Book 5: Chapter 98: Michizane’s Conditions

Lily had stumbled upon the terrifying battle on the outskirts of Kamakura and knew that Michizane had a grudge against Shuten Doji, but she didn’t expect that by cutting off Ibaraki Doji’s arm, she would actually save herself the trouble of using the Blood Spirit Magatama.

However, for some reason, she was still bound by the long scroll. Lily twisted her body and found that the scroll didn’t loosen, so she asked, “Lord Michizane, what Lily did today was really unavoidable. Can Lord Michizane please forgive me and…put me down first?”

Michizane examined the surrounding demons and found that, although some of their injuries weren’t light, Lily fortunately didn’t kill anyone and the medicinal herbs he possessed could cure them.

He rolled his eyes to reveal a look of authority with a bit of cunning, “That is a different matter. On the merit of severing Ibaraki Doji’s arm, I won’t hold you accountable for stealing my iron seal, but you still hurt my subordinates today. I can’t just let you go.”

“Lord Michizane, what does Lily need to do to make up for it? If you need life-recovery magatama, I have some here.”

“Why would I, Michizane, want such small things from a junior like you? But if I let you go like this, it will tarnish my reputation as the Demon King!”

“Please speak clearly, Lord Michizane.” Lily said.

“It’s not impossible to let you go, but you have to promise me one condition.”

Michizane’s breath carried a hint of lightning power as it brushed across Lily’s body, which was enough to give people an overwhelming feeling.

“What conditions?”

“My old friend, Middle Counselor Ikeda, died of depression because his daughter was kidnapped by Shuten Doji. This has always made me feel ill at ease. If you go to Mount Ooe one day, I hope you can help me find the whereabouts of Lord Ikeda’s daughter.” Michizane’s eyes revealed a look of helplessness and slight sorrow at this time.

“Lord Ikeda’s daughter?”

“Alas, I know that a thousand years have passed, but regardless of whether she is alive or dead, I hope to know her whereabouts or…at least find her resting place so as to console Lord Ikeda’s deceased spirit.”

Mount Ooe was in Tanba Province, which was Shuten Doji’s lair. Finding a person in such a place wouldn’t be an easy search!

However, Michizane probably knew the difficulty of this and didn’t set a date.

Michizane was already showing much consideration for Lily. After all, she had injured so many of his subordinates and she needed to do something to make up for it. Of course, she would only go there after accumulating enough strength.

“I promise you, Lord Michizane.” Lily gave a calm and direct reply.

Michizane looked at Lily with his thunder-like eyes and nodded.

“Miss Kagami, if you can really find the whereabouts of Lord Ikeda’s daughter, I will be very grateful!”

Michizane returned Lily to the ground and took back the long scroll.

“Thank you, Lord Michizane, for your forbearance. Lily will do her best.”

After offering a bow, Lily urged her domain to retrieve Crescent Moon from the hands of a little demon.

Michizane saw that some of the low-level hundred demons were still dissatisfied so he waved his long sleeves and summoned over the demonic cloud. The demonic cloud swept over and took the hundred ghosts away with him before drifting into the distance.

“Hahahaha—” The dark Suzaku Avenue still echoed with Michizane’s faraway thunderous laughter.

“Phew—” Lily finally breathed a sigh of relief and couldn’t help falling to both knees, her chest heaving violently.

Dealing with such a terrifying great vengeful spirit made the usually vibrant Lily feel a little tired.

But on second thought, barely half a year had passed since Lily met Michizane for the first time. The difference between their strength was still as vast as heaven and earth, but compared to back then when the other party could reduce her to dust with a single glance, she could now talk with Demon King Michizane and even discuss conditions with him, which made her feel a little proud.

Lily returned to the chief advisor’s manor, but Ayaka hadn’t come back yet. The miko asked about the sword mikos, but Lily only said that the matter was resolved before going to take a bath and sleep.

She was really too tired— though she was mostly mentally exhausted.

As the saying goes, although the night is short in spring, the coming days in Heian-kyō wouldn’t even see the sunrise!

It was still dark when Lily woke up, but she had slept all night and felt that her vitality had fully recovered!

She went to take a bath with cold water, which, according to the female adepts in the Heian world, was said to be good for the skin from time to time.

After taking a bath, Lily went back to her room to get dressed, but Ayaka still hadn’t returned, so she began to read in the study.

Instead of solely focusing on training, one needed to learn more about the past and present to accumulate all kinds of knowledge, which also aided in improving one’s perception.

“Miss Kagami, you have a visitor outside the door.” The miko came to report.

“A visitor?” Lily was stunned for a moment. This was the chief advisor’s manor, why would someone come here to visit her? Did they really consider her as ‘Mrs. Chief Advisor’?

This thought caused Lily to blush, “Lily, you are really a licentius woman. Even if it’s just a self-deprecating thought, you shouldn’t have such inappropriate thoughts!”

Lily scolded herself secretly.

However, she still changed into a small pink kimono and went to the door to see who was looking for her. Could it be the racoon, Yuuta?

However, it wasn’t a round, fluffy racoon that was standing outside the door, but several tall and fair female samurai.

The leader of this group was none other than Ijuin Reira.

“You are…” Lily couldn’t immediately recall the other party’s name.

“Miss Kagami, you are really a noble person who forgets things. I am Ijuin Reira!” Ijuin, whose long dark hair was crowned with an exaggerated headdress, put her hands on her hips and said.

“Oh, yes, yes, Miss Ijuin. I wonder why you want to see me?”

“Miss Kagami, although the approach you took yesterday was a bit brash, your swordsmanship and arcane arts are really excellent. This lady came, firstly, to thank you for saving all our sisters, and secondly, to invite you to join our sword miko sisters.” Although Ijuin said thanks and offered an invitation, her solicitation seemed more arrogant than sincere, as if she disdained to beg anyone.

“Eh?” Lily looked startled, but she was actually thinking in her mind, This is somewhat unexpected. If I can join these sword miko sisters, it might be easier to find out why they acted so aggressively1.

“Uhm…” A petite, big-breasted girl with pink and purple curly hair stepped forward from behind Ijuin, “I don’t know if Miss Kagami still recognises me. I am Keiko. When you rescued everybody yesterday, Sister Kasuga and I were among them.”

“Ah, I see…” Lily nodded. She remembered these two sisters who were previously captured by the Rashomon spirit and nearly got r̲a̲pe̲d̲, but fortunately, she arrived in time. In a sense, the two sisters could be considered really lucky.

Keiko continued, “Miss Kagami is also a mirror girl. Right now, all the sword mikos, jade maidens, and mirror girls in Heian-kyō are united. It is better for Miss Kagami not to struggle alone. Oops, I’m being rude. I, I mean to say that Miss Kagami should help us more. After all, your martial arts are superb and we sisters hope that Miss Kagami can join us.”

Ijuin added, “Yes, Miss Kagami, we really hope that you can join us in defending the heavenly way and crusading against the demons! Let us save this dark and depraved world together.”

“This…”

“Miss Kagami, is there anything to hesitate about? As a powerful female warrior of Heian-kyō, shouldn’t you contribute your youth and strength to save the world?”

Lily pondered a little and nodded, “Miss Ijuin is right. Lily has some skills and is indeed obliged to do her part for her sisters and everyone.”

“So, you agree?” Ijuin asked excitedly.

“Yes.” Lily smiled gently and nodded.

Firstly, Lily could dig deeper into the mirror girl organization and learn about her true destiny, and secondly, by joining them, it would be easier to stop them from messing around while also finding the real instigator behind the scenes.

Although these little girls acted crazy, their motives were pure, after all. If someone should be held responsible for the death of the night market demons and the recent casualties of the Tsunaga sisters, it was the instigator behind the scenes!

“Good! Let’s go, I’ll take you to our sword miko branch!” Ijuin seemed to be very proud of their branch.

“Eh? branch?”

Lily followed Ijuin and the others to the westernmost side of Nijo Boulevard before walking another three or four kilometers to a relatively secluded neighborhood. It was a tree-lined area with beautiful scenery where many of the capital’s famous warriors took residency.

Nowadays, both the samurai families and onmyoji families in Kansai were very different from a few decades ago. Because monsters were rampant, calamities constantly occurred, and infighting among the various forces was intensifying, a large number of young male samurai and onmyojis who were not strong enough had died in this chaotic world. Although the total number of women was not as many as men, there were many more now than in the past.

Although there were more and more women practicing martial arts in Kanto, it was not as prevalent as Kansai.

Also, many young ladies did not have a very clear purpose for practicing martial arts. Most of them just felt that this was the most popular trend nowadays. If a lady with status did not practice martial arts, did not know what the heavenly oracle was, and did not dare to stand up, lift their heads, spill blood, and sacrifice things precious to them to save the heavenly way, they weren’t worthy of mixing in the circle of upper-class ladies.

Many sword mikos themselves did not have ancient swords or get awakened. Their ancient swords were bought or even fake, and the same went for the jade maidens. Many of them bought ancient jades at auctions and became the most fashionable jade maidens who saved the world!

Mirror girls joined later and were relatively few in number. After all, the mirror girls had just been absolved by the new policy not too long ago and the political situation was still unstable. Some people still had lingering fears about the mirror girls, and although most of the mirror girls possessed a clan lineage, some people who bought ancient mirrors and passed themselves off as mirror girls also started to appear recently.

Ijuin and the others brought Lily to a small square forest surrounded by famous neighborhoods. There was a small lake in the middle of the forest, beside which, there was a pavilion that served as the gathering place for the sword miko sisters.

Now that the forest seemed to have been occupied by the sword mikos, the surrounding people couldn’t even come by for a walk even if they wanted to. At this time, there were many tsunaga sisters practicing swordsmanship and arcane arts in the forest.

There were also a group of girls gathered in the pavilion who were discussing the current affairs of the world with great enthusiasm.

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