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Three days later, at dusk, in the yard of Moronobu.
“Miss Kagami, I didn’t expect that your painting foundation is so good. Some of your ideas have even inspired me. Although it will take years of practice before you reach the level of a real painting master, it’s enough to draw the sword inscription.” Moronobu looked at their female student with satisfaction.
Although Lily had to start from scratch in spiritual cultivation and swordsmanship in this foreign world, she was not new to painting. Her painting was also influenced by some western artistic ideas. When Lily told Moronobu that these ideas came from the culture of the Southern Barbarians, he was naturally surprised as he had been isolated in the Kanto region his whole life. He never knew the world of arts was so wide.
“Miss Kagami, this book is written by a friend of mine who is a master designer of sword inscriptions. It is titled 《The Record of Sword Sprite》. Just because you are intending to draw the sword inscriptions yourself, it doesn’t mean you have to go disturb him. He is not easy to deal with, but I managed to get this book in exchange for my painting. I’ll give it to you as repayment for teaching me those unique concepts of what you call the perspective drawing. If you come to comprehend the one day, you might be able to make a genuine sword inscription with sentient if you pair it with your techniques and the sword runes as described in the Record of Sword Sprite.”
Lily was naturally grateful as Moronobu gave her a simple book with a blue cover.
“Thank you very much, Teacher.” Such a thing was too important for Lily to refuse.
“It’s just that
 I’m just saying that you have good skills and understanding. However, as a woman, I can hardly imagine that you can understand the Drawing Concept of my genre. I can only hope that you can have a flash of realization. ”
Lily saluted in silence.
“Teacher, won’t the Imagawa family bother you again?”
Moronobu shook his head, “Perhaps I was too arrogant in the past, this hardship was incurred by none other than myself. Thanks to Miss Kagami’s 200 kwan, I scraped together everything and finally paid off the money I owed. Moreover, I plan to visit the lord of Kamakura in person and promise to draw a painting for him. So, with the entrustment of Lord Kamakura, the Imagawa’s family would not dare make trouble again. Isuzu and I can rest here and study art.”
At the door, Isuzu looked at Moronobu with a red face and happiness welled up in her heart.
Lily felt that Moronobu was blessed. He must have really liked Miss Isuzu. Otherwise, there was no way he would compromise with the secular world and authority.
“Lily will take her leave first. Teacher, take care of yourself.”
“Miss Kagami, the way of the samurai is too dangerous for girls. You must be careful.”
“Un.” Lily nodded silently. It was a great honor to be cared for by such an arrogant teacher.
When she left, Lily looked at Isuzu outside the door. She politely nodded to her before turning to leave.
At this time, in the middle rear of the Suruga town, there was a castle with a blue roof on the hillside near the river. It was the castle that guarded the Suruga and was the residence of the Imagawa family.
In the house within the first wall below the castle, Imagawa Ujichika was lying in his house. Half of his face was swollen and covered with bandages. He was moaning as two young women served him.
The door opened, and a tall, obese middle-aged man with a tall eboshi cap and a gorgeous brocaded cardigan came in with two samurai.
The obese man’s eyebrows were shaved and two dots were drawn on his forehead. His face was also deliberately smeared. His eyes were small and his mouth was oily. When he spoke, his black teeth were revealed.1
This man was the Imagawa Yoshitada of Suruga town.2
“Dear Ujichika, what’s the matter with you?” Yoshitada was huge but his voice was a bit sharp and his accent resembled the Kansai accent.
“Father— ouch, it hurts! Your son was beaten by a female Samurai!”
“Female samurai? How could you have been beaten by a female samurai?”
“I took some people to collect the debt, but a mysterious female samurai came out of nowhere. She wounded me and several of my subordinates! Oh, it hurts!”
“What?!” The neatly trimmed moustache of Imagawa Yoshitada became straight, “How dare a female samurai beat my son in Suruga? Who is she? Where is she now? ”
“She is called Kagami Lily. I don’t know where she came from or where she is now! Ouch! ”
Imagawa Yoshitada looked at his son’s miserable appearance and fumed, “Fukushima! Go and find out who this female samurai named Kagami Lily is! ”
“Yes!” A brown-skinned samurai outside the door replied.
At this time, in the outskirts of Suruga, a group of samurai warriors full of murderous intention emerged from the majestic Mount Amegyo.
Originally, they could be faster but their main objective was to search for the Lily in the mountains and the other objective was to get the Demon Hound’s huge body out of the rugged mountain road, which took a lot of time. No matter how the Demon Hound’s body was sold, their total worth was still less than one-tenth of its anima, but they were also worth at least a thousand kwan. For a campaign, it was already a lot.
But the point was, their losses were too great this time!
The Hojo family lost two junior Kengo, six high-ranked samurai, and eleven intermediate-ranked samurai, nearly half of the men they brought!
How could this money be exchanged for this huge loss?
This did not even include Motoshige, Akira, and the dozens of men who were beheaded by Lily.
You should know, samurai were the core strength of every famous family. This time, the entire Hojo family had almost lost 30% of those very same samurai!
Hojo Dijon’s face was extremely ugly when he walked in front.
“My Lord!” Three ragged samurais came running from the wild.
“You are subordinates of Motoshige?” Hojo Dijon recognized them.
“Your Excellency! We
”
The five people who were released by Lily initially escaped from Mount Tama but got attacked by monsters. Because of that, two more died. At last, only three of them were left. When they met the Wind Demon Ninja, they got the news and waited here.
They told him all about it.
“Blasted! That ⓕⓀⓒⓚⓘⓝⓖ ⓑⓘⓣⓒⓗ!” Hojo Dijon stamped his foot, forming a pit on the ground, “As expected, she killed my brother and Master Akira! ”
Hojo Dijon looked at Suruga town: “Kagami Lily, don’t you think that I will not dare to kill you if you hide in Suruga town. Even if I have to fight with Imagawa, I want you to die!”
Although Suruga was the territory of Imagawa family, it didn’t have fierce and tyrannical samurai such as Dijon. Dijon was not afraid of the Imagawa family at all. Of course, in normal times, he would take all parties into account and won’t fight with Imagawa. However, the hatred between Lily and Hojo family had reached a bloody and hostile stage. Naturally, Dijon wouldn’t care about Imagawa.
At this time, Ryumori Munesaki came forward and said, “Your Highness, although we did not fear Imagawa family, they are, after all, under the banner of Ashikaga. If we directly confront the Imagawa and offended the Ashikaga clan, that’d put us in a tough spot. We’d better enter Suruga town first and negotiate with the Imagawa family. We will tell them about her evil deeds. She’s just a little friendly with Saikanji family. The Imagawa family will definitely not make an enemy with our Hojo family for this little thing. It’s not too late for us to rush into Saikanji’s house to catch Lily if the Imagawa family refuses to hand her to us.”
Although Dijon was angry, he still hadn’t lost his mind. The Ashikaga family was the most powerful clan of the Seiwa Genji branch. Challenging the Imagawa family would not only offend the young generation of Ashikaga Kiyoshi but also the core of the whole Seiwa Genji branch. He did not dare to challenge the Ashikaga family.
“Well, first of all, instructor Ryumori will guard the exit of Suruga town with some people. I’ll take others with me. If I’m lucky enough to bump into that woman, I’ll catch her with no explanations given! If not, I’ll go to see Imagawa Yoshitada and make them hand over the person!” This was what Dijon decided.3