Demon Sword Maiden

CHAPTER 85 – GENJI SWORDSTYLE’S FIRST STAGE

Under the one-thousand-year sakura, Lily was standing on the scattered and fallen pink petals. She held the Seiwa Tamashi vertically in front of her chest.

The spirit power moved in her body like flows of water.

It was as fresh as the flowers in the summer and as supple as water.

The water-like spirit power murmured, running inside Lily’s body. It felt soft and flexible but it conveyed the unceasing power.

Lily’s pupils focused.1

“Hah ——!” One slash was made. The pile of flowers underneath her feet was blown away.

“Th- this feeling! I just used the normal amount of strength but the slashing force had increased by at least fifty or sixty percent!”

Genji Swordstyle’s first stage, accomplished!

Lily was indescribably happy.

Not only she had finished the first stage of Genji Swordstyle but she also found a suitable method to channel the spirit power.

Men are strong and fierce; women are gentle and reserved.

Using the soft and supple movement of the water wave as the method to release force was the most suitable method for beautiful female samurais.

Lily then continued to practice for almost the whole night until she was soaking wet. She sat on the rock, her small hand pulling her collar to let the night wind blow and cool her body.

Although Lily was practicing Genji Swordstyle, she had modified the method to release the force based on the woman’s body characteristics. It looked as though it was a trivial change, but it had solved the knot that many female samurais had encountered when they practiced Genji Swordstyle to the middle stage.

No matter what, Ieyoshi was a man so his Swordstyle wouldn’t be compatible with female bodies. If they didn’t pay attention to this at the beginning, they would experience a subtle but irritating feeling about something inharmonious in their practice. And then, such feeling would expand, which would hinder them in their middle stage and final stage of the training. Eventually, stopping them from making great improvement. However, Lily wouldn’t encounter such an issue.

Right from the start, she had solved that basic conflict even if it may have been by chance.

And, Lily wasn’t aware of just how much attention she would have garnered if the fact that she had accomplished the first stage of Genji Swordstyle within five days was to be known by the high-level authorities of Genji Dojo.

Lily had finished her sword practice for the night. Although she felt refreshed, she still sweated a lot after a long time of exercising. Lily’s body was full of vitality and feminine heat as her metabolism worked well. At this moment, she wanted to be served while taking a bath, but then, she remembered the awkward situation last time.

She couldn’t just forget about it and face them again as if it was nothing.

“How about…”

Right at that moment, Lily saw Shiu —who had just finished practicing her ninjutsu in the woods— walking toward her.

“Shiu,” called Lily.

“Master,” Shiu ran toward her excitedly. Then, she kneeled down with respect.

As Shiu was so obedient, Lily suddenly had the natural manner of a master. She didn’t try to be polite but order directly, “Go and find Nanako. I’m going to take a bath. You two will serve me.”

“Ah?!” Shiu blushed. She dropped her little jaw, her eyes sparkling. “Really, really? Shiu can serve Master while you’re bathing too?”2

Shiu had thought that it was Nanako’s privilege as the other girl was her senior. She didn’t think that she would have this honor after all!

Inadvertently, she drooled.

Shiu ran away to find Nanako. Lily waited in the courtyard while stroking her hair coquettishly. Of course, it only looked like that to the others, but she was actually just playing with her hair. Because of her sexy, feminine figure, if she didn’t pay attention to her movement, it would look really flirty.

She thought it was a good idea anyway. Sometimes, it’d be awkward to only have one of them serve her, but if she had two girls serve her at the same time, she would look more like a noble master. Moreover, the two slaves could keep each other in check and compete to see who could serve her better. It was one stone killing two birds, indeed.

She would like to try this trick. If it worked out, she would use it more frequently.

After a while, Nanako and Shiu came. They had already changed into their white yukata.

When the two girls really came to serve her, Lily momentarily felt that this might be a little too extravagant.

However, as it had come to this, it wasn’t good to change her mind. Otherwise, she would lose the prestige of her mastership.3

At the same time, in the remote area of Takeshita Town, thick mist hovered everywhere, and even the moon now had a pale blue hue.

A group of people were walking, piercing through the dark forest, leaving Suruga Province to Takeshita Town.

Walking in the front was a middle-aged martial monk with a beefy figure and a slender samurai followed closely behind. They were Daidouji Akira and Hojo Motoshige.

“Pooh! That Saikanji House sure look down on others! So hateful! Especially that ⓢⓛⓤⓣ Saikanji Yomika. She’s obviously a ⓢⓛⓤⓣ, and she dared to act all noble and virtuous in front of us! She wouldn’t sell firearms to us no matter what!” Hojo Motoshige was so angry he had been shouting and cursing all the way. Since they had to move through the mountain, they didn’t ride the horses. Since their trip had turned with no result and they had to walk on the bumpy mountain trails through the night, their hatred for the Saikanji House reached the boiling point.

Akira also wore a fierce, angry face as he fumed, “That Saikanji House was only able to get access to some of the extremely limited goods due to the fact that they’re under the Fujiwara Clan. They’re the only clan in Kanto with firearms for sell. They declare that they only sell the weapons to the Genji Clan and the Taira Clan. Actually, they just want to raise the price! Cunning businessman!” Akira was so mad, “The most hateful thing is that, not only did Saikanji Yomika not give me face, she even disdained you, Your Highness! She should know that you came to buy her firearms under Lord Dijon’s order! She was clearly looking down on your Hojo Clan!”

Firearms, also known as iron cannons, were the new weapons that had just recently appeared in Heian Empire. It was brought and introduced by Mark4, a Southern Barbarian5 businessman. Only those with connections could learn the technique to produce and sell firearms.

“So hateful! Even if the Saikanji House can only sell up to Grade One firearms, it can’t even penetrate a Middle-Class Samurai’s body if we shoot from distance. And yet they sell it at the price of one hundred and twenty kwans! With that price, you can get a Grade Three katana! Moreover, even when she’d offered such a price, she still didn’t want to sell!” Akira continued to complain all the way back.

“Those firearms could give a common foot soldier the destructive force of a junior samurai. The firing range is long, and although it can’t kill the more powerful monsters, it’s still a good weapon to intimidate them and do crowd control! My brother has his own reason to buy them! But the Suruga Province is within the Saikanji House’s sphere of influence, they even have the Imakawa Clan as their backup. Otherwise, I would have used my sword to force her to sell the goods to us!” The more Motoshige thought about it, the angrier he became, “What a spiteful, cunning businesswoman!”

Akira was so furious that his teeth were clanging. He didn’t know what kind of unlucky star he had bumped into, everything had been so unfavorable to him these days! What bad karma! Right, it was that Kagami Lily!

But right now, he still needed to comfort Motoshige despite his sullen mood!

“Y- your Highness, although this matter is really hateful, but… how are we supposed to report to Lord Dijon if we go back empty-handed? Lord Dijon is camping in Mount Amegyo’s valley and waiting for us to return back with twenty firearms! We couldn’t buy even one. With his nature, he would…”

Hearing him, Hojo Motoshige was shivering inside, becoming even more furious, “What should we do now? What to do? We couldn’t buy the firearms in Suruga Province. Those mother ⓕⓤⓒⓚⓔⓡ didn’t want to sell to us. What could I do? Go, we’d better go and see His Highness. If he wants to punish us, I will bear it all! I’m not going to get you involved, Master Akira!”

“Your Highness, don’t panic. Let’s calm down first. There are still several days left until the time limit Lord Dijon gave us. We… should think about the solution first! Otherwise, with his nature, I’m sure we won’t have a decent end!” Akira’s forehead had beads of cold sweat.

“Ah!” Hojo Motoshige sat on a rock. His sword stabbed into the ground covered with rotten leaves in front of him. He didn’t want to move. “If we go back now, it’s no different from courting death ourselves. But how can we procure firearms in just several days!”

Hojo Motoshige didn’t think that Dijon would cut him down just for failing to buy firearms. No matter what, they were still cousins. Even a tiger wouldn’t eat its cubs! However, previously, Dijon had agreed to impart him the secret technique to refine his spirit power. But now, he was afraid that it wouldn’t come true!

‘This loss is too big to bear! I’ve been scheming actively while serving Dijon and agreed to help him commit all kinds of evil crime to make him happy. All because of the secret book the Hojo clan has passed down through the generations, the first book of 《The Records of Power Phase》 which has been passed down to Dijon.’

With and without spirit power, it was a big gap between the samurais.6

If they only trained their body and muscles, at most, they could reach the High-Class level. Only a few extraordinary people could reach the junior Kengo level. And that was the upper limit of mortals. However, as far as spirit power was concerned, the junior Kengo was just the beginning.

Thus, how could Hojo Motoshige not desire the method to refine spirit power! Otherwise, he’d have to stay like this for his whole life. Taking Akira for example, although he was born with monstrous strength, he was still just a senior martial monk in his middle-age. He couldn’t advance any further.

“Ah! I must get the firearms! I must make brother happy! I am just one step away from getting my hands on the spirit power refinement manual! I must get it!” Motoshige made up his mind.

Akira was so worried his face grimaced. He thought that he had the worst of luck. He thought that he could go to the mountain to hunt the monsters with Dijon when he bumped into him, that he might be able to gain something out of it and get on the good side of the Hojo Clan’s future leader. It turned out he had only made things more difficult for himself!

“Lily! Kagami Lily! It’s all because of you! You are my unlucky star! Damn it! Don’t let me see you out of the town! Otherwise…”

Akira blamed everything on Lily, but of course, nothing could be solved even if he ran into Lily. Akira just wanted to take out his anger on Lily.