Volume 3, Chapter 73 – Samurai Noble

Volume 3, Chapter 73 - Samurai Noble

Translator: Aoi

A middle-stage Spirit Jade level powerhouse, and a horse rider on top of that. The horse also possessed powerful eldritch energy, making a bad match of an opponent for Lily.

Lily had detoured around the really dangerous zones in these Endless Demon Mountains over the past few days by following the route on Yumi’s map faithfully, yet she still ended up running into a lot of monsters and went through no less than ten battles of varying scales. However, Lily could vaguely sense that this opponent’s strength was even higher than Tokugawa’s!

Lily had thought of traversing through these Endless Demon Mountains by using the Sakura Parasol’s power initially and only make a move when she wished to fight or when she desired a treasure as that would be much safer and easier.

However, Lily’s understanding regarding the Sakura Parasol had also deepened along with Kagura’s awakening.

The Sakura Parasol replenished its power via the full moon during the full moon cycle, that is, the 15th day of the lunar month. Its maximum usage time was only 36 hours and its power would get exhausted if this time limit were crossed and the parasol would lose its veiling effect.

Also, the Sakura Parasol couldn’t be under sunlight and was only effective under gloomy weather and rainy days.

The rest was what Lily knew initially. It wasn’t effective towards humans and Kagura had also told her that the Sakura Parasol wasn’t effective towards deities, deity-type shikigami, normal creatures, natural-born powerful mutant beasts, divine beasts and so on.

As Lily’s trip to-and-fro from the Endless Demon Mountains on this occasion would take at least over a month, she didn’t plan to use the Sakura Parasol that lightly and only planned to use it when really needed.

The regal samurai urged his horse to pace around in its original location under the moonlight and stated towards Lily, “Ashikaga! Hast the Ashikaga sent thee to pursue me?!” The heavily armored undead samurai actually spoke in human speech.

“Hmph! Pursue you? You’re the one who pursued a woman like me through the depths of the mountains with a company of horsemen!” Lily wasn’t afraid of fighting and she also didn’t fall behind on arguing back.

“I am Kitabatake Kouka. The despicable Ashikaga schemed and ambushed me with their army, resulting in my death! I shalt killeth all people related to the Ashikaga and avenge myself and my father!” The samurai donned a shroud of intense grudge.

“You’ve got the right person then. I am the adopted daughter of Ashikaga Makoto.”

“Ashikaga! Ashikaga!” The fearsome, heavily-armored samurai riding the huge warhorse raised his tachi and charged towards Lily with an explosive momentum!

Lily also didn’t show any timidness and stood still, slashing towards Kitabatake Kouka the moment the rumbling demon horse charged past her!

“Clang!”

Lily could see through the locus of Kouka’s sword, yet she didn’t dodge his fatal slash and slashed towards him from the bottom-up obliquely after adjusting her posture and position slightly.

Kouka’s strike packed enough strength to deliver a fatal wound, but it missed Lily’s body by a hairsbreadth in the end. The resulting wind from the slash shook Lily greatly, but Lily’s strike possessed higher reach and accuracy, so she managed to behead Kouka in a single strike!

The demon horse continued sprinting ahead a few hundred meters with the headless Kouka before his body finally lost balance and fell to the ground.

A long interval of stillness followed after it.

Kouka wasn’t a monster like the Aobōzu who possessed an extremely powerful lifeforce. Although he was an undead creature, his body hadn’t demonized, which was the reason he still retained his martial arts and dignity from when he was still human, but he didn’t possess a regenerative ability like the Great Demons.

Thus, although Kouka’s Spirit Jade was still intact, he still ended up dying after getting beheaded.

Lily arrived in front of Kouka and clasped her palms together to perform rites for him to transcend to the otherworld.

“It really is a dark and hopeless world. You really aren’t a bad person, Lord Kitabatake Kouka and neither are you a loser... It’s just that you lacked luck. May your soul find peace in the next reincarnation and I hope that you will continue with your aspiration to help the people and the world and break free from the cycle of hatred. I shall not devour your soul with my cursed katana, farewell...”

Lily suppressed the soul-controlling power of her cursed katana and Kouki’s noble soul loyal to the empire floated up from his chest gradually. It expressed neither gratitude nor grudge towards Lily and just transcended up towards the sky and disappeared slowly.

The silhouette of an elegant noble with pale complexion and dark eyebrows donning an Eboshi hat and holding a fan in his hand appeared behind Lily at this moment and gave Lily a thankful smile in his son’s place.

Unfortunate as it was, Lily was a blade maiden who couldn’t accrue merit at all.

Kitabatake Tomohusa’s silhouette also disappeared into the night slowly.

A gust of wind flew by and turned the body and armor of Kouka who had died hundreds of years ago into ashes, just like a burning tinfoil and the specks of ashes flew about within the darkness, depicting a sorrowful yet heroic ambiance.

Lily observed the ashes drifting in the wind and felt reverence towards this gallant, elegant and loyal samurai noble.

Lily discovered a shining object under her feet at this moment, and found a flawless, translucent, bluish-green magatama within the ashes below.

She stooped down and picked up this magatama and stored it in the mirror.