Book 3: Chapter 34: Tokugawa’s Threat

The room Lily retreated into was only faintly illuminated by the moonlight pa.s.sing through the window of the room as well as the light of the adjacent room.

“Hmm?” When she turned around to look, she discovered an array of chests of all sizes, so she presumed this room was where the Tokugawa members stored their luggage.

Based on the footsteps, it seems like Mayumi is going the other way. Who exactly is within the room she came out of then?

Lily saw a ray of light beam coming from the wall at a corner of the room, so she approached it and discovered that the paper was a bit damaged there. Thus, she kneeled down and looked at the other side prudently through the hole and discovered a beautiful woman donned in a white yukata kneeling in front of the short and stout Tokugawa. The woman was in the middle of undressing him, so she guessed that she was his wife. However, compared to the aged and ugly Tokugawa, the madam appeared to be a rarely seen woman of pristine beauty just from her side countenance.

Lily’s heart skipped a beat and she turned around immediately. No matter whether she was a beauty or not, she was Tokugawa’s wife, and she had no interest in their personal life.

The madam looked so young and pretty and utterly incongruous with Tokugawa. Could she be the deceased Yasutarou’s mother? But she looks too young for that.Hold on.

Lily eyed the chests in front of her, a few of which looked pretty lavish in appearance. As the adjacent room belonged to Tokugawa, Lily felt that it was highly likely these luggage belonged to the Tokugawa couple.

As an overlord, Tokugawa’s luggage should contain some treasures, right?1

Lily originally had an apathetic nature with regards to money and treasures, but after arriving in the Heian world, money and treasures became a crucial aspect of strength and a major factor to increase the chances of survival as well as the means to protect her sisters. They were also necessary items required to look for the secrets relating to her senior sister’s dormant soul.

Thus, ever since she had arrived in the Heian world, Lily’s desire for money and treasures, especially the precious and powerful ones, became increasingly stronger and invaded her body like a shuddering desire.

Hmph! Since this Tokugawa is a traitor and a tyrant who oppresses the people, there’s nothing wrong with me taking his treasures.

Lily began to go through the chests cautiously. A few of them were locked while a few were pretty heavy, but it wasn’t that much of a task for Lily to open them noiselessly.

A few were packed with Tokugawa’s clothes and personal articles, so Lily ignored them. A few seemed to be packed with the garments of Tokugawa’s wife, and consisted of a large number of incredibly s.e.xy underwear which caused Lily to blush, so she didn’t fiddle with them much.

Two of the smaller and heavier chests were packed to the brim with gold, but they were actually gold bars instead of gold coins and were roughly worth about 100,000 kan. Lily stored them in the mirror candidly and closed the empty chest again. Two other chests seemed to be packed with glittering gold dust worth approximately a few tens of thousand kan. Although Lily didn’t know whether Tokugawa had brought these to use them or planned to give them to Takeda, or whether Takeda had presented them to him as a return gift, she waved her sleeves and stored the gold dust within the mirror as well.

The only remaining chest among the luggage that Lily had yet to open was a small, foot-long, rectangular chest made of precious wood, and her eyes lit up the moment she opened it.

“Magatamas!”

There were three pure, colorless and translucent magatamas set up neatly on a golden brocade within the wooden chest.

They weren’t magatama fragments and were actually genuine magatama that was extremely rare.

Lily could hardly contain her excitement and showed no hesitation in storing these three magatamas within the mirror immediately and closed the chest after that.

Her bountiful chest heaved up and down violently as she recalled the feel of the magatamas in her hands a moment ago.

The three magatamas were about the size of pigeon eggs and looked pretty thin. However, they were pretty heavy and weighed at least 150 grams or more each.

Kagura, who was inhabiting the Sakura Parasol within the mirror, informed Lily after seeing the magatamas, “They are complete common-grade magatama, grade 7 items.”

The efficacy of spirit essence contained within magatama was ten times higher when compared to magatama fragments of the same amount, which meant that Lily had obtained resources equivalent to about 5 kilograms of magatama fragments.

This was enough for her to become a 7th-stage Awakened2.

At present, Lily knew that she was surrounded by powerful enemies all around, so going outside rashly would place her in higher danger if she were discovered. She believed that no one would enter Tokugawa’s luggage room if he and his wife remained in the adjacent room. Thus, Lily decided to sit in a seiza on the spot and began to absorb the essence contained within the complete magatama she obtained just now.

Even if they were precious treasures, it was still meaningful to convert them into strength.

Lily took out one magatama and the relaxing aura from it made Lily moan a sigh as she hadn’t absorbed a magatama’s essence in a long time. She acted with utmost prudence and refrained from making any huge movements as she pressed the magatama against her warm skin underneath the clothes to refine and absorb its essence. Even though it emanated a faint radiance, the clothes obstructed the light, and Lily also complemented the absorption process by controlling the range of spirit power oozing from her very accurately. As a realm user, she was much more proficient than Tokugawa in terms of control alone.

The essence contained within a complete magatama was much purer and even though its absorption rate was the same as that of equal-weighted magatama fragments, its efficiency was ten times higher than magatama fragments.

Just when Lily was in the middle of absorbing essence after taking the treasures of Tokugawa who was within the adjacent room, she heard some odd sounds relating to the night activities of the couple from that room.

“Slap!” A heavy slap seemed to have landed on Yukiko’s body, followed by a whimper from her.

However, no matter how loud they were, Lily simply disdained to spy on the activities of other couples.

“Where’s the other half of that treasure map?! Answer me!” Tokugawa’s voice transformed from his usual humble and mature tone into a crude and brutal tone.

A treasure map?!3

Although Lily wasn’t interested in the activities of the couple, a hidden treasure precious enough to make someone on the level of Tokugawa frantic wasn’t something that Lily could ignore.

Thus, she shifted closer to the hole in the wall while still absorbing the essence calmly and peeped into the adjacent room…

Inside, she saw the white-kimonoed Yukiko covering her cheeks with her palm while leaning against the floor with her other palm in a disheveled state.

The dark-skinned Tokugawa, on the other hand, looked just like a bandit in his golden silk innerwear and kicked Yukiko down to the floor with his oversized foot that was utterly unproportionate to his height and stepped on Yukiko’s slender shoulder, resulting in creaking noises, before pulling her up by her hair forcefully.

“B̲i̲t̲c̲h̲! Are you still going to remain silent?! I will kill you unless you give me an answer!” Tokugawa cursed at her and roared beside Yukiko’s ears after bringing his handlebar mustache covered face closer.

Yukiko, however, replied in a calm and cold manner, “I didn’t answer you even when you used all kinds of vicious methods on me back in Okazaki Castle, so do you think I would answer you now that we’re here?”

“Hmph. I know you won’t answer me that easily. That’s the reason I went through so much trouble to bring both you and your little sister to Tsutsujigasaki Castle especially.”

“What?!” Yukiko quivered, and though she had long hardened her heart to meet death, fear filled her heart at this moment, making her look at Tokugawa with anxiety, “Tokugawa Shigemori… don’t you dare lay a hand on Yumi! If not, I shall haunt you even in death.”

“Do you know who you are trying to scare, you cowardly b̲i̲t̲c̲h̲? I have slain countless demons, so a single ghost woman is nothing of note for me. Let me tell you something,” After seeing the anxiety and fear on Yukiko’s face, Tokugawa a.s.sumed his usual solemn voice again, “Brother Takeda has always been looking for a powerful woman who he can turn into a demon samurai that’ll act as his companion and aide using the sorcery spell he obtained. I sent that Mizuki Tsue to him, but unfortunate as it was, she was unable to endure the spell and died in the process as she was too weak. Your little sister, however, is different. She’s a 7th-stage Awakened kunoichi who can definitely last through Brother Takeda’s sorcery. Don’t you agree, Madam Hon’ami Yukiko?”

1. Silva: Lily’s at it again, stealing shinies is what she do best
2. Silva: 7th stage? Wasn’t she already at this stage?
3. Silva: Oh boy, here we go again!