Akugyaku no Black Maria c13

“NYAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA! AHYAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!”

Our targets for the mission appeared at the meeting place in droves.
Just as Elizabeth said, the whole mob was all enraged because several of their friends had been killed.

Although n.o.body there could get what was funny about the whole scene, Casca was holding her stomach in laughter.

“Hiii, hiii … k, khhhhhhh …!”
“Ca.s.sie, that hurt. And you’re laughing too hard”

She pounded s.h.i.+zuru’s back and ended up hyperventilating, finally running out of oxygen.
It wasn’t easy to bear being hit with her strength that could break rocks with just a finger.

In complete contrast to the woman rolling in laughter, Ludmila’s face paled.
She reflexively reached for her rifle she propped up against a nearby wall, but stopped.

That was because she decided it was useless.
Ludmila’s rifle was a single shot.
It needed to be reloaded after each shot, and its AOE damage wasn’t great to begin with.
It could handle one or two people, but it was useless now that the opponent had come so close in such large numbers.
Picking up the gun will only provoke the enemy. It would’ve had the opposite effect than intended.

— and yet.

“(How can they be so calm like this …!?)”

Seeing the fact that the body temperatures of the four people in her eyes didn’t waver, Ludmila soundlessly s.h.i.+vered.

Ludmila was the holder of “Magic Eyes”
Magic eyes denote a subgenus of magic holders, people who holds magic power but only in their eyes.

Her eyes that was endowed with purple among the eight colors, which is ice magic, could distinguish the temperature around her.
For as much as the use of her magic power was limited compared to normal holders, the effectiveness was greater.
Therefore she was even able to see through the fluctuations in temperature caused by emotional changes, allowing her to grasp their states of mind.
It was a skill superficially similar to Richelieu’s that could tell all that through the sound heartbeats and breathing.

Though it’s said to be only superficially similar, the accuracy was on par with Richelieu’s.
It was the same rank as Richelieu’s, who, due to her coming and going to the palace and holding of a high social standing, was, the length of their acquaintance aside, able to see through the lies of s.h.i.+zuru, who excelled faking due to the need to hide his emotions to a certain degree and was able to fool even the Royal Knight Commander Rosa.

Ludmila’s eyes wouldn’t miss a bluff.
Which means, it was not a bluff at all, but from their truest feelings, they weren’t afraid of the situation.
They were completely insane.

“Ludmila, change of plans. Let’s ignore the seven lookout points, can you get up on the roof of that rundown house?”

s.h.i.+zuru said and pointed at the roof of a nearby three story house.
n.o.body had been living there for a long time, it was half broken down.

“… are you, seriously going to fight?”
“It’s our job after all”

Can’t be helped, s.h.i.+zuru shrugged.

“Lady, no need to dispose of any bodies today. It’s a bad weekday and there’s too many of them”
“Understood, my dear”
“Ca.s.sie, go nuts”
“Okay—”
“Eliza … or are you Beth? Well, either one’s fine, you go with Ca.s.sie. We have to kill them all anyway, so you don’t need to apologize anymore. In fact, you’ve saved us the trouble of luring them out”
“I, I’m me right now! Eliza! Don’t lump me together with Beth who isn’t cute at all!”

s.h.i.+zuru gave everyone concise orders.
There was Casca who didn’t like to be put under anyone who formally held the role of captain, but the duties of the captain of Black Maria’s third squad ended up falling almost entirely to s.h.i.+zuru.

His att.i.tude did not deviate from the usual, and his temperature didn’t fluctuate.
It was an unlikely att.i.tude for someone facing at least 50 enemies with still more coming in.

Ludmila had been looking down at this man ever since she joined Black Maria.
For the first time, she was afraid.

“So, we’re going to have a free-for-all here!!”

As soon as the plan was roughly decided, Casca jumped in.

She was holding no weapons in her hands.
She went on ahead empty handed into the mob of bandits carrying swords, guns, and all sorts of weapons.

Amid the darkness, moonlight s.h.i.+ned on the frazzled blonde hair and red pupils.
Finally, a man from the mob realized it.

“O, oi … that woman … that’s the Demolisher isn’t she!?”

He called out Casca’s nickname.
She had already had that nickname when ten years ago, she picked a fight with Richelieu who was visiting the slums and half killed her without her being able to lay a hand or foot on Richelieu.

Some of them shrunk back after hearing and noticing that it was correct.
Although it was somewhat suppressed now that she was working for Black Maria, Casca used to earn her living by doing robberies.
In fact, she still did it sometimes even now. Richelieu never comments on her members’ private lives and s.h.i.+zuru couldn’t always be there to stop her.
It was already impossible now for her, who was born and raised in a harsh environment where one had to be strong to survive, to switch into an upright lifestyle.

“You dumba.s.ses! How many people do you think we have! She’s just one woman, what are you scared of! This is actually a good chance for us, we’ll be famous if we could beat her!!”

It was probably one of the high ranking men within the syndicate who uttered those lines.

Never seen his face, Casca thought.
If the slum-raised Casca doesn’t remember seeing him, that means he at least didn’t live in the slums.
In all likelihood, he came from out in the country and couldn’t find a decent job.
From the way he talked, he was still on the young side.

“Hah … That’s a good one you yokel, you’re getting me fired up!”

Casca happily laughed as she kicked away a nearby mobster instead of using her fists.
There was the sound of bones breaking as the 90 kilo ma.s.s flew, running into several people on its way.
Within moments and while cleaning up five or six people on her path, she reached the man who was shouting encouragements.

“Considering your liveliness, I’m going to teach you the rules of the capital”
“Kuh … !?”

He swung his sword down at the ferociously smiling Casca.
The attack showed that he had considerable skill, being able to stand above the battle-hardened mob.

However — his opponent was just too bad.

“FIRST! Things you borrow don’t necessarily have to be returned!”

She launched her fist into an uppercut.
As it collided with the sword that was going down, the blade was smashed without so much as a resistance.

“SECOND! Blow off anyone you don’t like”

She continued with the heel of her palm.
She aimed for his face. His nose completely broken, the man leaked a mute scream.

“THIRD! The strong make the rules”

A piercing kick.
It went into the pit of his stomach. The man’s body made cracking sounds and was blown away.

It flew almost parallel to the ground, following a straight line, and splattered into a wall with a sound like a tomato getting smashed.
Seeing the cold blooded scene 20 meters away, Casca smile deepened in a way reminiscent of a tiger or leopard.

“Ah-ah. But there’s still more. Well, whatever, I forgot what number came after three anyway”
“… S, she killed aniki …!”

Due to their leader being killed, the bandits surrounding her became more and more restless.
However, Casca wasn’t so kind as to give them a chance to run.

“ORAAAAA! Just hurry up and die already you small fry! I wanna get this all over with and drink!”

Her punches and kicks were accompanied with wind pressure that would send a grown man flying.
It was pure power without any trickery, and because of that, she was an enemy they couldn’t win against unless they were superior in pure power.

The Demolisher, Casca.
Even within Black Maria, that only accepts people whose abilities were recognized by Richelieu, she would be among the top five if considering combat power alone.
The captain of the third squad. Put in charge of the east ward, that had the worst public order out of the capital’s wards, it was not for nothing she was put in that position, even if just on paper.

“… haah”

In a sudden change from the yelling and loudly laughing Casca, Lady was sighing, having found things troublesome.

She was being surrounded.
They numbered around eight. Twice that number surrounded Casca, and three times surrounded Elizabeth, so it wasn’t much.

The reason the mob was inclined towards Elizabeth instead of Casca was because she had personally killed not a few members of the syndicate on her own.
Looking like someone who couldn’t bring herself to kill a bug and having been born into a family that would normally be far away from a.s.sa.s.sination jobs, Elizabeth’s belligerence was, in a sense, higher than Casca’s.
So pitiful, Lady sighed again.

“I suppose I should at least finish this job”

Lady muttered, she then held her hand out towards the ground.
Her shadow under the moonlight peeled away.

— As a magic beast who holds black magic power, she excelled in using the family of magic known as shadow magic out of all the black magics.
It was magic to manipulate one’s own shadow, just like a familiar.
Because it was originally a false image she could transform the shadow into anything, and by putting it on, she could even change her own form.
If she could only imagine the details, it was one of the magics with the widest range of uses.

The reason she chose this magic was simple.
Shadow magic would allow her to become a person, and thus she could become the wife of her beloved s.h.i.+zuru.
The reason she looked similar to Richelieu, was because she was the most beautiful woman out of all who Lady had met.
In other words, it’s all for s.h.i.+zuru.

“Kill them”

With a beastly, calm voice, Lady commanded her shadow.
Today was a Whiteday. The effect of Black magic that had the worst affinity with it was greatly lowered.

However, if she used it at night, where the secretiveness had a high affinity with shadow, that handicap was not something to be worried about.
The shadow that seemed to melt into the air split up like small spears and simultaneously pierced into the eight men surrounding Lady.

“Fools”

The bandits could not grasp what happened, and were already dead when their bodies touched the ground.
Lady let out a third sigh. The shadow returned to her feet.

When it came back, the shadow that took the form of a great wolf seemed to compressed itself and turn into that of a human.

— The magic beast that possessed enough intelligence to be able to converse in human language, the Dark Wolf.
She had gained the name Lady, and was outwardly seen as s.h.i.+zuru’s tamed beast.

She was also one of Black Maria’s prominent hands.

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