Book 2: Chapter 30: Damsel Saves the “Hero”

“You’re popular. To think two men are fighting for you.” Shimizu stated unhappily.

“Sister Shimizu…” Lily also felt ashamed, “Senior Kondo did it to help me…”1

A crowd had gradually gathered up inside the dojo. It wasn’t just the disciples; a lot of retainers had also arrived. Most were born in samurai families, so they wished to witness such a rare battle of top ranks too and see if they could learn anything from it.

Soon, the adjudicator, Kuroko, had arrived. Sakiko had also come. She noticed Lily and hinted at her with a nod.

“Ha!” After Kuroko announced the start of the match, Tokugawa moved towards Kondo with a large stride while holding a thick, club-sized wooden sword. He wheeled the sword around towards the edge and swung it at Kondo. Although this wooden sword packed quite the weight, Tokugawa handled it with movements so swift that Lily couldn’t even see it properly.

“This Tokugawa looks so huge yet has such deft skills! My current skills aren’t his match right now.” Lily soliloquized.

However, in terms of agility, Kondo had the upper hand. He had a wooden spear in his hands and danced methodically. The elegance in his movements had caused a few female retainers among the spectators to blush.

Kondo evaded Tokugawa’s attack and delivered an upward thrust with the spear from below. Although Tokugawa’s size had slowed his speed, the sword in his hands moved swiftly and blocked the spear.

As the force behind it was too large, it made Kondo evade sideways. Tokugawa grabbed this chance to dunk the sword towards Kondo’s head fiercely. In response, Kondo withdrew a few steps, sliding backward to slip out of Tokugawa’s attack range and lunged the spear forward.

“Bam!” The tip of the spear was almost about to hit Tokugawa. But he didn’t evade and unexpectedly slammed his sword against the spear.

“Crack!” The overpowering spirit power from the sword caused the spear to break apart and made Kondo dash forward after losing control over his body. Tokugawa seized the moment to answer back with a brutal swing!

“Wham!” Leaving behind an afterimage, the wooden sword struck a heavy hit to Kondo’s face and sent him flying.

Kondo flew out a few meters and fell to the floor heavily. Blood splattered down from his mouth along with a dozen teeth.

Tokugawa then advanced forward along with his sword.

“Stop! The match is over!” Kuroko raised the banner.

But Tokugawa didn’t stop; he reached in front of Kondo and swung his sword down.

Kondo didn’t have the strength to get up. Fear crept into his half-open, blood-watered eyes.

“Whoosh!” Tokugawa’s heavy wooden sword went down towards Kondo’s head.

Suddenly, followed by an afterimage, a white shadow arrived in front of Kondo along with ethereal footwork, bringing along a sweet fragrance with it. It had literally glided over in a single step for the final few meters!

“Bam—!” Lily’s hair fluttered in the air as she lowered her head to bring up her wooden sword to receive Tokugawa’s heavy blow!

“Whoom!” Crimson spirit power exploded out from her as she kneeled, her knee smashing onto the floor, causing it to sink.

The crook of her thumb had also split open, causing it to bleed.2

“What—?!”

Everyone present gasped, including Tokugawa. None of them had expected this to happen. They thought that the black-hearted Tokugawa would use the excuse of not having enough time to stop and end up smashing Kondo’s head. Even if he didn’t die, it would have seriously injured Kondo and put an end to his training path. But Lily, a la.s.s that had just joined the dojo, had somehow received that attack!

Perhaps because Tokugawa also didn’t wish to kill Kondo, as that would bring less trouble to him, he hadn’t used all his strength with this attack. But the speed, accuracy, and strength Lily had displayed while blocking Tokugawa’s attack swiftly had stunned everyone present!

Lily’s strength had increased by 50% compared to a few days ago when she had dueled Hachiya! This was the reason she could somehow block Tokugawa’s attack.

With his face covered in blood, Kondo shuddered as he opened his mouth, which only had a few teeth remaining, trying to speak something along with his trembling hand.

“Kagami Lily—You!” Tokugawa’s eyes turned bloodshot in anger after getting blocked by Lily. He raised his sword again and swung it towards Lily.

“ENOUGH!” Sakiko berated.

But Tokugawa feigned deafness and chopped towards Lily’s arm viciously. He also didn’t wish to hurt Lily badly and only wanted to teach this woman a hard lesson.

It was unexpected that even Sakiko’s shout hadn’t stopped Tokugawa.

“Whoosh!” The bamboo water container in Shimizu’s hands flew out suddenly and struck the joint of Tokugawa’s wrist with a bang.

“Argh!” Tokugawa howled in pain, losing his grip on the sword. The sword spun towards the wall, broke through it, and flew outside the dojo.

And finally, he stopped his movements while covering his hand, panting as he sobered up.

“Tokugawa Shigetsugu!” Shimizu stated icily, “You dare act so brazenly in front of Instructor Sakiko and me? You like to fight, huh? Why don’t I accompany you for a fight then?”

Tokugawa sweated buckets. The blood had rushed to his head just now and made him reveal his real, cruel personality. He turned around and kneeled down before Sakiko, “Instructor Sakiko, this disciple gave in to the evil in my heart just now and lost control for a moment. I absolutely had no intention of deliberately injuring Senior Kondo; I ask for your leniency, Instructor!”3

Shameless Sc.u.m! Lily scolded him internally, What giving in to evil. It was obviously a vicious, premeditated move!

Sakiko peered at Tokugawa with a penetrating gaze. But the Genji Clan Dojo had always promoted a martial spirit since ancient times. It endorsed conflict, and casualties had occurred during matches too. Still, it was necessary to impose a penalty on this matter. Hence, she stated, “A deduction of magatama fragments worth a month along with house confinement for a week.”

After that, Sakiko ignored Tokugawa and walked past the miserable Kondo without saying a word. Even if he had done it with good intentions, she held no sympathy for someone who stood out to catch the attention of a beautiful girl without having the strength to back it. The samurai of the Heian era showed no pity for the weak.

“Lily, you did well.” Sakiko praised her, “Is your hand fine?” “It’s fine…” Lily held her blood-dyed arm.4

Sakiko took out a decently sized, sparkling magatama fragment and said, “This is a 15-gram magatama fragment that you can use to heal. I’m not giving it to you as even I don’t have extra magatama fragments to give you. This is the portion deducted from Tokugawa’s share. Mister Kuroko, it’s fine to handle it this way, right?”

“Instructor Sakiko’s way of handling this conforms with the samurai code of my Heian Empire. Kagami Lily ought to get a reward as compensation for the resolute bravery she displayed.” Kuroko stated.

Lily took that magatama fragment and arrived in front of Kondo along with it. She crouched down and placed the magatama fragment in front of Kondo, planning to use it to heal him as he had stood out for her.

But just when she was about to use her spirit power to transmit the energy from the magatama fragment to Kondo, she halted.

A dark and cold, dense fog appeared before Lily’s eyes. She placed the magatama fragment inside the pocket of her sash.

“Shiu!” Lily called out.

Lily’s ninja, Shiu, was watching the match from outside the dojo’s window. She moved away from the window and jumped inside.

“Go buy some top-notch medicinal herbs and then invite a physician to heal Senior Kondo.” Lily threw a gold coin to Shiu, who accepted it nimbly.

Lily finally said nothing to Kondo, who was in a wretched state. She got up and then left.

Kondo’s blood-watered eyes gazed at the silhouette of Lily sashaying out with those plump, alluring, womanly b.u.t.tocks. He placed the cheek of his blood-filled mouth on the floor and revealed a gratified smile.

When Lily reached the entrance, she saw a trace of smoke, followed by Kuroko appearing before her in a flash.

“Your Honor Kuroko?” Although Lily didn’t know Kuroko’s ident.i.ty, she could feel that this person had unfathomable depths.

“Kagami Lily, take this. There are 10 grams of magatama fragments here.”

“Eh?” Lily blanked out, “This is…”

A virtuous woman makes money in the right way.

Although Lily needed a lot of magatama fragments, she couldn’t accept it from others without good cause.

“Kagami Lily, this is the reward for obtaining a rank for the first time. According to the rules of the dojo, each time someone ascends into the next tier of ten ranks, they can get 5 grams of magatama fragments as a reward. As less than three months have pa.s.sed since you entered the dojo, you get a double reward. Take it.”

So, it was like that! Lily felt elated. To think they also consider the sixtieth rank. I thought it only began from the fiftieth rank.

Lily accepted the magatama fragments and thanked Kuroko.

After returning to her house, she used the 25 grams of magatama fragments right away. These things were too precious. One would not even have enough time to cry over it if they held onto it foolishly and got it s.n.a.t.c.hed by others. Hence, it was better to convert it into personal strength.

After some time had pa.s.sed, the beautiful ripples from the magatama a.s.similated with Lily’s body. The crook of her thumb had healed, and her base strength had reached the mid-tier Sword Master stage too. As for her actual total combat strength, it had crossed into the mid-tier Sword Saint stage!

“Master!” Shiu appeared behind Lily. “Shiu, how is Senior Kondo?”

“His injuries are serious. More than half of his teeth have fallen off, and he broke his lower jaw too. But Senior Kondo is a pract.i.tioner. So along with the physician’s treatment and the effect of the top-notch medicinal herbs, it would at most take him a month to recover with his personal stock of magatama fragments.”

Lily also felt relieved now. Kondo’s rank wasn’t that low, so his magatama fragments were enough for the treatment. There was no need for her to feel worried about it.

On the next day, there was no morning like before. Lily got up early and arrived in front of the dojo. She looked at the updated board under the lamp’s illumination.

It had wooden plates with the names of sixty disciples arranged according to their latest rankings. These were just for the public. The dojo had its own internal records, so changing the sequence on the board without permission was a foolish thing to do.

“First Rank — Minamoto no Shimizu…”

This name alone had always remained unchanging, the absolute first. And a brand-new wooden plate had Lily’s name on it, at the sixtieth rank. Lily had already begun calculating now.

She had the privilege to challenge a stronger opponent within her tier three times each month, and the other party had to take up the challenge in a week. Bar the exceptional circ.u.mstances such as going out to perform an important task, if they didn’t show up, it would mean surrendering the rank.

Lily looked at the names above hers, and although she believed she could defeat those under the rank of fifty, she couldn’t act too careless since she had no estimate of their strengths. It would waste a chance to challenge. The current month only had ten days left, so Lily only had one opportunity left to challenge someone this month.

“Are you going to challenge the ranking?” Shimizu arrived beside Lily soundlessly and glanced at the ranking. “Sister Shimizu.” “It seems like these ranks have you puzzled, so let me give you some advice. With your current strength, you can challenge anyone beyond the rank of forty.” Shimizu stated. “Huh? Really?” “Hehe, why would I speak carelessly about matters relating to your victory?” “Thank you, Sister Shimizu. I know what to do now.” “Mhm. Shall we go train then? We weren’t able to train yesterday because of the disturbance created by that matter.” Shimizu entered the dojo while talking with Lily.

For the next few days, Lily always accompanied Shimizu to train the sword. Although it was rudimentary and oppressive, it also benefited her a lot. Lily could say she had never met an opponent like Shimizu.

As for challenging someone, Lily wasn’t in a hurry.

Three days before the end of the month, Lily challenged the fifty-first ranked disciple.

It was a bald samurai from the Tsutsui clan that was about to reach his mid-twenties yet looked like he was in his mid-forties. He had been in the dojo for a few years and had enough strength to not fall to the bottom. He had made quite a profit of magatama fragments while mingling here. Even the dojo felt troubled about someone like him who took advantage of the rules and had no intention of advancing forward, but they had no means to deal with it too.

“Uncle Tsutsui, please advise me then,” Lily stated, donned in dojo robes with a wooden sword in hand.

“La.s.sie, you’re too impolite! At my age, I’m an older brother to you at most.” Tsutsui also readied his wooden sword.5

1. Robinxen: Denial.
2. Robinxen: Gasp. She was injured!
3. Robinxen: Wow…that’s next level…
4. Robinxen: Oi it was a small cut from the description!
5. Robinxen: Tsutsui. I see you are a man of culture.