Evil Black Maria - Chapter 98. Three People Are Noisy As Nine

Broken. Rejoined. Mended

But the cracks remain.

 

“…… Hey, can you stop doing that?”

 

In the midst of her thoughts, Ludmila looked up when she was suddenly approached.

Her gaze lands on a scowling half-lidded pair of eyes with different colours on either side.

 

“I’m telling you, don’t walk around biting your nails in front of me. Do you really want to die?”

 

Ludmila was momentarily stunned and then realised that she had been pacing back and forth from one end of the living room to the other.

It was an unconscious action, apparently. She turned away in embarrassment and apologised with a slight bow.

 

“Good grief…”

 

Beth clicked her tongue in an irritated manner and tossed the fashion magazine she had been reading to the side.

Her own hand pokes her on the head.

 

“____Hey Beth! You’re making Ludmilla cry with your nasty words!”

 

Whether she had heard or not, Eliza, who had forced her to switch places, took a hand mirror out of her pocket, and yelled at the reflection, Beth.

It’s a sight that Ludmila had grown accustomed to, but still found bizarre.

 

Split personality. To have another self inside oneself, what is it like?

In the end, only the person themselves can know, but at the very least, it is definitely not a pleasant experience.

 

“Just because you can’t see Shizuru doesn’t mean you can vent your frustration on someone else.”

 

“______Pfft. That’s a pretty big mouth you’ve got there! If you don’t want to get killed, then shut up!”

 

Ludmila thought absent-mindedly as she watched the two bickering, mirror in hand.

 

“Oh, this sucks. It really sucks.”

 

In addition to swearing, Beth slammed her fist into the cushion of the sofa she was sitting on.

 

In the case of a quarrel between the girls, the winner is usually the smartest, Beth.

Today, Eliza, having been beaten soundly, sulked and retreated to the back of her mind.

 

“….”

 

In the middle of this, her face suddenly twisted and she pressed her fingertips between her brows.

Ludmila rushed to her side, looking as if she was in pain.

 

“Hey, are you alright?”

 

“…… Don’t touch me unless you want to die. It’s just a headache, like a little chronic illness.”

 

Nothing to worry about, it will go away in time.

Beth pushed Ludmila away, saying this with a look of disgust.

 

She had never heard of Elisabeth having a headache before.

Ludmila’s eyes widened slightly, but on further consideration, in a way this was not surprising.

 

Split personality was technically classified as a mental disorder.

It was, for lack of a better word, a kind of disease.

 

In short, she had two personalities but only one brain to house them.

The load was certainly heavier than normal, and it was no surprise that she was suffering from headaches, dizziness and other problems.

 

“…… Ah,so disgusting ……!”

 

Her voice was rough and raspy, as if forced out of the back of her throat.

Ludmila had recently realized that Beth’s outwardly vicious attitude was due to the fact that she was under a great deal of stress on the inside.

 

Mountains of work, unreasonable messes to clean up, anguish over her natural urge to kill. Perhaps even the pain of a headache, all imposed on Beth by Eliza, who holds the upper hand in personality change.

No wonder she has such an aggressive, stabbing personality and swears at everyone.

 

“……Hang on, I’m going to make some mint lemonade. It’ll calm you down a bit.”

 

Eventually, Ludmila, who could not bear to see Beth clawing at her forehead, said after a quiet sigh.

Beth, who would normally brush off a painful headache, didn’t argue, just glared at her with her tongue clicking.

She really wasn’t being honest.

 

“Managing a squad is a lot harder than I thought……”

 

Ludmila muttered in frustration as she pulled a sheet from the stack of papers on the table.

 

It was about a week ago that not only Shizuru and the others, but even Lady left the capital at Richelieu’s feet, as part of a temporary unit to the Labyrinth city of Labyrinthos.

As it turned out, Ludmila and Elisabeth were not able to carry out the tasks they had been assigned, so they had to borrow help from the first and second units, one by one, to get through the last eight days.

 

“I think I might have been a bit lax just because Shizuru was doing all the information gathering and stuff like that without any problem…….”

 

“_______Ha. That joke’s so funny, I can’t even laugh.”

 

Beth, who was back to her usual self, snickered, as the sugar had calmed her headache a little.

 

“Shizuru-kun can do things that ordinary people can only do after struggling so hard that they vomit blood, and he can do them all with a sneeze. How many people do you think are out there who can learn such difficult healing magic in just six or seven years?”

 

However, he didn’t spend all seven years of his life studying magic.

His speed was such that he was able to acquire a variety of other knowledge and skills, and did so in addition to his work at Black Maria.

 

“There are a lot of crazy people here, but Shizuru-kun and Ilze are the most talented. After all, they are the boss’s favourites.”

 

Richelieu, whose every ability is far beyond that of a normal person, looked down on everyone except herself in a very natural way.

Her favourites cannot be ordinary.

 

In fact, the amount of behind-the-scenes work that Shizuru was doing in the third unit was barely manageable by Ludmila and Beth, both of whom are undoubtedly brilliant.

 

“……can’t wait for him to come home…….”

 

With a sorrowful sigh, Ludmila muttered.

She stroked her knee-length blue hair and thought of Shizuru, whom she hadn’t seen for more than half a month.

 

_____ Timing is often coincidental.

 

The entrance to the hideout was locked at all times by an automatic lock.

The door, which only the members of the third unit and Richelieu had keys to, was opened with great force.

 

“Nyahahahaha! Casca-sama is back!”

 

The sound of footsteps echoed through the corridor and over the floorboards.

At the same time, a figure kicked open the door to the living room and entered the room.

 

It was Casca, after all, as the shout had said.

 

“Hey, it’s been a while, you little ti*ties! You still look like sh*t, eh?”

 

The first thing she did when she returned was to hurl insults at them, which irritated them to no end.

I wish you had never returned, Beth and Ludmila muttered to themselves in unison.

 

“Nyahahahaha, Land is the best after all! I’ll never go on a bloody boat again!”

 

In contrast to the grumbling in their hearts, Casca was in a better mood than usual.

 

It was the same two-day boat trip from the labyrinth city to the capital.

She had almost died of seasickness again, but only a few hours ago she had been relieved of her pain and was feeling good.

 

“It’s time to drink! Oi, you lazy idiots, go get the drinks ready.”

 

“Why don’t you just go back there …… and stop trying to boss people around so much?”

 

Ludmila retorted with a sigh as Casca plops down on the sofa opposite to Beth, lying down and behaving as selfishly as ever.

 

In the first place, there was no alcohol in the hideout.

The day before they left the capital, Casca drank it all and that was it.

 

“I don’t drink much and neither does Ludmila, so why would we keep that?”

 

“Go and buy it then. Stop being such a lazy ass.”

 

Unreasonable beyond belief. When someone is so selfish, it makes you respect them in a way.

Beth let out a sigh, as did Ludmila, she felt the headache that was finally subsiding reappear.

 

“Go and get some__. I was in hell on the way home, I couldn’t even eat let alone drink!”

 

Casca took off her shoes and plopped her feet on the sofa.

Of course, neither Ludmila nor Beth had any other option than to go out and buy alcohol.

 

If they refuse outright, they would be thrown out after some ‘persuasion’ in the form of violence.

So the two women glanced at each other and decided to change the subject before Casca became angry.

 

“…… By the way, where are Shizuru-kun and the others? You’re not the only one who came back from the labyrinth city, right?”

 

“Oh? Oh__, they will be back soon, right?”

 

Beth’s question was answered by Casca, lying on her back and stretching.

Her cat-like behaviour was a direct reflection of her fickle nature.

 

In any case, the topic was easily changed.

They moved on to what they wanted to hear the most, their attention completely on Casca.

 

“I came straight home because the Shizu wanted to take the boss and the others back by carriage. I didn’t have time to waste seeing them off, silly kids.”

 

She licked the back of her rounded hand and shrugged it off with a silly grin.

It’s true, she would never go along with such behaviour.

 

“So I’m hungry, you guys cook something. And get me some booze, of course.”

 

However, in the end she sent them to the shop  no.

 

“You’re a terrible cook.”

 

After devouring a pile of steaming rice bowls and stir-fried vegetables.

Casca, looking at Ludmila with pity in her eyes, said.

 

There were no proper shops to be found anywhere in the slums, and yet she was sent out to do the shopping, and she even cooked for her.

Putting her hand lightly on her head, which was sluggish due to low blood pressure, Ludmila opened her mouth with an irritated look.

 

“……You say that after you’ve had a full meal? Normally, that’s not how it goes.”

 

“I was hungry. As long as I got something to eat, I didn’t really care.”

 

Since Beth was suffering from a headache, Ludmila did all the shopping and cooking.

She was originally a noble, however, her mother, a commoner, had taught her how to run a household. Still, she was far from proficient.

At the very least, she was able to serve some form of food, but that was about it.

 

“Tch……I should have had Beth cook this for me.”

 

Casca gulped down sake straight from the bottle and spit out these words with a click of her tongue.

If it hadn’t been for her good upbringing and mild nature, Ludmilla would have attacked her.

 

The reason why such arrogant behaviour was tolerated was that Casca was strong.

Her excessive strength gave her immunity and allowed her to act without restraint.

The result was a demolisher and an unreasonable queen.

 

“If you’re going to complain, why don’t you just make it yourself? You are quite a good cook”

 

“_____________eh?”

 

Clenching her fists tightly, Ludmilla fought back the urge to retort, but it faded away when Beth, who was looking at a fashion magazine’s goth punk special, casually stopped her.

 

“Huh, wait a minute, Beth. What did you just say?”

 

“……Casca is a better cook than Shizuru-kun and Cheshire. Believe it or not.”

Her always half-lidded eyes turned towards her with a smug look.

Now Ludmila was flabbergasted.

 

“What? I used to make my own food until I started living with Shizu about six years ago. Of course I can do it!”

 

Casca says this as if it’s obvious, but given her personality, she was doubtful whether she could even measure the ingredients properly.

The fact that she could cook so much better than Shizuru and Cheshire just made it seem like a bad joke.

 

“If…if….that’s true…..then why don’t you make your own food.”

 

“It’s a pain in the ass.”

 

Casca tossed away the bottle, which she quickly drank, and said with a lazy chuckle.

She grabs the next bottle, slurps down half of it in one gulp, and then continues.

 

“_______Also, it’s nice to let Shizu do it, it makes me feel loved.”

 

“What’s with the reason…..”

 

Ludmilla, who had no more energy left to be frustrated, muttered in a stupefied tone.

 

She could not understand what she was saying, but given their gender, they were in opposite positions.

 

“Nyahahahahaha…..Hmm”

 

Casca laughed cheerfully and drank the other half of the sake in one gulp.

That’s two bottles. The amount and pace of alcohol consumption would have caused acute alcohol poisoning to any normal person.

 

“Oh…”

 

And then, just as she was about to reach for the third one with no hesitation.

The sound of the front door opening reached the living room, just as it had done when Casca had returned earlier, but this time in a more normal way.

 

“He’s back. Rejoice,you bastards. Cause it’s been a while since you have seen Shizu right?”