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The underground space was dark and stifling hot because of the hot current originating from the lava underneath Mt. Fuji. The heat traveled through the dark tunnels while carrying despair and haze along with it and blew towards this long dilapidated village.
A majority of this Mirror Girl branch clan’s clansmen had lost their wisdom with regards to life after spending a decade or so in a world without light, and some of them had lost their minds, going about their daily tasks mindlessly.
The few remaining villagers who still possessed a clear mind also doubted the words of these unknown kunoichis since they harbored some speculations about this underground space from long ago.
However, they were the same as Haihime. She also doubted whether Amanojaku would keep his promise, but she had no other choice.
She chose to believe in him fully knowing that he might be deceiving her.
This was the weakness of humans.
The members of the Mirror Girl branch clan were also human, and even though Haihime possessed a blade maiden’s physique as well as a high talent for advancement, she was, in the end, still a weak woman.
She didn’t possess a strong will to battle nor an obsession to resist like Lily.
If it were Lily who had witnessed her own mother get murdered like how Haihime did, she might’ve chosen to die together with the murderer!
Even if she failed to do that, she would’ve preferred death rather than dishonor!
The hot currents coming from beneath caused the sand to blow up as the villagers in tattered clothes packed their few belongings and filed up in a line to follow the demon kunoichi and left the village towards the tunnel leading to the outside world.
A heavily injured kunoichi almost on the brink of collapse obstructed the villagers’ way after they had traversed about two-thirds of the sandy path towards the tunnel.
“Halt. Go no further,” Yumi braced her thighs with much difficulty and raised her butt, sweat trickling down her thighs underneath the minidress.
“Who are you?”
“Why are you blocking our path to sunlight?”
The vigilant villagers asked resentfully.
Yumi’s breasts heaved up and down as she gasped for breath, “I am Yumi, the leader of the kunoichi under Lady Haihime. The monsters have set up an ambush ahead of this path, so you’ll definitely end up dying if you go any further. Return to the village immediately!”
“Hmph! Haihime’s subordinate now, aren’t you?”
“Haihime leeched onto the monster who killed her mother just to save her own neck. Do you think we would believe the words of such a woman’s subordinate?”
“Yeah! Haihime is a traitor!”
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“I’m pretty sure she doesn’t want to see us get rescued and wants to stop us from returning to a peaceful life among the humans, and so must’ve commanded this kunoichi to deceive us!”
When the truth is cruel and the lie is sweet, people who have been in despair for a long time would rather prefer to believe in the lie.
The old village chief gazed at Yumi and found it hard to distinguish truth from lie momentarily. Setting aside the fact whether Haihime was a credible source, she also couldn’t confirm whether this woman who called herself Haihime’s subordinate was really her subordinate. Although she was the village chief, she didn’t know what choice to make regarding the future of the clansmen.
“No, it’s not like that!” Yumi really felt like letting the monsters bite these villagers to their deaths after hearing them curse the woman who sacrificed so much for them because of their deep misunderstanding.
However, Haihime would have no hope left for the future if all of them died.
“Listen to me. Don’t believe those monsters’ lies! Haihime chose to obey Amanojaku to let you live and stop the monsters from killing you!” Yumi stated anxiously.
“Who would believe you!”
“You’re also on the monster’s side, right? You could’ve informed us earlier, but you came to tell us this right when we have the hope to leave this place. Do you think we are fools?”
“Haihime must not want to see us regain our freedom and cooked up this lie to deceive us! That woman is used to lying and betraying all her life!”
The villagers were expecting to leave this underground space today and no one was willing to return again.
“Just ignore her! Let’s go ahead!”
The village chief wanted to say something, but she hesitated in the end and could only go along with the flow.
Perhaps a girl like Yoriko could’ve stopped their clansmen, but Yoriko wasn’t present here.
“Don’t throw your lives away! Although the environment is vile, you can at least preserve your lives if you return. Lady Haihime will… definitely come to save you!” Yumi blocked their path with stretched arms.
“Smash!” A stone struck Yumi’s forehead and actually caused it to bleed because of her weakened spirit power.
A succession of stones followed after the first, some hitting her while some missed her.
“F̲u̲c̲k̲ off! As if Haihime would come to save us! She must be longing to see us suffer in this place, isn’t that so?!”
“Yeah! She said it with her own mouth, that she enjoys watching our agonized looks in this place!”
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“She’s a vicious woman who finds joy in causing others pain and deceiving them!”
“Get lost!”
“Disappear! Or else we’ll stone you to death!”
Yumi was sent tumbling to the ground by the stones. She only had a little amount of spirit power remaining right now and had to preserve it in case of an emergency, so she was forced to dodge the stones while trying to persuade them, “Even if you don’t believe Haihime, you would believe Lily, right? I am Lady Lily’s, who’s a samurai woman and a liege lord in the Land of East, subordinate right now. Are you unwilling to believe me even now?”
“Enough! You just said that you’re Haihime’s subordinate and you say that you’re an eastern samurai woman’s subordinate now. Haven’t you realized that your lies are too incoherent?!”
“What Lily?! We’ve never heard of her.”
“Get lost!”
The stones continued to rain down on Yumi and those cat-masked kunoichis who were probably smirking underneath their masks didn’t even need to act, which was for the best in this situation.
Yumi was thus forced to roll aside and hide from their assault.
The villagers weren’t vicious brutes, so they stopped throwing stones at Yumi after seeing that she didn’t block their path any longer. They shot condescending looks down at Yumi and continued following behind the cat-masked kunoichi while cussing out.
The village chief almost felt like stopping after seeing Yumi’s bloodied forehead, but she longed for the sunlight too much. She didn’t have much life span left, so she didn’t care even if she ended up dead today as she wished to see the outside world again before dying. This selfishness muddled her judgment and made her choose to follow the crowd.
“C-Could you answer please a question of mine!” Yumi recalled what Haihime told her suddenly, “Have any of you seen a beautiful samurai?”
“Hmph! We won’t tell you even if we know anything, Haihime’s pawn!”
“Lady Lynne is our savior. We won’t sell her out,” the little Yoshika added.
“Shut up!” A village aunt covered Yoshika’s mouth.
“Lady Lynne?” Yumi knew this was an alias that Lily used, “Where is she then?! Tell me where she is right now!”
“She left a few days ago! Just get lost, woman,” the villagers hounded her.
“I see…” Yumi kneeled down on the ground powerlessly and watched as the villagers walked to their deaths in this vast darkness, feeling utterly impotent.
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“So she’s left already…”
“Hold on!” Yumi came to a sudden realization, “The only tunnel to the surface leads to the mountain behind the temple and it’s guarded by a large number of monsters. It’s impossible for Haihime and the monster chiefs to be unaware of her departure with the strength she possesses if she really left from there. The monsters were still guarding the exit strictly as I made my way down and there were no traces of battle, so she shouldn’t have left yet!”
“The little girl said that Lily was their savior. Kindhearted as she is, it’s highly likely that she helped these villagers protect the village and since she wasn’t inside the crowd, she must’ve remained behind in the village or be somewhere in this underground space because of some reason!”
“Lily!”
At this moment when Lady Haihime had fallen into despair, all Yumi could think about right now Lily. Although she was clearly weaker than Haihime, she believed that if it was Lily, she might really be able to change something!
“Lily! My master…”
Yumi got up and ran towards the village.