Book 1: Chapter 90: Encounter with Rokurokubi

Despite shouldering the Sakura Parasol, the torrential rain soaked Lily.

The girl’s eyes were dark yet sharp, thinking nothing of the raindrops that hit her. While the katana in her hand glowed beneath the curtain of rain.

Standing a couple dozens of meters away from her was a man and a woman wearing ragged clothes. They had gray skin and released a terrible stench of rotting flesh. At the same time, they emitted vehement eldritch energy and vengeful spirit. Apparently, these two weren’t humans. At least, they were no longer one.

They only stood still but still managed to block the path due to their extraordinary height of two meters, they were much taller compared to your average joes.”>1 However, they didn’t possess any weapons. Judging from their eldritch energies, they were more or less designated as a Superior Low Ranked monster, which was equivalent to a High-Tier samurai.

‘Since they don’t have weapons, does that mean they are able to use sorcery or arcane arts?’ Lily increased her vigilance after her a.n.a.lysis. Who knew what kind of unexpected surprise would they have in store!?

Lily even used Spirit Armor, which wasn’t her specialty, to guard against the unexpected. She had plenty of spirit power to spare anyway, it wouldn’t do any harm to be a little wasteful.

The other side did not take any action, but they wouldn’t give way either. Regardless of what they were, Lily thought that since they looked like humans, maybe she could negotiate with them.

Lily tried to suppress her fear and disgust, using a comparatively prouder but humble tone, she said,2 “You two are already dead. Although I don’t know the reason, seeing you guys lingering here, I know you have something you hold onto or feel resentful toward. But I am in no way related to your resentment or grudge, and I’m not afraid of you two either. Can we not fight? I will be eternally grateful if you could stay away from this path for a moment and let me pa.s.s. If you die by my hands, you won’t be able to take revenge on your real enemy, is that worth it?”

When the man and the woman heard her voice, their bodies began to shake entirely. It looked like they were affected by her words but they still continued moving toward Lily with swaying motions.

The man laughed hoa.r.s.ely. “Hehehe. We’ve long forgotten who our real enemy is. Now I just know I smelled the sweet aroma of a woman, a young and healthy human girl. It’s the smell of food.”

“Yeah, right, Yujiro, I smell her too. Young girl… the best food! I, I only feel… hungry, so hungry…” The woman also staggered as she approached Lily’s side.

This made Lily even more cautious. It was indeed a bit disadvantageous for her that she didn’t have a bow to deal with unknown enemies! Just how would her enemies respond, what kind of weapons would they use? That’s what she was most worried about.

“Ah—!!!” The woman screeched out of the blue. Her neck instantly elongated dozens of times. Her head spun while flying fast toward Lily. The amber eyes on her pale-purple face emitted strange light. From her head and neck, thick eldritch energy and vengeful spirit were released. Her mouth opened, revealing her fangs, as she aimed to bite Lily’s neck!

“Rokurokubi!””>3 These days, Lily had frequently visited Sakiko in the dojo to study many things, and among them was information about the demons of this world.

A moment later, the man’s head also flew out, his neck stretching as long as a sticky candy could. He rolled his eyes, which accompanied by disheveled hair outlined his ugly, middle-aged face. He opened his big mouth that was no longer human to bite Lily.

The two powerful Superior Low Ranked demons attacked Lily, one from the top and the other from the bottom!

This was also the first time Lily had to face two enemies that could be compared to the high-tier samurais simultaneously!

The powerful eldritch energy also threatened Lily greatly.

Her eyes focused on the Rokurokubi as she aimed her katana at them. She spread her legs to adopt a squatting stance and started storing up energy by moving Seiwa Tamashi a little backward. The Demon Maiden energy swirled around Lily’s body, blowing her long hair. She had a.s.sumed a graceful yet valiant stance.

However, how could she simultaneously deal with two attacks from top and bottom with a single slash!?4

Moreover, these two were Superior Low Ranked demons with extremely thick and tough skin. Lily’s Grade-two katana was not specialized in stabbing, it would be a tall order to deal with them at the same time with a slashing attack!5

“A ha ha ha ha ha ha ——! Eldritch energy! This woman also has eldritch energy!”

“But she’s a human! A human girl with eldritch energy! She should be much more delicious. If we consume her soul, we should be able to raise to mid-rank! Attack her from both sides, one of us should be able to kill her! Hahahahaha ~!”

The two flying heads let out unrestrained hair-raising laughter that echoed throughout the mountain woods. They stormed forward together to attack Lily. The woman’s head aimed at Lily’s heart, and the man’s head wanted to bite Lily’s thigh!6

Just before the two heads reached Lily, instead of drawing her sword, she took advantage of her flexibility to straighten her body and took half a step backward. Due to her height and her low stance, that half step covered at least a meter of distance! Giving her enough s.p.a.ce for maneuverability.

All of a sudden, she raised her other thigh and formed a standing split. The google-fu is strong with this one.”>7 From this angle, her snow-white legs looked even more well proportioned and s.e.xy! In between her thighs, the simple black panty that was normally hidden under her cloth was exposed for a short time.

Her thighs twitched slightly, and… “Hah!” The slender leg split the air like a white axe!

“Bang—!!!” Her heel shrouded in Demon Maiden spirit power hit the male Rokurokubi, hard. His face was deformed and sunk into the muddy ground, sending water and dry leaves to splash all over the place!

At the same time, Lily stabilized her body and got into the horse stance. The fully drawn katana in her hand that shimmered with a silvery light looked so stable as if it were stationary. The only semblance of movement was proven by the fact that the stagnant rainwater was being repelled. Her sword had cut through each and every one of the raindrops.″>8

It was lengthy to describe the procedure but it happened in just a blink of an eye.

“Pffft!” The sword precisely pierced through the mouth of the woman’s flying head, drilling through the back of her head.

“Aghhhh~! The female Rokurokubi yelped for a while before it came to a stop. The head that couldn’t react anymore spiraled back and forth, turning its neck into the shape of a fried dough twist.”>9 Black blood spurted from the wound.

Lily wielded her sword with full strength, and a cute “Yaahh!” left her mouth.

The Seiwa Tamashi drew a large curve as she turned her body around.

“Puff —!” It cleaved the demon’s head against a big tree trunk!

It sank deep into the wood!

“Swish —!” Lily drew her sword back. The monster’s flying head was already halved as it slid along the tree trunk, leaving streaks of black blood.

Lily retrieved her sword and shook off the black blood. She was a little surprised as she looked at the big tree she had slashed and the cut on the monster’s head.

“It seems the Seiwa Tamashi much sharper than before.”

“Is it because of the red glow on my sword?”

At this moment, the Sakura Parasol flew out from Lily’s back. “Master, did you see the might of the katana’s Spirit Tempering skill?”

“Spirit Tempering?”

“Yeah, Master, your Blade Maiden’s runes can take most of the anima’s essence into your body, but some will be left on your sword, giving it a nice power-up, and thus, making your sword sharper and more durable than ever. These kinds of katana would at least be Grade-Three,” explained the Sakura Parasol.

“Grade-Three?” Lily was pleasantly surprised. She had paid for the price of a Grade-Two katana, but it had upgraded to Grade-Three after killing several monsters?

“However, I vaguely feel that the Spirit Tempering skill on the blade is slowly dissipating. Perhaps if I don’t collect more animas, it will scatter within one day.” Lily felt slightly disappointed as she looked at the dim red glow of her katana.

“Hehehe, it’s because your sword is just an ordinary katana, Master. It’s not a Cursed Katana. That’s why it couldn’t store the animas permanently.”

“What?” Lily’s eyes brightened up. “It works like that because it isn’t a Cursed Katana?”

“Yes, Master, didn’t I tell you I’ve remembered more things? The Blade Maiden is formidable not because of her power only. They are even more terrifying when they have the Cursed Katana!”

“Then what’s that so-called Cursed Katana?” Lily asked excitedly. Her bosom, which was drenched in the rain, heaved up and down.10

1. Silva had a breakdown dealing with the translator at this point.
2. Just use a simple move that was thought of to slay a swallow.
3. Robinxen: I’m never going to unthink this now…but Blade Maiden is just like a Chinese version of Demon Slayer isn’t it?
4. Silva: He’s aiming for the thigh, I guess he’s your soulmate, Robin.
   

   Robinxen: So this is what becomes of me? Well there’s worse ways to go out.

5. Standing split or vertical split, in which the leg lines are oriented vertically either to the side or to the front. This can also be an oversplit and a front oversplit with the back arched backwards, sometimes called a layout.
   

   The google-fu is strong with this one.

6. Silva: For imaginary purposes: the world around her slows down and her sword was the only thing that moves and cuts through the rainwater that seemed to pause in midair.
   

   Robinxen: There’s a clip in Oda n.o.buna no Yabou that has one of the girls cutting raindrops in half. Go watch that and you’ll understand. I even found an AMV that contains it. Alright we’re kind of used to Lily’s antics by now but…….how did Nanako get pa.s.sed these guys?