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IMPORTANT TRANSLATOR NOTE!1
The sound of rain had stopped at some point in time, perhaps because all the rain of this world had become a drizzle in order to keep the secret of the girls. Yet, this was but just a possibility.
The wind drifting into the cave from outside was colder than ever at this moment, and Shiu was left wide-eyed the moment she saw the landscape outside after arriving at the cave entrance as star-like specks of white were in the middle of descending into the mist-filled woods right now.
“Yay! It’s snowing!2”
Shiu exclaimed in glee at her first sight of snow this year.
She collected more firewood, the dry kind that’s found in rocky depressions, in order to raise the temperature, and a raging fire was lit within the cave.
“The snow’s so pretty…” said Shiu while standing beside the cave entrance a distance from the bonfire and gazed at the dreamy snow while feeling the warmth of the fire.
“Miss Lily, can you say some sweet words?”
“Huh? Why though?” Lily asked puzzledly.
Yukiko stood face to face with Yumi right now, and the nearly same-heighted duo, with Yukiko being slightly taller, were in pretty close proximity to each other at this moment.
“As I thought, as an unmarried woman, you are as clueless as my little sister, Miss Lily,” Yukiko stated gently, “You ought to try complimenting us, Miss Lily.”
“Huh? Why should I try complimenting you at this moment?” Lily asked doubtfully.
“There’s no girl who doesn’t like hearing compliments. Your compliments will… make the mood better.”
“Tch. You want to hear her compliment you, Sis?”
“Shut up and do what you’re supposed to do! What I taught you just now.”
“Well…”
“Come on, Miss Lily, compliment us quickly, or else it’ll make us feel quite tense,” Yukiko pleaded softly.
Hearing this actually made Lily tense up conversely. It was always her on the receiving end of compliments and never the reverse. As such, even though she had the intent to compliment others, she lacked the experience.
“Sis, look. The snow outside is so pretty,” Shiu said with her back towards Lily and the Midō sisters.
Lily looked at the snow-filled skies outside the cave and reminisced a little.
“Miss Yukiko, sweet-talk really isn’t my forte, so how about I narrate a story instead? It’s a real story that might be happening at this very instant.”
“A story?” Yukiko and Yumi looked at Lily with doubt and some curiosity.
Lily began narrating slowly, “On a certain extremely cold day, the skies were filled with snow just like the skies outside at this moment, and two yellowish-brown fawns laid witness to the distant snow-covered mountains, plain, and valley in the landscape. As it was snowing too heavily, the trails between the mountains and the valley were so blurred that they were practically indistinguishable from each other.”
Yukiko looked at Yumi, and the fire’s warmth seemed to redden her face as she interjected, “That must be because the snowflakes would fuse after coming in contact with each other, right?”
“Haaahh… Haahhh…” Yumi gasped for a few breaths a moment later and questioned, “Why didn’t the two fawns run across the snow-covered plain and just kept watching from afar3? As long they ran across it, or even walked across it, couldn’t they have melted a section of the snow into water? Why did they just lay witness to the beautiful world formed from the fusion of snow silently?”
“It was because of the Moon Goddess acting as their guide from behind them4,” Yukiko answered and continued after a slight pause, “Just the silver glow resulting from the gaze of the noble and divine Moon Goddess who’s in love with the Eternal Sun is enough to make the snow shimmer in the night. It is only because the moon exists that we can have such pure white snow, isn’t that right?”
“Indeed,” Lily chuckled.
The narration then resumed after a long respite.
“However, an aurora appeared in the sky later on that day, and it dyed a section of the snow in its crimson shade5,” Yukiko continued.
“But that aurora was a tad bit too hot, and melted some of the snow inside the valley, spawning a narrow brook out of it,” Yumi whispered softly while lowering her head.
Lily smiled tenderly, “As a result, the two fawns couldn’t hold back any longer and ran across the snow-covered plain, following the direction of the brook towards the woods that’s capable of sheltering them from the snowstorm.”
“Ngh… Yes…” Yukiko arched her neck backwards and opened her lips slightly, “A-And then… a faint mist manifested over those woods later on6.”
“T-The fawns… found the source of the brook within the woods, which was a small snowy mound that seemed to have a…”
“No, don’t!” Yumi stated tensely, “The rift underneath the snowy mound was rife with danger and had to be tread with caution as just a slight tremor might trigger the hot magma dormant within the depths of that rift and produce an earthquake that might gobble up the two fawns7.”
Yukiko leaned her head on Yumi’s smooth shoulder, “Is it about to erupt? That hot magma?”
“I… don’t know…”
Lily stated calmly, “Thus, the fawns didn’t enter the valley within the woods and ran across the snowy plain instead, arriving at one of the mountain’s base8. As the fawns liked climbing mountains very much, they skipped up the mountain that was softened because of the snow jovially…”
“Which was the favorite food of the fawns,” Lily smiled sweetly.
“Eh? Kyah!”
“The fawns frolicked across the mountain top then descended back to the plain again, and perhaps because they were tired from the exhaustion, they were stricken with an unquenchable thirst. Isn’t that right, Yukiko?”
“Y-Yes…”
“But alas, they discovered that the snow behind the woods had melted pretty quickly because of the two magma streams’ fusion, and no longer were they brooks, and resembled flooded rivers instead…9”
“…”
“…”
“Oh, what is this?” Lily revealed a brazen smile, “Is it an earthquake I sense?”
“Continue, Yukiko, Yumi. What’s wrong with you two? Why have you gone silent? Come, let’s finish this story.”
“Miss Lily… my little sister and I aren’t enough to finish narrating this story… may the Goddess help us… finish it…”
“What about you, Yumi? Do you want me to help you two finish narrating this story?”
“I… don’t know… ngh… I’m at my limit… please finish it for us, oh Goddess!”
Lily’s gaze turned cold and intense, just like the charming silver moon in the skies that rules over all life under the curtain of its night, as she muttered in an imperative tone, “Lie down.”
…
At her level of strength, Lily could be said to have an eidetic memory, so it just took her one glance to remember the two women’s most precious secret that they had protected for about two decades and a decade each even though neither of the two knew how their tattoos looked.
The complete tattoo wasn’t just a simple map and was a scenic artwork instead, consisting of blue, red, black, yellow and more. The artwork depicted all kinds of flora and fauna cohabiting a mountain and a river, and the map was hidden within this scenic landscape.
Lily had burned this map to her memory in its entirety.
After a good while, Yukiko and Yumi finally got up and wore their clothes properly.
Only then did they allow Shiu to turn around and come closer to the bonfire deep within the cave.
Lily got the map of Kai, Shinano and nearby areas that she had brought over from Shiu and studied it carefully. In fact, Lily’s map reading skills were pretty solid, which was quite different from a certain someone’s skillset.
As such, Lily found the region from the real map that overlapped with the treasure map pretty quickly.
“So, it’s hidden here…” the treasure was hidden in a secluded valley bordering Kai and Shinano, but the interior of the valley wasn’t mapped clearly on the real map and just had a mountain drawn in its location. However, based on Lily’s memory of the treasure map, there was no route leading towards the depths of the valley after entering inside, so she presumed this was the location of the treasure.
Yukiko took a few moments to calm her breathing and finally began speaking, “Lady Lily…”
Yukiko recovered earlier than Yumi as she had prior experience, but Yumi still had her head lowered with her face buried in her arms and breathed raggedly while leaning back against the cave wall in silence. Her face was still flushed, and her hair was also disheveled, but it didn’t look like it bothered her that much.
The way Yukiko called Lily’s name right now also felt a little different and seemed to contain a trace of elation and affection.
She gazed at Lily with watery eyes and continued speaking, “Lady Lily, have you found the treasure’s location already?”
“Mhm,” Lily nodded in a soothing yet confident manner, her eyes steeped in guilt and gratitude.
“It’s quite amazing that you were able to remember it with a single glance…” Yukiko looked at Lily with admiration, yet, at the same time, she also felt a sense of loss for some reason10.
“Yukiko, we shall rest in the cave tonight as it’s snowing pretty heavily outside and set off towards the treasure tomorrow morning,” Lily stated.
Yukiko blushed after hearing this and gratitude filled her heart, “You are really considerate, Lady Lily…”
She thought Lily would prompt them to seek the treasure immediately even if that would weaken and overwhelm them.
“Lady Lily…” Yukiko said with a quiver, but she refrained from continuing further.
“Speak, Yukiko.”
“Although it might be quite embarrassing to say something like this as I’m a married woman… and also much older than you… but… c-can I lean on your shoulder since it’s still a bit cold?”
Although she didn’t know the reason, at this instant, Yukiko really felt like relying on this woman who had become the sisters’ Goddess a few moments ago.
Lily tucked her hair behind her ears and smiled at Yukiko in a warm yet charming manner, “You sure can, come.”
Yukiko’s heart throbbed like that of a shy little girl and though she held some inhibitions, they disappeared completely after breathing in the scent from Lily’s body11. Her body loosened up and she leaned her head on Lily’s soft shoulder with her mind at complete peace.
“It’s quite funny now that I think about it, Lady Lily, but…”
“What is it, Yukiko?”
“It would’ve been nice if I had met you while I was still a young, unmarried girl. I used to think that love between girls was improper and didn’t approve of it previously, but… my thoughts have changed now.”
Lily caressed Yukiko’s hair gently and said nothing.
Yumi got up at this moment, feeling a bit jittery after seeing Yukiko act like a maiden in love who had found a partner truly worth snuggling up to.
“Hmph! Lady… Lily… I will also call you lady now, you’re glad, right?! I-I’m going to retaliate against you… who can only command us via domination! I’m going to put your other shoulder through pain as well12.”
Yumi shifted closer to Lily clumsily and rested her head on Lily’s other shoulder while soliloquizing to herself…
Lily didn’t reject her as today was a special day and allowed the sisters to do as they please.
Shiu’s gaze met with Lily’s after seeing this happen, but she blushed immediately, “Eh? I-I don’t plan to join! I’ll go boil some water for you, masters…”
Shiu filled a grade 2 leather water canteen with snow to the brim and hung it over the bonfire at a distance. As a normal fire couldn’t burn the canteen, it just melted the snow into water.
It snowed pretty heavily outside the cave on this night, so Lily was forced to allow the two sisters to sleep while snuggling up to her. Although Lily’s shoulders were pretty slender, they were pretty soft and strong enough to bear the weights of their heads.
“Even if I do things like this that will definitely infuriate you… know that I’m doing it all for you, Senior Sister. Just direct your anger at me, Senior Sister, I shall accept all of it silently without any excuses and confess my sins to you. Even though the motive behind my actions is to wake you up, I’ll still confess my sins, all right?”13