The rain had come to an end, but the thick fog still shrouded the mountains.
The trail Lily was on continued to meander through the terrain, as if afraid of going straight. Forcing her to use the dim marble-white colour of the dawn sky to determine her position.
All while a pressing sense of unease weighed on her chest, causing her breathing to become short and rough.
Even so, she couldn’t identify it.
As if to mock her, she received another signal. A sudden swell in her lower abdomen.1
When a female samurai went on an adventure, she would encounter many inconvenient events, more often than men. For example, Lily had to urinate now…
This was a normal physiological phenomenon for any human being. Even if Lily possessed strong Spirit Power and senior sister’s excellent physique, she still couldn’t avoid this need.2
In this wilderness, however, she didn’t need to worry about being unable to find a place to do her business or the probability of getting peeped on. But even the simple act of urinating was full of danger.
It was a common trope for hiding monsters to ambush defenceless prey, and it’d even be possible to spring traps from above or get assaulted from behind.
Female samurais became very defenseless when they pee, and there was no reason not to launch a sneak attack on one during the act.
Staying wary, Lily spread out her spirit waves to confirm that there was no human or demon within the vicinity. Once she was certain, she ran toward a slope by the road and moved behind a big tree.
However, there was still one more inconvenience. The sword Lily kept at her waist was too long. When she squatted, it would touch the ground and get smeared with mud. She untied the cord from her sash, and after taking a deep breath, she bit the cord along the scabbard as she held the sword horizontally in her mouth. Then, she lifted the skirt to her waist before squatting…
Lily’s kimono was customized with high slits, which allowed for substantial movements. However, from her thighs upward, the slits were covered by a matching layer of clothes, so it was hard to tell the slits were there when she moved around.3
Even now, Lily still considered urinating to be very embarrassing. Because she used to be a man, squatting down to pee was… kind of awkward.
Since that was a normal daily occurrence, she had to accept it eventually. Lily told herself several times a day, but it didn’t seem to work well.
As the cord was really rough, Lily didn’t feel all that comfortable biting it. And since her mouth was half-open, it was possible that her saliva would drop if she loses focus. That would be kind of embarrassing… But fortunately, no one could see her now.
After she was done, Lily exhaled in relief.4 She gently stood up and walked to the front of the giant tree. And to her surprise, the sky seemed to get darker. She didn’t really mind it since she thought it was just a dark cloud passing by. However, as she continued her journey, she found that it was getting darker and darker. Not even half an hour later, the night had returned and shrouded the entire place in darkness.
‘What, what’s going on?’ ‘Time rewinding?’ ‘Of course, that’s not possible.’ ‘It could be because of the extremely thick clouds or a premonition to a really nasty weather condition.’
However, at this moment, the Sakura Parasol Lily had shoved into her sash at her back started to vibrate. Sakura then said, “Chaotic Night. The Chaotic Night comes.”
That Sakura, who never had a care for the world, sounded quite fearful when she said it.
“What’s a Chaotic Night?”
“Quite unclear… It’s started ten years ago, and would occasionally occur ever since. When the Extended Nights or Chaotic Nights occur, it would last for several nights without the sun ever rising. Sometimes, the sun will rise for a little bit before the night returns. It will last at least one day and one night until the next dawn… At this time, the eldritch energy and the negative energies will be extremely thick. But Master, you don’t need to worry that much. During the Extended or Chaotic Night, the Blade Maiden will be much stronger.”5
“There’s such a strange occurrence?” Although she would be a little stronger during the Chaotic Night, Lily couldn’t be happy. It was the law of nature for the sun to rise and set to create the rotation of days and nights.
If the natural law was disturbed, it was surely not a good sign. It could even be an omen for the end of the world.
However, there was still no strange phenomenon recorded in the Heian Empire at this time.
According to what Lily had learned of Heian’s history, The once peaceful and flourishing Heian Capital had already been gradually contaminated by the dark and bleak atmosphere. Although the demons and ghosts had existed since the antiquity era, the numbers of them had been increasing since ten or so years ago. It also marked the end of a peaceful era.
‘Just what’s happening in this world? What could have possibly caused the change in the Heian Empire and the law of nature?’
Lily looked at the sky. The sun had disappeared from where it should be.
“The law of nature huh…”
Lily shook her head, she wasn’t really concerned about it. This kind of large-scale phenomenon wasn’t something an insignificant female samurai like her should be worried about.
However, without the sun as an indicator, Lily was puzzled about which direction she should go.
“This is bad. W- which direction did I come from? Which path leads to Suruga Province?”
The map only showed a few mountain landscapes drawn by a brush, it couldn’t be used to identify the landmarks or locations.
Lily advanced on the mountain trail, which was even darker than the rainy night yesterday, then she found that…
“Oh? I’m sure I’ve passed this stream just a moment ago. How did I get back here? Did I go in the opposite direction?”
The mountain trails were meandering and bumpy. Once she got the wrong direction, it would become really annoying. There was no sun and the night was extremely dark. Lily couldn’t tell North, South, East, West by means of observations…
On the other side, Motoshige and Akira’s party were also caught up in the Chaotic Night.
But since this event happened several times a year, they weren’t really surprised by this change of event.
They camped inside a cave near the main road. Nanako was tied onto a dried tree trunk in the open space in front of the cave.
There were two samurais sitting in front of the bonfire at the open-space. The other samurais were spread out and standing guard. Those two were the ‘hotshots’ with flat bamboo hats. They held on to their swords and sat there with their heads stooped.
“A Chaotic Night! Damn! Why does it have to be now!” Motoshige looked at the pitch-black night. There was no sun and the moon had already set, thus, it was even darker than a normal night.
“Your Highness, you don’t need to mind this. The natural law is everchanging, it’s not something humans can predict. Besides, we have to stay here for the next few days anyway. The samurai that we’ve sent to the Saionji House know this area well, he’s originally from Suruga. There’s no way he will get lost even in this Chaotic Night. We just need to wait for Kotoka to come with the money and firearms!” appeased Akira.
“Hmph, fifty firearms and five thousand kwans. Hahaha, it feels great just thinking about it! That Saionji House will have to sell all their properties to collect that much money and weapons within the short term! How I wish I could have seen Kotoka’s face when she sees the keepsake from her daughter’s body! Bahahaha!”
Motoshige gave the price and asked Kotoka to come pay the ransom for Nanako personally. Otherwise, he would kill the hostage immediately!
However, that wasn’t the entirety of his plan. He had told the samurai messenger to inform Kotoka to come alone. Once she got here, he would snatch all her properties and ⓡⓐⓟⓔ her!6
Both the mother and daughter of the Saionji House would fall into his hands. How they were treated would entirely depend on Motoshige’s mood!7
