Book 1: Chapter 17: Fencing, Horsemanship, Archery

The land of Heian Empire covered several tens of thousands of miles. It was a dark age full of mysterious monsters, and b.l.o.o.d.y wars could be found throughout the whole region.

Almost all the provinces that existed since ancient times were parts of the Heian Capital. They already had close to a millennium of history. As for Kamakura City though, it was only built a few hundred years ago, but due to its distance from the capital, the influence of the samurais developed more freely and unconstrained here, until it gradually became the center of activities for samurais all around the world.

The Heian Capital and Kamakura City were thousands of miles apart. Moreover, they were separated by several danger zones. Let alone the samurais, even the army wouldn’t dare to cross over lightly.

Such as the Fuji Mountain1 located at the northern side of Kamakura City. There were even rumors that the mountain was under the control of a demon nation.

On top of that, many powerful clans occupied the land between Heian Capital and Kamakura City. They were always at each other’s neck all year round, so it was extremely difficult to pa.s.s through.

In other words, for an ordinary person to reach the capital from Kamakura City, a hundred lives might not even be enough.

And yet, there were superpowers like the Genji Dojo and Taira Dojo spanning over the entirety of Heian Empire. Their dojos could be found in the territories of practically every major clan. They also didn’t partic.i.p.ate in regional power disputes. They served directly under the court of Heian Capital. It could be said that they had hands and eyes everywhere, that their influence covered the whole of the empire!

It was for certain that other than the regular army of Heian Capital —the biggest armed forces of mankind— no other major clan would be able to fight against them head-on. It was said that even the commanders of the imperial army were under the control of Taira and Genji.

Perhaps only the number one high n.o.ble clan of Heian Empire —the Fujiwaras— could stand on equal terms with them.

Genji, Taira, and Fujiwara could be said to be the big three of this Heian Empire!

And now, at Kanagawa Prefecture —where the Genji and Taira dojo flourished the most— a completely unknown girl, who could even be said to not belong to this world, began her training as a samurai.

One pair of white clothes, one wooden sword, and a glossy black hair.

The young girl conveyed the beauty of her swordsmanship in the simplest way.

Other than kenjutsu, she learned archery from Kimura2 and horse riding from the slit-eyed Kanzaki.3

And in the afternoon, she studied Heian Empire’s history from a teacher invited from the outside. She was getting more knowledgeable about this world’s circ.u.mstances.

Today, at the backhouse4 of the Matsuda clan, an obese middle-aged woman with luxurious clothing was having lunch with a tall and fat youngster.

It was precisely Daidouji Hiroko and her darling nephew, Taro.

When eating, Taro could be said to be wolfing down his food. His mouth was full of oil and he was even downing the sake with a gurgling sound.

“Ⓕⓤⓒⓚ!” Taro threw the bottle of sake with an angry look on his face, “Ever since that girl came here, old man Matsuda hasn’t been teaching us as earnestly as before! He is always saying Miss Kagami this, Miss Kagami that! He even berated the great me when I tried to woo that girl! d.a.m.n it! Mother ⓕⓤⓒⓚⓔⓡ!”

That Hiroko was also so angry that she lost her appet.i.te, “Exactly! Ever since that little vixen came here, that ⓑⓐⓢⓣⓐⓡⓓ has never looked at me properly! You say, how is your aunt not as good as that little vixen? Hmph, that ⓑⓐⓢⓣⓐⓡⓓ is originally an honest man, I bet it was that little vixen who seduced him!”

“That’s right!” Taro slammed the desk, “The annual samurai qualification test is fast approaching, and we only have one examination spot in our Matsuda clan. If this keeps up, I’m afraid that the spot will also be taken away by that girl!”

“What?!” Hiroko exclaimed in shock, “No way! You need to fight over that spot in a martial arts compet.i.tion, how could a man as robust as a cow like you be scared of a little vixen?”

“Who says I’m scared of her! There’s no way I would be afraid of a girl! However, I’m just worried that the old man will be biased! Sigh!” Taro had a face filled with resentment.

“Taro! Are you perhaps worrying that the ⓑⓐⓢⓣⓐⓡⓓ has been driven crazy by that little vixen?! In the end, the Matsuda clan’s examination spot is also set by that ⓑⓐⓢⓣⓐⓡⓓ. It is not impossible for him to directly pa.s.s that spot to the little vixen without holding a compet.i.tion!”

“Sigh!” Taro’s originally big tummy swelled even more in anger!

Regardless of fencing, riding, or archery, Lily improved very fast. Especially in archery, her accuracy was almost close to one hundred percent! Seeing that his female disciple was improving at lightning speed, Nagahide was extremely happy and praised her every day. As a result, those feral brats received even more severe scolding, saying that they could not even catch up to a girl!

How could the spoiled Taro be able to endure this kind of criticization?

“Ⓢⓗⓘⓣ!5 This is so irritating. When the old man is not around, I will lure her out and find a few brothers to finish her off!” Taro gnashed his teeth.

Since young, he was always an unparalleled fighter in the surrounding villages, how could he be willing to let a girl one up on him!

“No, that’s out of the question!” Hiroko warned, “This vixen was brought by Hojo Ujizane, you cannot act recklessly! If you must, wait until we expose her ident.i.ty! Then…”

Hiroko wrote a letter and ordered someone to send it to her brother. In other words, the elder of the Hojo clan: Daidouji Akira.

Lily was completely ignorant of the conspiracy this minor samurai clan had plotted against her. She was wholeheartedly immersed in the training to become a samurai.

Not only was her body strengthened by the mysterious light of the mirror, her base physique also became better. Moreover, senior sister’s body was also originally athletic to begin with. Her coordination and reaction were very outstanding, thus Lily’s improvement speed was really fast.

When Lily was still a boy, she always felt that her mind could make a clear judgment, but her body was not able to keep up. Her dynamic vision was also very poor, which resulted in her poor ability at sports. That was also the reason why she was the target of bullying. But now, with her consciousness and senior sister’s body combined, it felt as if they were a pair made by Heaven!

Only one week and she could already ride a horse in the field by herself.

As for the archery, senior sister had learned the arts of the bow before, so she already had a foundation. Lily’s archery was so accurate that even Master Kimura was singing praises of her. After all, accuracy had nothing to do with strength.

As for cultural knowledge, this was naturally not a problem. Lily came from the modern world after all, her intelligence was much higher than the people of this world. It was nothing strange at all even if she absorbed all the knowledge like a sponge.

However, it was indeed true that she was leaving the other brats very far behind.

Half a month pa.s.sed in the blink of an eye. Regardless of her three major samurai skills or her knowledge of this world, Lily was like a different person compared to the her who just arrived in this world!

And she felt very fulfilled each and every day. Her body and mind felt delighted to be able to train unconstrained!

Additionally, she had a very healthy body that never fell sick. The sheer amount of time she spent on training could have left those village brats in the dust.

“Phew—” As the sun sets in the west, under the twilight of the setting sun, at the backyard, in front of a water well made of stone, Lily used a bamboo tube to draw the spring water that was drawn from the mountain to wash her face. It was very refreshing.

However, even if Lily had a healthy body, she also started to feel her back and legs aching a little.

“Nghh… I might have trained a little too much these past two weeks. Training for ten hours straight without any rest in between, it seems like signs of fatigue is starting to show up.”

Training would naturally incur fatigue, strain the muscles and the nerves. Lily saw how those brats were always ma.s.saging each other after training to ease up their muscles. However, she was a girl, so it was impossible for her to join them in the ma.s.sage session. Letting Nagahide touch her would also be inappropriate. Even if granny Ayashi knew how to do it, she didn’t have the necessary strength. Lily really wanted to find someone to ma.s.sage for her, but she just couldn’t find an appropriate person for the job.

Lily returned to her house all alone. Due to her backache, she only wanted to lie down on the floor. She was thinking if she should rest tomorrow.

She wanted to give herself some time to loosen her muscles and bones, continuing like this wouldn’t do her any good anyway.

Feeling helpless, she could only close her eyes to rest her fatigued body.

“Sleeping on the stomach”>6 is not good for your b.r.e.a.s.t.s yo, especially b.r.e.a.s.t.s as big as yours!”

“Who goes there?!”

Lily could already be considered a well-trained martial artist by now, she immediately jumped up in a half squat and grabbed the wooden sword lying on the wall.

“Hahahaha, little sister, did you forget about me already?” There was not a soul in sight, but a familiar and slightly haughty voice of a girl could be heard.7

1. There’s an additional “Demon” or “Magic” in between Fuji and Mountain in the raw, should I add those as well? Like Fuji Magic Mountain or Fuji Demon Mountain…
2. Probably referring to uncle Kimura and uncle Kanzaki, no way the brats can teach…
3. Hahaha, this sentence sounds so funny in Chinese. A racecourse teaching her how to ride a horse, sounds legit..
4. Backhouse sounds weird, but if I keep translating house at the back of Matsuda clan, it just sounds too lengthy. Does anyone have a better suggestion?
5. d.a.m.n, this Taro has a really foul mouth. If possible, I really want to give him a good slap in the face!
6. for a moment there, I was cursing Taro like no tomorrow. It seems like I was wrong… but I’m not going to apologize to Taro!