The samurai didn’t dare to take even a single step forward after seeing Lily hold Shiba captive.
Lily then pushed Shiba all the way to the back room of the hall from where the mountains behind Kiyosu Castle were visible through the window.
The samurai tried to follow after her but found themselves being blown back by a vorticial cluster of sakura blossoms.
Even Tanaka felt disoriented when he attempted to force his way through the corridor, but he got blown down to the floor all the same, sliding backwards along it.
Lily’s current power level was 60 times that of an average early-stage Spirit Jade powerhouse and ranged in the middle-stage Permanence level, so it wasn’t that difficult for her to block a normal Awakened powerhouse1.
Shiba also despaired after seeing that none of the samurai had come in to rescue him.
Lily then let Shiba go, which was followed by him hobbling down to the floor in fright as Lily pointed her blade at him.
“What a nice banquet you’ve set up for me, Lord Shiba! I gave my best to help eliminate the monster plaguing Kiyosu Castle, yet why have you attempted to harm me in return?”
Lily’s gaze turned icy. Killing the man in front of her was but an easy matter for Lily, and even though she had yet to make the decision, she didn’t really care much about the outcome.
Shiba got frightened out of his wits and kowtowed to Lily unceasingly in desperation, “Please forgive me, Lady Lyn-hime, please! I harbor no grudge against you. You asked me why I tried to harm you when you helped me eliminate the monster plaguing Kiyosu Castle, right? It’s because I had no other choice! I cannot go against the orders of that eminence!”
“What?! Who ordered it?” Lily pressed her blade against Shiba’s neck.
“It was from Lord Ouchi Koreyoshi, the Monochrome Viper of Mino!” Shiba absolutely didn’t dare to reveal the actual name of the one who sent down the order, so he simply pushed all the blame to the protector of Mino, who was a neighboring menace for him.
“Monochrome Viper?” It wasn’t someone that was easy to deal with, unlike the fool Shiba. At least that’s what Lily felt after hearing that chilling nickname. She moved the blade forward slightly and left a bleeding cut on Shiba’s neck with its razor edge, “Enough with the tricks now, Shiba. The Ouchi clan are the protectors of Mino. How would they even order you, the protector of Owari?”
“Pl-Please lower the blade… Lady Lyn-hime. Your blade will get sullied if you unintentionally end up killing trash like me using it.2”
Lily was left speechless by the shamelessness shown by Shiba to preserve his life and lowered her blade momentarily.
It was only then that Shiba sighed in relief, “The Viper of Mino is an ambitious and ruthless man, Lady Lyn-hime, and the personal power, as well as the military power that he holds, are much higher than Owari’s. He’s always oppressed us because of his desire for the land of Owari. He also married a woman called Momiji recently, who’s actually a witch. She joined hands with Mino’s Viper and threatened Owari with the influence she holds amongst the Hundred Demons, forcing us to obey her orders!”
“Her spies found you the moment you arrived in the city informed us about you, leaving us no choice but to try assassinating you. It might’ve become the Shiba clan’s turn to face destruction unless we complied, and it would’ve also wrought a calamity upon my retainers and all the people in the city. Momiji and Viper are too fearsome and powerful, so we’re helpless against them! I-I was forced by the circumstances! I beg you for forgiveness, Lady Lyn-hime!” Shiba kowtowed frantically.
“So, you were the one who sent the assassin disguised as a ramen stall owner?”
“I had to act on the orders as I can’t defy Viper with the Hundred Demons’ Momiji backing him! However, even I don’t know who exactly the assassins have disguised as and how many they number.”
“Mino’s Viper and that Momiji have no grudges against me, so why are they trying to harm me?” Lily proceeded to question.
Shiba answered, “The mirror girl’s journey to the west will cause chaos in the Heavens and bring disasters to the lands she passes by. This is what they told me and that I must stop you from crossing these Endless Wastelands at all costs!”
Although she still held a few doubts, Lily was quite close to believing Shiba’s words.
It seemed that there was really some kind of power that had first learned of her journey and then proceeded to stop her with all possible means.
However, Lily didn’t know why exactly they were doing this.
Lily was still oblivious about who she was a threat to in her journey to the west and also didn’t know who had leaked the information about her journey.
Lily knelt down on one knee slowly and gazed at Shiba with her mesmerizing eyes. Although the look in her eyes was enchanting enough, it still made him quiver in fear, allowing no stray thought to fill his mind.
“It’s not impossible for me to forgive you, Lord Shiba, but do you still have treasures within the castle? If so, can you show me to them?”
“Hah?!” Shiba’s lips twitched, “Please, Lady Lyn-hime! You’ve already deprived me of 90% of the gold in Kiyosu Castle and even taken my precious tea caddy! What else do you want from me?!”
“Those are items that you should’ve given to me originally and what we are discussing now is the price for your life. Did you think that you would be fine by saying you were forced to do it after trying to kill me? Just ask yourself where you stand in comparison to Hojo Dijon,” Lily stated icily with a calm look.
“Hic!” Shiba shuddered, “I-I understand. Please follow me, Lady Lyn-hime.”
Shiba then guided Lily to the storeroom behind his bedroom and activated a mechanism on the storeroom’s wall, revealing a secret room behind it.
“I’m not worried about becoming the laughingstock, Lady Lyn-hime, but it’s true that you’ve taken away the opus work. There are still two grade 6 tea sets left in this room along with some artworks.”
Lily checked the room and saw that it contained a number of grade 6 treasures, which mainly consisted of paintings and calligraphic works along with silk, some gold, gold dust, and magatama fragments. The two tea sets that Shiba had mentioned were also really grade 6 tea sets.
Lily didn’t hold back and swept the whole room clean with a wave of her sleeve.
Shiba felt a stab of pain when he witnessed this and collapsed to the side powerlessly, cursing himself internally, “I’ve been robbed… robbed to oblivion… the assets accumulated by my Shiba clan for generations have all been taken away by her!”
Lily walked to the window of the castle tower and looked into the distance, “Viper, huh?”
Lily had to pass via Mino in order to reach Kansai and hoped that Viper didn’t get into a frontal conflict with her. If possible, she wished to go through Mino without causing a commotion.
As Lily didn’t intend to kill Shiba and his retainers and had also gotten the treasures, she didn’t have any reason left to remain behind in the tower. Therefore, she withdrew the domain and jumped across to the tower’s eaves once she heard the worried footsteps of Shiba’s retainers and made for the mountaintop from there.
By the time Tanaka and the squad of samurai rushed in, all that was left inside was a forlorn Shiba sitting in front of the secret room’s entrance with a blank look in his eyes.
At the same time, inside the dark house bordering Kiyosu’s streets.
Shimizu had finished bandaging Kiyoshi’s wounds after giving him an emergency treatment thanks to the medical skills she had learned because of her congenital illness.
However, it was impossible to retrieve the lost arm.
Kiyoshi’s resolute face looked a little dull under the dim light of the room and he remained silent, his lips twitching from time to time.
Even Shimizu felt a little helpless after seeing the current state of the young lord of Genji’s largest branch clan who was once hailed as one of the Six Swords just like she was in the past.
“Miss Shimizu, the western samurai who ambushed me revealed that Miss Kagami is in this city,” Kiyoshi finally seemed to regain his senses.
“What?!” Shimizu felt stunned. She had been investigating various regions to eliminate Lily’s hidden troubles, but even she wasn’t expecting Lily to have come so close to her.
“Those western samurai intend to murder Miss Kagami! I hope that you can visit Miss Kagami and warn her to remain vigilant, Miss Shimizu! It’s best if she leaves this land and returns to the East.3”
