Shimizu arrived beneath the dark and towering castle of Gifu with a black parasol over her head.
“Hmm? This is Lil’ Sis’ aura!”
Shimizu’s eyes flickered.
No matter how nice Lily smelled, it was impossible for Shimizu to catch her scent from so far away. What she had sensed was actually the aura emitted by her katana’s sheath that was in Lily’s possession right now.
The katana of blade maidens were an intrinsic part of them, and there exists a connection between the blade and the sheath they wielded.
It wasn’t possible to sense the counterpart’s location if it was too far away, but Shimizu was below Gifu Castle right now and was quite close to Lily who had infiltrated the castle tower.
Shimizu had come following Lily to Mino, but she didn’t head for Omi and came to Gifu first instead.
The reason for this was quite simple. Viper’s Gifu Castle was the only place in Mino that held a threat to Lily. She just needed to confirm whether Lily was present here and planned to head towards Omi at top speed unless this wasn’t the case. Even if Lily were ambushed by Viper en route, it allowed Shimizu to go forward and rescue her.
However, what both gladdened and worried her was that the response from her katana’s sheath was really coming from this location, which meant that Lily was inside the castle!
Although Shimizu felt worried for Lily, she didn’t charge into the castle alone, which was something that someone like Rei might’ve done.
Shimizu went around to the castle gates and saw a division of troops appear within the castle, which prompted her to wear a shroud of grudge-formed black mist and slip into the castle by taking advantage of the night’s cover.
…
Monochrome Viper, that is, Ouchi Koreyoshi, was seated inside his room on the topmost floor of the castle tower at this moment.
Momiji, however, wasn’t beside him right now. Momiji brimmed with overflowing charm and was also skilled in all kinds of sexual plays, so Viper had almost no strength to even think about other women with her beside him. Although he was quite a strong and ruthless character, his age had begun to catch up with him.
He liked exotic treasures much more than women and the item in his hand was one such item that both the imperial court and the Hundred Demons had been searching for. In truth, this item held no value to him, but a lot of powers desired it because of its preciousness, which filled him with utter glee as well.
“They’ll make a pair soon. Hehehehehehe,” Viper chuckled heartily.
Lily had long thrown the bamboo hat away and took cover behind the stairs of the castle tower’s first floor.
She did this because wearing a bamboo hat inside the tower would have made her look suspicious.
The fact that Inaba Shigekado was able to sense her movements proved that he possessed exceptional strength, so Lily didn’t dare to employ a spirit probe openly. However, she surmised that it was highly likely for the interrogation to take place within the castle tower’s dungeon.
As such, Lily waited for the squad of patrols to climb up the stairs and seized the chance to climb down the stairs leading to the cellar underground.
Although the cellar was underground, it was actually a part of the castle tower’s rock foundation.
The cellar walls were dark and damp with the base of the broad wooden pillars showing signs of decay, and the top was illuminated by candles placed inside bronze holders.
The cellar was connected to several storerooms and had a flight of stairs leading down to the dungeon. Lily took off her sandals and stored them inside the mirror before alighting the stairs barefoot silently, but the dungeon was guarded by two soldiers and this was the only route leading to it, so she couldn’t circumvent them.
“Arrggghhhh!” A mortified and agonized woman’s scream echoed from the depths of the dungeon.
Lily determined that it was probably from the mirror girl that she was looking for!
Lily didn’t hesitate even a second longer and dashed towards the dungeon immediately, leaving the two guards dumbstruck by the sudden appearance of a red-dressed woman.
“You…”
Lily waved her sleeve and sent the two knocking against the walls with a powerful burst of spirit power, rendering them unconscious.
Lily then continued moving forward and passed by the dungeon cells, some of which had captives locked inside them who gave Lily depressed looks.
Lily dealt with some soldiers along the way and headed for the deepest section of the dungeon from where the screams originated.
“I’m almost there!”
Lily crossed the last corner and arrived right in front of the final dungeon cell, but she saw a gorgeous, mature woman sitting upright in front of a table and drinking sake in the middle of the cell.
The woman wore a white cardigan on top of the lavish ceremonial red kimono she was dressed in and her beautiful center-parted hair cascaded to the sides of her cheeks while tied into an oblique ponytailed bun at the back that was pinned with a dazzling hairpin.
A long-haired girl was suspended behind this woman with her hands tied to the ceiling and back faced towards Lily. Her kimono’s bottom was also raised up, revealing the lash marks on her bare butt and thighs.
The girl sobbed intermittently while shuddering but the mature woman in front of her turned a deaf ear to her sobs since she was the perpetrator of those lashes which she had inflicted with the lash resting on the table.
Lily, however, found this view bizarre since it seemed like the mature woman already knew she would arrive and appeared to be waiting for her.
“You’re here?” The mature woman raised her head and showed surprise when she looked at Lily, “I have long heard that the Mirror Girl Lily is a devastatingly beautiful woman, but now that I’ve actually seen you in person, your beauty has actually far exceeded my imagination. However, you’re sillier than what I imagined you to be in a certain sense.”
“How did you know it was me?” Lily asked from outside the cell’s wide-open gate.
“I don’t think there’s a woman so pretty and martially skilled in Mino other than you who would rush into the castle tower at such a time in order to save a mirror girl,” the mature woman poured sake into her cup while replying and sipped into it.
“So, you’re the witch who married the Viper, Momiji?” Lily questioned back.
“Indeed,” the mole beside Momiji’s pretty lips enhanced her charm as a married woman as she smiled sweetly.
Momiji gave a terrifying feel to Lily and didn’t really seem like an easy opponent to her.
“What do you want?”
“Hahahahahaha! You’re really a busty airhead as the rumors tell. You were the one who came rushing in so aggressively, yet you’re asking me what I want?” Momiji chuckled.
“Fine, then. Let that woman go and I’ll leave with her. We can get along well in that case,” Lily answered.
“Hah!” Momiji assumed a peculiar expression, “It can’t be that all your intelligence has really gone on to form the pair of jugs you have now, has it? Do you think anyone would agree to such a proposal?”
“We’re both women, so there’s no need to spew out such vulgar metaphors at all times now, is there? The reason I proposed it was that I didn’t want to fight pointlessly, but that doesn’t mean I have no chances of winning against you,” Lily looked at Momiji coldly and revealed a confident smirk.
“I understand what you mean,” Momiji stated weakly, “I also don’t wish to fight with you, at least not in this place since I still wish to live peacefully as a concubine.” “And serve that disgusting old and fat coot?” “Tsk! What would an inexperienced virgin like you who doesn’t even know the taste of a man knows?” “I have my tastes, but they aren’t as hardcore as yours.” “Hehehehe. I didn’t expect you to have such a biting tongue, Lady Lily. Maybe stuffing it with a certain thing would humble you down a bit.” “You can consider that if you manage to beat me. Shall we draw our blades, then? Or are you going to scram for me?” “Hehehehe,” Momiji chuckled, “Don’t say that now. As I said, I don’t want to fight you, too, but I cannot let the woman go just like that. How about you accompany me for a drink?” “No thanks, I’m not in the mood for it.1” “The more you deny it, the more it makes me want to see you drink! Look, I have four jars of sake with me here…”
Momiji pulled out four jade wine jars of exquisite craftsmanship from underneath the table.
The four jars were brimming with sake and permeated the whole cell with the scent of alcohol.
The four jars that Momiji had lined up on the table had a word written on each that read—spring, summer, fall, winter—in series.
“I’ll let the woman go and allow you to take her away as long as you choose one of these jars and drink it on the spot. Why say you, Kagami Lily? Even if you are bold and strong enough to make an enemy out of the whole Gifu Castle by rejecting my offer, I assure you that the woman will undoubtedly die as a result of the method I’ve long set up. I just need an instant to end her life and the only way she’ll live is if I let her go personally.”
“Hmph! Do you think I’ll believe you just like that?” Lily scoffed coldly.
“Sigh. It’s just a drink now. It’s not like you’re going to lose anything even if I’m tricking you and it wouldn’t be too late to fight then, right? Do you think I’m that bored to actually tell you such a lie?” Momiji’s charming set of eyes revealed a sharp glint inside them.
“Master—”
Kagura sent a telepathic message to Lily from the mirror at this moment, “Of these four wine jars, drinking the summer wine jar will kill you by immolating your organs and drinking the fall wine jar will killing you by desiccating your body while drinking the winter wine jar will kill you by freezing all the blood flowing inside you! Although you’re quite strong, your body is a lot weaker than those thick-skinned and muscular male Spirit Jade powerhouses, so it’s quite dangerous for you to drink from these 3 wine jars with the strength you possess right now! However…”
“What is it, Kagura?”
“However, the spring wine jar seems harmless and even I can’t detect any elements that are harmful to you within the limits of my knowledge. Grr, the sake seems to have some sort of energy imbued in it, but I’m not sure whether it would provide any benefits to your body after drinking it. It’s just a possibility though… so it’s not completely free of danger,” Kagura added.
The spring wine jar is harmless?
Lily looked at Momiji sharply, “Fine, I’ll drink one.”
“Heh. As expected, you really are the beholder of womanliest beauty and manliest bravery as rumored! I admire you, Kagami Lily, I really do!” Even Momiji felt amazed by Lily’s decision to take the offer. Well, then. Feel free to drink from the jar you want.
Lily stepped forward and touched the mouth of the winter wine jar lightly with her slender fingers, which filled Momiji’s eyes with glee, but her fingers glided all the way past the winter, fall and summer wine jars and picked up the spring wine jar finally.
Lily straightened her waist and raised her head to down the jar in one go right in front of Momiji’s eyes, the top-quality sake in it dripping onto her stacked breasts from the corner of her lips.
“Cough! Cough!” However, the sake was much stronger and hotter than she was expecting and ended up leaving Lily a little discomforted as she coughed a few times with a flushed face.
“Hahahaha, how cute. I thought you were quite heroic, so how come you’re choking on this small jar of sake?” Momiji poked fun at Lily.
Lily felt an intense heat rise up from her abdomen for some reason after drinking the sake and felt her body fire up. Her eyes also looked a bit dazed from the powerful wine that she had consumed2.
However, Lily remained calm and didn’t let Momiji detect the changes in her body as she breathed out and spoke to her, “I’ve drunk the sake, s-so release the woman now.”
“Alright. I’ll release her. Who said that we monsters don’t keep our word?” Momiji’s slim and sexy body came into full view as she stood up, and she actually outdid Lily in terms of height.
