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“Be careful on the way then, Lynne, there’s been a lot of monsters roaming in Kai recently,” Honda looked at Lily with love and concern, which in turn made Lily feel a little guilty.

As a truly sincere man, Honda didn’t tarry any longer after obtaining Lily’s promise and summoned two subordinate black-armored Mikawa samurai at once, entrusting them with the task of escorting Lily outside the city.

Lily bowed once again, and Honda’s eyes followed Lily’s back as she left.

Of the two samurai escorting Lily, one walked in front of her and the other behind her as they traversed through the dimly lit corridor, the smoldering flames of the torches reflecting the restless state of Lily’s heart at this moment.

The stairway leading downstairs was just a few dozen meters away now and Lily hoped from the bottom of her endlessly pulsating heart that they don’t run into anyone else.

“Halt!”

Lily was shocked when she heard this voice.

Tokugawa Shigemori just happened to exit from a nearby corridor from behind Lily at this moment.

After seeing Lily, Shigemori advanced forward and stood in front of her. Even though his height was half-a-head lower than hers, his body girth was wider than hers by multiple folds.

“Damn it…” Lily felt a cold layer of sweat form on her back.

“Aren’t you the woman that Brother Takeda gifted to Honda? Where are you going so late into the night instead of serving Honda?” Shigemori looked at Lily with doubt and ran his eyes over her curvaceous, lithe and graceful figure.

Lily, however, just maintained a deep bow as if she had lost her voice because of the fear.

Since Lily remained silent, the samurai in front responded to the question honestly, “Lord Honda entrusted us with escorting Lady Lynne to visit her mother outside the city.”

Shigemori approached Lily, doubt oozing out from his sharp voice as he questioned further, “You’re visiting your mother so late into the night?”

“Hmm…” Shigemori took a deep breath and continued, “You really have a very sweet scent. This old man has battled for about half a lifetime, yet never seen a maid as pretty as you, let alone those young daughters of nobles! Even my newly-obtained wife, Yukiko, seems to pale in comparison to your perfection…”

Shigemori felt a momentary impulse to seize the woman in front of him, but he regulated his breathing and resisted the impulse quite quickly in the next moment. Although Shigemori was very licentious, his resolve was extraordinarily high compared to the average and uncouth overlords. No matter how pretty women were, they were just playthings to him, and the true cornerstone of his hegemony was the famous generals with enigmatic powers¹.

“Alright. Go and return soon, then. Don’t make Honda wait too long,” Shigemori left a final warning and allowed Lily to pass.

Lily just watched Shigemori walk towards his wife’s room while bowing, just like a feeble maid, but her back was already drenched in sweat right now.

She was only able to truly relax after she had descended the stairs alongside the two samurai.

“That was close… To think I’d run into Shigemori out of all things…”

…

The skies made it hard to determine whether it was a white night or a dark day right now and the chilly winds coursing across the hillside made the withered leaves dance in the wind.

The two 1.7m tall stalwart samurai of Mikawa escorted Lily across the mountain path faithfully towards the nonexistent grave.

Lily stopped at the moment she could see the entire city and the castle within her vision.

The wind made Lily’s hair flutter as she stated indifferently, “The samurai of Mikawa are really honest and loyal. You maintained a proper attitude all the way till here and didn’t even ask a single question.”

The two black-armored samurai looked at each other and one of them finally spoke up, “Lady, Lord Honda commanded us to escort you to the grave on this hill and we are merely executing the order. Please hurry so that we can complete the mission properly.”

Lily turned back to look at them, “Do you know? You’re much more respectable than that Tokugawa.”

“What did you say?” The two samurai’s expressions changed immediately, “Why are you demeaning our lord?”

“I admire men like you. If I only had as much strength as you do, I probably couldn’t have achieved your level of loyalty. I shall spare your lives,” Lily stated with an indifferent smile.

“What do you mean by that, lady?” The two samurai went on guard and grabbed the handles of their katana.

However, Lily was too swift for them to follow and they were just a middle-stage sword master and a late-stage sword master.

“Thonk! Thonk!” The samurai’s helmets were struck, and they fell to the ground with a cry before they could even react.

Lily fulfilled her promise and just struck them with the sheath to knock them out.

Running into Shigemori at the beginning made Lily panic, but the journey later with the two samurai escorting her outside the castle tower was much smoother than she expected.

The defense of the castle tower had obviously been strengthened because of Tokugawa Shigemori’s visit, but they were more on guard about people entering the tower than those leaving it.

Furthermore, there were two Tokugawa samurai accompanying the maid who had been gifted to the Tokugawa clan, so without any special instructions regarding the situation from their superiors, the Takeda soldiers allowed them to go out without any issues.

Lily and the two samurai then spent an hour reaching the desolate hillside and she made her move then.

After knocking out the samurai, Lily didn’t tarry a moment longer and returned to the city immediately. However, she didn’t infiltrate the castle tower again as she had somehow fooled her way inside the previous time and there was no guarantee it would go so well the next time.

Lily had already obtained the information she needed to investigate. She had learned the main reason for the strange occurrences in the Takeda clan, and also learned about Tokugawa’s plan to rebel. Thus, the mission Lord Kamakura had given her was already complete. However, she still had no clue about why Lord Takeda sent down an order to have her assassinated, but it was too risky to infiltrate the tower again, so even though she felt worried about it, she planned to give up on investigating this matter at the moment.

Lily arrived in the woods outside the castle from where the city gate and the city walls were visible as she and Shiu had chosen this location as the meetup spot if it becomes difficult to contact each other inside the city.

It was possible to monitor the movements within the castle tower from this location, and from the looks of it, it seemed like all was quiet tonight, so Lily assumed Shiu was safe. Lily held some pride in this aspect as she believed that Shiu’s infiltration abilities were higher than hers.

Thus, Lily sat down within the woods under the cover of the huge rocks and trees and began assimilating the remaining two magatama while waiting for Shiu to come out.

Once I’m done with the assimilation and meet up with Shiu…

Lily recalled the matter of the hidden treasure², but since it involved Mayumi, she planned to let Tokugawa and Mayumi strive for the treasure map between themselves. There was no need for her to meddle in this strife as she could just wait for either Tokugawa or Mayumi to make a move while hiding within the city. As long as they showed any unusual movements, she would just follow behind them and they would naturally guide her to the treasure’s location. She just needed to wait for a chance to seize it after that, but whether she would participate in the hunt for the treasure was something she planned to decide based on the circumstances.

However, Lily didn’t know that Shiu and Mayumi had an unexpected encounter in Mayumi’s room a few hours ago.

…

“What?! So, you’re serving Kamakura?”
“Lady Mimori. I don’t care about Kamakura or the Hundred Demons. I have pledged my loyalty to only two people in my entire life, you during my childhood, and my current master.”
“Who’s your current master?”
“My current master is my sister Lily, Lady Lyn-hime.”
“Lyn-hime, Lily… you mean Kagami Lily?!” Yumi pointed her blade at Shiu once again, “You’re the Mirror Girl’s ninja?”

Mayumi had got the information about Lily becoming a feudal lord with the self-styled title of Lyn-hime from the demon ninjas of Okazaki City before setting off from there.

“Yes. Although I know the Hundred Demons are hunting Sister Lily, she is a very nice and kindhearted girl. Why are you loyal to the Hundred Demons, Lady Mimori?”
“It’s pretty complicated, so I’ll explain it to you later. Can you tell me where Lily is right now?”
“She arrived in Kai along with me and is probably somewhere within this castle tower right now.”
“What?! She’s in the tower?” Mayumi felt pretty alarmed, “What a woman you are, Kagami Lily. I don’t know whether to call you exceptionally bold or crazy. On the other hand, I…”

Mayumi planned to inquire about Lily’s movements and make her move after that, but she recalled the fact that Lily was rumored to have killed Hojo Dijon and Genja alone, so things were much different from before and there was no guarantee she would be able to kill her.

Mayumi felt lost momentarily.

“Should I tell Tokugawa so that he can kill Lily? But Tokugawa is threatening me at the moment and even if he manages to capture Lily, the achievement will belong to him, and he probably wouldn’t let Sister Yukiko and I leave that easily just because of this. However, the minor achievement of discovering the Mirror Girl’s position isn’t worthy enough to report to Lady Haihime.”

If I visit Lady Haihime personally, Sis will be in danger. The reason I am loyal to the Hundred Demons is because of Haihime, but Haihime didn’t trust me any more right now…
So, is there any point in putting my life on the line for that Kagami Lily?

Shiu had no clue about Mayumi’s current thoughts at this moment, “Lady Mimori? Why did you become so angry after hearing Sis’ name? Also, you don’t need to point your blade at me. I will neither flee nor resist if you wish to kill me.”

Shiu’s words made Mayumi waver a bit and she withdrew her blade. Although they were humans alike, one side tried to deceive and threaten her with evil intentions while the other side offered a decade of unswerving loyalty with utter trust…

“Forgive me for overhearing the conversation from prior, Lady Mimori. Unfortunately, I’m too weak, so I cannot help you deal with Tokugawa. It would be better for me to seek Sister Lily as she would definitely help you for my sake,” Shiu didn’t know about the fierce battle that had taken place between Mayumi and Lily as Lily had only mentioned that a demon ninja of the Hojo clan had chased her back then and didn’t mention Mayumi’s name.

“Help me?!” Mayumi blanked out at this moment as she knew that Lily would attempt to kill her the moment they met, so there was no way she would help her. What made her even more frustrated was that she had actually fallen to such a helpless and isolated stage where the only one capable of helping her was her foe.

“Shiu, you don’t understand… she wouldn’t help me…”
“Eh? Why?”
“It’s because I led the Hannya demon ninjas to chase after the Mirror Girl, killed a lot of dojo disciples and almost forced her to the brink of death.”
“What…” Shiu dazed out momentarily, “I don’t get it. You two are my precious sisters, why do you have to fight?”
“You don’t understand a lot of things and even I’ve begun to realize that I also don’t get them…” Mayumi shook her head with a hollow gaze.

…

Lily dedicated the entire night within the woods to advancement and dawn was already on the verge of arriving at the horizon.

The morning sun finally rose up slowly after a long time and Lily also opened her eyes amidst the morning breeze and dew.

“That should do!” Lily soliloquized with a sharp glint in her eyes.

1. Robinxen: I can’t tell if this is better or worse than other villains?
2. Robinxen: Can’t forget the shiny!