Book 4: Chapter 8: Shiba Yoshishige’s Invitation

Lily planned to leave the city now that the monster had been eradicated.

However, a squad of people led by a big-bearded samurai, Tanaka, who was Shiba’s retainer, exited from the gate at this moment.

“It seems like someone has killed that Great Demon. Lord Shiba has sent me to inquire about their ident.i.ty,” stated Tanaka.

Oda n.o.butora got up, “Lord Tanaka, you definitely wouldn’t have imagined that the fearsome Great Demon that none of us in Kiyosu could kill was actually killed by this young lady. She’s none other than the famous Kagami Lily of the East, Lady Lyn-hime!”

“Lyn-hime?” Tanaka was taken aback by Oda’s statement and stepped forward immediately. Although Tanaka possessed a stout and dark figure, he was about 170 cm, which was a relatively tall height for a man in the Heian period even though it was lower than Lily’s height.

Tanaka bowed to Lyn-hime, “Lady Lyn-hime, I never imagined that you were the one who actually killed the Great Demon that hara.s.sed our Kiyosu Castle and harmed so many of our women! Lord Shiba, the guardian of Owari, stated that he wishes to express his grat.i.tude to the person who killed the Great Demon and has arranged for a banquet already. I hope you can accompany us to the castle and attend the banquet so that Lord Shiba can thank you personally, Lady Lyn-hime!”

“Eh? Well…” Lily had actually long intended to leave.

Oda stepped forward at this moment, “I hope that you can do me the honor of attending the banquet, Lady Lyn-hime. Lord Shiba will definitely blame me for my rudeness if you leave just like that.”

Tanaka also chimed in, “Lord Shiba is inviting you personally with sincere intentions, Lady Lyn-hime. Please attend the banquet, young lady.”

Oda also pleaded her, “Please give us a chance to offer our grat.i.tude to you, Lady Lyn-hime. You’ve helped us so much, but we’ve done nothing to express how thankful we are for that. We’ll incur the criticism of the whole world if we do nothing.”

Lily felt helpless about this, too. After all, it really wasn’t that easy for Lord Shiba, the guardian of Owari, to protect Owari from the invasion of the demons. Therefore, she decided that she might as well meet him this once.

“Well… alright,” Lily nodded faintly.

“Great. You’re really quite frank and straightforward even though you’re a woman, Lady Lyn-hime. Please,” Tanaka gave way to Lily.

Lily followed after Tanaka and Oda’s group and arrived at the central street of Kiyosu Castle, where she noticed a bunch of nearby soldiers and attendants cleaning up the bloodstains.

“Is the city still unsafe?” asked Lily.

Tanaka explained, “There are monsters that sneak into the city and cause chaos often. After all, it’s practically impossible for a mere wooden wall to block all of them. Moreover, wandering samurai from outside also get into scuffles a lot because of the shortage of supplies within the city, which has caused the prices to soar. This causes the people to engage in plunder and slaughter as a result of the hunger.”

“Sigh!” Oda also shook his head after hearing this, “Let us take care of these minor matters, Lady Lyn-hime. You needn’t mind it much, please.”

…

A ninja came to report at Shiba Yoshishige’s castle tower around the same time.

“Lord Shiba, one of the many a.s.sa.s.sins that we dispatched outside managed to really run across the mirror girl, but she saw through him and killed him in reverse!” The ninja reported.

“What?!” Shiba was stunned by this report, “It seems like the rumors are true. She’s quite a tough woman to deal with! Where’s she right now?”

“The mirror girl reacted too quickly, and the a.s.sa.s.sin’s body was discovered by Lord Oda’s subordinates on the spot. His body had already gotten handled as a nameless wandering samurai by the time we discovered it, and from what Oda’s subordinates told me, the mirror girl and Lord Oda have gone to the west gate together.”

“Oda? Didn’t he just invite the samurai who killed the Great Demon at the west gate? Why is he together with the mirror girl now? I’m quite confused,” Shiba furrowed his brows, “Find out the latest movements of the mirror girl immediately!”

“Understood!” The ninja ran out quickly, but another ninja came in to report within a few minutes of the first one’s departure.

“Lord Shiba, the samurai who killed the Great Demon at the west gate is none other than Kagami Lily, the mirror girl! The mirror girl is coming up the hill along with Lord Tanaka and the others right now,” the ninja reported with a kneel.

“What?!” Shiba was taken aback, “So it was the mirror girl who killed that Great Demon!”

“The mirror girl is almost at the castle, my lord.”

Shiba found it hard to make a decision momentarily, “Withdraw for now.”

“Yes, my lord.”

Shiba’s conscience made him condemn himself after the ninja withdrew. He had no grudge against Lily, yet he had still executed the order of the enigmatic Lord Kibu, who he didn’t dare to resist, and tried to kill her. Lily, however, had helped him kill the Great Demon bothering his city and eliminated a major problem for him, which filled his heart with guilt again.

It didn’t take long for Shiba to make a decision. Although Kagami Lily was formidable, she was just a pa.s.sing traveler in his perspective and far from being able to contend against the whole of Hundred Demons and the enigmatic Lord Kibu. Letting her live was tantamount to defying the Hundred Demons and Lord Kibu, which was equivalent to courting death! He was thus forced to let Lily down after weighing the merits and the demerits.

“Men!” Shiba called out.

…

Lily climbed the overgrown hill and arrived at the castle tower’s gate under Tanaka’s guidance.

Kiyosu Castle’s castle tower wasn’t that tall and consisted of a total of 3 stories along with black roof tiles and white walls. Although it didn’t look that majestic, the materials used for the tiles and bricks were quite exquisite in nature, which revealed that this land was still pretty wealthy at time of this castle’s construction.

However, Lily could sense a killing intent from the castle’s interior as she climbed the stone steps uphill with the others after entering the castle.

Lily refrained from employing a spirit probe to prevent the other party from learning that she had long discovered this killing intent.

Lily felt at least two spirit probes check her at this moment, but they were both weaker than her in terms of strength and also inferior in terms of probing. It was possible for her to prevent them from finding her, but she decided to adjust her spirit fluctuations to the level of a late-stage sword saint in order to avoid raising their suspicions.

…

A brown-robed priest and a tall, thin and bald samurai sat cross-legged on Shiba Yoshishige’s either side inside the castle at this moment.

“I’ve probed her! This Kagami Lily is at the level of a late-stage sword saint,” said the priest.

“Late-stage sword saint?” Although Shiba felt astonished, he locked his brows immediately, “A late-stage sword saint is quite formidable in this Kiyosu Castle. This means that only Lord Tanaka would be able to win against her. However, she was actually able to kill a Great Demon that even Lord Tanaka had no chances of defeating!”

“That Great Demon was a superior high-ranked monster and the fact that the mirror girl was able to kill it without the slightest injury means that she definitely has some kind of formidable treasure with her!” The priest speculated.

Shiba Yoshishige nodded, “I was wondering how such a young woman had managed to overpower the mighty samurai of the East. So it was because of a treasure! It looks like we must act decisively and swiftly during the banquet later on. Lie in wait with the hundred a.s.sa.s.sins and come out to kill that Kagami Lily wordlessly the moment I smash the cup in my hands! You mustn’t give her a chance to use the treasure!”

“We must be wary of any protective treasures that she has on her,” the priest added.

“It’s impossible for a protective treasure to block the mighty combined attacks of a sword saint and several sword masters now, isn’t it? Even if such a precious treasure does exist, it’s unlikely that she has it!” said the thin samurai.

“Inform Lord Tanaka in secret a while later to tell everyone to bring daggers with them to the banquet. The few of you shall take the lead first when I send the signal and the a.s.sa.s.sins shall rush in to encircle and attack her after that,” said Shiba while scratching his chin contemplatively.

“This is quite an ingenious move, Lord Shiba. We’ll leave our katanas outside on purpose but hide daggers inside our clothes and catch that woman off guard when she least expects it! That woman definitely wouldn’t be able to predict this! However, I heard that Kagami Lily is a devastatingly beautiful woman, so it’s quite unfortunate to just kill her like this!” said the priest.

“We cannot be careless! This woman definitely possesses exceptional methods to have gained such fame in the East. We mustn’t give her a chance to use the treasure, or else we’ll be the ones in danger!” Shiba chided.

Shiba then recalled something suddenly and asked, “Oh, yes. What about Lady Shimizu? Didn’t she say that she’ll help us? Where’s she right now?”

The tall and thin samurai shook his head, “No idea. It seems like she’s gone out?”

“How did you let that happen? This woman can’t be trusted fully as well. Is no one keeping watch over her?” Shiba thundered.

“Well… Understood, Lord Shiba. I’ll send someone to keep watch over her.”

“Hold on, never mind it. Shimizu possesses unfathomable strength, and it would actually ruin things for us if she were to learn that we are keeping watching over her.”

“That’s also true…” the tall and thin samurai was helpless regarding this Shiba who went back on his words in a moment.

…

Lily followed Tanaka and the others into the castle tower and climbed up the stairs to pa.s.s through the corridor above. Oda, who walked at the back, was quite familiar with the tower, and the further he walked, the odder he felt. As such, he left the group silently to investigate the interior of the castle tower.

He was surprised to find a lot of samurai donned in killing intent lying in ambush within the castle tower as well as some ninja a.s.sa.s.sins hidden in the attic and beneath the tiles outside the tower.

Oda was shocked as to why such ambushing a.s.sa.s.sins were required to entertain the samurai woman who killed the Great Demon. Even if it were to prevent any accidents, their number was far too high and each one of them was filled with murderous intent.

“Could it be that they wish to harm Lady Lyn-hime?!”

Although Oda was just a small-time samurai in Owari and not a member of a clan in power, he held a deep sense of justice within his heart and at least had the conscience and righteousness of a samurai!

Oda showed decisiveness and courage in this time of crisis and bit his finger to write the message—there are a.s.sa.s.sins in the tower—on the paper torn from a window.

Oda caught up with Lily and the others silently while they exchanged conventional greetings with the two retainers who came across them inside the corridor and arrived beside Lily to grab her soft hand and squeeze it in spite of the rudeness.

Sensitive as she was, Lily immediately sensed that Oda hadn’t actually squeezed her hand to feel it up and received the message slip from him wordlessly.

Lily then entered the main hall of the castle tower under the escort of the samurai where tables had been set up in advance.

Shiba Yoshishige, who was dressed in the informal, red-collared black clothes of a court n.o.ble, got up and welcomed Lily with a smile on his pudgy face when he saw her come in, “You must be the famous Lady Lyn-hime from Kanto! I am Shiba Yoshishige.”

Lily also gave a faint bow to the guardian of Owari, “Greetings, Lord Shiba.”

“Please sit down, Lady Lyn-hime, please!”

Shiba sat down at the main table while Lily took the first seat on the left, following which the other samurai also took their seats.

Shiba spoke out to Lily, “Your legends are known not just in the East but also in Owari, Lady Lyn-hime! I’ve long admired your fame and never expected that you would kill that Great Demon right after arriving at this Kiyosu Castle of mine, eliminating a disaster of Owari for us! I really can’t thank you enough for it!”

Shiba waved his hand, following which the maids brought a lineup of food and drinks from outside along with two boxes of gold.

“I’ve arranged some of Owari’s seasonal sashimi and specialties for you on this occasion and I hope that you’re willing to accept these kind offerings,” said Shiba.

Lily looked at the two boxes of gold that seemed to be at least 25 kg in weight, which was a considerable amount of wealth, and received them into the mirror s.p.a.ce along with a wave of her sleeve.

“Huh?” Shiba and his retainers were left dumbstruck after seeing the two boxes of gold disappear right before their very eyes.

“You have my grat.i.tude for the offerings, Lord Shiba,” Lily smiled faintly.

Although she was quite wealthy, 25 kgs of gold was a considerable sum even for her. Moreover, she also needed money for the development of her territory. As such, she decided that she might as well accept the generous gift from the other party.

1. Silva: Lily never says no to shinies