Translator: Aoi
There was no one using the won’s bath when Lily arrived inside it. It had an outdoor hot spring, a basin to wash up and a vat.
Lily thus decided to visit the hot spring and dip in it for a while. The vista in this spot was elegant and neat, but it didn’t have any special features to it, so she ca to the edge of the hot spring and applied lotion on her body. She then cleaned up with a towel and washed up using the basin before wrapping her hair up with a white towel on her head.
There was a 2 m or so tall wooden wall across Lily, which was the partition between the won’s bath and the n’s bath on the other side, but Lily had no interest in that side.
However, a man’s voice sounded out from the other side at this mont.
“According to the information my father sent through the artifact, the dojo’s onmyōji has predicted that the Biwa Palace will most probably open three days later.”
The deep voice seed to co from a candid man, and Lily managed to catch it with her extraordinary hearing ability.
The fact that they were discussing such a topic proved that they weren’t ordinary humans. Lily suppressed her aura with caution but still pretended to pour water over her bountiful bosom since the other party might notice it if the water sounds stopped.
The conversation continued on the other side, “Lord Tamurakonoe, please enter Biwa Palace with Sir Tesshin and Sister Ui first when it opens. We’ll stop the others outside!
“That’s fine but rember to play it by ear. It’s possible that a lot of people might co this ti and there’s no lack of experts in the West. It might not be possible for you to stop such a huge mob even if you want to do it. It’s fine to just delay them a little. There’s no need to fight to the death.”
“Understood, milord. Oh, yes. According to the report from the ninja, the mirror girl has fled Mino after killing Viper. Momiji also failed to stop her.”
“I see… wouldn’t that an she has co to Omi already?”
“That sounds plausible, but there are other routes to reach Heian-kyo as well.”
“No, the other routes are harder to travel through and there’s no need to go through Mino if she planned to take the Iga route. We must act with caution since she might pass through this village. Lay an ambush in this village and the nearby roads once we enter the palace and kill the mirror girl on the spot if you run into her.”
“Yes, milord.”
“Splash!” Lily washed up her cheeks, neck, cleavage, underbelly, and her underbody between her thighs…
As listening to their conversation for too long might draw the other side’s attention, she dried her body like a woman bathing normally and exited the won’s bath while bound in a towel.
However, her heart was pulsating pretty hard the whole ti, “Just who is this Tamurakonoe? He sounds like quite a powerful man from his voice, but unfortunate as it is, he has actually brought a bunch of unknown powerhouses to hunt . It seems like they’re planning to take the treasure first, but doesn’t that make our destination the sa?”
However, based on their conversation, it was evident to Lily that they weren’t aware of her arrival in Omi or that she was lodged in the sa inn as them.
This suggested that the other party didn’t know what she looked like.
There were a lot of won with stunning looks and bodies in this world, so she wondered how they were pinpointing it to her.
“Hold on… how did they find my whereabouts, then? There’s probably so way to identify , but it seems like not all enemies possess this ability.”
…
Three days later.
The sky and the oceanic lake were both dyed in ashen grey this morning and the lake was welcod by chilly winds from the northwest.
By noon, Lily noted that more and more samurai and powerhouses had shown up at the shore near the village and there were also onmyōji and oddly-dressed dandies present.
Lily felt sothing was amiss after seeing this from the windowsill. It seed like the information that she had overheard in the won’s bath had spread among the samurai already. Even if there were so who didn’t know it, it was certain that they would also catch up with the rest after seeing this abnormal situation.
“How do you feel now, Sister Shimizu?” Lily asked.
Shimizu answered while combing her hair, “I’m fine now. My period has also passed. The Biwa Palace might open today, right? I think it must’ve turned quite lively below by now. I’ll go along with you.”
“Alright,” Lily nodded.
Lily and Shimizu had dressed up properly. Lily had worn a dium-sleeved red kimono minidress on this day because a minidress was much more suitable for moving underwater. She also wore no stockings and wore the wooden sandals with her bare feet.
Shimizu had also worn a dark-blue minidress with a sleeveless top for the first ti ever and wore black stockings that made her legs look slimr.
About 100 samurai had assembled at the open space in front of the lakeshore and all of them had their eyes on the lake’s surface as none of them knew when or how the Biwa Palace would open.
Unless soone were strong enough to evade the other party’s senses, employing a spirit probe rashly with so many samurai present was the sa as taking a hostile action.
Even if a companion were probed instead of a stranger, it was still equivalent to standing out and provoking all the other samurai.
Lily and Shimizu didn’t like squeezing into a crowd, so they walked to an empty spot on the lakeshore while holding hands and stood on the dirt road beside which weeds had shored up from the lake.
Lily noticed that the samurai who had assembled at the shore were mostly in groups of threes or fives and were all dressed in different garnts. There was a large-bearded man dressed in a vest, a tall monk who held a turban in his arms, a rōnin with sharp eyes and a hooknose, as well as a samurai woman donned in skintight minidress and sexy fishnet stockings.
“Hahahahahaha!” There was also a tall and handso lavishly dressed samurai with wild golden hair who really stood out from the crowd. It seed like he was hitting on the two samurai won in front of him while laughing loudly.
One of the two samurai won was 167 cm tall with soft, curly hair and looked like a married woman.
The golden-haired dandy called out to that woman, “Do you have an emblem, samurai sister? I see that there are only two of you. How about adding to the team? I’m called Yajiro and I was born in Omi. I’m quite familiar with these tis, so it’ll be quite easy to obtain the treasure if you take along.”
Lily was left speechless by the man’s actions and wondered if sothing was wrong with his head to actually hit on girls in such a place.
Shimizu also shook her head and refrained from passing any comnts.
“The woman who’s being harassed looks like she’s in her thirties, doesn’t she, Sister Shimizu? It’s quite rare for a samurai woman of such age to venture out for training.”
“Everyone has their own troubles. If you’re lucky enough to have so harvests from a treasure hunt, its value might go as high as the annual tax from a whole territory. Therefore, it’s not strange for a woman who’s married and has given birth to children to take such risks for the betternt of her holand,” Shimizu analyzed indifferently.
There was also a group of uniformly dressed samurai with dozens of n standing together imposingly and they looked quite determined to co out victorious in this treasure hunt.
There was also a heavily armored samurai on horseback.
Lily noticed there was also a group that had assembled below the multideck ship and the one leading them was a tall and handso man who looked like a model pretty man with heterochromatic eyeshadows under his sharp eyes that had a terrifying sword on his back.
This man’s very strong!
Although Lily didn’t probe him, she could tell with a single glance that this man and the samurai dressed in red-lined white coats really stood out from the crowd. The other side hadn’t noticed Lily since she had looked at them through the cover of the other samurai, but she still moved her gaze away because this man’s voice was the sa as that of the ‘Lord Tamurakonoe’ that she had overheard from the won’s bath yesterday.
There was no doubt that Lily would’ve heard of this man if he were from the East, so she believed that he was most likely a powerhouse from Kansai who had co to kill her.
However, it was clear that the other side had yet to discover her. There was a lot of samurai assembled on this shore and they consisted of many powerhouses. There were also so beautiful samurai won and kunoichi among them, so she believed that the other side wouldn’t associate her with the mirror girl and assu that she was just a woman who had been forced to seek the treasure for so reason.
Lily speculated that all those present would vie with each other to enter the palace when it opens first and there was a chance that it would turn into a battle. If she were to follow the crowd and rush inside by taking advantage of the chaos, she believed that the thought of her hiding among the treasure seekers would never co across the minds of those who were trying to hunt her.
The skies were still as ashen as ever and the winds still chilly. The blond samurai continued to pester the two samurai won and kept trying to persuade them nonstop.
Although a bit unexpected, Lily saw the curly-haired samurai woman nod and accept the dandy blond samurai’s addition to the team. The samurai turned snobbier because of this, and his language also turned crasser.
Lily shook her head after seeing this. I wonder who that woman’s husband is. How could he let his wife go out on a treasure hunt and test her luck. Is he not worried about her having an accident in all kinds of senses?
In any case, this matter had nothing to do with Lily in the end. If it were any other day, she might’ve cautioned that samurai woman, but she didn’t wish to cause trouble and attract attention today.
A dark-skinned child dressed in relatively clean garnts arrived in front of Lily at this mont.
“D-Do you know a wandering samurai uncle known as Tenba Goro, Big Sister?” the child asked Lily.
“Brother Tenba? I know him… what’s the matter?”
The child took out a letter and handed it to Lily, “That uncle told to give this letter to a tall, long-haired, big-bosod, pretty sister.”
“Eh?” Lily accepted the letter with a blushing face.
You didn’t need to describe like that if you wished to pass a letter onto , did you, Brother Tenba? Although, I have to admit that it might’ve been the best thod to do so.
“Tsk, and you say he’s an upright man!” Shimizu declared coldly.
“Sister Shimizu!” Lily blushed nervously yet found it hard to retort her statent.
The child sprinted away after that since the letter had been delivered.
Lily opened the letter and felt admiration internally after seeing the bold and firm stroked characters written on it. It seed that Tenba Goro also had so skill in calligraphy which was in line with his bold and manly personality.
The letter had the following ssage: I have a matter to deal with elsewhere today, so you can go inside the Biwa Palace without if it opens today so as to not miss the chance, my sworn sister. I won’t break the promise I made to you and will catch up with you soon. You must remain vigilant since the Biwa Palace has existed for about ages —From your brother, Tenba Kotetsumaru Masanari.
The signed na made it clear that Tenba Goro was the alias he was using to roam about the world.
“Brother said that he’ll be unable to make it in ti and told to go in first if the palace opens today.”
“I told you n are unreliable, Lily. Just forget about him. I’ll go along with you to hunt for the treasure,” Shimizu pulled Lily’s sleeve.
“Thank you, Sister, but Brother isn’t soone who would break his promise. He’ll definitely co and must have so unavoidable reason even if he doesn’t make it,” Lily believed Tenba Goro.
However, this held no effect on Lily’s mind as she was determined to obtain the treasure regardless of whether he showed up or not.
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