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“What kind of world is this inside the Sakura Parasol? How could it be this bizarre?” Lily found it impossible to believe.

“Sis, it sounds lively over by those houses. Let’s go take a look.”

“Mm.”

The two of them passed several dilapidated houses along the edge of an overgrown field. The sky was dim yet faintly illuminated, and from ahead came the bustling noise of a marketplace, accompanied by bleak, desolate drumbeats and rhythmic clapping.

Following the sounds, Lily and Nanako arrived at a busy street lined with shops. Most of the stores had their doors open beneath colorful signboards. Yet neither the merchants nor the passersby were ordinary humans.

This was a place where humans and demons lived side by side.

Among the shoppers were four-legged lizards, kappa, giant toads, and even bowls and plates that had sprouted arms and legs. They hopped energetically around countless dinnerware stalls, clanging against one another while loudly advertising their own “companions.”

One plate demon tumbled onto the ground and shattered. Its tiny limbs dissolved away as a small vengeful spirit drifted from the broken shards into another intact plate. In the blink of an eye, the new plate sprouted arms and legs of its own and immediately resumed hawking its wares.

Lily couldn’t help wondering how such a business could ever hope to make any money.

Before the thought had even finished crossing her mind, an ancient Southern Outlander clock suddenly revealed itself to be a demon as well. It waddled over and ordered a dustpan demon and a broom demon to sweep the broken pieces into a pile. Then the clock began walking backward.

Miraculously, the shattered plate reversed itself. The fragments flew back together, restoring the plate perfectly before it returned to the shelf as though nothing had happened.

“It actually reversed the flow of time for such a tiny object? How extraordinary.”

Still, Lily knew that while time-reversal arts were among the most profound secret techniques in the Three Realms, they did exist. The greater the object or the more powerful the energy involved, however, the more difficult it became to reverse its time. As for rewinding the time of a living being, the energy required was so immense that it was practically impossible.

At most, such techniques could only be used for little tricks like this. By comparison, briefly stopping time or merely slowing its flow was far easier.

Nearby, a pretty female vagrant with an attractive figure was browsing talismans at the neighboring shop, haggling with a toad onmyoji who had a smoking pipe dangling from his mouth.

At that moment, Lily’s gaze turned cold.

She noticed a tall, overweight man wearing a scarf and Southern Outlander spectacles. Carrying a bamboo basket on his back and dressed like a scholarly gentleman, he quietly approached the stall from behind the female vagrant.

“That guy has such a lecherous look on his face. He’s definitely up to no good,” Lily whispered to Nanako.

“Sis, I’ll go help that girl.”

“Wait. He hasn’t actually done anything yet. Besides, unless it goes too far, if it’s only some ordinary harassment, we’d better not interfere. We just arrived here,” Lily said.

To her surprise, the plump scholar stopped behind the vagrant and said in a perfectly serious tone, “Miss, are you buying anything or not? If not, would you mind stepping aside? I’d like to look at these talismans.”

The female vagrant turned around. Not only was she completely unoffended, she lowered her guard entirely. Her cheeks flushed pink as she gazed at the fat scholar with unmistakable allure. “Mister… you’re so tall… and so chubby… Would you like to come have a drink with me at the tavern over there?”

As she spoke, she boldly pressed herself against him, shamelessly swaying her hips as her face blossomed like a peach flower.

“Miss! Please show some respect! I’m only here to purchase talismans. If you aren’t buying anything, then kindly step aside!” The overweight scholar adjusted his glasses, speaking with complete righteousness.

“Oh? It’s only a drink. After that… we could do something even more… interesting together.” The female vagrant continued twisting her voluptuous body seductively, every movement overflowing with irresistible charm.

To Lily’s astonishment, the plump scholar actually stumbled backward three full steps. “If you keep this up, I’m calling for help! There are officers patrolling the streets! Don’t think that just because you’re beautiful and powerful, you can openly molest me in broad daylight!”

“Tch… what a bore. Fine, if you don’t want to play.” The female vagrant reluctantly draped an arm over his shoulder one last time. “If you ever miss your big sister, I live on East Street. I’ll be waiting for you… anytime.”

The fat scholar forcefully shoved her away. Only then did the vagrant leave with an unwilling sigh.

Standing in the distance, Lily and Nanako stared blankly.

“Nanako… I didn’t imagine that… did I?”
“Sis… I… I don’t understand either.”

Just then, the overweight scholar walked past them. Seeing the bewildered looks on their faces, his entire body shuddered as he snapped angrily, “What are you staring at? Never seen a fatty before?!”

With a face full of contempt, he stormed off.

A chill crept down Lily’s spine. Her legs suddenly felt weak, and she nearly lost her footing. Before she could recover, another commotion erupted farther down the street. A scantily clad female ninja was frantically chasing after a burly Blue Demon dressed in animal hides. Lily had not mistaken what she was seeing. The one doing the chasing was the female ninja. The one fleeing in panic was the Blue Demon.

“Stop! Get back here!”

“Miss, please let me go! I may have lived for two hundred years, but I’m still a virgin Blue Demon!”

“How shameless! How could you say something like that now? Do you realize how despicable you are? You captured me in the deep mountains! And yet… you… you despicable, shameless monster… you didn’t do anything to me at all!” Crying loudly, the female ninja hurled a kunai at the fleeing Blue Demon.

The terrified Blue Demon yelped and ran even faster. “I’m a demon, and you’re a woman! H-how could I possibly do anything to you? I’m not interested in human women at all!” the Blue Demon shouted over his shoulder. “Please stop chasing me!”

“It was my first time ever being captured by a monster! And in the end… nothing happened! H-how am I supposed to face anyone after this? I’ll never get married now! Waaaah… my youth…!” The female ninja sobbed as she continued pursuing him, and the two figures disappeared together toward the sunset at the end of the street.

“……” Lily and Nanako simply stood there, staring blankly at the street before them.

“It’s raining! It’s raining!” Someone suddenly shouted. The rain came surging upward from the ground, arriving without the slightest warning.

“Ladies, you’d better go find shelter,” said a heavily bearded samurai who looked every bit like a notorious bandit, speaking to Lily and Nanako with faint disdain. “If your clothes get soaked and your bodies start showing through, it’ll make us feel uncomfortable.”

He gave Lily a particularly serious look. “That little one is fine, but especially you. You’re so… well-endowed. If your clothes become transparent, it’ll only make the rest of us men feel awkward. Hurry up and get out of the rain!”

“Y-Yes… th-thank you for the warning…” Lily replied. She suddenly felt weak all over. Her vision swam, and she nearly fainted as she swayed sideways, leaning against Nanako’s shoulder.

“Sis! W-What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing… I’m… just feeling a little dizzy…”

Even after walking away, the burly man shook his head and muttered under his breath, “Sigh… with a chest that big, she’ll probably never get married. What a pitiful girl.”

At that moment, the countless vagrants and demons throughout the street all opened their umbrellas. Lily blinked in confusion. The rain was coming from below. How exactly was opening an umbrella supposed to help?

They even turned every single umbrella upside down, pointing them toward the ground. Then, whether standing or sitting, each person climbed onto their umbrella.

**Whoosh!**

Rain burst upward from the ground at an angle, and the force of the down-to-up rainfall lifted the umbrellas into the air. They floated through the streets like little boats.

Lily and Nanako, however, didn’t have the Sakura Parasol. They were drenched from below in no time. Many women looked at them with admiration. “Wow! Those two sisters are so cool!”

Meanwhile, the men and the male demons all turned their heads away, unwilling to spare Lily even a glance. A few men even let out anguished wails.

Standing helplessly in the rain, Lily felt wave after wave of water striking her panties from below, then splashing against the underside of her chest. Her body gradually went limp, leaving her completely at a loss for what to do.

“Sis, don’t just stand there! If this keeps up, they’ll really arrest us as perverts and drag us before the authorities!”

Nanako grabbed Lily’s hand. Spotting an inn nearby, she hurriedly pulled her inside.

An upside-down washbasin had been mounted on the roof of the inn. Once inside, Nanako shook the water from her own clothes before helping Lily. She lifted Lily’s skirt, loosened the front of her robe, and shook the soaked fabric dry.

Lily still wore a bewildered expression.

“So, female guests, huh? You’re quite lucky. This inn is run by a woman. Most inns hate letting beautiful women stay here,” a middle-aged proprietress in a kimono emerged from the dim interior. She still possessed a trace of beauty, with a small black mole beside her lips.

“Madam, we’d like your finest room,” Nanako said.

“Certainly, there are rooms available. But inspections have become very strict lately, so I need to register your identities. Who are you? Where have you come from?”

“I’m Nanako. We’ve… traveled here from a very distant place.”

“So you’re outsiders. No wonder.” The proprietress looked toward Lily. “And who is she to you?”

“She is my young mistress, Lynne.”

“Young mistress?” The proprietress frowned suspiciously as she looked Lily up and down. “Lies!”

“Huh? Madam, she really is my young mistress. Why would I lie?”

“She doesn’t look like one. Not in the slightest!” the proprietress declared suspiciously.

“How doesn’t she? I’m her maid, and she’s my mistress. Isn’t that obvious?” Nanako protested. She had thought that anyone seeing the two of them together would immediately know who was the maid and who was the young lady.

“If she really is your young mistress,” the proprietress demanded righteously, “then why isn’t she wearing a collar?”

“Huh!?” Nanako froze.

Even Lily’s delicate body trembled.

“A collar? What do you mean?”

“Hmph. Isn’t that common sense? Whenever a maid escorts her family’s young mistress outside, the mistress must wear a collar with a leather leash. If she misbehaves even slightly, she should be punished. What kind of maid are you, doting on her like this and obeying her every whim?”

“Th-That…” Nanako forced an awkward laugh. “Hehehe… Well… it’s not that I forgot to put one on her. My young mistress recently made a mistake, and I’m punishing her.”

“Punishing her?” The proprietress narrowed her eyes skeptically.

“That’s right! See? You don’t understand my young mistress at all.” Nanako smiled stiffly. “What she loves most is having me put a collar on her, take control of her, and lead her around on a leash. But Lynne made a mistake recently. For a woman like her, the greatest punishment isn’t making her wear a collar or shackles. It’s refusing to let her wear them at all, while instead treating her with complete courtesy and respect. That makes her suffer far more than any ordinary punishment.”

As she spoke, Nanako gently patted Lily on the shoulder.

Lily had already been thoroughly shaken by everything she had witnessed. Hearing Nanako describe her like that left her face burning crimson. She silently fumed, thinking to herself, ‘Just wait until we’re alone, Nanako. I’m definitely settling this score with you!’

After thinking it over for a moment, the proprietress nodded. “That… actually makes sense!” With that, she arranged a room for the two of them.

“How much will it cost?” Nanako asked.

“Cost?” The proprietress immediately flew into a rage. “You’re staying at my inn, and you actually want to pay me? Has the law completely lost its mind?”