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CHAPTER 92 – MONSTROUS BANDITS
Inside Mount Tama, Akira and Hojo Motoshige were also drenched in the rain. They were cursing while crossing through the mountain forest.
“Although this trail is harder to traverse, it’s closer than taking the main road,” said Akira.
“Lord Akira sure is familiar with areas here,” replied Hojo Motoshige with a lack of interest.
A group of samurai was walking behind them.
“Ⓢⓗⓘⓣ! We wouldn’t have to go through this hardship if that Saikanji Yomika had given us face! It doesn’t matter if it’s just me, but even Your Highness has to suffer together with me!”
“It’s pointless to keep blabbering! You better think about how to explain to my brother
” Motoshige walked through the tall grass and said with a dark face.
Just then, they could hear some strange noises coming from the front despite the fact that it was raining.
“What?”
Motoshige signaled the team to stop moving. Although their power was nothing to write home about, they still had plenty of fighting experiences. Motoshige and Akira could tell someone was engaging in combat from the noise that came from the main road down there.
The group of people quietly descended the slope. They parted the thick bushes and saw a little girl with drenched yellow clothing fighting against a Low-Rank wild boar monster.
Although it was a Low-Rank monster, the wild boar was innately powerful and aggressive. Thus, it was considered one of the more powerful monsters among the Low-Rank monsters.
And yet, that little girl had the upper hand in this fight.
“My God!” Motoshige exclaimed in a whisper, “That little girl can use spirit power to fight! I wonder which house she belongs to.”
Motoshige felt bitter. He was the Young Master of the Hojo Clan but he didn’t know how to use spirit power, yet that little girl did. Was she alone here in this dark windy night? He wondered if he could steal her Spirit Power Manual.
“That, that’s Saikanji Nanako!” said Akira as he widened his eyes in surprise.
“What!?” Hojo was astonished.
“You said
 She’s the oldest daughter of the Saikanji House? Akira, are you sure?”
“Your Highness, we’ve done a lot of deals with the Saikanji. I’ve seen her daughter during those occasions. That’s definitely her! Moreover, she’s using the secret martial arts of the Saikanji House that utilizes kodachi and fist-strikes. I’m absolutely certain! That’s her! Saikanji Nanako! The only daughter of Saikanji Yomika!” Akira sounded very certain of it.
“Haha!” Motoshige exclaimed excitedly. “Damn! We searched high and low with nothing to show for it. And now, she appears right in front of us with no efforts on our part! Her mother gave us a run for our money, and just when we were wondering what to do with those Saikanjis, her precious daughter is delivered to us! It seems that my luck isn’t that bad!”
Akira looked fierce and malicious, “Although that girl can use Spirit Power, she could only fight on equal footing with a wild boar. At most, she got the power level of a Middle-Tier samurai. We can capture her easily!”
“Hmph, then we can use her to threaten the Saikanji House. Let’s see if they still won’t sell the firearms to us this time!” Motoshige cut in before Akira finished his sentence. His eyes were so sinister as the resentment he had accumulated for a long time burst out all at once, “No, I won’t let the matter end at this, I want them to suffer great loss! I want Yomika to suffer the consequences! Hahaha!”
After going through a bitter struggle with the Demon Boar, Nanako had finally killed it. Her petite figure was drenched in sweat as she took out the Anima Container to collect the anima.
Since the Demon Boar suddenly attacked her on the way home, she didn’t have a reason not to kill it and collect the anima.
“The battle is over. Look.” Motoshige’s eyes suddenly turned icy and with a sudden wave of his hand, “Do it now!”
“Swish! Swish!”
Akira and Mothershige didn’t make a move. Instead, two swordsmen wearing a flat bamboo hat and brown cape dashed forward from behind.
The two swordsmen instantly rushed over the cliff by the road, took a sudden jump from the bushes to launch a preemptive strike on Nanako. They were extremely fast and nimble, there was no doubt that their speed was even faster than Akira and Motoshige! These two were the hotshots hired by the Hojo Clan, and they both stood at the peak of High-Tier samurais.
The High-Tier samurais had the penetration force ranked from five hundred to eight hundred kwans. The gap between a samurai that had just reached the High-Tier and a samurai at the peak of High-Tier was around three hundred kwans. Aside from that, swordplay and many other factors could also contribute to the disparity in gaps. Even High-Tier samurais of the same power level could have a huge disparity!
And these two were first class even among the High-Tier samurais!
Facing two such powerful opponents, Nanako, who had just barely reached the Mid-Tier level, didn’t stand a chance to resist.
Nanako heard some noises coming from above her head while collecting the anima.
She lifted her head and saw two shadows jumping toward her

“Splash!” The muddy rainwater splashed on Nanako’s face.
Nanako slowly regained her consciousness with a horrible headache. She soon realized that she was tightly tied to a tree trunk and unable to move. Standing in front of her was a group of unfamiliar samurais.
Although Nanako still hadn’t grasped the situation yet, she could guess what just happened to some extent. She had bumped into bad guys! Moreover, they were all very powerful!
“You, who are you? What do you want?” Nanako struggled helplessly and yelled in a weak voice, “You need money? Just take it all! You can take all of my money. Let me go! Do you know who I am?”
“Hmhmhm, of course, we know who you are. You don’t need to scare me using your family’s name.”
Hojo Motoshige walked forward, his dark and sinister eyes gazing at Nanako. “Who else can you be other than Saikanji Nanako!”
At the same time, just a little less than twenty miles away from where Nanako was kidnapped, Lily was advancing under the rain.
Although it was just twenty miles, there were several mountains between them. As the mountains and forests were covered in thick fog, she couldn’t know what was going on twenty miles away from her.
“I
 have probably been walking for the entire night,” Lily took out the map from her chest to check the location. However, in this era, the map was drawn by a brush. It was a very simple map.
“The distance between Takeshita and Suruga Province is more than two hundred miles. I think I’ve traveled 30% of the way. I’ve encountered plenty of strong monsters along the way, and that inhibited my speed a lot. But I haven’t seen any trace of a violent battle. Perhaps, Nanako didn’t encounter any powerful opponents. She’s quite lucky if that’s the case. This place has weak monsters, but a Low-Rank+ monsters and above can threaten Nanako greatly.”
What Lily didn’t know was that; the bewitching smell on her body was especially drool-inducing to the monsters. The Demon Sword Maiden was innately beautiful, and her body had the natural scent of orchid flowers. Monsters with extremely sensitive senses could smell it from very far away. There was nothing she could do to change this fact.
“Nanako, where are you
”
Lily gently looked at the first glow of dawn that gradually broke the darkness of the rainy mountains.