

What drew the eye the most was her left and right eyes that differ in color.
Her left was brown like her hair, but her right was a sickening green, one would almost think it was diseased.

Finally the young girl with the eye-catchingly impactful right eye — the final member of Black Maria’s third squad, Elizabeth, arrived before the four of them running out of breath, and bowed her head down before she could catch her breath.

“Also … one more thing … apologise … cough cough!”
“Ah, Eliza. Don’t force yourself to talk, here, water”

Elizabeth emptied the contents of the bottle s.h.i.+zuru presented in one go.
Once she had calmed down a little and her heaving shoulders settled, she wiped the sweat on her brows.

“Thank you very much, s.h.i.+zuru senpai … wait, no! This isn’t the time for that!”
“What is it Eliza? Coming here all panicked like that, you just can’t calm down, can you?”
“But this isn’t the time to relax captain Casca! It’s perverts! No, I mean, yes, I mean perverts, it’s big trouble!” 1

“There’s big trouble with perverts—!” 2
Elizabeth flailed her arms wildly as she cried out, she absolutely didn’t seem like an a.s.sa.s.sin that had been in the business for two years.
But well, that was the biggest thing that made her frightening.

“Eliza, explain in order, please. n.o.body’s rus.h.i.+ng you”
“A, ah, yes, boss! NO, I mean, Lady-chan who looks like boss but isn’t boss! I, actually, I, got the meeting place wrong!”

The real meeting place was here, west of the building that was the syndicate’s headquarters.
But Elizabeth the place wrong and went to the east side.

“And then I thought I got the time wrong and everyone had started working! So I thought you were letting me come in late and follow behind!”
“… I am somehow getting a bad feeling about this”

s.h.i.+zuru then noticed that their surroundings had gotten noisier.
He saw Lady shake her head sighing, and realized that his hunch was correct.

“I’m sorry! I only noticed I got the place wrong after I killed twenty people!”

He looked at the direction Elizabeth came from. From there came the sound of footsteps.
Likely belonging to no less than fifty people, a big crowd.

And once he looked closely, Elizabeth’s black suit was smeared with blood here and there.
She made a deep 90 degree bow again and said another apology.

“I’m really really sorry! I accidentally led a lot of perverts here!!”

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