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CHAPTER 6 – TAIRA NO MASAKADO
“Archdemon!” That terrifying aura from outside immediately diminished Lily’s curiosity as she felt a chill crawl up her back.
The one who entered was a three-meter tall giant in dark blue prehistoric armor. There were several beast heads made of brass on the armor and each one looked so realistic as if their eyes were glowering at the surroundings.
His face was pale and abnormally broad. His hair was messy but his eyes were ferocious like lions eyeing their prey. He had a big bow strapped on his shoulder and the long sword attached to his waist was blazing with green fire.
Taira no Masakado’s eyebrows were as thick as the broom brush and his long beard hung from the sides of his face. The muscles on his face were so condensed that it made his chin appear long and squarish. He was a tall and beefy man, each of his limbs was already twice the size of Lily’s waist!
With his head almost reaching the ceiling, Masakado had to lower his head to pass through the door. Upon entering, he swept his gaze across the demons in the room and momentarily stopped on Lily.
That caused Lily’s back to sweat profusely.
Taira no Masakado was one of the four great vengeful spirits in the Heian Dynasty. With Lily’s current strength, she totally couldn’t see through him at all. He was an existence on par with Demon King Sugawara no Michizane!
Lily may seem calm on the surface but she was very antsy in her heart. She was invited to Masakado’s party due to a misunderstanding, if the other party were to find out that she was, in fact, a human girl…
The seemingly indomitable giant gazed coldly at Lily. Noticing the sway of his beard as he was about to open his mouth to ask something, Lily’s heart was beating so fast she could literally hear it thumping.
Before he could pose his question, that giant monk raised his winecup towards Masakado and said, “Lord Masakado, isn’t the moonlight pretty tonight?”
Masakado turned towards the giant monk and replied with a smile that frightened Lily, “Indeed it is.”
“Indeed, indeed!”
“Heian-kyo’s moonlight is very pretty! It’s like the monster’s festivities every day!” Those cat monsters, umbrella monsters, one-eyed monsters, faceless ghosts, and various other demons all said in succession before starting to dance again.
The hall became lively and unbearably noisy all of a sudden. All the demons got even more excited as they danced while shouting Masakado’s name. These weak monsters were quite lively as if they weren’t afraid of Masakado in the slightest.
Masakado entered the hall and sat down on the other end. A few cat monsters in yukata carried giant plates with food and drinks and arranged them before Masakado. As he looked at the delicacies before him and the merry demons in the hall, Masakado nodded in satisfaction.
Lily wanted to take advantage of this chaos to make her break and silently shifted towards the entrance. As soon as she reached the entrance, Lily stretched her hands behind her to feel for the sliding door.
“Clap!” However, Lily’s wrist was grabbed by a furry paw.
Lily almost let out a screech due to the fright. If she really let out a screech as any ordinary girl would do, she really would have exposed herself as a human girl.
“What are you dilly-dallying for? Go serve Lord Masakado some wine!” That hairy yet fierce-looking beaver wine waiter indicated with his wet nose and six long whiskers.
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“Who? Me?” Lily was surprised.
“Of course it’s you!” The beaver looked all over before continuing, “Lord Masakado was once a world-famous samurai, since you are the prettiest woman in this hall, if you don’t go, who else?”
Lily naturally didn’t want to go, and this beaver’s strength was nothing to write home about, but he’s very fierce. If she didn’t agree and they started to argue, it’ll lead to even more trouble.
Lily shut her eyes to take a deep breath, her chest constantly undulated with the rhythm of her breath.
She tried to visualize what would be the normal thing to do if she was really a demoness.
Since she was invited to the party, she shouldn’t make the other party feel that she was an uninvited guest. In that case, she should cheerfully pour wine for this Taira no Masakako.
“I understand,” Lily opened her eyes and answered calmly.
She tried not to attract too much attention as she moved towards Masakado, but it was impossible not to notice her with the way she’s twisting her waist and her plump buttocks.
Even Masakado’s attention was glued to her breasts. Lily felt a little regretful for wearing clothes that exposed most of her chest line.
She attempted to make herself as humble as possible as she walked with small quick steps towards the great demon warrior. She sat on her knees and gracefully lifted the porcelain wine pot to pour the wine into Masakado’s giant cup.
However, the wine pot suddenly swayed and limbs began to grow from it. Those long yet soft limbs curled around Lily’s arms and extended into her sleeves in an attempt to m̲o̲l̲e̲s̲t̲ her. At the same time, legs also sprouted from the giant cup as it deliberately moved left and right to prevent Lily from pouring the wine.
Lily released her blade maiden spirit power and summoned a few sakura petals to serve as blades to cut off the wine pot’s limbs. Even after they were cut off, the limbs kept convulsing on the ground.
“Owww, that hurts!” Surprisingly, the pot actually shouted!
That somehow tickled the monster’s funny bones as they burst into laughter.
Following that, two sakura petals spun around the big cup to make a whirlwind and spun the cup until it became dizzy and unable to move. Only then did Lily gracefully pour the wine into the cup.
Masakado also glanced at Lily with a somewhat admiring gaze and nodded with delight. He lifted the cup with his big hand.
Masakado downed the liquor in his cup in a single gulp and uttered “Good wine!” as he put down the cup and wiped his mouth with his arm.
Then he bowed his head to look at the belle sitting before him and added, “The beauty is even better.”
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“Oooh! Lord Masakado said the beauty is even better.”
“That he did, that he did—!”
The monsters all began to make merry again.
Limbs began to sprout from the now-dazed wine cup and it began to run all over the place after grabbing the wine pot’s hands that were cut off by Lily, waving it back and forth. That action caused the monsters to roar with laughter.
That annoyed that wine pot so it jumped to chase after the cup.
Lily had somehow been affected by the atmosphere too. Her face flushed like a peach blossom as she let out a light giggle.
“Are you human?” Masakado said that out of the blue, his tone somewhat downcast.
Lily felt like she was suddenly tossed into an ice house from a peach forest as she felt her body temperature dropping.
The four great vengeful spirits had strength comparable to Michizane, perhaps only a little weaker, but they were not opponents Lily could defeat!
If Masakado really wanted to kill Lily, there was no chance she could escape.
What to do?
She had momentarily forgotten herself and didn’t keep up her pretense. She was exposed through her human-like smile1…
However, was that really the case? With Masakado’s realm, how could he not see through her human identity?
Lily’s heart was thumping like crazy, but she knew that she shouldn’t let her opponent knows her fear and diffident.
Having reached this stage, it was useless to deny it any longer.
“Yes,” Lily admitted with a sweet voice.
The hall was very boisterous at the moment. As the monsters danced along with the music, none of them noticed the conversation between the two.
Masakado revealed an interested smile, “That being the case, why does a human girl like you dare to intrude on a demon’s party? What’s your game?”
Lily knew that, while they were having a pleasant exchange at the moment, one wrong word from her and it’d lead to a catastrophic result.
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“I’m from the Land of Hundred Demons,2”
“Oh? The Land of Hundred Demons? What’s your name and where do you hail from?” Masakado asked.
In the Heian Dynasty, there was no such saying as the Land of Hundred Demons. The humans and demons mingled together, it was just that the humans operated in the day while the demons come out at night.
The night of Heian-kyo belonged to the monsters. Any ordinary man wouldn’t dare to come out.
Unless the monsters have a grudge against them, they normally wouldn’t harm those who stayed in the safety of their own house.
“Lord Masakado, this humble one comes from the Mount Fuji of the Eastern Land,” Lily’s voice was gentle but also somewhat indifferent.
“Oh?” Masakado’s beard began to tilt, seemingly thinking of something. Then he said with an unsophisticated tone, “I remember now, that Mount Fuji is the territory of my old friend’s child, Amanokaju, was it?”
“Yes…” Lily could feel her hands and feet trembling.
“Amanojaku, that brat has a woman… what was she called again…”
“Amanojaku’s wife is called Haihime, Lord Masakado,” Lily answered.
“Hah! That’s right, of course! Her name is Haihime,” Masakado then glanced at Lily, “And you are?”
“I’m Lynne, one of Haihime’s subordinates.”
“Hahaha, so you’re the subordinate of an old friend’s child, what a coincidence. Come, pour wine for me.”
Lily was an early to middle-stage spirit jade expert, so it wasn’t strange for her to be Amanojaku’s subordinate. Besides, perhaps Masakado didn’t even remember what realm Amanojaku and Haihime were at.
That wine cup and wine pot were still in a hot chase, so the cat demon had no choice but to fetch another pair of wine vessels. It seemed to be an ordinary wine this time. There was even the character ‘Daruma Masamume’ (达摩正宗3) written on the bottle.
Lily continued to serve wine for Masakado.
“Lynne,” Every time Masakado called her name, Lily felt like her heart would jump out of her mouth, “Since you are that Haihime’s subordinate, why did you come all the way to the West?”
“Lady Haihime wanted to find out Heian-kyo’s current states of affairs, so she sent me here to scout out.”
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“Is that so?” Masakado downed the fine liquor and nodded, “Lynne, I heard that Haihime is great at dancing. I wonder, did she teach you some of her moves?”
“…In regards to singing and dancing, Lynne does have a bit of experience,” Lily answered with her head bowed.
“Oh? Is that right?” Masakado’s eyes lit up, “I haven’t seen the fairer sex dance for a long time now, would you dance for me?”
“Well… Lynne is still a rookie, it may not be worthy of the lord’s party…” Lily replied with her head still bowed. She felt that even if Masakado listened to her excuse, he may not believe her completely so she didn’t dare to provoke him any further. This dance, she was definitely doing it, but as a woman, she had to be more reserved.
“How can that be? From the way you poured the wine to how you utilized the sakura intent, I can tell you are no ordinary woman. Just take me for example, I was once the number one genius but I was set up by some crafty scoundrel. That’s how I end up reincarnating as a vengeful spirit that roams around the Heian-kyo. Do you think anyone in their right mind would want to become a monster? To be disdained and feared? That’s why I am very happy to meet a woman who is not afraid of me and shares the same vision. I really wanted to see those dances they performed in the inner palace again.”
Masakado’s voice carried with it a hint of the vicissitudes of time and helplessness.
“In that case, allow Lynne to offer this poor performance to you…” Lily retreated a few feet while bowing, then made a graceful salutation at Masakado. Although she was about to offer a dance, her demeanor was proud and graceful, with no trace of meekness or indulgence4.
References
Silva: Really… how do you smile like a human?Silva & Robinxen: Lily lied as naturally as she breathed.https://www.daruma-masamune.co.jp/ct/english/Robinxen: Authoooooooooooooooooooooor.