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Hearing this, Nanako began to feel anxious. She originally thought it’d be fine to make a promise first and then decide what to do later after big sister Lily returns. Nanako naturally wouldn’t act according to Tokugawa’s wishes, though he might look boorish, Tokugawa was the scheming type and had seen through Nanako’s thoughts.
“Then what do you guys want?” Nanako’s tone immediately turned cold, since they wouldn’t believe her even if she kept up the act, she might as well lay out her cards first.
Tokugawa rubbed his chin as he thought about it and remained silent.
At this time, a short-statured man walked over. That man was none other than one of the Mikawa Three Tigers, Kashima Hajime, who knocked down Nanako earlier.
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Kashima said, “Boss, the drug is here.” He said while passing a small bottle to Tokugawa.
After receiving it, Tokugawa poured one red pill onto his thick, callus palm and said to Nanako, “This is a different drug concocted by my brother Kashima’s family, it has a strong effect on the body but it comes with a slight side effect. You are to come to my place every day to get a neutralizer, that’ll prevent your body from being influenced by the side effects, will this drug help you remember your promise with me?”
Nanako was frightened, her breath quickened, and her heart started pounding in her chest, “D-do you guys know what you’re doing?”
“What? Am I not being clear enough? This drug is very beneficial for both you and Lily, I am offering it out of good intention,” Tokugawa said in earnest.
Nanako stared coldly at Tokugawa, she was flabbergasted at how he was able to utter such a shameless thing with a straight face. “Sorry, I won’t be able to help you in this matter!”1
“Huh? Is Miss Nanako going to reject my good intention?” Tokugawa asked.
“You can give your kind regards to Sister Lily personally and repeat everything you just said to her. Oh, better yet, why not have Uesugi Rei and Lady Sakiko as witnesses?” Nanako answered back sarcastically.
Tokugawa didn’t bat an eyelid.
“Slap!” Kashima, who was just by the side of Tokugawa, suddenly slapped Nanako with a resounding swat. Nanako was so confused that her thoughts ceased for a moment.
Kashima’s tone immediately became harsh, “You little s̲l̲u̲t̲, you don’t know what’s good for you! You f̲u̲c̲k̲i̲n̲g̲ dare to use Sakiko and Uesugi Rei to threaten my boss?”
Blood started to leak from the corner of Nanako’s mouth.
Kashima was one of the Mikawa Three Tigers, an early-stage Sword Saint. Meanwhile, Nanako was only a middle-stage Samurai, the discrepancy in strength was too much, though Kashima didn’t use his full strength, this blow was still very heavy to Nanako.
“Kashima!” Tokugawa berated, “How can you hit a little girl like this? If you have something to say, just say it politely2. I believe Nanako is making a sound logic here.”3
The last of the Three Tigers, Tsunemoto Torayasu, remained steadfast and silent. His family had pledged their loyalty to the Tokugawa clan, however, this conduct of surrounding a little girl from all sides, threatening and hitting her, he really couldn’t bear to watch it anymore and only lowered his head with a grim expression.4
Having reached this stage, Tokugawa had dropped his act and stopped beating about the bush. He bent his upper body to bring his broad face close to Nanako and said, “Saionji Nanako, you are a clever lass, then you should also know this, if you don’t swallow this pill today, you will not be able to leave from here. Even if you refuse, we have other methods to make you swallow it. I bet you are very clear about the gap between our strengths, right? As such, you should just adapt to circumstances and take this pill. Afterward, you just need to diffuse this powder in Miss Kagami’s tea every day. We will be able to tell if you’ve carried out our orders and supply you with the antidote once a day, do you understand now? Clever little lass…”
“Ptui!” Nanako spat on Tokugawa’s face, wiped the blood from her lips and cursed, “You trash! Not only are you the disgrace of the Tokugawa clan, but also the failure of Genji Dojo! I never imagined a grown-up man would use such a despicable method to deal with a girl! I will absolutely not obey you, just give up convincing me otherwise! Loser! Scumbag!”
Nanako knew she wouldn’t get out of this unscratched even if she resigned herself, thus she summoned her courage to angrily rebuke Tokugawa.5
Tokugawa’s face stiffened, he wiped the spit on his face and said, “Saionji, I don’t have a fetish for a little girl’s saliva, but let me remind you that if you offended the Tokugawa, you won’t get off lightly even in Kamakura’s Imperial Palace.”
“Hmph, you hypocrite! If you want to take this to Kamakura’s Imperial Palace, do it then! I am oh-so-interested to find out how heavy is the crime for attempting to poison your junior female disciple!” Nanako retorted without fear.
“Pow!” Once again, Kashima punched Nanako in the gut.6
“Cough—!” There was no way Nanako’s petite body would be able to withstand the punch of a sword saint. The punch caused her to bend her upper body and cough out some saliva. To support her body, she leaned against the wall and slowly dropped to the ground. Nanako couldn’t catch her breath and momentarily be unable to get a word out.
Tokugawa glanced at Nanako with a stern look and not an ounce of pity could be seen on his face, “I have other matters to attend to, force her to take the pill, but don’t hit her face nor break any bones.”
With those words, Tokugawa placed his hand on Tsunemoto Torayasu’s shoulder and continued, “Let’s go, you’re still not very used to this right?”
Then, Kashima surrounded Nanako with a few of Tokugawa’s retainers.
……
The sky was dark and rain poured down incessantly, Nanako was completely drenched as she dragged her injured body back home.7
Those guys forced Nanako’s mouth open and made her swallow the pill. Moreover, they were extremely nasty and forced it down with the muddy rainwater…8
Nanako crashed onto the floor and cried out loud.
“This is a drug concocted by my family to exercise control over the ninja, if you don’t take the antidote for a day, you’ll get a severe stomachache, and after a week, you’ll die! You know what to do now right?”9
Nanako recalled that after she fainted, Kashima and his group splashed her with rainwater to wake her up, then they squeezed the bag of tea powder into her hand.
Tokugawa Shigetsugu appeared sanctimonious on the surface but his means were more despicable than Hojo Motoshige!
“Sister Lily, just… when will you be back? Sniff… Waaaaaa!!!” Lying on the cold solid floor of the empty room, Nanako cried to her heart’s content.10
As of right now, heavy rain continued to befall a certain valley, the troops advanced for a certain distance before they were stopped by a mountain flash flood. The landslides destroyed the pathway so they hadn’t a choice but to pitch a camp nearby while the cavalrywomen pave the road.
But of course, this landslide meant nothing to Lily and Uesugi Rei if they ever decided to forcefully break through with the Nioh. However, it was also true that they didn’t have any urgent reason to break away from the troops.11
That night, Lily was sitting by herself on top of the tree branch in spite of the heavy wind. She was probing the distinct spiritual fluctuations of the nature around her that were influenced by the heavy rain. This was beneficial for the growth of her “intent”. And more importantly, Lily fished out the small pouch full of magatama fragments she had taken from the Fuma clan’s chief and poured them onto her silky palm. They were rough to the touch and more or less about 50 grams in total.
There are more than 50 grams here! This is truly a huge haul.12
These 50 grams of magatama fragments were all the Fuma clan had, and it was kept by the chief no less. Generally speaking, most of the experts would use these fragments as soon as they received it since it was only natural for one to seek more strength.
However, Lily guessed that such precious material could perhaps also be used as currency among the experts.
Be that as it may, Lily still used all of them without any hesitation.
While absorbing the magatama fragments under the rain, it felt as though a portion of the rainwater’s coolness had blended with it. This was somewhat helpful in fortifying Lily’s intent of the sakura blossom.
It took Lily almost the whole night to fully absorb those 50 grams of magatama fragments.
Currently, Lily’s overall power had been raised by yet another 12,000 kwan. She had been promoted from a junior middle-stage Sword Saint to an intermediate middle-stage Sword Saint with 32,000 kwan of penetration force.13