Yumiko rushed over from the back along with the samurai women and the mirror maidens and charged into those demons, but Keiko leaned back against the wall and looked at her mother’s final smile dazedly.
“Everything will turn out well as long as you’re alive, Keiko.”
“I just want to live a mediocre and plain life here.”
Why? Mom is obviously so powerful but why is she incapable of realizing even such a trivial wish? We work hard and overcame challenges no matter how trying they were just to survive. But is even that impossible?
What’s the point even if a woman is powerful? In the end, we are still no match for these demons, are we?
“Protect the clansmen well, Keiko! This is our mission! Go now!”
“Live on, Keiko.”
The samurai women and the mirror maidens were all much weaker than Keiko.
“S-Stop fighting! Stop throwing away your lives meaninglessly! Stop…”
The samurai women who fought back, including her aunt Yumiko, as well as the mirror maidens, were all slain by the monsters easily.
Keiko leaned back against the wall just like before in a daze.
Amanojaku walked over and pointed the cursed katana at Keiko at this moment.
“What a pretty woman you are. If possible, I really don’t want to kill you.”
Keiko still had a dagger on her waist and she still possessed the ability to move and resist as she hadn’t suffered any grievous injuries!
Is there any meaning in doing it at all?
But this beast killed Mom! He killed Mom!
Keiko clutched her dagger tightly and still had a dazed look, but her heart was brimming with endless hatred towards this monster.
“Kill him! Injure him even if you’re incapable of killing him! Make him pay the price!”
“Do you want to kill me? Unsheathe the blade whenever you’re ready in that case. However, you are unlike those ant-like mortals, woman. You should’ve realized that it would be a meaningless act. You look quite pretty and also possess a decent aptitude, which qualifies you for passing down the bloodline of my Golden-Horned Tribe. I’ve taken a fancy to you, so I’m willing to spare your life as long as you surrender to me. After all, it’s pretty hard to find a woman with such good aptitude like you, and I can give you whatever you desire, far beyond what you have in your life right now,” Amanojaku stated.
Amanojaku’s words didn’t relieve Keiko and instead made her feel even more pain in her heart and filled her with a maddening hatred. Her knuckles turned pale as she strengthened the grip on her dagger and she almost broke her fingers in the process!
Surrender to a monster like this? Surrender to a monster that killed Mom in front of my very eyes?!
“Mom… do you know that choosing to live on in this instant is a thousand times, million times harder than dying in battle proudly like a samurai just as you have?!”
But if I choose to fight and die here, who will remember Mom’s final smile?
“Why? Why did you tell me to live on, Mom…”
“If I die here, wouldn’t all the of your hard work and your sacrifice become meaningless, Mom?”
…
A monster leaped over from nearby at this moment and kneeled down in front of Amanojaku, “Lord Amanojaku, we’ve caught up with the group of villagers who fled to the back mountain. There’s a few hundred of them and there’s a lot of women among them. It seems like they’ve fled into a cave in the back mountain.”
Amanojaku smirked, “Hmph! Do these weak mortals think they can escape from our hands? Genga, pursue them with your spider demon ninja division and…”
“Hold on!” Keiko interjected suddenly at this moment.
“Hmm?” Amanojaku turned around and looked at Keiko again.
Keiko lifted her head and squinted her eyes before revealing a deathly pale smile, “I’ll agree to becoming your woman, Lord Amanojaku. But I want you to promise me just one thing in exchange.”
“Oh, really? It seems like you’ve finally come around now. What are you called, pretty woman,” Amanojaku asked while stepping on Keiko’s shoulder.
Keiko didn’t resist this at all.
She still maintained her former smile and opened her eyes to adopt a charming look that was incongruent with her age, “I’m called Keiko. I’ll become your woman as long as you guarantee the safety of all the villagers and don’t let the monsters injure them anymore. You can do whatever you want to me as long as you promise me that.”
The charming look on this maiden’s face looked slightly mature for some reason but her lips twitched unnaturally as she adopted it.
“Hahahahaha! Hahahahahahahaha! Did you hear that, Hundred Demons?! You did, right? Human women are such lowly things in the end. This woman is actually pandering to the powerhouse that killed her mother and saying that she’s willing to become my, Amanojaku’s, woman! Hahahahahaha! Hahahahahahaha!”
“You’re amazing, Lord Amanojaku!”
“You’ve killed her mother and even made her become your wife after making her submit!”
“As expected of the genius of the Golden-Horned Tribe!”
The monsters cheered together.
Keiko alone, remained seated at the corner with an ashen expression.
The Buddhist nuns that inhabited the temple nearby to Mt. Fuji were all slain by Amanojaku’s Hundred Demons a few days later, and the demons occupied it after that. Keiko, on the other hand, had long grown numb to an extremely tragic massacre like this.
Inside the dark main hall.
Amanojaku sat in the center and looked at the tall, slender and gorgeous woman walking towards him.
“Haihime, you’re sure you want them to call you in this manner from now on?”
“Yes, Lord Amanojaku,” Keiko stated with a slightly charming look.
“Haihime. Does it refer to a defeated blade maiden? It’s an interesting name that’s quite befitting for you, Hahahahaha. However, I need to tell you something first. I can’t release your clansmen yet.”
Haihime shuddered, “Why?”
“The members of my Golden-Horned Tribe aren’t allowed to engage in the pleasures of the flesh before becoming an adult. It would still take a few years for you to give birth to my progeny, so even though you shall be loyal to me and obey me with the identity of my wife, we cannot engage in marital acts yet temporarily. I’ve arranged for your clansmen to reside in a space underneath this mountain and will release them the day we really have intercourse. However, it seems like they are pretty unsatisfied and keep trying to escape, so why don’t you find a chance to talk to them? Although I promise not to kill them actively, don’t blame me for doing so if they dare to escape again,” Amanojaku stated.
Haihime shuddered in silence, wondering just how she was supposed to confront those clansmen of hers while looking like this.
“I know you might be unwilling, but your clansmen don’t seem to have understood the situation yet. They keep trying to attack the monsters guarding the passage meaninglessly or throw their lives away like fools by venturing into the other underground tunnels. Even I can’t do anything about this.”
“Understood,” Haihime stated coldly and turned around to retreat.
“Wait,” Amanojaku took out an item that made Haihime quiver in shame after seeing it, “It’s not that I don’t trust you. However, I’ll never allow a woman to betray me, so take this back with you when you return.
It was a T-shaped leather belt that acted as a set of humiliating shackles.
…
“I must not show any concern and must not let them harbor any hope at all or else they’ll never let me give my body to the demon while they live out a purposeless life. The villagers would definitely go all out and risk their lives for me! I cannot let them have such thoughts.”
On this night, Haihime opened the front of her dress widely and almost exposed her breasts outside. She didn’t even wear anything to hide her thighs and simply allowed the hem of her short upper garment to cover her butt. She just wore a pair of slutty, violet-colored underwear with garters underneath and arrived at the ruins within the underground space where the villagers had been driven into.
The villagers were seated outside the tents within the ruins and discussed about escaping, avenging Lady Kimiko and rescuing Miss Keiko.
Haihime arrived at this location along with a few monster attendants at this moment.
“Keiko?!” The villagers were all shaken with glee initially when they saw Keiko and wanted to go receive her, but they hesitated after seeing her dress and expression as well as the monsters behind her.
“Keiko!” Yoriko, however, pointed her pike towards Haihime, “You really betrayed us, didn’t you? No one believe me when I told them about it! So, can you please explain the reason why you’re still alive, why you have the freedom to move, and why you have these monsters accompanying you?!”
“Hehehe,” Haihime chuckled flirtatiously, “What betrayal are you talking about? Would Mom have died if it weren’t to protect useless trash like you? Would we have needed to travel hundreds of kilometers and come to Kanto?”
All the villagers were taken aback and even the elder grandma was left dumbfounded, “Why are you saying such things, Keiko? Could it be that what we saw on that day is true…”
“Yes,” Haihime adopted a complacent yet bewitching attitude and answered with a smile, “Lord Amanojaku forgave me since I’m young and pretty and allowed me to become his woman! He returned a lot of treasures to me and also returned Mom’s cursed katana to me. As for you all, you will also have to obey my orders from this day onwards. My current name is Haihime! I’m the queen of this generation! Lord Amanojaku’s queen! Listen properly now. No one is allowed to leave this space henceforth! Don’t blame me for being ruthless if you don’t obey this! Got it?”
If a woman as perceptive as Lily were present among these people, she would’ve seen through the far-fetched pretentiousness of Haihime’s charming attitude and also noticed the stiffness of the memorized lines that Haihime was repeating.
However, there weren’t that many people as perceptive and meticulous as Lily in this world.
“Smash!” An egg smashed against Haihime’s face, which was then followed by a hail of dried vegetables that stained her face and cleavage with yolk.
“How dare you have the nerve to say such things?!”
“These monsters killed your mother! How could you even surrender to them?!”
“And to think that we were intending to rescue you at the cost of our lives!”
The clansmen raged out one after the other after seeing such a Haihime.
A murky light flashed through the eyes of Haihime’s flirtatious look as she touched the yolk on her face with her fair hand and stretched that hand out before licking it with her tongue, “Uh-huh. What a fresh egg this is. Don’t you think it’s a waste to smash it against my face? You don’t have much food left, right?”
“Why are you doing this, Keiko?! Why?!” Yoriko lunged the pike towards Haihime but she grabbed the shaft of the spear with ease and pushed Yoriko down to the ground.
She then looked at Yoriko calmly, “The weak have no right to question those stronger than them! The same applies to me since Lord Amanojaku and the monsters are much stronger than me. What’s wrong with choosing to submit to them and serving them since I’m a woman?”
Yoriko shook her head and looked at Haihime with disbelief, “Get lost, you b̲i̲t̲c̲h̲!”
“Get lost from our village! Go away!”
“You’re unworthy of having the status of our clan’s eldest scion! The mirror girls don’t have a woman like you!”
“Go away and never come back! Don’t let us see you again!”
“The name Haihime really fits you! You’re just a damn w̲h̲o̲r̲e̲!”
…
…
Haihime returned to her room in the temple just like that without even washing the filth from her hair and opened a tiny, exquisite box that had a pile of shattered bronze fragments stored inside it. They were the fragments of her mother’s mirror.
Haihime stretched her hand into the box and caressed these fragments gently.
She then donned a charming yet poignant-looking smile, “Mom, I’ve protected our clansmen and will live on well just like you told me to no matter what happens… until the day I truly unite with that demon and our clansmen are released. I’ll come find you then.”1
