Book 5: Chapter 123: Lily Borrows Food

“That… Lady Kotoka, here…I’ll leave it to you. I have something urgent to do.” Lily said and slipped away.

“Don’t run! Do you want to default on our wages?”

Lily wasn’t really good at dealing with this kind of thing and she left in a flash. She went out of Sakura Blossom Valley and explored the surrounding terrain before laying down the maze formation given by Ayaka.

In the end, the problems of those miners were solved by Kotoka and the promised compensation was nothing to the current Lily.

When Lily returned, she saw that the craftsmen of Blossom Valley were clashing with the merchants and soldiers who had fled here from Port Izu. Fortunately, the female cavalry stopped them.

From a distance, Lily asked Sakiko, “Lady Sakiko, what’s going on?”

Sakiko replied, “Food. With the previous siege and the loss of all the territory outside, food has become very tight in our valley and now we are starting to control the supply, hence the breakout of conflict.”

Looking at these wounded soldiers and civilians from Izu and Takes.h.i.ta Town, Lily felt helpless for a while. As a Lord, she really wasn’t doing enough.

In fact, this couldn’t be blamed on Lily. Eastern land was now in chaos and many local territories and cities had changed hands or fallen to the demon armies outside. Martial families were also annexing each other or plagued by infighting. It had truly become a world war.

Although it wasn’t as if Lily had not thought about transporting food from Western land through the teleportation formation, such a method was really too expensive. After all, activating the teleportation formation for a one-way transmission cost one magatama. Lily couldn’t afford to be so wasteful and squandering magatama in such a manner went against common sense.

“Food…” Lily was an adept so she really hadn’t given it much thought.

“Master!” A delicate and tender voice sounded. Lily looked back and saw Shiu standing at the entrance of the valley.

“Master, I have already gone to investigate. The Takashi Ashikaga Army will arrive in a day at most and the Takeda Army will arrive in about half-a-day.” Shiu reported.

Lily and the sisters had previously discussed the situation with each other in the wooden house. She knew that the two armies were coming so she had sent Shiu to scout.

Lily felt that this matter was never ending and was a little overwhelmed. Suddenly, a thought flashed through her mind.

“How many people are there in the Takeda and Takashi Armies?”

“The Takeda Army has about three thousand. The Takashi Army has eight thousand!”

Lily suddenly smiled craftily, “Good, food is coming1.”

“Lady Sakiko, please distribute all the grain reserves to the people of the valley today so that they can have a full meal.” Lily said.

“Lily, you are…?”

“Lady Sakiko, just do as I say, please.”

“Hm.” Sakiko nodded her head dubiously.

Lily then instructed Shiu, “Tell everyone to remain in the valley. I’ll be there soon.”

…

…

In the Kai mountain forest, a large army with the Ashikiaga family crest was walking on the mountain road towards Sakura Blossom Valley. Of course, they didn’t know that the surrounding Sakura Blossom Valley was now protected by a maze formation.

But at this time, they had no chance to experience the maze formation as Lily was blocking their way.

The mountain path was so narrow that only one person and one horse could pa.s.s. Not far away, Lily stood in front of the army and forced them to stop.

“Who are you? This is the Ashikaga Army! You dare to block our way!” The cavalry at the forefront of the army scolded.

“Ashikaga Army? Even if the Kiyoshi family came here in person, they would have to greet this girl first. This area is the foreground of my territory. What is the Ashikaga Army doing here?” Lily stood in the middle of the road with her arms crossed and her red sleeves fluttering.

“Your territory? You are just a woman who doesn’t know how high the sky is! How dare you block the road here? I think you are tired of living…” A samurai in front raised his spear and shouted, wanting to make a move.

“Wait…” A warrior next to him pulled him back, “Look at her. She’s tall, has red clothes, long swords, and beautiful black hair… Could it be…”

The samurai shouted with some caution, “The girl in front, could you be Kagami Lily— Lady Kagami?”

“Correct, it’s me.”

Once they heard Lily’s name, the few samurai in front were also surprised. She was said to be a female samurai who was second in strength only to Lord Kamakura in Eastern land!

They dismounted from their horses one after another before stepping forward and bowing to Lily on one knee, “Lyn-hime, forgive us. We were rude!”

The sudden salute puzzled Lily for a while and she asked, “What are you doing in my territory?”

“This… we were only ordered to march. I don’t know anything else. Allow me to report to Lord Takashi.”

After a while, a middle-aged samurai wearing black hunting clothes and a high hat on his fat head came over on horseback. Not only did this samurai have no beard, but he also lacked eyebrows, and his brow ridge was very thick.

When he saw Lily, he didn’t dismount. He looked a little arrogant, but didn’t appear to be hostile as he immediately saluted, “Lyn-hime. My name is Takashi Atsushi.”

“I’ve heard of you,” Lily said, “Your Takashi family took advantage of Madam Ashikaga’s absence to plot a rebellion. I didn’t go over to help Kiyoshi and the Madam get rid of you, the traitor, but you dare to send yourself to my door?”

Even when facing thousands of troops, Lily wasn’t afraid at all.

“Lyn-hime, I’m afraid you may have misunderstood. It is Lord Naoto who took the liberty to lead his own army. We are trying to protect the foundation of the eldest son and the Madam!” Takashi Atsushi’s face slightly twitched as he argued.

At this time, his words had no evidence, but Lily didn’t know the specific situation of the Totomi and Suruga Provinces.

She said, “I’m not interested in your grudges and conflicts. Today, your army is approaching the border of my territory. What is your explanation? You are not going the wrong way, are you?”

“Hehehe, Lyn-hime really knows how to joke. We are indeed heading to Lyn-hime’s territory.” Takashi Atsushi said unhurriedly.

“It was reported that a group of rogue samurai from outside the Eastern land, who claimed to be the Genji Army, were trying to attack your territory while Lyn-hime was away. We have been ordered by Lord Kamakura to specially lead troops to come to your rescue! I still have Lord Kamakura’s official edict in my hands and he also instructed us to be quick, or else it would be too late.” Takashi Atsushi said and took out a scroll.

“Hmph!” Lily willed her mind and a domain force directly pulled the scroll over. She opened it and saw that it was indeed the seal of Lord Kamakura, which asked the Takashi first army to lead a rescue operation.

“This…” Lily was puzzled for a while. She recalled that the self-proclaimed Kōzuke Genji were ordered to crush the rebels, but they didn’t have any written orders from Lord Kamakura.

Could it be that they really came to the rescue? Lily wondered in her heart, Perhaps those Kōzuke Genji were not Lord Kamakura’s army at all, but just imposters?

It was hard to tell whether this was true or false for the moment, so Lily threw the edict back to Takashi Atsushi. It was disrespectful to treat Lord Kamakura’s edict like this, but Takashi Atsushi didn’t seem to care.

“Takashi Atsushi, as you can see, I have returned to my territory and I can protect it myself, so there is no need to trouble yourselves. As for the Kōzuke Army you mentioned, I have already destroyed them.”

Hearing this news, Lily noticed that Takashi Atsushi’s fat face twitched a bit2.

“I see… Since the number one female samurai of Eastern land, Lyn-hime, has returned, it would be unnecessary to conduct a rescue. I will return to Lord Kamakura and make it clear that your territory is safe and sound.”

After saying that, Takashi Atsushi bowed slightly to Lily and intended to order the army to turn around.

“Wait!” Lily said.

“Lyn-hime, is there anything else?”

“Leave your army rations with me3.”

“Ah?” Takashi Atsushi and the surrounding samurai were stunned.

“Those rogue samurai you mentioned were indeed killed by me, but I was so angry at that time that I burned up the food they brought with them. Although the support of your army is no longer needed, the valley has been besieged for many days and is short on food. I would like to borrow your army’s rations.”

“Hehehehe,” Takashi Atsushi laughed, “Lyn-hime, since that’s the case, it is only right for us to offer some. Lyn-hime, please follow me.”

Takashi Atsushi brought Lily to the caravan behind the army which transported the army rations.

“Lyn-hime, you can take as much as you can.” Takashi Atsushi was a warrior of Eastern land and had never heard of storage treasures. Seeing that Lily came alone, he thought that, even if she was strong, she wouldn’t be able to take away much. At most, she could only pull away a single cart.

“Lord Takashi, is that a promise?”

“I hold true to my words.” Takashi Atsushi nodded confidently.

“Good!” Lily leaped backwards and stood atop the huge cedar trees which fringed both sides of the road. She then took out a long scroll and shouted, “Come out, carp spirit!”

“What?!” Everyone was shocked.

They saw a huge red carp with a length of dozens of meters appear above the grain transport team.

Takashi Atsushi raised his head and opened his eyes wide. His face was overshadowed by this large, ship-like carp spirit which made him terrified!

“What, what is this? What kind of monster is this?!”

“Lord Takashi, don’t panic,” Lily said softly, “This is just a carp that transports grain.”

“A carp that transports grain???”

This was unheard of.

Lily urged her domain and the ropes on the dozens of carts of grain were all cut by the blade of cherry blossoms.

The carp spirit opened its wide mouth and sucked in all those big bags of grain. In a moment, almost all of the army’s grain caravan was looted!

“Lyn, Lyn-hime, it’s thousands of miles from here back to Suruga Province. Leave a little bit for us. We still have to eat on the way…” Takashi’s face looked extremely ugly.

“Oh? All right.” With a wave of Lily’s hand, the carp spirit opened its mouth and grunted, reluctantly spitting out a small packet of grain4.

Takashi Atsushi’s and the other warriors’ faces suddenly stiffened.

“Then, please thank Lord Kamakura for me. He took the trouble of asking you to come and deliver the grain, but it relieved our urgent situation.” Lily said lightly and jumped onto the carp which was floating in the mountain forest not too high off the ground. As it moved, its huge head and tail were like giants pa.s.sing through the mountain first, breaking several trees from time to time.

…

…

As for the Takeda Army, Lily deliberately ignored them and let them enter the range of the maze formation. She wanted to test the effectiveness of this maze formation.

As the one who laid the formation, she could naturally perceive everything inside. Even if an expert came, unless their strength was monstrous, domains and spiritual detection would be ineffective in the maze formation, let alone Takeda Tsunen.o.bu’s mediocre son and his ordinary army and horses.

These thousands of people were soon trapped in the maze formation and were unable to find the entrance of Sakura Blossom Valley. Even when they tried to retreat, they couldn’t find their way back— they were completely trapped in the maze.

Lily smiled coldly as if nothing had happened and rode the carp spirit full of army rations towards Sakura Blossom Valley.

The carp’s belly contained enough rations for thousands of soldiers and horses to go on an expedition, which was enough to feed the people in the valley for a year.

At this time, there was a dense fog everywhere in the vast maze formation.

A soldier of the Takeda family said with a dull gaze against the blanket of mist, “I think I saw a huge carp swimming by…”

“I think you’ve lost your mind! This is mountainous land, where do you see any carps?!” A samurai angrily hit the soldier’s head and scolded5.

1. Robinxen: She’s multicla.s.sed into bandit!
2. Robinxen: Heh fat.
3. Robinxen: Literally a bandit.
4. Robinxen: Shameless. I love it.
5. Robinxen: Says the guy who fights demons on the regular.