Book 4: Chapter 9: Banquet in Kiyosu

Shiba Yoshishige felt his heart bleed!

After all, 25 kgs of gold was a ma.s.sive amount of wealth in these dark and chaotic times.

There was only a single city left under Shiba’s control right now and it didn’t bring in much revenue for him as there was little to no money within the city. The 25 kgs of gold was practically all the money the city had.

He had just intended to bring it out to distract Lily and let her guard down so that he could retrieve it back after killing her.

However, he never imagined that Lily would actually make the gold disappear suddenly.

Just what kind of witchery or illusion is this?

Shiba had never seen such a method until now and sweated from his forehead, worried that he would be unable to retrieve the gold back from Lily even if he managed to kill her.

Moreover, he also began to worry whether his plan would succeed after learning that Lily had such magical abilities within her a.r.s.enal.

“Are you fine, Lord Shiba?”

“Ah!” Shiba Yoshishige felt a shiver pa.s.s through his spine and finally noticed that he had panicked. He forced out a smile quickly and raised his cup towards Lily, “Allow me to offer you a cup of sake to express our grat.i.tude for killing that Great Demon, Lady Lyn-hime!”

Lily found Shiba’s reaction to be a little strange, so she remained motionless after receiving the cup of sake.

“There’s no problem with the sake and the food, Master. You can rest a.s.sured, probably…” Kagura stated via voice transmission.

“Probably, huh…” Lily felt a little speechless. Although she was positive there wasn’t any poison in them, even Kagura couldn’t detect whether that type of concoction was mixed into the sake and the food. However, Lily couldn’t just think of all strangers as evil since most of the Heian Empire’s samurai were frank and upright in nature.

Lily drank the Kiyosu sake, which actually had a pretty distinctive flavor possibly because of the regional climate, and the flavor of the local food specialties showed the beauty of nature, which was a rare sight in the outside world.

Lily’s keen senses allowed her to sample these items on a deep level.

Lily laid down the cup and used this chance to take out the message slip from prior under the table and read it, finding the words—there are a.s.sa.s.sins in the tower—written in blood.

Lily looked at Oda immediately and found him looking at Shiba and his men with worry and anger for their despicable behavior. Lily understood that Oda was actually a frank and righteous samurai immediately and that he had pa.s.sed on this message slip to her in spite of the danger after finding some definitive clue.

Although Lily had long raised her guard even without such a warning, she still appreciated Oda’s actions. At least, there was still such a righteous man in this world even in such chaotic times, which proved that the world might not necessarily be completely dark1.

“Uhm… Forgive me for saying this, Lady Lyn-hime, but the method you just showcased has really widened my horizons. How did you make the two boxes of gold disappear with just a single wave of the hand?”

Lily snorted coldly in her heart. As expected, he really couldn’t refrain from asking about it. It looks like he won’t act rashly until he clarifies the location of the gold.

Lily smiled faintly, “I naturally received the gold since you gifted them to me. Could it be that you wish to take them back now, Lord Shiba?”

“How could I?!” A layer of sweat formed on Shiba’s forehead as he waved his hand, “It’s just a humble gift and a t-token of my respect.”

Lily saw Shiba’s face spasm as he uttered those words.

“It’s just that the method you showcased was really too magical. I wonder if you can show it to us once again?” the priest sitting on the opposite side chimed in.

“Of course,” Lily smiled.

“I wonder if it’s possible to make this little table disappear then, and make the gold appear again after that?” The priest suggested epiphanically.

“Yes! We residents of Owari live at the East’s border, so please allow us to witness the magical methods of Kamakura once again, Lady Lyn-hime,” Shiba also spoke in agreement.

“I’m afraid that’s not possible as it’s only possible to transfer grade 6 treasures and above,” answered Lily.

“What?!” Shiba’s lips twitched in response. He wondered whether Lily really wasn’t kidding with him and from the sincere look in Lily’s eyes, it seemed that she wasn’t lying to him, which meant that she had spoken the truth just now.

It wasn’t like Shiba didn’t have any grade 6 or higher items with him, but they numbered quite low, and he was afraid that Lily would make them disappear as well…

Shiba gritted his teeth and decided to make a move the instant Lily made the gold reappear.

“Bring my tea caddy, Tsuk.u.mo-Kaminasu, out for me!” Shiba seemed to have thrown caution to the wind at this point in time.

A box was brought over from the back room by two of the samurai attendants and even though the box looked quite plain and unremarkable, Lily drew in a cold breath after sensing the shine coming off from the little dark purple tea caddy inside the box the instant it was opened. However, she masked her expression immediately even though it was hard to hide the clear heaving of her chest.

“This Tsuk.u.mo-Kaminasu was bought by a legendary tea master using 99 kan in the past, but I acquired it into my collection at the price of 1,999 kan centuries later. It’s a genuine grade 6 tea caddy of the highest quality. How about it, Lady Lyn-hime? Are you willing to demonstrate that magical method for us once again with this item?”

Lily’s heart hadn’t stopped fluttering even now as she remarked internally. Hmph! You’re a really inferior cultural sn.o.b, Shiba Yoshishige. Although you have some understanding of the way of tea, your understanding clearly isn’t deep enough. Although I’m unable to ascertain the history of this tea caddy and its workmanship even with my knowledge, it’s clear that its natural but free form and distinct style that’s capable of setting even my heart flutter and the shine that makes me irrepressibly excited, places it far above Fuji-san. It’s a grade 8 item at the very least and even possibly a grade 9 tea caddy! I’m afraid that even you didn’t know that you actually housed such an extraordinary heaven-bestowed treasure in this desolate and ruined Kiyosu Castle of yours, Shiba Yoshishige!

Lily lifted her head and allowed the deep cleavage of her fair bosom to rise and fall before everyone’s eyes as she narrowed her eyes and smiled, “I shall perform it again then.”

Shiba and the others were overjoyed by this as it seemed like Lily had been hooked by the bait offered by him. He had designated her time of death to the moment she made the gold reappear and decided to act swiftly in order to prevent her from transferring it back again.

As for the tea caddy, it was a necessary loss for him if it really goes missing and he could just look for it slowly after killing her. In any case, a tea caddy wasn’t as precious as gold in such chaotic times.

Lily tried hard to hold back the glee and the desire to laugh as she looked at the tea caddy and waved her hand.

The tea caddy, Tsuk.u.mo-Kaminasu, a really rare treasure in all of Heian, and the apex of ancient tea caddies, fell into Lily’s hands just like that.

Silence filled the hall once the tea caddy disappeared, and no one reacted for a good while.

Shiba started turning anxious at this moment, “T-The tea caddy is gone, right, Lady Lyn-hime?”

“It’s gone,” Lily stated softly.

“What about the gold then?”

“The gold? It’s also gone,” Lily stated calmly2.

“What?!” Shiba nearly lost control after hearing this and realized that it was highly likely he had been tricked. He thus restrained his anxiety and questioned Lily in rage, “Didn’t you just say that you would be able to bring the gold back as long as there’s a grade 6 treasure, Lady Lyn-hime?”

“Eh?” Lily asked puzzledly, “I never said that. It was you who said that. Lord Shiba requested me to perform once again, and I said that it’s only possible to transfer grade 6 treasures and above. I never said anything about bringing anything back.”

“What do you mean by this, Lady Lyn-hime? Please stop joking and bring back the tea caddy and the gold quickly!” The priest urged.

Lily, however, blushed and used her long sleeves to hide her lowered head, “I’m sorry. I cannot bring them back.”

“Huh?!” Everyone was left dumbfounded.

“Hmph! I can see that you are playing with us, Kagami Lily, and intend to steal my tea caddy and gold!” Shiba Yoshishige got up suddenly and raised his cup up high.

“I don’t understand what you’re saying, Lord Shiba. You were the one who invited me to the banquet, and it was you who gifted the gold to me personally. You also never requested me to bring the tea caddy back and I also never said that it was possible to do so,” Lily explained innocently.

“Can you bring them back or not? You’re a n.o.ble liege lord of the East as well, so don’t force us to fall out with you now!” Shiba glowered at Lily with twitching lips.

A layer of sweat formed on the thin samurai’s forehead as Shiba Yoshishige had lost his calm because of the lost tea caddy and the gold. He had said that they needed to catch Lily off guard previously without wasting much time for words, but here he was warning the other party with plenty of words right now.

Lily spread her hands wide and stated apologetically, “I’m sorry, Lord Shiba, but it’s really impossible to bring them back.”

“Smash!” Shiba smashed the cup in his fingers, “I’ll find them from your corpse slowly once you’re dead!”

“Watch out, Lady Lyn-hime!” Oda, who was seated at the corner, yelled out.

The wooden doors on both sides of the hall got pushed over at this time and revealed a large number of katana-wielding samurai behind them.

The bearded Tanaka and the thin samurai kicked the table over at the same time and lunged towards Lily with the daggers from their dress.

Although this murder attempt seemed sudden, swift and decisive, it actually played out in slow motion within Lily’s vision. The Tanaka reflected in her vision was just a 7th-stage Awakened, and the most standard 7th-stage Awakened at that. The reason for this was that he didn’t have access to an esoteric power augmentation technique and was an utterly plain 7th-stage Awakened with no power boost.

Lily pushed the table in front of her immediately and caused it to slide across the floor rapidly like a crossbow-shot arrow streaking across the sky, knocking into the foot of the thin samurai with a bam and causing him to tumble down.

Tanaka had long dashed towards Lily and her Crescent Moon was outside the room right now. She thus reached out towards it and employed a small-scale domain to swirl up Crescent Moon in a stream of sakura. It then broke through the wooden wall and flew into the hall, its hilt hitting exactly at Tanaka’s temple, causing him to widen his eyes and tumble towards Lily with a woozy head. Lily’s sandal-less bare foot stepped on top of Tanaka’s forehead as she caught Crescent Moon in her hand and faced the tens of screaming samurai lunging towards her. Lily didn’t draw her blade out as it was but a simple matter for her to kill these sword saints and sword masters. It would also result in the downfall of Kiyosu Castle if she were to kill these retainers and samurai of Shiba and result in the imminent death of the tens of thousands of commoners living in the city under the hands of the monsters. Lily had the strength to kill all the samurai within the city but she didn’t have the time to step back and protect the city’s commoners, which was equivalent to sending the city’s commoners to their deaths.

Lily moved suddenly and phased through all the samurai like a crimson phantom with elusive movements, appearing behind the dazed Shiba Yoshishige instantly, and drew her Crescent Moon out before pressing its edge against his neck from behind.

“Don’t move!” Lily yelled, “Your lord will lose his life if anyone moves even a single step forward.”

Shiba was a hereditary n.o.ble and had never actually trained. He had managed to obtain the physique of a sword master somehow by using some of the inheritances left behind by his ancestors, but all of this was utterly useless in front of Lily. Shiba could feel the threat of death approach him as the cold edge of the blade pressed against his neck and would’ve been paralyzed by fear undoubtedly if it weren’t for Lily supporting his body weight from behind.

“D-Don’t come over and lay down your hands immediately!” Shiba Yoshishige shouted with haste.

1. Silva: And it’s a shame that those righteous men are always weak and powerless, only to be abused by those in power
2. Silva: You evil… xD