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Putting on a long sleeved sakura patterned kimono, Lily walked to the courtyard and looked at the view. The ordinary sakura trees were about to bloom, unlike thousand year sakura trees, these trees would bloom momentarily when the time arrived.
“Sister Uesugi…” She didn’t know why, but these snow white and cherry blossom petals reminded her of Uesugi Rei, “Are you still at the Tanba province? Are you still fine?”
Though Lily was helplessly sentimental, she wasn’t self aware.
“Miss Kagami.” An out of breath miko ran to her, “The tsunaga sisters will be having an important meeting tonight at the eastern Geisha house. It is very important, you are invited, please hurry Miss Kagami.”
“Oh, ok…” An important meeting of the tsunaga sisters, Lily had to attend. She had not left the house in ten days, Lily had no idea what their situation was like. Whenever she started training, she would immerse herself deep in her practice, though the effects were exemplary, she would get too focused and ignore all other issues.
“I need to report to Lady Ayaka first.” Lily responded.
“The Lord Chief Advisor has already departed towards Izumo Mountain to attend the Fujiwara Clan meeting. I’m afraid she won’t return for several days. She bid me to pass a message, be careful, do not be impulsive and wait for her to return.”
“Ah, I understand.” Lily nodded, “Eh? Why are you the one notifying me about a gathering of the tsunaga sisters?”
The miko bowed, before smiling slyly and pulled out an ancient mirror from her bosom.
“Eh? You also joined the ranks of the mirror girls?”
The number of noble ladies was limited afterall. Recently, the activities of the tsunaga sisters had flourished, and their forces expanded. Many ordinary female adepts, maids and servants had spent considerable amounts of resources to purchase ancient swords, ancient jades and ancient mirrors and joined the organization.
With one look, Lily could tell that her ancient mirror was not a mirror capable of upgrading.
Though Lily had been told that her own mirror was incapable of upgrading, she did not believe those marketable mirrors were equal to her own. Her mirror came with a vast storage space, was indestructible, allowed her to increase the speed of comprehension hundredfold, and had a huge Lunar Blossom monolith with the manual of the Tsukuyomi sword style, besides that, her mirror still had secrets she was not able to access.
But why wasn’t she able to upgrade her ancient mirror? She planned on buying a few ancient mirrors for research purposes1.
Leaving the Chief Advisor’s mansion, she traveled to the west market.
The west market resided on the west side of the Suzaku Avenue. Besides the regular shops, this market also had geisha shops, casinos, and a black market. Compared to the east market, this market was far more chaotic, a market not any common folks could casually visit. The main guests here mostly consisted of adepts and influential officials.
When she arrived at the west market, it was still during the extended night. Lily had inquired with the personnel of the Chief Advisor’s mansion, during her closed training session, the bright sky had only reappeared once. On the thirtieth day of the extended night, the daylight had briefly reappeared, afterwards it was only the long night.
The Kabuki house was located in the south part of the western market. This place was lively, and most of the customers were high ranking officials or adepts with extraordinary strength, only these people could afford the expensive price the kabuki house charged.
“It’s rumored that the kabuki house is here, but I see so many kabuki houses here… I can see both proper and illicit houses, which one is it?” Lily looked down the street filled with red roofed buildings and red lanterns and could only be confused, the malicious gazes from the various customers made her uncomfortable, but with so many gazes, she could do nothing.
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“Sister, do you want to play?” From a street entrance, a lively girl in a kimono called out to her.
Turning, Lily observed that the street was cleaner and the pavilions were both beautiful and full of girlishness.
“Sister, from the way you look at those men I know you like women, right2? No problem, in Heian-kyo, any request can be fulfilled. This Shoujo Street is made for girls to play. Only women can enter this street, be it customers or employees.”
“Really?” Though Lily didn’t intend to play, she had a feeling she should take a look.
Entering the street, she could see that it was quite different from those other streets filled with geisha drunk on money. This street was filled with a feminine scent and aura, the various people were all beautiful women, and there were some kimono wearing girls pulling female samurais into shops.
“As expected of Heian-kyo, there’s even female-only streets.” Lily could only sigh.
“Kagami Lily!” From behind, an arrogant girl’s voice sounded. It was Ijuin Reira leading a group of female samurai. Lily could only feel embarrassed and tried to explain. Ijuin continued first, “You’ve finally come out! You really make me quite anxious! But to think you arrived first.”
“Ah?”
“Let’s enter! It would be bad if we were late.”
Ijuin pulled Lily without hesitation, though her face blushed red as they passed the various stores. She muttered in a soft voice, “Why did they choose to meet here? Women serving women? It’s too strange!”
Lily could only wryly reply, “It’s said that next door is Etsujo Street, it’s where men serve women.”
Ijuin blushed furiously, “I, I’ve never been there!”
They arrived in front of a large two story wine bar named Jade Maiden House.
“This is it, the Jade Maiden House.” Ijuin said.
“Halt!” Two blade wielding women dressed with fancy kimonos stopped them.
“Who are you? You may not enter without an invitation.” One of the women said, the aura and feeling around her, was like a famed jade maiden.
Usually, the blades used by sword mikos were longer than those wielded by jade maidens.
“I’m Ijuin Reira.”
The jade maiden pointed at a box on the side of the Jade Maiden Building, “Please put your hand in, but I must warn you. IF you are not one of our sisters, the box ghost will bite your hand off.”
Ijuin looked at the box ghost with some reluctance, but still placed her hand in. Her hand was not bitten and the ghost’s eyes glowed white.
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“A sword miko, Miss Ijuin is on our invitation list, please enter.”
“You are?”
“Kagami Lily.”
“Please place your hand in.”
With the hundred fold spirit armor, she wasn’t afraid of the ghost, but feeling that the ghost could suddenly bite down still made her nervous. Suddenly, in the darkness, something licked her fingers and palm up and down.
“What, what is this…” The feeling made Lily tremble, her face turned red.
“Don’t move, this is to check your identity.”
Suddenly, the ghost’s eyes glowed gold.
“A mirror girl, please enter, Miss Kagami Lily.”
Ijuin turned to the other female samurais, “Wait here.”
“Yes, Miss.”
Lily and Ijuin entered the building.
“Please go to the second floor.” A jade maiden guided. She led them up to the second floor, into a dark corridor filled with lamps and opened a door into a spacious room.
As Lily entered the room, a mixed feminine scent wafted over her. There were already many famous ladies and female samurais standing around talking.
“Lady Kagami!” A female samurai came over. She was a mature graceful woman with a curly short hairstyle, her face and eyebrows brought the charm of a young wife.
“……Mizue!?” Since leaving Omi, she had almost forgotten about these female samurais who chased after their dream lifestyle, “How are you…”
“Lady Kagami, I didn’t think I’d really be able to meet you here, wonderful.” Mizue’s huge breasts shook with her words.
“Mizue, your hair…”
Mizue ran a hand through her short hair, “This also counts as a farewell with my past self.”
However, Lily felt that the short haired Mizue also had the attraction of an experienced wife.
Since Ijuin had been taken away by a few other ladies to talk, she accompanied Mizue over to a window to chat.
“To tell the truth, I handed over the majority of my last adventure’s gains to my husband and children, then…I traveled on the Iga mountain road to arrive here in Heian-kyo. Though I wanted to find you, I could only gather tales of your glorious deeds, but not of your location, so I joined the Taira forces and earned some money through slaying demons and guarding missions. I know you’re a mirror girl, so I decided to spend all my money on a black market ancient jade, so now I’m a jade maiden.”
“But to think I really encountered you. Though people laugh at my ancient jade. It’s not really good, there are flaws and it’s not capable of upgrading, but I’m satisfied it allowed us to meet again.” Mizue sincerely explained.
Nodding, Lily replied, “Miss Mizue, to think you adventured all the way here, it must not have been easy.”
Mizue had a complicated expression, “True…It wasn’t easy. Right, I was almost caught by powerful bandits once, thankfully brother Tenba Goro was passing by. He’s busy so he asked me to pass a message. You should avoid Nara, since you killed his son and brother, that martial saint Sakanoue no Tamuramaro is absolutely hostile against you. You must be careful in Heian-kyo, sometimes people are more dangerous than monsters.”
Lily took Mizue’s hand, nodding, “Mm, I understand, thank you Mizue.”
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With her hand suddenly being held, she blushed3. Mizue, who had married under the influence of her clan, had given up on her unchanging family and life as a female lord. Did she not endure all the hardships just to chase and meet Lily again?
Suddenly the room fell silent, two black clad female samurai walked in.
“Lady Shenzu has arrived——” Two women with indifferent faces announced.