Evil Black Maria - Chapter 72. We're At Work Now!

 

Shizuru was being pushed around by Casca, who was in a sightseeing mood and had no idea what he was doing.

The remaining members of the temporary unit were gathering information.

 

“Thank you for your patience. Here is your order.”

 

It’s lunchtime in the restaurant.

The bar is almost full, and Oboro’s soft voice echoes through the air

 

She came to Labyrinthos a day before Shizuru and the others, and since the day after her arrival, that is yesterday, she has been working here as a temporary waitress.

Despite her beautiful and elegant appearance, her voice was sweet to the ear and her smile was charming.

After just one day at work, Oboro had already built up a reputation for being the perfect waitress, and despite the fact that it was rare for the restaurant to be completely booked, it was a success.

 

“Hey, Sinoa! Take this to table eight, please!”

 

Sinoa is a disposable alias that Oboro assumed when she began working here.

 

In the beginning, for her, there was no such thing as a name. In the first place, the name “Oboro” itself is just a name chosen because it is inconvenient to have no name.

 

However, she likes it much better than the other names.It is the name that Shizuru uses when he talks to her.

 

“Yes, sir!”*

 

She takes the food with a bright smile and serves it quickly, but without making a wave in the soup.

What is Oboro’s current state of mind?

 

“(Embarrassing,embarrassing, embarrassing, embarrassing, How embarrassing! I’m going to die of shame!)”

 

She was in a rather dire situation.

 

It’s not surprising. After all, Oboro was extremely shy and had a huge complex about her voice.

For her, therefore, the current situation is one of unbearable shame.

 

If it wasn’t for the purpose of gathering information, she would have run away a long time ago.

 

“(Oh, what a pity, I had to expose my child-like voice. Last night Casca laughed at me and now I cannot stop worrying about it!)”

 

Oboro screams in her heart. But even in such a situation, her smile does not falter.

This is the result of the steady practice of facial expressions in front of the mirror every morning.

 

“(What’s the deal with this outfit!? Why is the top so revealing, and the length is so short! Surely this is not a prostitute’s outfit right,…!)”

 

She dodged a drunken man who tried to grope her butt.

She would have given the offender a good thrashing, but if she was fired for making a scene, all the hard work she has put herself through would be for naught.

To be a Shinobi is to persevere. She simply looked at him with a bright smile.

 

“Uh-uh. No naughty acts here.”

 

She was ashamed. If there was a hole nearby, she wanted someone to bury her in it.

She wanted to walk away from here as fast as she could, right now.

 

That’s exactly what she wanted to do, but she couldn’t just run away.

With a smile on her face and anguish in her heart, Oboro listened to the conversations of the customers in the restaurant.

 

–In a place like a restaurant, with so many different people coming and going, it’ s easy to get a lot of information.

Most of it, of course, was useless nonsense. But sometimes  if one searches through the rubbish, they can often pick up some unexpected gems.

 

The most efficient way to gather information in the first place is to use this kind of place.

The payoff was worth the pain of being embarrassed to the point of vomiting blood.

Besides,

 

“(This time, I’m working with Shi-dono, so I need to be even more focused……!)”

 

Shii-dono – she wants to show him how good she is.

This thought pushed her forward, and her energy rose several times more than usual.

 

“(He praised me and patted me on the head. And he rewarded me by sharing a bed with me…….Yikes! I’ll do my best! I will serve you with all my heart, Shi-dono!)”

 

A happy future pictured in her mind.

In the meeting room of her brain, many tiny Oboro were jumping around and dancing.

 

Oboro can endure any shame for Shizuru’s sake. She doesn’t even feel ashamed.

Loyalty, born from infatuation. It is a wedge that has been driven into the deepest part of her heart and will never fall out.

 

“Sinoa, over here, please!”

“Yes, sir! (For the sake of you, my dear!)”

 

Oboro’s smile, which has become even more radiant thanks to her reminding herself why she was doing all this, charms her customers as she gathers information.

The embarrassment of being heard is not an issue for now.

 

“Hey!”

 

A very light greeting echoes in the quiet shop.

A girl with light blue hair tied up in a side-tail appeared from the shadow of an old counter.

The sudden appearance of Ilse stunned the middle-aged man, who was sitting on his stool with a cigarette in his mouth.

 

“Whoa, ……, you trying to scare me, little girl.”

 

“Sorry about that~. I wasn’t trying to scare you.”

 

“No, you deliberately did that. Don’t make fun of your elders.”

 

Ilse twirls around with her hands clasped together on top of her head, showing no sign of being apologetic at all.

The owner of the shop was not particularly offended, but it was a sight that made him lose his anger.

 

“By the way, old man, are you making any money? This place looks deserted.”

 

“Don’t call a man in his thirties an old man! And it’s none of your business!”

 

“Ki ~yafu ̄ki ~yaffu ̄~ho ni ~yarakarin”

 

“What are you saying!?”

 

A strange dance, performed randomly.

The shopkeeper looked down at Ilse, his mind filled with question marks as his pace was disrupted.

 

“…Hey, little girl. What are you doing in my shop? Are you running an errand for your parents?”

 

“Mm.”

 

At this question, Ilse stopped instantly.

She had stopped in the middle of the strange dance, so she was in a strange position.

 

–Time passes in silence.

 

“Oi, little girl? What are you doing?”

 

“Mm-hmm”

 

The silence was broken by a slightly annoyed shopkeeper.

Ilse, maintaining her strange pose, asks him.

 

“You know, this position is very tiring. So, can I stop?”

 

“Do what you want! Don’t act like I told you to do it!”

 

“Uncle, I’ll have the usual.”

 

“Listen to me!”

 

After releasing her pose with ease, Ilse pulled out a nearby stool and sat down.

She then patted the faded counter table.

 

“Uncle, the usual. I want the usual.”

 

“’……No,……what’s your usual thing, missy?”

 

“Maybe you don’t know? Have you forgotten? Have you finally lost your mind due to age, Uncle, and are  going bald?”

 

“I’m neither old nor bald! Can’t you see I’ve got plenty of hair?”

 

“It’s a bit thinner at the back.”

 

“Seriously!?”

 

The owner, holding the back of his head with a tearful face, is shocked to find that, as she said, he is indeed going bald at the back.

His father had suffered from this too.

 

“I was trying to avoid following in my dad’s footsteps……”

 

“Uncle, please give me the usual.”

 

“That’s one of the most important things in my life! And what’s the usual?”

 

“Wow, you’re in the trade business and you don’t know what to do.”

 

-There was a brief moment of silence.

 

“How the hell should I know? We’ve never met before!”

 

Yes. As the shopkeeper said, today was the first time Ilse had visited this deserted general shop.

It is true that she is the most frequent visitor to other units in Black Maria, but she mainly lived in the Capital. There was no way she could have stopped by the small general store in Labyrinthos before.

 

And of course, Ilse knew that.

She was simply playing with him.

 

“Mmmmmmmm. I thought old men like you would be happy just to talk to a young girl. Did you have fun?”

 

“What’s with all the ‘men are so simple’ talk?  I’m tired of talking to a kid like you!　I don’t need to know what you’re talking about, just tell me what you want!”

 

If all this was just a joke, he would drop one of his fists on her.

Such determination burned in the heart of the shopkeeper.

 

On the other hand, Ilze, whether she knew the owner’s inner thoughts or not, softly broke into a smile.

She smiled knowing that with her appearance she would become a beauty to be looked back on.

 

“I want a cute rabbit and a beautiful dress and lots of nice things.”

 

A response that one can only assume is a joke.

Even if she was serious, then why would she be looking for them in a general store?

 

But the shopkeeper’s eyes widened a little at Ilse’s words, revealing his surprise.

And he let out a big sigh.

 

“Oh, so you’re one of those customers. Then you should have said so earlier.”

 

“It’s a bit boring if we just did it the normal way~.Ilse wants to have a good time!”

 

“Don’t make fun of me. It’s not like you’re the one who has to deal with it.”

 

“Ilse’s motto is “Don’t be afraid to sacrifice for fun!”　That’s right. As long as you’re having fun, you shouldn’t be bothered about anything that might cause trouble.”

 

“You’re the worst!”

 

Ilse stands on a chair with vigour and points at the shopkeeper.

Feeling exhausted after only a few minutes, he opened the top of the counter table and beckoned to Ilse.

 

“Come in. I’ll sell the information you want.”

 

“Yes sir! However, your face doesn’t really match the fairy-tale-like password.”

 

“Shut up, it’s my wife’s hobby. Just come quick, before someone else sees you.”

 

“No one would come into a run-down, musty general store like this one.”

 

“I’m going to kill you!”

 

He was concerned about the lack of customers in the general store.

The shopkeeper shouted at her, but Ilse was still smiling at him in a teasing way.

 

He was being toyed with by a girl no more than half his age.

The shopkeeper leads her into the back of the shop, feeling ashamed of this fact.