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CHAPTER 86 – THE FEMALE SAMURAI’S VASSAL
Walking through the flowery bushes covered by clouds that walked the earth, the two women were shrouded from the moonlight as they supported Lily on her way to the tri-walled wooden booth. Despite feeling like a princess, Lily was blushing as she tried to convince herself this was right.
‘of course, a princess wouldn’t bathe herself- there should be a servant to help her undress; besides, we’re all women here, no reason to be shy. No reason to be shy at all,’ she thought. ‘They are serving me. If anyone should feel shy or embarrassed, it should be them! Anyways, I’m doing all this to protect senior sister’s pure body. If it wasn’t for that, my personality wouldn’t allow me to enslave them, even if I defeated them and won the bet. I’ll definitely will be kind enough to set them free, right?’
Moreover, even after all this time Lily felt embarrassed and stimulated whenever she looked at her body – something very detrimental to her training. She could use chado to stabilize the demon in her heart, but would tea be the least bit effective in counteracting her arousal?
When half of her breasts had sunken into the sakura petal bath, Lily was finally able to open her eyes without feeling awkward, yet when she did she was met with the sight of the woman giving her vastly different looks. The bold, yet sincere, admiring, and enraptured stare from Shiu, juxtaposed with the shy, unwilling, and grieved expression from Nanako made Lily’s heart ache. The two were so naïve and innocent, with delicate and tender maiden’s hearts. Sadness flashed through Lily’s eyes as she thought, ‘I actually enslaved these two innocent children – even if it’s for senior sister, would she be happy with this?’
The comfortable floaty sensation brought about by the rippling warm water bouncing her semi-submerged breasts made Lily recall what Sakiko had told her several days ago during a private chado lesson.
Having told Sakiko about Shiu, she inquired about how to interact and treat the girl. Sakiko told her that in the Heian Empire, the norm was for the losers to become the victors’ slaves or henchmen. If the victor respected their opponent and acknowledged their ability, they had the option of making them into a vassal; however, if the offer were rejected, the victor could invite them to follow their samurai path and restore their honour with seppuku. If Lily had known about this earlier, she would have made Shiu her vassal: allowing her to use Shiu’s ninja skills in service of herself; however, at the time Shiu wanted to kill her, and after the battle they hadn’t had a chance to calm themselves, so she wouldn’t have been as merciful and granted this choice to Shiu. Still, she felt a little sorry, ‘recruiting them as my vassals,’ she thought.
Lily’s moist eyebrows hung low as she sat in the wooden barrel, her small hand pressed against her cheek as she lost herslef in her thoughts, ‘My strength isn’t ordinary, much higher than normal samurais, and if I use the demon maiden attribute, my penetration force exceeds 800 kwan – the upper limit of high-class samurais. Add on the first phase of the Genji Swordstyle, and it reaches 1300 kwan, the power of a midleveled lower class kengo!
‘A female samurai with that much power should probably recruit a vassal or two. Although my understanding of samurai is limited, it should be a better choice than having SHiu and Nanako as slaves. I like them a lot, and don’t want to see them tortured or losing their honor. Moreover, Matsuda Nagahide has several vassals. What harm is there in recruiting two girls anyways? Right! looks like I have good news for them after the bath!’ Delighted, Lily had made up her mind.
As far as bathing was concerned, she would temporarily ask them to give her a hand. After she earned more money, she could hire two maids from the dojo to take over the responsibility of bathing her. It was just two kwans per year so it wasn’t necessary for two martial artists like Nanako and Shiu to do such things. Of course, it would be for the best if they were willing to continue. This could be negotiated. And she dare say this way was more in line with senior sister’s kind nature.
“Um…” When the two girls washed Lily’s arms at the same time, Lily felt both of her body and mind relaxed. Shiu seemed to concentrate on her service, but Nanako looked distracted.
“Shiu, isn’t this your first time? I didn’t expect that you’d do so well.” Lily felt so comfortable so she shyly gave the other a compliment.
“N- no way, Master, hearing your compliment, I feel overwhelmed by happiness. Serving Master —be it assassination, investigation, battling, or even satisfying master’s other odd interests— is a female ninja’s obligations.” Shiu’s arm shook in excitement.
“Tsk, that’s such a shameless profession!” said Nanako energetically from the other side.
“You, what are you talking about? T- that’s the honor of a female ninja!” Shiu was determined with her philosophy. It was unknown how she was educated as a female ninja.
Lily didn’t know how to respond to their dispute. She just silently stretched her arms to make them continue the massage to shift their attention.
After bathing, Lily let the two girls help her dry her body and put on her yukata, only then did she opened her eyes, “Shiu, Nanako, thank you for tonight.”
“You’re welcome. Serving Master is Shiu’s responsibility.”
Nanako seemed dissatisfied and remained silent. Lily had no idea why she was in a bad mood.1
“It’s really late now. You two should go and bathe yourself. Afterward, come to my room.”
“What?” Nanako was bewildered. She asked cautiously, “For what? What do you want?”
Shiu blushed, “Master… could it be that when you heard what Shiu said earlier, you wanted Shiu to fulfill the other duties of a female ninja…”
“Eh? Hehehe!” Lily helplessly gave them a tender smile, “Did you two misunderstood something? Since I called you to my room very late at night, I naturally have something important to tell you.”2