Book 1: Chapter 46: Night at the Mountain

During the time Lily killed the Mountain Imp who pounced on her from behind, the other two Mountain Imps also threw themselves at her from both sides.

Lily abruptly stamped the ground with one foot to make an emergency stop. Her red skirt fluttered gracefully along with the rotation of her body and the dead leaves under her foot swirled in the air.

The Mountain Imps missed their target and slammed the ground with their palm. Dust up to the waist was raised as a result and the scattered rocks that ended up hitting Lily’s thigh was extremely painful.

The Mountain Imp might look small, but their raw power was much higher than a Low-tier Samurai!

That palm strike was estimated to possess at least 100 kan of force.

With her foot as the axis, Lily turned her body and executed a horizontal slash.

“Pfff—!” The Mountain Imp ‘s head flew up with a pillar of blood.

The other Mountain Imp was forced to land on the ground because Lily got out of its attack range. It jumped up again to pounce on Lily.

Lily did not put too much power into that swing just now, so she seized the opportunity and swung the sword back in the opposite direction.

The Mountain Imp had its legs cut off by that swing, causing it to lose its balance and fell onto the ground with a cry. Without giving it any time to struggle, Lily had pierced the Mountain Imp and nailed it on the ground.

Lily was attacked by four Mountain Imps, but they all perished in less than thirty seconds.

Making full use of her Spirit Power, Lily probed the surroundings and confirmed that no other Mountain Imps were around. She flung off the blood clinging to the sword and swiftly sheathed the sword. Then she took out the Anima Container to collect the anima.

She hanged the katana at her waist. The scabbard that was pressing against her soft b.u.t.t starting vibrating again and caused her slight discomfort.

“What is it now?!” Lily cried out bashfully. She hurriedly collected the anima with the container and only then did the Seiwa Tamashi stopped vibrating.

“Everything about this sword is good, but only this part I dislike! What are you vibrating for, you sick or something?! Geez…” Lily voiced out complains at her sword.

She was scolding her sword, perhaps Lily was the only female samurai who would do something like this…

From last night until now, Lily had already killed 12 Mountain Imps on her way uphill. She had collected enough anima.

However, Lily still didn’t want to go back yet. After all, one anima was worth 500 mon, and two of them would add up to 1 kan. Lily wanted to kill a little bit more. One of the reasons was that she wanted to get rid of the nuisance for the people. The other reason was that she wanted to earn more money.

That was because she would have to spend a lot of money in the future.

It was different for the other samurais, most of them had family properties and a domain. They could rely on tax money to buy equipment and sword techniques, but Lily had no one to rely on. What other choices did she have? She could only rely on herself in the end.

If she didn’t kill the Mountain Imps, they would attack her and kill the pa.s.sers-by. Since the beginning of times, humans and monsters had always been hostile against each other.

The path of the strong didn’t have room for the weak and merciful!

She already spent one day one night in this mountain. Lily had a solid foundation to begin with, so once she got used to dealing with the Mountain Imp, it became as easy as pie. However, Lily still reminded herself not to get careless as the attacks of the Mountain Imp could still threaten her life! She was still not proficient in utilizing the spirit energy for defense and it consumed more energy than attack skills. Above all, the girls had soft skin and tender flesh so it was more taxing for them to utilize spirit energy for defense.

After the intense exercise, Lily checked to make sure no monsters were nearby. Then she pulled her collar wide open to let the wind blow on her sweaty b.r.e.a.s.t.s. It was only natural to sweat a lot after a fight.

‘Let’s stop here for the day. My spirit energy is almost exhausted anyway. Let’s just rest and focus on absorbing Spirit Power for tonight,” Lily thought to herself.

As a matter of course, Lily still had thirty percent of her spirit energy remaining in case of a surprise attack.

Lily looked around and used her Spirit Power to scout the area. She could search up to a range of approximately a hundred meters at the present time. Confirming that there was no monster or human within a hundred meter, she felt relieved and stealthily moved behind a big tree…1

For a female samurai to go on an adventure, it actually came with lots of inconveniences.

Such as… urinating…

Not only did she have to worry about being attacked while in the defenseless position of squatting down, but she also had to worry about being peeked by monsters or something bad. Such is the hardship of urinating…

That’s why she needed to be especially vigilant. It was thanks to her lucky star that Lily had spirit perception.

“Mmmh…” Lily blushed slightly as she got up from behind the bulky tree. She released the kimono that was rolled up to her waist and straightened out her dress. The only sound she could hear came from the flowing spring nearby.

It’s water! What a girl likes best was most definitely water.

When she was going uphill last night with her mental strain added on top of that, she didn’t take a bath at all. If there was a spring nearby, perhaps she could take one.

Bathing was actually a serious issue for any female samurais who were on a long journey. Not only did they have to find a clean water source, but they also needed to be vigilant of a surprise attack. This was especially true for a lone female samurai.

Lily walked towards the direction of the mountain spring, covering at least a hundred or so meters.

Sure enough, there was a clear spring hidden between a few boulders. It was just that the spring was contained in a small channel, despite the clear water, it was impossible for a person to take a bath the spring.

Lily put her sword at a place that her hands could reach in a moment’s notice. Her legs were sticking together as she rested her upper body on the stone slab. She retrieved a towel and soaked it in the clear spring to wash her face. After that, she undressed until the waist and revealed her delicate back. She then began to wipe her body with the soaked towel.

Since it was not possible to take a bath, the only option left was to wipe her body. Wiping the body like this had its own charm anyway.

First and foremost, there was no tap water and heater in this parallel world so it was far-fetched to be able to take a bath anytime and anywhere. Therefore, it was a common practice to wipe the body instead of a full body bath.

Moreover, she had to be vigilant against monsters and bandits even while wiping her body.

After Lily wiped her upper body clean, she put on the kimono and lifted up her skirt while squatting, then she began to wipe her lower body…

It took her almost an hour to wipe her body clean. It was indeed a little inconvenient for the girls in this respect, so it took more time than necessary.

Lily felt refreshed after cleaning up her body. The color of the sky was already turning dark so she searched for a relatively flat area near the spring. Lily opened the package that was used to wrap her clothing and other personal items, then she spread it on the ground and sat on top of the square blanket. She planned to absorb Spirit Power first before going to sleep.

Regardless of sitting or kneeling in the outdoors, a girl must spread out a blanket on the floor. That was because the kimono only went up to knee-length after all.2 Although other people wouldn’t bother telling her about this, Lily could still figure it out by herself so long as she still cherished her body.

Everyone had a different const.i.tution. As for Lily, she felt that when she was absorbing Spirit Power during nighttime, her senses became sharper and the efficiency was also higher, especially under the condition that her skin was exposed to moonlight.

But this was still a dangerous zone, so it was not appropriate to reveal too much skin. She only exposed half of her slender shoulders and spread her skirt to both sides to reveal her long legs. This was just about enough.

Comes late night, her Spirit Power was finally fully charged. Lily let out a sigh full of satisfaction and decided to go to sleep. After straightening out her kimono, she sat on the blanket and slept with her body leaning against the tree trunk. Her long hair was drooping from her shoulders as she quickly fell into a half-sleeping state.

In this wild outdoors, Lily didn’t dare to fall into a deep sleep.

The moon hung high in the sky and the cries of the summer insects reverberated constantly.

Just when the night was getting darker, a noise transmitted from the foggy forest not far away.

A huge shadow about 2.3 meters staggered along from the thick bushes and dense fog. Each of its fingers was thicker than Lily’s arm and they were wrapped around a crude-looking machete. Its hand was bloodstained and the heavy machete was used to support its huge body.

Lily woke up in an instant. She lifted her head and saw a ‘person’ with black and greenish skin under the moonlight. It was as if she was looking at a dead person who already died for many years. It had a vulgar and vicious look. The huge monk with what little bit of hair it had left was covered in wounds and ragged clothing. Black blood was leaking out from its open wound. The fierce demon was standing in an area a few meters ahead of Lily.

1. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
2. Okay, I’ll be honest here. I have completely no idea what the kimono reference meant in this sentence. I don’t have the slightest idea what the author meant by the kimono was “empty inside” after all. If this is truly what I think it is, then it makes zero to no sense at all in this context and the author must be thinking with his D-brain.