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CHAPTER 22 – THE WOUNDED PRINCE
Ijuin Reira came to the fence and looked at the eldritch energy filled woods below the cliff.
“What do we do… Do we fight to our death here or get captured? I’d rather die in battle than get captured!” Ijuin pulled her blade out of the sheath, the blade above the simple hilt shining in a faint green glow.
“The blade has already evolved once after Tanba. It’s as powerful as an eighth grade katana now and can restrain monsters with the wind attribute. However, all this is meaningless in front of the overpowering archdemons around us! Haahh!” Ijuin’s eyes flashed with confusion.
“It’s a monster! A demon bird is coming over!” The sword mikos on the terrace of the temple shouted suddenly.
“What?!” Ijuin looked in that direction immediately and saw a gigantic, ten meter wide demon bird fly past the temple and head for the open field in front of it.
“Shoot it down!” Ijuin shouted.
“We don’t have any arrows left, Ms. Ijuin!” A samurai woman yelled back.
“Damn it!” Although executing a sword beam would consume a lot of energy, Ijuin had no choice but to deal with the flying monster.
She unleashed a faint green sword beam towards the demon bird with the belief that it should be able to hurt the wind attributed monster.
Two mirror girls in front of the temple took out charms and shot fireballs toward the demon bird at the same time.
The reactions of the Tsunaga sisters had become sharp because of the deadly battles that they had gone through these past few months.
The demon bird simply flapped its wings in response to their attacks, though, and a stream of sakura petals dispelled the fireballs and the sword beam with ease.
“What?! Sakura petals?” Ijuin was shocked that such a savage demon bird had attacked with sakura petals and found it a little baffling.
The demon bird swooped down the next moment and brushed past Ijuin’s head, the wind generated from the descent flipping her skirt up and exposing her dark green garter underwear.
After seeing their attacks get nullified, Ijuin, as well as a few sword mikos and jade maidens dashed towards the demon bird to attack it.
The demon bird flapped its wings and landed on the open field, which was then followed by a girl jumping off its back. It transformed into wisps of black smoke after that and vanished from the world.
The Tsunaga sisters looked at the girl who had leaped down and recognized her immediately.
It was someone who had joined the Tsunaga sisters once and was the idol of all samurai women in the Heian Empire, so it was impossible for them to not know her.
“Kagami Lily?” Ijuin looked at Lily in disbelief, wondering why she was here, and why she had come riding on a demon bird.
She did not even mind Lily’s incredibly revealing outfit as the outfits of some girls in the temple were also tattered because they did not have the supplies to mend them. A few of them had even lost their panties during battle, so it was pretty common for them to return commando.
“Ms. Ijuin.” Lily looked at the dilapidated temple, as well as the tattered outfits of the injured girls before she asked, “What’s the situation here?”
Ijuin said with a sigh, “As you can see, the monsters have been besieging us for more than ten days now. We gathered our remaining charms to create a magic circle and sent a call for help to the court by boosting the voice transmission orb’s strength… However, no one has appeared to rescue us until now!”
“Uhm… Well, I actually came to rescue you…” Lily said embarrassedly with a flushed face.
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“Hah? You alone?”
“The imperial court’s army has already begun to conquer Tanba and has set up a defense at Port Ayabe. They didn’t dare to advance forward without enough intel, though, and dispatched me to investigate the region.”
“I admit that you are pretty skilled, Ms. Kagami, and even have a demon bird that you can use to fly. However, it’s impossible for you to save hundreds of people alone no matter how powerful you are. There are thousands of powerful monsters surrounding us, so how exactly do you plan to bring all of us out from their encirclement? We’ve already run out of food, medicine, and other supplies, so we won’t last much longer!” Ijuin said emotionally.
“Rest assured, Ms. Ijuin. Let’s analyze the enemies first before we discuss this again. Besides, just because I came alone doesn’t mean I don’t have helpers.”
“Hah?”
“Where’s the prince, Ms. Ijuin?” Lily asked.
“He… is wounded and is resting in the temple right now.” Ijuin said hesitantly.
“What? Did he get wounded in battle?”
“No. He didn’t…”
“Huh?”
Ijuin said a bit embarrassedly, “The samurai women accompanying him died to protect him in battle. The sword mikos found out that he’s a boy later on when he was within the camp and got so infuriated that they tied him up and beat him black.”
“Hah?!” Lily felt dumbfounded.
“They did not know he was the prince! After all, it’s quite rare to chance upon an imperial, let alone a cross-dressed imperial! The sisters had spanked him severely by the time someone recognized him…” Ijuin said.
“He isn’t in danger, then?”
“Other than his butt, he is completely fine… and should’ve recovered a bit by now1.”
Lily felt helpless just thinking about it. An imperial prince had actually cross-dressed and mingled with the girls, looking at them change without restraint. Even the court was in unrest because of his sudden, unannounced departure, so it was good that he had learned his lesson. Lily even thought of beating him personally had the girls not already done so.
It was completely outrageous for a boy to play truant, cross-dress, and go on an adventure without any regard for his identity.
Lily blushed suddenly after realizing that she might not have the qualifications to criticize him.
He was just a femboy who cross-dressed while she had swapped her gender altogether.
She did not have a choice in it, though.
“Should I take you to the prince, Ms. Kagami?”
“Hold on. I want to discuss the battlefield’s situation first.” Lily said.
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The captains of the Tsunaga sisters assembled together a while later. Most of them knew Lily, so their faces brightened up, and they could see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.
Lily took out a map and began explaining the situation under the temple’s eaves.
“Port Ayabe is over here, a hundred miles away from this temple. The distance will nearly double if we take the land route, though, since we would need to detour around a lot.” Lily said.
“How do we break through the encirclement of the monsters when they are everywhere?” Kasuga from the sword miko squad asked.
Lily said, “Based on my demon bird’s rough investigation, there are no openings in the encirclement of the monsters. Even if there’s one, it’s most likely a trap. However, they don’t know that we will be heading towards Port Ayabe.”
“There’s only one way down this temple, though.” Ijuin added.
“The monsters will definitely be lying in ambush on this path, so we won’t be taking it and will climb down the cliff overnight instead. We shall choose one of these three locations to break through after descending halfway down the mountain. Yeah. Let’s go with the one on the far left!” Lily said.
“Will it really work, though, Sister Kagami? There are many terrifying Permanence level archdemons among these monsters…” Kasuga asked.
“You have no other choice. Death is the only outcome that awaits you if you remain here. Although I can’t guarantee everyone’s safety, I promise that I will handle the archdemons if they show up. You can handle the rest of the demons.” Lily said.
Ijuin grabbed Lily’s wrist and asked, “Are you confident in that, Ms. Kagami?”
Lily nodded, “I will do my best to keep you all safe. It’s impossible for the court to dispatch troops to rescue you right now, so you have no other choice but to follow me.”
“We will do it!” Ijuin showed a resolute expression.
“Rest for now. We shall break out of the encirclement at three in the morning!” Lily said.
“All right!” The girls nodded.
Ijuin guided Lily to a small building behind the temple after the other girls split up to make preparations.
Two samurai women were guarding the door here.
Lily and Ijuin arrived in front of the dimly lit building and pulled the door aside.
A fair-skinned, juvenile “girl” with disheveled, long hair was lying face-down on the floor here.
Prince Narinaga was dressed in a revealing, blue kimono that showed his shoulders and thighs right now. His butt cheeks, which had medicinal paste applied on them, were also exposed outside at the moment, and he kept moaning in a girlish voice.
“Prince Narinaga.” Ijuin kneeled in front of him, “How’s your injury now? I’ve already punished the girls who failed to recognize you and beat you up. You can punish them however you like once we return to Heian-kyo.”
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Prince Narinaga breathed out coquettishly and said, “Please don’t say that. It’s my fault for deceiving the Tsunaga sisters and bringing you so much trouble. I have no complaints since I deserved the beating and won’t blame you for it. I should be thanking them instead for making me realize how insensible my actions were2…”
“Prince Narinaga…”
The absent-minded prince noticed a woman standing at the entrance with the light acting as the backdrop at this moment.
“Aah!” He blushed suddenly and fixed his kimono in spite of the pain coming from his a̲s̲s̲, showing a nervous look on his face as he said, “S-Sister Kagami?!”
Lily entered the room and kneeled in front of him. “Greetings, Prince. I hope you will pardon me for arriving late to rescue you.”
“D-Don’t say that now!” Prince Narinaga tried to sit down, but the pain from his butt made him stand up again. He did not wish to let Lily see him like this as he felt a hundred times more embarrassed then letting other girls see his current look.
He asked nervously, “Why are you here, Sister Kagami?”
“I came here to save you, Prince. How’s your injury now? I can have a look if you want.”
“No! Don’t!” Prince Narinaga almost cried out from the shame. “I’m fine. I just—Ow.”
He teared up from the pain.
Lily took out a life-recovering magatama silently and gave it to Ijuin when she saw this. “Please heal the prince using this, Ms. Ijuin. Although the injury isn’t much of a problem, the prince won’t be able to keep up with us when we break out before dawn tomorrow like this.”
Ijuin nodded, “I would’ve healed him already if we hadn’t run out of life-recovery magatamas.”
“No, Sister Kagami, Ms. Ijuin. You should use this precious life-recovery magatama to heal a seriously wounded girl instead of using it on my superficial injury. I’m completely fine and have no trouble walking!” Prince Narinaga said with a pained expression on his pale face and tried to walk forward.
“Ouch!” He just ended up crying out in pain again, though.
References
Robinxen: Should I feel pity?Robinxen: Why is he the only reasonable person in the world?