c11 (2/2)

“How is Ludmila doing? Ah, you don’t need to answer. I can roughly tell from your heartbeat”

Because she was blind, Richelieu’s sense of hearing far surpa.s.sed a normal human’s.

If she wanted to, she could walk in heavy traffic without running into anyone without needing a cane, and she could hear a pin drop from one kilometer away. She even had the ability to discern someone’s state of mind through their heartbeats and breathing.

“Still doesn’t want to accept her a.s.signment? And it looks like she’s not getting along with the rest of the team, is she?”

“… sort of. You know how Ca.s.sie is, so even though they quarelled here and there it doesn’t drag out. As for the other two … I mean three, well, there’s not much”

“Do something about it as soon as possible. Any discord between team members is going to affect your success rate”

It’s too late to do anything about Lady and Casca always getting into a fight, but they always show good coordination when it comes to work.

In other words, they could make the distiction between business and private, so all was well.

But not all people were the type who could make that distinction right away.

On that point, Ludmila was the kind who couldn’t make the distinction well.

“It’s normally the captain’s job, but I just can’t expect Ca.s.sie to have the consideration. You’re the man for this”

“… I see”

Honestly, s.h.i.+zuru wanted to refuse.

But Richelieu never takes back whatever decision that already came out of her mouth.

That’s because she had complete confidence in herself, and made the decision after putting all things into consideration.

It was a decision made by herself, who she trusted above all else, after careful thinking, so n.o.body could overturn it.

s.h.i.+zuru had gotten all too familiar with it over the seven years.

“For now, I think it would be good for the whole third squad to do a job together. According to the report, you have only had missions that could somewhat be dispatched individually since I sent you Ludmila”

Richelieu would always burn down the reports every time, but she remembered all of it.

Everything she read, from the time she started Black Maria ten years ago.

“… yes. Even though intelligence gathering was done mostly by Lady and myself, the last time we conducted an a.s.sa.s.sination with the whole team was before Ludmila joined”

“Alright, let’s get you guys a job then”

As soon as she said so, Richeliou took out a piece of paper. She then rapidly tapped a tool with a rounded tip on it, making a tak tak tak tak tak tak sound.

After several seconds of tapping, she handed the paper with the words in braille to s.h.i.+zuru.

While having a bad premonition, s.h.i.+zuru read the words.

His face stiffened as if expecting what he just read.

“This is …”

“An invitation to a welcoming party. Ludmila joined us at a bad time so it’s a little bit late in coming”

The location was the slums of the capital’s east ward.

The target, was a notorious criminal syndicate that was involved in numerous crimes.

“You were complaining that the slums have gotten noisy weren’t you? This’ll calm things down”

It was a request for a large job, targeting over a hundred people.

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