Leave a comment

In the eerie dark, a beautiful shape, not so tall nor so short, hung from a beam. A single flame flickering inside a dim oil lamp light up the wood storage, revealing Shiu.

The light partially reflected in her eyes. While her jade-like body dripped with beads of sweat from time to time, both in part because of her tense nerves, and the drug"s effects.

With dreamy eyes looking at Lily glumly and fearfully, Shiu looked so mournful.

In this otherworld Heian Empire, women always had low positions. In a world controlled by strength and supernatural power, vulnerable women who were always calm and tender naturally became the victims of the era. They were punished, often beaten by their husbands. There was no concept of human rights here. Many women were forced to become slaves after their clans were defeated. Such treatment as being tied and hung on the beam was hardly rare.

However, this time, Shiu was tied because she had been defeated. And, it was another woman who had tied her there.

"Turns out your name is Shiu… It"s a nice name, and you look like a rather elegant and pure little girl. Why did you want to harm me?" Not trying to be polite, Lily"s interrogation had already moved to search through the sc.r.a.pped remains of what was once the ninjas" clothes.

"Ah! You, what are you doing!?" Shiu grew nervous, writhing helplessly in the air under Lily"s scrutiny.

"Doing what? You don"t need to ask. As… as you"re my captive, I have to search your body!" Lily replied, stammering a little.

Since she had come here from the modern world she found it harder to accept the straightforward rules of this world. As Shiu had been defeated, she belonged to Lily. No need to mention her belongings, which had all become Lily"s spoils of war. Everything was right and just.

Lily blushed as she felt rather apologetic, however, she had steeled her resolve. "A weak woman like me, who was unfortunately gifted with beauty, will always be the subject of people"s l.u.s.t and desire. If I can"t at least protect or defend myself then I will have no way to find the secret to releasing my senior sister! As my vision is enlarging, I have a feeling that the truth behind this would be profound and somehow frightening."

"If I want to increase my strength, I need money! As a woman I also need to buy more clothes, which needs money! There are so many things I need to spend money on!"

Unfortunately, currently, Lily was penniless. She had even borrowed her slave"s money to buy these clothes. If Nanako wanted to use this to threaten her, she wouldn"t be able to do anything about it.

Moreover, the "Genji Swordstyle" wasn"t cheap at all. No, it was a total rip-off with the sky-high price.

"Although it lacks all honor, begrudgingly, I have to use this female captive. I am all alone in this otherworld, do I have a choice? Isn"t it true you can"t control your will sometimes? At the very least, when there"s no one around, I will punish myself once to redeem my sin."

Although Lily was embarra.s.sed with a red face, her voice was unwavering. She commanded the full power of a victorious older sister.

"Why are you so fl.u.s.tered? Big sister here just wishes to borrow some of your money. We"re both women, there"s nothing else I can s.n.a.t.c.h from you!"

Checking Shiu"s coin purse first and foremost, Lily found five silver ingots and more than one kwan of change.

She completely forgot about her current embarra.s.sment after seeing so much money. Prompting her to smile happily towards Shiu, "So you have a lot of money. "

It totaled more than fifty-one kwans. She really was rich.

Lily then had an epiphany. Should she go and collect things from the ninjas she had killed?

"Hey, your other henchmen, did they have money?"1

Shiu shook her head. "No money. They didn"t even have a mon. We are all poor people. All the traveling expenses and other expenses of my ninja troop is here. And, most of it isn"t my money. It"s the money the Chief paid me. Ninjas are pretty poor."

"Okay, then I can take them without remorse. Hmph, your Wind Demon Clan wanted to kill me for money. Should I be polite to them?" Saying so, Lily put all the money into her pocket.

Shiu could only be upset and depressed about her inability to retain her own a.s.sets. It was simply impossible as she was at Lily"s mercy.

Lily wasn"t afraid of searching Shiu"s body entirely as, no matter what, they were both women. Shiu felt itchy but was powerless to resist, leaving her to wiggle and pants.

Except for the money, the only other valuable thing was Shiu"s Shiroi Fugu. A medium-quality Grade Three, precious, ninja sword. Lily hesitated for a while then kept the sword at her belt. However, Lily didn"t intend to make use of the sword in that way. Tomorrow, she would go to the dojo to p.a.w.n it.

Shiu wanted to cry after seeing Lily take her last, and crucial, weapon. If she had known the target was a Demon Sword Maiden she would never have taken the mission. Even if she had got three more senior genins to support she still wouldn"t have dared to fight against her.

And now, she could only pray that this money-hungry sister didn"t have any strange interests.

Except for the sword, Lily found some shurikens. Though they didn"t look too valuable, she still took them all. There was also a book where she found the description of her a.s.sa.s.sination mission. However, this book was highly confidential. She couldn"t figure out its origin, or the information of the clients, only her own information.

Finally, Lily came upon a wooden tag around Shiu"s belt.

It read "Ryumori."

"Ryumori? Is this your family name?" asked Lily.

"No, no! Female ninjas aren"t allowed to keep such an ordinary name," Shiu hastily denied.

"Oh? So it"s your ordinary family name?"

"Eh? H- how did you know that?"2

Lily shook her head and wondered just what the Wind Demon Clan"s Chief was thinking when he a.s.signed Shiu this mission. Though she was talented in martial arts, her intelligence left much to be desired. Later she would interrogate Shiu, and her red mouth would sell that entire clan down the river.

With all those items set aside, the rest didn"t look valuable.

"Your stocking garters don"t look bad. Where did you buy them?"

Lily wasn"t joking as she asked so. She had wanted to try short skirts, but felt it was inappropriate to display her slender thighs. With black stocking garters however, she would appear more ladylike. Moreover it would permit her to be more confident when walking on the streets. She desired a pair a lot, but couldn"t afford them. Of course, she couldn"t rob Shiu"s to wear since, not only would it be embarra.s.sing, they were already torn.

Sakura returned as Lily was collecting things to her heart"s content. Even the parasol"s canopy turned redder as it pushed open the door to the scene. "Ah, s- seems like I saw what I shouldn"t. Master, sorry, I disturbed you. I"ll be back in two hours ~ "

"What?" Lily blushed, screaming softly. "You, what did you say!? No, it"s not what you think! I- I am only interrogating and checking her body!"

"Hehe, really," Sakura Parasol chuckled as she re-entered the warehouse.

Shiu screamed in terror seeing the talking umbrella, "Ah…! A monster umbrella!"

"Shut up! Who are you calling a monster!? I am a shikigami! A stately shikigami!" Sakura Parasol jumped up, whipping Shiu"s b.u.t.t.3

"Ah, it hurts. Sorry, sorry Master Shikigami. M- my bad… I won"t do it ever again…"

After just a single sentence, Shiu could only apologize continuously. Lily was startled. She felt like Sakura could be a better master than her.

It also made Lily a little frustrated as she was still childish in that aspect. To stop thinking about it she shook her head, asking the parasol, "Sakura, how"s it going out there?"