Volume 2, Chapter 57 – Feelings of Tender Affection

Volume 2, Chapter 57 - Feelings of Tender Affection

Translator: Aoi

Lily’s comprehension of intent kept improving ceaselessly, and she enjoyed this entire refinement process with all her senses.

And by the time she snapped her eyes open, night had long passed, and it was already wee hours in the morning of the next day.

“Oh, no! Sister Uesugi!”

As she was too immersed in the sensation of her intent’s comprehension, Lily had completely forgotten about Rei, who was still bound within the prison!

At this moment, Lily suddenly felt a ripple from Crescent Moon that she had left within her room. Although she didn’t know what this ripple signified, she still returned to her room to pick it up and hastened towards the prison.

When Lily pulled the creaking door of the torture room open, she discovered that the torch inside had long stopped burning. Hence, she went out and quickly brought the small candle from the corner of the walls into the room to ignite the torch.

And the instant she accomplished that, she saw that Rei was still bound to the bench and was utterly drench in musky sweat right now. As she had tried to struggle free too hard, the ropes had bit into her yukata over the shoulders, and pulled them back, revealing her spotless, mellow shoulders outside. Her skin glistened with the sweat that had formed on top of her body, and the piece of cloth covering her mouth had become a wet mess by now.

Guilt overcame Lily, followed by feelings of tender affection.

So, even Sister Uesugi has things she’s terrible at. Yet, I feel having this shortcoming contrarily makes her much cuter.

The former Uesugi Rei was a goddess of war, and the current Uesugi Rei was a woman, at least such was the case from Lily’s perspective.

Rei didn’t wear her usual easy-going smile on her face when she saw Lily appear. Her brows were slightly furrowed at the moment, and her face had even gained a ruddy color.

For the first time ever, Lily had realized that her Sister Uesugi’s face could also turn so ruddy.

She rushed forth promptly and undid the piece of cloth that she had used to cover Rei’s mouth and placed it back into her bosom in passing. She had only done this because the cloth was originally her hand towel and had no other intentions behind her actions.

Lily immediately felt Rei’s brows furrow deeper, and the forlorn expression in her eyes seemed like they were telling her she had something to say. Nevertheless, she held back from doing so in the end, and her expression gradually returned to a tranquil one. The continually changing forms of her bountiful breasts that were pressed against the bench, however, made it clear to Lily that her breathing was still rushed.

In that split second, Lily felt like she ought to kneel down and apologize towards Rei, but, for some reason, another gloomy thought occupied her mind. Hence, although she apologized, she didn’t offer one while kneeling down.

“Forgive me, Sister Uesugi. Lily was pondering about something and forgot that you were all alone here. Only, I wasn’t expecting you to be so bad at the escaping. This is the most basic restraint, yet you haven’t been able to escape from it even after so long. If it were Lily who was practicing it, a punishment would be due for sure. However, since it’s Sister Uesugi, it’s probably difficult to mete out a punishment since it may harm your pride,” Lily stated in a peculiar yet gentle and demure voice.

“Eh?!” Rei’s words had left Lily stunned as she thoroughly believed that Sister Uesugi would feel a bit afraid of her after this experience. However, after hearing her words, it made Lily suspect whether Rei had premeditated everything that had happened and intentionally shown weakness to lure Lily into controlling her in that manner.

Lily shook her head as her thoughts were a mess right now. I’ll get stuck in limbo if this goes on and end up spinning it around in such a way that it would all seem like a scheme of hers.

“Ugh... Whatever may be the truth, she did look pretty cute last night. However, I absolutely cannot let my feelings for her develop to the next stage. Mhm. I only did that to help her learn the escape technique and to lessen the grudge she had accumulated, that’s all,” Lily thought to herself.

The cavalrywomen, as well as the horses, had already gathered at an empty ground within the Fūma village by now as it was time to withdraw to Kamakura city.

Rei and they were also returning to Kamakura as they needed to accept the valuable rewards.

However, Lily felt a bit worried about Shiu, who had left to visit her family at the Yagyū family last night.

Uesugi Rei and Lily walked on top of the wooden platform in the Fūma village and faced the one hundred cavalrywomen before them. After that, Rei announced the following to the cavalrywomen, “You all fought well this time. The entire monetary reward will be split amongst you all. At the same time, the land will be bestowed to the sisters who have the highest contributions in the battle. Also, I have a piece of good news for you all!”

Rei took a deep breath, and after whetting everyone’s appetite long enough, she said, “The talented girl from the Genji Main Dojo standing beside me, Miss Kagami, has decided to bestow half of her monetary reward from her first-class merit this time to commend your contributions!”

“Ehhh?!” Lily felt shocked and looked at Rei with astonishment and shock.

“S-Sister Uesugi. I never said something like this!” Lily stated anxiously.

“Oooohhhh!!”

“Hurray!”

“Miss Lily, you’re the best!”

Lily felt speechless as she looked at the impassioned cavalrywomen.

As for Uesugi Rei, she raised one of her hands up to calm the excited cavalrywomen, and out of their gazes, she placed her other hand on Lily’s plump buttocks that were wrapped under the red kimono.

“Sister Uesugi...” Lily’s face blushed from the embarrassment all of a sudden.

“As I thought, Sister Uesugi is absolutely taking revenge on me for last night’s matter~”