ABM – Chapter 55

Translator(s): DC, ShimizuA    Editor(s): Ozlarus, DC    TLC: ShimizuA

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The Eve Before the Operation

 

“…I’m Ludmila. I’ll be in your care starting today. Best regards.”

Bowing her head sluggishly, Ludmilla indifferently expressed her greetings. As if it was to follow up her intro, Cheshire, who stood beside her, took a step forward and smiled gently.

“Ludmilla-chan is here with us today because of something related to her task. Thus, since she might be moved to the Fourth Qquad after this, could you get along with her?”  

The two ladies, Oboro and Carmilla, listened to Cheshire who informed them with a delightful voice. They both respectively showed different responses.

“……”

Oboro, who wore a thin cloth that covered her mouth, nodded silently after sending a glance to Ludmilla for a while. The exact emotion behind this gaze was unclear; she neither displayed agreement nor disagreement.

To begin with, perhaps she wasn’t a person with strong self-assertion. It felt like she would not take a stance and abide Cheshire’s, her commander, intentions.

――and the other one, the worrisome problem child’s reaction was this.

“You… Ah, together with him… right, you were together with him…”

She crazily focused somewhere, like a pair of eyes in a cave. Unlike her appearance yesterday, she had removed her half mask—Carmilla was clad in a dark-red suit. She was mumbling and grumbling something, walking shakily one step at a time towards Ludmilla.

Carmilla wore an atmosphere which could be called incomprehensibly dreadful to feel. Concurrently, Ludmilla realized the significance of the half mask of which she had not grasped before.

On the left side of Carmilla face—there was an atrocious scar.

A big scar wound encompassed the left half of her face,  atop cuts and burns. She tried to conceal her gruesomely hideous scar by looking down.

“Ah… to be in the same squad as beautiful you… the woman who is content in the position I yearn for… ah—how revolting.”

Suddenly, the feeling of bloodlust ran along her spine while she had been lost in thought. Ludmilla leaped back partially because of her reflexes.

–Immediately following, a scythe was struck at the place where she stood before.

“!?”

Its sound reverberated, sharply piercing the air. As Carmilla recovering from the recoil of the scythe, she glared at Ludmilla unpleasantly.

“She avoided it… how despicable, how despicable, how despicable despicable despicable.”

“W-wait a sec! Why me!?”

“Why, did you ask why? What a ridiculous question, but fine, I’ll answer it. I smell my beloved from you. Therefore you’re guilty, and I sentence you to be decapitated. Present your head silently, recite your confession, and accept your punishment.”

She said it fluently; a verdict that looked insane and didn’t leave any room for refusal. Ludmilla had a hunch that her words weren’t meant to be persuasive.

Nevertheless, even if she wanted to resist, Ludmilla’s rifle was still in the gun case. In the first place, her rifle couldn’t demonstrate an excellent performance in this range at point blank.

“–I’ll offer you to the dark demons.”

While murmuring something that sounded like a curse, once again she raised her scythe overhead. While letting off dust, the crescent blade start to blur.

But, faster than she could swing it—

“Stop it, Carmilla.”

Like a child when they got caught with a prank, Carmilla’s movement stopped suddenly, restrained by Chesire’s voice.

“It’s not good to point a blade to your friends, okay?”

As she continued to speak, the frozen blade began to tremble little by little. Looking back at Carmilla, her expression quickly turned pale.

“Stop, it.”

With just a single phrase, Cheshire was able to stop her while still holding Alice dear in her hands. Carmilla then dropped the scythe with a loud, reverberating clang.

“…yes… sorry, I apologize… I don’t have, any excuse…”

Carmilla apologized, staggering as she retreated a few steps backwards, her teeth clattering as she held her trembling body. Her change made Ludmilla blinked her eyes in disbelief; Cheshire apologetically lowered her head to her.

“I’m sorry, Ludmilla. Carmilla becomes like this for anything that involves Shizuru. However, usually she is a shy one, so if you can, please be friends with her, okay? Look, you two have similar names, don’t you? I’m sure you’ll get along just fine.”

She completely spoke like a teacher mediating a relationship between students. ‘Since your names is similar, I’m sure you’ll get along.’ It was outdated reasoning but, Ludmilla didn’t have any intention to point it out.

Carmilla, who she doubted had a sane thought-process, was frightened just by her words. In other words, there was something in Cheshire which made her do so.

In the first place, an absolute requirement for the seven leaders was that one could subdue their own troops. Any process or method didn’t matter. As long as they got results, it was fine. It was really simple, deception wasn’t effective.

Therefore, the fact that Carmilla was restrained by Cheshire was already well within Ludmilla’s assumption. However, she never at all thought that she was bound by such intense terror to that degree.

“Besides, since she will be living here for awhile, it would be awkward if you were to fight, right?”

Excluding the tattered doll in her hands, one could only look at Cheshire as a graceful woman that was clouded by sorrow. Nevertheless, Ludmilla suddenly remembered. An evaluation based on her outward appearance and mannerisms would be turned upside down, sooner or later.

Above all, it was Shizuru who told her about it. Cheshire was a woman who nearly killed Casca once because of taking her doll, which she treated as her daughter, violently.

“Please, can you do that?”

Cheshire asked somewhat flatteringly with a gentle tone while embracing the doll, Alice. But, for Ludmilla, it sounded as if it was an absolute order.

“…I-I understand..”

Ludmilla nodded, feeling a cold sweat run along her spine as she straightened her back. To her reply, Cheshire smiled happily.

“Thanks, I’m really happy to hear that! Then, you two, please shake hands, okay?”

“…Yeah.”

“Roger, that.”

While still trembling, Carmilla, who had cast her eyes downward, came forward. She slowly raised her hand which had a pitch black manicure, to Ludmilla.

“Black Maria Fourth Squad member, former executioner, Carmilla…For the time being, I will give you a suspended sentence… please be aware and reflect that you have commited a crime; absolutely don’t forget it…”

“…’kay.”

Let’s not say anything here rather than complicating it. Swallowing all the rebuttal from being accused as a criminal as she pleased, Ludmilla took Carmilla’s hand.

There were many calluses overlapping with each other; her palm was harder than it looked.





Five days passed quickly after Ludmilla stayed at the Fourth Squad’s base. Those were the days which had caused the most extreme stomach aches and headaches in her life.

She couldn’t swallow her meals past her throat. Even if she forced them, she would just throw most of them up. She’d barely been managing her nutritional needs with the supplements that Shizuru prescribed. She couldn’t get a wink of sleep, and even if she could, she would jolt back awake every hour; she’d already lost five kilograms in those five days.

The biggest problem for Ludmilla, as expected, was the existence of Carmilla.

The dangerous scythe user. Several years ago, she became unemployed after serving as an executioner in the kingdom’s largest prison when the guillotine was adapted for capital punishment. Skillfully moving the scythe that was taller than her body as she cut the criminal’s head, leaving only a thin skin behind with her superhuman like technique; she was the woman that was once feared as the Grim Reaper. Following her father’s sudden death, she took up the task as the executor at only seven years old, and continued for fifteen years until she was unemployed. The amount of heads that she reaped during that time had reached at least five thousand, or so Ludmilla heard.

Carmilla, as Shizuru had said, was a person with a communication disorder.

To be accurate, it wasn’t like she couldn’t speak at all. She could respond rationally to some extent when her thoughts weren’t tangled with things relevant Shizuru, her “beloved one.” However, since Carmilla thought about Shizuru nearly ninety percent of the time, in the end she had difficulties with speaking. If one slipped up while dealing with her, she would impose a capital punishment upon them, and she would immediately come to kill them.

Because she did those kind of things all the time, Carmilla hardly left the base aside from work-related things. Half of it was for confinement. The basement in this base was also mostly used by Carmilla.

At least, this was still better than dealing with that bitch in sheep’s clothing Eliza. Carmilla was crazy enough to make Ludmilla compare her with that homicidal fetishist maniac. In truth, in this past days, it was not once or twice that Carmilla has directed her scythe towards Ludmilla.

That being said, there was some silver lining. Even though Carmilla was proficient at handling a scythe, her combat ability itself was mediocre. If Ludmilla continued to evade her, then in the meantime she would be restrained by Cheshire or captured by Oboro and resulted in temporary draw, without Ludmilla doing a thing.

Nevertheless, having most of her life-or-death situations come from her own coworker since she joined Black Maria was not a laughing matter.


— Also, the problem wasn’t just Carmilla; there was one more thing that made her head hurt.


Cheshire of the Fourth Squad. The mental burden caused by interacting with her was far beyond Ludmilla’s imagination.

Certainly, the only thing she needed to pay attention to when it came to Cheshire was basically to never touch Alice. But, it was almost impossible for her to ignore the doll held in her arms, and talking without being conscious of it.

If she paid any mind to it, even just a little, she would look at her with pitiful eyes, no matter what. Cheshire was sharp; she would notice it immediately and ask if there was something the matter. Even making excuses for that was wearing on her nerves.

To begin with, there was no clear line on what would trigger Cheshire. Her current state, as in treating an old doll as a daughter, was no more than just a simple mental suggestion; she still could see a glimpse of reality. If that hadn’t been the case, she would have denied reality, rejected it, and descended into madness.

Therefore, when involved with Cheshire, one had to constantly mind what might set her off. Additionally, most of the people who failed and stepped a land mine of hers in some way would get killed.

Even Ludmilla had stepped on one once like the others. If she were to get transferred to the Fourth Squad, she would need to be familiar with the captain, Cheshire, as soon as possible just like what she tried to do with Carmilla. With that in mind, Ludmilla searched for a conversation topic and casually went to talk to Cheshire when she got the chance.

It was, about Alice’s Age.

She had just meant it as a starter for a light chat. But, for Cheshire who had mistaken a doll as her daughter for more than a decade and still treated it like a baby, asking Alice’s age was one of the taboo words. Any remarks that made her notice the little inconsistencies regarding Alice’s existence could be fatal.

At that exact moment, Oboro dropped a vase and caught Cheshire’s attention, so she was saved somehow. If that hadn’t happened, Ludmilla would not still

be alive at this moment. Instead of Oboro, who never talked, Carmilla surprisingly gave a logical explanation later to her; it scared her to death.

If she were to list all of what caused her stress, there would be no end of it. During meals, bathing, sleeping, anything and everything after Ludmilla moved to the Fourth Squad tormented her soul.

It was an environment where even spending five days here without any big injuries itself was already some kind of a miracle. For Ludmilla who only knew the Third Squad, which was said to be the safest in terms of internal relations due to the presence of Shizuru and Lady, spending days in the Fourth Squad, which on the contartory had the most dangerous internal relations, to say the least, was the worst.

She would be lying if she said she never thought about escaping, even once. She finally understood why Richelieu obstinately continued to reject her transfer request.

Ludmilla didn’t grow up in an unscrupulous environment like Casca, nor was born with an abnormality like Elizabeth. She grew up with gentle parents, a sheltered young lady who had, for better or worse, common sense. Living with the Fourth Squad, which was relatively very dangerous when you look at Black Maria as a whole, being supervised by Cheshire who could make a lunatic with a screw loose give up, was a tall order for her in the first place.

–However, even in such environment that always scraped her nerves, Ludmilla didn’t try to escape, and stayed in the Fourth Squad.

The one thing that had stopped her from doing so, was her desire for revenge towards the aristocrats. Bearing a dark flame in her chest, she sharpened herself in order to attain revenge; she grit her teeth in endurance so that the raging fire within her chest didn’t go out. Her resentment was so strong that it was deeply ingrained.  

And then, her hardships had finally come to bear fruit.

On the night of the sixth day of her temporary custody in the Fourth Squad. The preparations for Count Garland assassination――finally had been complete.





Along with Ludmilla, who clearly was worn out compared to five days ago, all members of the Fourth Squad had gathered in the office. Still silent, Oboro took out a long rolled up paper―a scroll, a kind of notebook used in her hometown―out of her scarf, and spread it on the table.

――Collecting information for Black Maria was something which was done by each individual squad respectively. Additionally, information gathered within the Fourth Squad was Oboro’s charge.

Rather, in the Fourth Squad, with the exception of Oboro and one other (squad) member, there was no one who could straight up go out in public. Cheshire, who was constantly carrying a tattered doll was like a ticking bomb wearing clothes. Carmilla stood out with her evil looks, and wore an ambiance akin to a ghoul.

It was pretty much impossible for the two to become undercover spies to gather intelligence. Thus, inevitably, it was entrusted to Oboro, a member from a ninja household with overlapping aptitudes.

“……”

Returning to the main subject. In the scroll spread out by Oboro, strings of characters were written orderly. She pointed to a certain group of them, and urged them to read it without making a voice.

But, When Ludmilla took a glance on the content, she raised her eyebrows in puzzlement.

“…What is this?”

She couldn’t read the characters written there at all. Its typeface looked like a snake crawling around. It was certain that it differed from the Shi Ruvan Kingdom’s official language.

“Ah… Oh my, that’s right. I’m sorry Ludmilla. Oboro understands our language, but she mostly can’t write in it.”

“I’ll read it… though I can’t read it as good as Illze or my beloved…”

At Cheshire’s explanation, Carmilla murmured weakly. Then, she started tracing the contents with her black manicured fingertips.

She looked down to the table, while quietly brushing aside her hair that was brown as dried blood. It was her rational mode that Ludmilla has seen only a number of times in this past six days.

It appeared that Carmilla seemingly was able to put on some sort of discernment before a job. It’s most certain that if one was not altogether even though they were acting as an agent of murder for the time being, then they couldn’t work for an organization such as Black Maria.  

“…Or rather, Oboro. Why don’t you read it by yourself? You’re the one who wrote it.”

In the first place, why use such a roundabout way by letting the others read it, not by yourself? At Ludmilla’s words, which bore a question, Oboro gripped her scarf, pulling the fabric over her eyes in order to conceal her face. Cheshire made mixed expressions as she wryly smiled and spoke.

“Once again, sorry Ludmilla. Oboro is very shy. So she doesn’t really want her voice to be heard.”

“Voice…?”

Ludmilla, tilted her head when she heard that. She immediately remembered that Shizu had told her something similar before.

“It’s such a waste, you know, since her voice is really pretty. Hey, don’t you think so, Alice?”

In the middle of conversation, Ludmilla averted her eyes since Cheshire started to address and stroke the tattered doll. Though she was somewhat has used to it, as expected it was still a bizarre spectacle when she gazed upon it directly.  

—above all, her eyes.

Lately Ludmilla noticed that Cheshire’s eyes changed when she looked at Alice. She looked at the doll in her arms with a muddy, unsettled focus.

It was as if her heart turned away from the reality that it was just a doll.

“Ah…I see, erm… I’ve gotten the gist of it.”

She took a step back as she grew increasingly terrified of the madwoman’s appearance. Ludmilla felt tingles crawl down her spine as Carmilla finished muttering the contents of the letter.

“The floor plans of Count Garland’s residence, number of those defending… the family’s schedule, ect, I understand it roughly…”

Though she still had an appearance similar to that of ghoul, unless she was thinking of Shizuru or he was involved, Carmilla’s speech and conduct didn’t feel maniacal. She spoke in a level tone of voice, rather, it soothed Ludmilla.

“Since it’s an aristocrat’s mansion, it has reasonable amount of guards but… by no means will be hard to infiltrate…”

Indifferently, Ludmilla deeply and silently breathed in and out as the everlasting explanation mended her mind as it flowed in.

It wasn’t the time for thinking about unnecessary things. The revenge that she dreamed while counting the days. Finally, it was coming true.

Possessing her potent purple demonic eye had harmful effects on her body, like being unable to substantially raise her body temperature. Although now, Ludmilla felt naturally heated urges like her was blood boiling.

Just for this moment. To bring down the hammer upon that bastard who got rid of her parents—immediately disappeared without any trace.

“… that’s enough with the introduction. When will it be executed?”

Ludmilla has changed her name. Her hair color. Her speech pattern. There was nothing left in her. She had abandoned everything to accomplish her revenge.

“Ah… so, how about tomorrow… it’s just exactly the black day where the moon doesn’t show up…”

“Tomorrow…!”

*Thump* She felt powerful beats and throbbing. Thinking about the day that would come, Ludmilla smiled broadly.




— As her eyes got cold with hatred, she still didn’t know yet. What it truly meant to kill someone because of a grudge.