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Lily had thrown his all into practicing the sword-dance diligently within that ethereal cave in the mirror space for three days already.
As he was a soul, he shouldn’t have felt tired, but it was inevitable for the mind to feel fatigued after so much practice, and in this mirror space, that fatigue of the mind reflected itself as fatigue of the soul.
However, with Lily’s current knowledge, he couldn’t understand why the soul could sweat, but as it wasn’t that significant, he didn’t ruminate much on it deeply.
“Phew…” Lily’s breath quickened. Although it was an arduous task, Lily had become engrossed in the practice after keeping at it for several days. It was because he found that he really liked dancing while dressed in the elegant and sexy celestial maiden’s divine raiment1. His rational mind reminded himself often that the main purpose behind the dancing was to train. Moreover, he also feared that his soul would become even more feminized if he got too engrossed in the dancing, so he had to keep his vigilance up.
Lily had practiced the first four stages of Tsukuyomi Swordstyle to perfection in practically a single attempt as he had trained the Genji Swordstyle that took a different approach to the truth as the foundation. Then, Lily spent about 12 hours to execute the fifth stage for a total of ten times, and finally managed to learn these difficult movements successfully through assiduous repetition.
However, it took Lily almost 3 days to learn the sixth stage!
And this was within the mirror space. If Lily were in the outer world, he would’ve needed at least 2-3 years to reach this stage!
By attaining the sixth stage of Tsukuyomi Swordstyle’s first segment, Lily’s physical power and spirit power augmentation had already surpassed the augmentation offered by the complete version of the Genji Swordstyle, providing a sixfold power augmentation!
“What an incredible sword-dance. In the entire Land of East, a good number of those who train in the Genji Swordstyle aren’t even able to attain a threefold power augmentation, and this includes the direct descendants of the main family of the Genji and the samurai from influential factions.”
“Yet, I was able to attain a sixfold power augmentation in just 3 days… If I go out now, I’ll certainly be able to fight that Dijon! Hmph!” Lily’s gaze turned cold.
“But… the price for that…” Lily bowed down to look at the silken divine raiment he had donned. If I lose my memory one day, even I’d find it difficult to convince myself that I’m still a boy.
Lily was physically and mentally exhausted right now, so he just planned to make Dijon and his group wait outside longer!
Lily didn’t dare to underestimate his enemies in a battle of life and death, he only planned to go out after once his mind revitalized to the most optimal state.
“Let’s stop here for now. I feel like not even 10-15 days of training would be enough to learn the seventh stage fully, so I should rest well and then prepare to go out.”
“Wait! I totally forgot about Nanako…2” Lily had become so engrossed in the training that he had actually forgotten about Nanako entirely.
Thus, he left the cavern and arrived in front of the Treasury Room that Kagura had intended to use as Nanako’s training room, but he found no one inside when he opened the door.
“You are…”
A soft and slightly astonished voice of a girl arrived from behind Lily at this moment.
“Huh?”
Lily turned around and saw Nanako staring at him with her purple-amber eyes dazedly.
For a moment, he still hadn’t realized why Nanako’s gaze was filled with so much astonishment and tinged with a bit of embarrassment.
“Lady Kagura told me the pretty boy dwelling this mirror space is the mirror spirit, but I never thought you were actually a girl,” Nanako looked at Lily innocently.
“Mirror spirit?” Lily was taken aback. He then caught sight of the Sakura Parasol resting at the corner of the room and realized Kagura had gone dormant again.
“Kagura must’ve definitely made up some weird story, but it was for the better, I suppose. If Nanako learned that the big sister for whom she had risked her life actually had the soul of a boy along with the huge influx of information, it might’ve shocked her too much,” Lily deduced Kagura’s intention.
“Ah… Yes… I-I’m actually a girl3. I just like to cross-dress as a man sometimes4, that’s all. It’s a hobby of mine5. After all, it’s normal for someone to pick up some exceptional hobbies if they are trapped inside a mirror for a long time, right?” Lily explained hesitantly.
“So you were a girl…” Nanako didn’t reveal any skepticism, but this made Lily depressed. Why don’t you doubt me? Do I really look that feminine?
“Oh, yes. Lady Mirror Spirit, when can I leave this mirror? Lady Kagura told me that Sister Lily is outside. I want to see her as soon as possible.”
“Oh, don’t you worry, you’ll be able to see her quite soon. Kagura and I are going to help Lily break free from Dijon’s encirclement, so you better stay within the mirror until then. Forgive me for this…”
Nanako nodded, “I understand. I would only burden Sis if am outside. Lady Kagura has already explained to me that you will be bestowing a new power to Sister Lily that will allow her to break free from the encirclement. Please allow me to thank you in advance in my sister’s place.”
Nanako bowed solemnly, but this made Lily feel even more awkward. He didn’t want to intentionally fool Nanako, but he could only explain this matter to her slowly at an opportune time later on as it wasn’t the right time to talk about these matters right now.
“Nanako, about your…”
Nanako cut Lily short, “Lady Kagura has already explained it to me. Although it’s a bit unbelievable, after experiencing so many dangerous and bizarre matters over the past few days, I’d rather believe it’s the truth if training here under the guidance of Lady Kagura can really make me stronger.”
“Nanako…” Lily felt moved.
Nanako blushed faintly and turned her head aside, following up somewhat embarrassedly, “Of course, it’s not because I want to become that woman’s shikigami or servant and so on. I just want to become stronger than her! So that I can protect her and perhaps even make her submit to me… That’s the only reason.”
Lily’s lips curled up into a wry smile as he gazed at Nanako gently. She’s still not honest with herself.
“Nanako, I’m a bit tired, so I’m going to rest for a while. Wake me up if you need anything.”
“All right. Please do as you wish, Lady Mirror Spirit. I’m going to the practice the foundational body tempering art that Lady Kagura imparted to me.”
“You’re really quite hardworking, Nanako, but make sure you get enough rest,” Saying so, Lily entered the tatami mat room with the dressing table.
Perhaps because he was really too tired, he didn’t even take off the raiment and lied down sideways on the tatami mats, drifting off to sleep immediately.
Lily slept for a whole day this time but there was no distinction between day and night within the mirror space.
After having a good dose of sleep, Lily finally woke up, but he discovered Kagura gazing at him silently with her golden eyes while sitting in a seiza beside him, still dressed in the pink miniskirt kimono and white stockings.
“Master, Nanako is training so assiduously in order to face powerful enemies, yet here you are sleeping so defenselessly while dressed so seductively. Is it really proper to act so languidly?”
“Sorry… Huh? Hold on, what do you mean by that?! Y-You obviously know I wore these garments in order to practice the Tsukuyomi Swordstyle!” Lily blushed hard and yelled back while covering his chest and privates with his hands.
“Although I know that,” Kagura continued with a cold look in her golden eyes, “You leave me speechless by wearing such garments when you are obviously a boy.6”
Lily responded with a flushed face7, “I’m going to change right away! Also, teach me how to enter and exit this mirror space at will.”