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Looking down at the series of Torii gates from the top, Shimizu felt like she had entered an ethereal world.
She stood in front of the huge entrance of the temple and gazed at the descending stone steps that were still visible within the mist.
“I am a bad woman who pushed her beloved little sister off a cliff, someone who didn’t even hesitate to harm her little sister’s life to obtain a treasure. As a bad woman, I ought to stay with a bad woman and the demons, right? Hahahahahaha,” Shimizu let out a soft yet lonely chuckle on the gloomy mountain1.
The lanterns radiated a dim light within the darkness and illuminated a woman’s beautiful yet shamed body.
Yuki Mayumi was once the leader of the majestic demon kunoichi of the Land of Hundred Demons, and a capable aide of Haihime. Yet, she had lost her freedom at this moment and was bound to a solid wooden rack, losing even her ability to speak because of the thing stuffed into her mouth.
Haihime arrived behind Yuki and whispered into her ears, “B̲i̲t̲c̲h̲. You didn’t commit a blunder intentionally so that I would punish you really good, right?”
“Mfgh… Mghf…” Yuki shook her head desperately.
“Uh-huh! You really committed a blunder then, you stupid woman!”
“Mfgh…” Yuki held back her tears and twisted her body in agony as she attempted to plead for Haihime’s forgiveness.
However, Haihime just responded to her pleas by tearing apart the purple skintight garments she was wearing, exposing the two spotless peaches that shouldn’t have been exposed2.
“After losing so many Hannya and monsters, you couldn’t even catch the mirror girl! Tell me, how should I reward you today?”
Yuki Mayumi shook her head in pain with a flushed face, but she was unable to hide from Haihime’s gaze, “Heh! You were so desperate in the beginning but look at you now. You’re really something, Miss Yuki Mayumi, and dishonest to the end…”
The slightly warm copper head of Haihime’s pipe streaked across Yuki’s butt cheeks gently and made her body tense up from the nervousness.
“Bring them over.”
A cat-masked Itsura brought a wooden tray that had a black wooden slab of uneven length arranged on top of it along with a few items that Yuki Mayumi didn’t wish to remember.
Haihime grabbed the black wooden slab and waved it in front of Yuki’s frightened eyes, “Let’s start with something gentle first…”
“Mfgh…” Yuki Mayumi shook her head desperately.
But Haihime ignored it. She arrived behind Yuki and then raised the birch up.
“Whoosh!” The birch sliced through the air.
“Slap!” And made Yuki Mayumi’s beautiful buttocks ripple when it struck them, making her issue a shameful moan.
…3 …
It wasn’t strange to hear any kind of voice from Haihime’s residence, so the Hannya ninjas proceeded with their sentinel duties about the temple as usual.
Under the cover of the night, the strange shadows of scythe-wielding snake women slithered their way across the lit corridors of the temple intermittently.
Around the same time, Lily was actually traversing through the old road back to Kamakura city.
Lily wasn’t in that much of a rush to return and felt much freer traveling alone compared to when she had taken this road from Kamakura. She only liked to travel with girls who she had a favorable impression of. Otherwise, she preferred traveling alone.
“Perhaps I really have a bit of a reclusive personality.”
Even if she possessed a reserved personality, a woman of peerless looks like Lily usually had an endless number of escorts and pursuers around her, so it wasn’t easy for her to remain reclusive. However, the growth that Lily had experienced actually wasn’t like this, so even if she had her current body, it wasn’t easy for her personality to change that quickly.
Furthermore, she liked solitude a bit, and knew she couldn’t have any thoughts of going past friends with other women. Under this kind of self-restriction and self-blame, she had become even more infatuated with solitude.
She also had enough strength and authority to defend her solitude with this beautiful and attractive body of hers!
“Boss, a bowl of ramen for me,” Lily took a seat at a stall on a riverbank beside a village’s entrance and enjoyed the nice and warm ramen in the pleasing night breeze.
The sun shone brightly up in the sky in the morning of the next day, and Lily had already come pretty close to Kamakura by now. The sunflowers in the field ahead of her had already bloomed and the patch of golden yellow almost concealed a fork in the road.
Lily took out a map and determined her location. The northern route led to Kamakura while the southern route led to Takeshita.
“Sister Lily,” Nanako communicated with Lily via the mirror. She and Lily had both learned this communication method by now.
“What is it, Nanako? How’s your training going?”
“I have made some progress, but let’s not talk about that now. Kagura told me that we’ve almost reached Kamakura. Can you let me out now? I’m quite bored inside the mirror4.”
“All right,” Lily teleported Nanako outside.
“Ngh—!” Nanako stretched her body, “The sunshine outside is really quite comforting.”
The two sisters traveled together thenceforth, hand in hand.
They saw a series of carts move towards their direction slowly from ahead of them. This place was close to Kamakura, so it was common to see traveling merchants pass through this road. However, these carts had flags with the crest of the Saionji family hoisted on them.
“It’s my family’s caravan!” Nanako was taken aback.
They went forth and discovered that the leader of the caravan was really a faithful retainer of the Saionji family, and that an acquaintance of Nanako.
“L-Lady Nanako?!” The retainer shed tears of joy when he saw Nanako arrive in front of him.
“What’s wrong? You’re… Sakata, right?”
“I’m Sorimachi, not Sakata, Lady Nanako. But it’s really quite funny!”
“What is? Are you really that happy to see me? I won’t reward you with any money, okay?”
“Lady Nanako, they say you are dead, and that our new patroness and mistress, the big-breasted enchantress and feudal lord, Kagami Lily, is also dead! But Madam alone didn’t believe it and told us to go to Port Izu as usual and transport the goods of the Saionji family. However, the talk of the street is that you and all the disciples who went out on the excursion all died in the mountains! It’s great that you are still alive… sob… sob…” Sorimachi sobbed.
Nanako, however, donned an embarrassed expression and looked at Lily ashamedly, “Sister Lily. M-My family’s retainers are all merchants and have a foul mouth. Please don’t punish them…”
Lily stepped forth and questioned, “You said you’re Sorimachi, right?”
“Yes, Lady Samurai,” The merchant-retainer bowed towards Lily.
“Your family’s heiress didn’t reward you, but I can do it.”
“Eh?”
Lily tossed a silver coin to Sorimachi and stated, “Please pass a message from me to your caravan and the other retainers of the family. Could you just call me Lily or Miss Kagami? I’m not really comfortable with the title of ‘big-breasted enchantress.’5”
Lily flipped her hair to the back and gazed down at Sorimachi.
“Ah, yes. Definitely. You have my gratitude, Lady Samu… eh?” Sorimachi raised his head and gazed at Lily’s bosom and felt the womanliness oozing out from her…
“M-Miss Kagami. Lily. A-Are you perhaps that big—Ehhh?!”
Although these traveling merchants had foul mouths, they didn’t have nefarious intentions. Thus, Lily didn’t punish them and just let them off with a reprimand.
Nanako and Lily hastened their return to Kamakura after that.
“Do the rumors say that we are all dead?” Lily hadn’t expected this as well.
“However, besides us, the other disciples are all really dead… I’m afraid this news must’ve spread widely for a long time. We should return quickly to alleviate their anxiety. Mother…” Nanako’s heart filled with worry.
“Yes,” Lily nodded, but she felt quite agitated internally, “Does this mean Sister Shimizu still hasn’t returned to Kamakura?”
Around the same time, everyone within the meeting hall of the Ashikaga clan within Kamakura city had solemn expressions on their faces.
Ashikaga Makoto, Ashikaga Kiyoshi, Sakiko and Kotoka were all present in the hall and seated in a circle on the floor.
“Sigh. How did it turn out like this…” Kiyoshi wore a saddened expression, “Is Miss Kagami really…”
Kotoka interjected, “Please don’t worry too much, Lord Ashikaga. Lily has overcome each peril she has faced until now through courage and wit. I am also not worried about my daughter, so you should also have confidence in Miss Kagami.”
Ashikaga Makoto also narrowed her eyes and smiled gently, “That’s true. My adopted daughter is exceptionally courageous, so she’ll definitely be able to turn peril into safety.”
Although they said such things, these words were only meant to comfort each other.
In truth, they were all quite anxious internally as the intel brought back by the ninjas suggested that most of the disciples were already dead while there were no tracks of Lily.
“It’s not just Lily, but Shimizu as well…” Sakiko blamed herself greatly, “I’m the one who approved their proposal to send Lily and Shimizu to protect them secretly, but I regret it very much now.”
“Lady Sakiko, Lily is by no means an ordinary samurai woman. I’ve always believed she will make her mark in not just the East, but also the Heian Empire. As such, even though I was aware of the plethora of negative information about her making the rounds of the circles, I still shifted all the assets of my Saionji family over and plan to invest them all in her territory. I’m a sharp merchant, so I hope you can trust in a merchant’s intuition.” Kotoka stated.
“I hope so,” Ashikaga Kiyoshi replied.
Sakiko joined in again, “A lot of feudal lords and dojo masters have complained to Lord Kamakura recently and plan to push all the blame of the disciples’ deaths on Lily and Shimizu. Sigh. These fellows are really…”
“No matter what, it’s best if they are able to return safely. As for the other matters, we’ll have to deal with them personally,” Ashikaga Makoto added.
“However, the casualties this time mostly belong to the prominent families of the Land of East, as well as the children of the feudal lords. Thus, it’ll be difficult to settle this matter even if Lady Ashikaga gets involved,” Sakiko stated worriedly.
“Compares to these, Lord Kamakura hasn’t permitted us to go out of the city and look for her!” Even a disciplined man like Kiyoshi felt furious, “We can only send those useless ninjas outside. If Miss Kagami and the others have really encountered danger, what can those ordinary ninjas even do except sending back intel?6”
Ashikaga Makoto shook her head helplessly, “The situation in Mino and Owari provinces is pretty tense right now. They might invade Mikawa and Totomi provinces at any moment, so, as the leader of the Ashikaga, we cannot act rashly without thinking. Lord Kamakura’s order stems from the consideration of the big picture, there is nothing wrong about it.”
“The big picture this, the big picture that! Without Miss Kagami, what big picture is left to consider!” Ashikaga Kiyoshi punched his thigh in a fit of fury.
“Eh?!” The ladies, on the other hand, acted like they had uncovered something and looked at Kiyoshi profoundly.
Kiyoshi realized he had a slip of the tongue and rushed to deny it immediately while leaning backwards, “Uhm. N-No. I-I actually meant…”
Lily and Nanako finally returned to the Genji Dojo in the morning and since they didn’t know the whereabouts of Sakiko and the others, they decided to enter inside directly.
The disciple on watch at the dojo’s entrance, however, was pretty shocked when he saw Lily and Nanako, “L-Lady Kagami? You’ve actually returned alive?!”
“Eh?” Lily was taken aback.
“I-I’ll go report it right away!” One of the retainers rushed inside the dojo immediately and shouted out loud, “Miss Kagami has returned! Miss Kagami has returned alive!”
The retainers within the dojo emerged out in succession and each one of them was filled with excitement after hearing that Lily had returned to the dojo alive.
Lily also didn’t know when she had gained such a huge popularity among these retainer-disciples.