Book 2: Chapter 48: The Army Withdrawing

However, as soon as Lily fully equipped the armor, an intense grudge a.s.saulted her.

That heat was as though it came directly from the depths of h.e.l.l.

“Ahhh…” That armor couldn’t really be called an armor, it would be closer to describe it as a revealing breastplate plus a s.e.xy battle skirt. Unexpectedly, the shoulder plates and the two sides of the combat skirt1 had reasonable length, but the middle section of the skirt was covered by a red embroidered silk cloth sewn together with leather and metal chains. The parts that shouldn’t be covered were excessively secured while the parts that should be covered were barely protected, it created a strong contrast.

Lily fell to the ground on both knees, feeling as though her entire body was being groped by the evil spirits from the underworld. That indescribable fear and heat almost seemed to swallow her whole.

“No, this armor… it’s too powerful!”

Lily’s vision blurred and her face flushed with a crimson shade, sweats began to drip from her whole body as she resisted the encroachment of the grudge. With some difficulty, she managed to undo the b.u.t.tons of the breastplate and the chains that secured the two sides of her skirt.

“Haah…” Only then did she start to feel better.

“That was dangerous… this armor… does it really belong to Lady Shizuka? Did I perhaps misunderstand something since it was put under the portrait? Whatever the case, the grudge contained within this armor is too much for me to handle, I was almost consumed by the armor and lost my mind…”

Cold sweats broke out from Lily’s forehead as she put on her original armor in a weakened state. Putting her armor back on in such a state was truly not an easy feat.

Since the armor contained such an intense grudge, it was obvious that the armor was far more powerful than Lily imagined. She decided to pack up the armor and Lady Shizuka’s portrait with the rest of her spoils. Since the armor didn’t cover much skin to begin with, it didn’t take up as much s.p.a.ce but it was still enough to fill her the entire package.

It would indeed be a bit embarra.s.sing for a virtuous female samurai to carry such a big package, but Lily couldn’t care less what the others think of her.

Her breathing was still a little rushed after barely putting everything together. For some reason, she couldn’t get rid of the blush on her face.

Soon, the army finally cleared the fourth floor and made their way up. All they found in the hall was Nagasaki’s skeleton and ragged armor since Lily had already defeated him.

Shimizu also arrived with the 2nd wave at this time.

“As expected, Hojo had already escaped huh,” Shimizu didn’t find it that surprising as the battles had been going too smoothly.

Everyone felt a bit envious when they saw Lily carrying such a big package.

Shimizu also didn’t say much upon seeing that, she merely gave her orders, “There might still be remnants of the Hojos in this castle, stay vigilant!”

By the crack of dawn, the war was mainly concluded, there were only a few skirmishes here and there.

Ashikaga Makota and Kiyoshi had also entered the Odawara castle by this time. Lily had already loaded the package onto her horse and had Shiu drag it away from here. A custom it might be, Lily still didn’t want to ruin her image in front of Ashikaga Makoto and Kiyoshi.

Ashikaga Makoto surveyed the smoke-filled battlefields from the top of Odawara Castle and said, “We have claimed an overwhelming victory in this war, the merits will be added up and be announced in turn, but I can confidently declare this in advance, the first cla.s.s merit belongs to Miss Kagami!

“Eeeh? Me?” Lily was taken aback, “B-but I’m just a female samurai with no official position, shouldn’t the first cla.s.s merit belong to Sister Shimizu?”

“Hehe, Miss Kagami, Shimizu will naturally get a great merit as well, but not only have you brought to light the Fuma clan’s evil deeds, you even took the lead to break through the city gate and even killed the Hojo’s general, Nagasaki Ichiya. The fact that Nagasaki has become an undead samurai is the greatest proof that the Hojo has defected to the Hundred Demon Nation. With all these merits, no one could compare to your contributions! It is only to be expected for you to obtain the first cla.s.s merit. You can look forward to the reward from Lord Kamakura,”2 Ashikaga Makoto said with a smile.

“Shimizu? Would you get jealous if your training sister gets first cla.s.s merit?” Then she teased Shimizu on purpose.

“Of course I would be happy for Lil’ Lily,” Shimizu answered with a smile.

Lily’s active performance in this war was a little out of Shimizu’s expectation, but she honestly wasn’t that concerned about it. Her original plan was to defeat Dijon to prove herself, since it was said that Uesugi Rei alone was able to push back three high-tier Sword Saints including Hojo Dijon, Taira no Hachiro, and Yagyuu Munesaki. Since Dijon had already escaped in the midst of confusion, there was hardly a meaning left to get the first cla.s.s merit.

After all, the Ashikaga clan would still be the one to gain the most benefits from this war. Lily might have the first cla.s.s merit, but it was Ashikaga’s twenty thousand troops that contributed the most in the frontline. Since that was the case, their reward was naturally the highest.

There wouldn’t be any meaning even if she was the one to kill Nagasaki, she was much stronger than him to begin with. But she was a little embarra.s.sed to think that her lil’ sister would carry such a big package of grade 3 and grade 4 teacups. These items weren’t of any value to her.

Odawara City was filled with corpses all over the place. The Hojo camp had lost more than six thousand men and at least a hundred were taken as prisoners of war. The Genji allied armies had lost a minimum of three thousand men. Most of these casualties occurred in melee.

Even the few dozen men Shimizu had taken along with her from the dojo, five of them had fallen, and that includes two of her female ninjas. After all, casualties were to be expected for the vanguard unit so Shimizu didn’t really mind it.

As the stench of blood was too thick at Odawara City, Shimizu and Ashikaga Makoto returned to Kamakura City with a few divisions. Ashikaga Kiyoshi was left behind to a.s.sume temporary control of the Hojo’s territory.

Temporary might not be the right word, in a certain sense, it was extremely likely that the majority of the territory would be granted to the Ashikaga. The returning group marched until nightfall and set up camps right below Mt. Aoame.

“Lily, come to my tent tonight,” Shimizu said so when Lily and Shiu had just entered the camp area. Her tone wasn’t very friendly, but since Lily was still drowned in the joy of victory, she didn’t notice that.

At night, Lily naturally arrived at Shizimu’s tent.

“Where’s Lil’ Lyn?” Since Uesugi Rei had nothing else to do for the night, she decided to visit Lily. When she spotted Shiu chasing after the fireflies near the tent, she asked as such.

“Master has gone to visit Lady Shimizu.”

At the same time, the atmosphere was rather heavy in Shimizu’s tent.

Lily entered the tent and sat in a seiza on top of the carpet. On the other hand, Shimizu stood up, got in front of Lily, and asked while looking down at her, “Lil sis sure has earned plenty of merits huh.”

It was true that Shimizu didn’t really care about Lily s.n.a.t.c.hing the first cla.s.s merit from her, but her mood kept getting worse the more she laid her eyes on Lily today. Instead of directly asking why she went to meet Uesugi Rei last night, she first had to teach her a few lessons.

“No, it’s thanks to everyone fighting bravely, I was just lucky…” Lily tried to be modest.

“So you know it was merely good luck?”

“Huh?” Lily was surprised, they had just triumphed but somehow, Shimizu’s tone felt a little amiss.

“Do you always have to be at the forefront and get all the good things for yourself? Don’t you feel embarra.s.sed to be carrying such a big package in a public place?” “But isn’t that the custom of the Eastern samurai?” “Humph! What custom! Don’t go learning the custom of those boorish low-level samurai!” “Sorry… Sister Shimizu, I will not do it again,” Lily actually felt it was a little uncouth herself, so being reprimanded by Shimizu was within reason. “Humph, forget about it, this isn’t that important anyway. n.o.body would say anything if you were a man, but for a woman to fight over spoils of war like that without showing any modesty is indeed… ugh! Let’s drop it here.”

“Sister Shimizu, I’m really sorry.” Even Lily started to feel a little embarra.s.sed by now. However, Lazy Shizuka’s armor was too important for her to give up! Although she couldn’t put on the armor since her willpower wasn’t strong enough, that also served as a testimony of its strength. If she could make her stronger and obtain the power to save senior sister, Lily wouldn’t care about anything else!

However, she couldn’t explain that to Shimizu so she was misunderstood as a greedy woman.

“Let me ask you another question,” this time, Shimizu lifted her bare leg from the carpet and stepped on Lily’s thigh, “Last night, after you leave my tent, where did you go?”

“Ehhh? I-I didn’t go anywhere…” Lily didn’t lie on purpose, she was just trying to protect Sister Uesugi’s dignity by keeping what happened last night a secret.

“You didn’t go anywhere?” Shimizu bent her body and looked into Lily’s eyes with a hint of jealousy, “You think I didn’t know? You went to find Uesugi Rei, right?”

Lily blushed and remained silent.

“Why aren’t you speaking now, does that mean you admit it? Aren’t we training sisters? Since when did you start lying to me? What else are you hiding from me?” “It’s not that, I…” “What is it?” “Sister Shimizu is my training sister, Sister Uesugi is also a good friend of mine, so what if I really went to find her last night, is there a problem?” Lily also started to feel gloomy now.

“Slap!” Lily fell to the ground after getting a sudden slap from Shimizu, “What do you mean if there’s a problem? Didn’t you already form a bond of sisters with me? Didn’t you already vow to fight by my side? Then why do you still need to curry favor with Uesugi Rei!”

Lily covered her swollen face and looked at Shimizu with a grievance, “Sister Shimizu, I don’t understand the contradiction, does that mean I can’t have other female friends because we are training sisters?”

Shimizu didn’t say anything, she just took out a really long hemp rope3 from the box.

Upon spotting the hemp rope, Lily started to panic, “Sister Shimuzu, what do you plan to do with that?”

“Since you are my lil’ sister, I will have to discipline you properly today, I will teach you what it means to be the training sister of a Genji n.o.ble. You are such a fickle and capricious woman, if I don’t discipline you well, as your big sister, I will become an object of ridicule in the Genji clan!”

“Sister Shimizu, don’t…”

The disparity in strength between Lily and Shimizu was really too much. Besides, it wasn’t like she could really do anything to resist, thus, her only option was to let Shimizu tie her up with practiced hands and hang her in the center of the tent…

Will Lily be able to escape her inevitable punishment? Find out in the next chapter!4

1. Robinxen: “Says the girl wearing a dress.” “It’s a combat skirt.” “Yeeeeeeeeeeah.” *high five*
2. Robinxen: How dare you use justified logic in my wish fulfilment fantasies.
3. Silva: Bondage?
4. Robinxen: Was this really in the original? Feels like something I’d add myself honestly. Wasn’t much for me to comment on this chapter weirdly.