Akugyaku no Black Maria Chapter 29

Translator(s): DCThanatos, ShimizuA    Editor(s): Yuzuha    Proofreader(s): Merp-Merp

Note: Sorry that this chapter is out 2 days late, it was a longer chapter, and as such required more time. Also shout out to JasmineGT and Merp for being the first people to click on the ad-links and help out. We have 3 cents now :3

Richelieu issued out a command, which was to search for the one causing trouble at the eastern district of the imperial capital, otherwise known as the Chopper.

For that mission, Shizuru recruited Lady and Ludmilla as personnel from Black Maria's 3rd squad.  

And now including Shizuru, there were 3 people.

Incidentally, Casca said "It's too troublesome to search for people" and dismissed it.

It was also difficult to ask Elizabeth since she's been continuously been away from home.

In addition, a curfew was announced for the eastern part of the imperial capital a few days ago.

The period was one month. Depending on the circumstances, it could be longer.

This was drastic behaviour.

In the eastern district, there were a dense number of brothels and love hotels.

More than 80% of the city's shops were also located here. (DC: It could also be 8% if I didn't read ８割以上 right.)

Merchants also generally did business at night, so the curfew strangled their work.

So to appease the opposition, the royal family put a lot emphasis towards the Chopper case.

Nevertheless, it didn't change the fact that they still couldn't grasp his identity, much less catch him, even after the imperial guard had been deployed.

They aimed to make the eastern district have better public order using the murder cases as the switch, so if they left him go about as he pleased, the citizens would think that they did their job half-heartedly.  

Consequently, the order of imperial knights' name could end up with scars.

In any case, the citizens of the eastern part of the city had developed a strengthened sense of security due to the new curfew.

The frightened people refused to go out anymore, so as a result, prey had ceased to appear.

The whereabouts of Chopper grew smaller and smaller.

―― But in reality, it's wasn't like that.

The original eastern district of the city was a collection of slums, and the gathering place for outlaws.

Even if the pedestrian traffic was less than before, their business souls were still strong that even if a store wasn't open, there was a secret back door open.    

Of course, when discovered by the guards some kind of penalty is inflicted, but sometimes there are cases of bribery.

Usually if you slipped some money into their hands, the problem was resolved peacefully.

In the end, the prohibition did not have a very strong effect.

As a matter of fact, since Shizuru was a doctor, he fell outside of being blamed under the prohibition.

One could say in that aspect, that it became a little easier to do his job.

――Search day 1, Black day.

Was it bad or convienent that the first night had a new moon when they were pursing the bloodthirsty killer?　

Even if the responses were divided, the search had already begun.

As for the crimes commited by the Chopper, they were done in back alleys in the eastern district.　

So Shizuru's group split up into 3 people and each individually searched around each and every back alley.

The result of the day had reaped no profit.

To exclude the innumerable difficulties, including having to go around certain areas to avoid public eye besides the guards, Shizuru only came across a drunkard and a thug.  

The next morning, Shizuru heard rumour of damage that was caused.

It was at a completely different place from where the 2 people and 1 beast had been searching.

――Search day 2, Brown day.

From the reasoning that crime would not occur in the same place for 2 consecutive days, Shizuru searched away from the position he searched the day prior.

While Shizuru was making his way through the red-light district, he ran into Casca, who also happened to be drunk.(DC: This is a red-light district)

Forcibly he was taken into an inn. Thanks to that, there was no progress made on that day.

The next morning, while Lady and Casca were working together, Shizuru noticed that the vicinity outside of the hideout was getting noisy.

There were already victims. Shizuru thought that if Casca stayed at the hideout with that beast-like sense of hers, she would smell the scent of the slaughtered and make contact with Chopper.  

It was too late now, even if had Shizuru said something.

――Search day 3, Green day.

Elizabeth didn't have much to do on this day, so she decided to lend Shizuru a hand and accompanied him.

It was difficult to search every corner of the complicated eastern district of the city with such underwhelming manpower, so the extra hands were much appreciated.

However, Shizuru was still concerned.

And that concern would inevitably come true.

Elizabeth was going to engage in battle with the guards.

Both personalities demanded killing just like the 3 major desires- eating, sleeping, and sex. (ED: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) )

On the surface, Eliza is particularly more troublesome than Beth, although Shizuru did not show any dislike towards them.

Therefore, if they were not in public, or if one was not a friend or aquaintance, then she would murder them without hesitation.　

Eliza was that sort of human being.

Since the number of requests kept declining, over the past 10 days she'd been continuously killing…

Even though it was prohibited to go out at night, there were still thugs that came out, and some guards saw a place where fighting had turned vicious and thugs went all out, and they went to go and put an end to it.

They killed 7 people.

The first 2 people were from Eliza, and the other 5 people were from Beth.

Eliza killed impulsively from being surrounded, and then switched to Beth for cleanup.

However, they escaped before the guards appeared who had heard the commotion, which was good, but dangerous.

In the reinforcements(DC: As in the enforcement) there was a mix of Imperial Knights, however defeat would come to those surrounding Beth.

After Shizuru met back up with Elizabeth, he smiled wryly as he listened to Beth verbally bash Eliza, only to get a bad feeling.

There were no results today either.

As far as Shizuru knew, the Chopper hadn't even committed any crimes today.

Instead, Elizabeth's fight was treated as the Chopper's work.

This was rather convenient for for the 3rd squad, but Shizuru wanted to reconfirm as well as clean up the matter of the Chopper soon.

It's confusing, but Eliza didn't go on rampage again.

――Search day 4, Red day.

Red day increases the attribute of fire, but Ludmilla's demon eyes caused her eyes to become worse than an ordinary person's.

Therefore, she was the caretaker of the hideout tonight.

If 2 people and 1 beast couldn't find them, then 1 person and 1 beast wouldn't find a good lead either.  

Shizuru left early because today, security seemed more strict than usual.

A woman from around the neighborhood came disguised to Shizuru's home at the hideout to do business.

They had brought a child that had been running a fever. Shizuru diagnosed them with an extremely contagious disease, and hurried to treat it.

It was possible to take action and prevent an epidemic. But he still had unfinished business concerning the Chopper, especially since he was still at square one.

Information on the Chopper's whereabouts had came in next morning.

It was relatively close to Shizuru's clinic.

　――Search day 5, Purple day.

Contrary to yesterday, Ludmila's demonic eyes performance reached their climax today.

Even if one had only simple eyesight, it became twice as powerful. If possible, Shizuru wanted to grab some information.

But, they struck out again.

In the first place, the Chopper did not seem to appear frequently, and Shizuru didn't hear of any damage the next day.

――Search day 6, Blue day.

When Shizuru tried to go out, he was caught by Casca.

Apparently, it seemed like she had mixed some strong alcohol with some medicine… and drank it.

This kind of thing happened occasionally. Since Shizuru can purify toxins from most medicine and drugs in the body, there was not much need to worry.

Shizuru didn't separate from Casca all night, as she had become like a lisping, spoiled infant, which meant he could not go out to search.

The Chopper also did not seem to appear either. As a result Shizuru's efforts weren't wasted, it also seems that Lady and Casca had become exhausted physically.

Now――Search day 7, Yellow day.
Shizuru's group surrounded the table in the hideout. (ED: And I'm still playing Zelda BotW)

Chapter end