Demon Sword Maiden

Book 1: Chapter 103: Ayaka’s calligraphy and painting

—The next day—

Lily slept in the elegant tatami room of the Saionji residence. The exquisite window panes and furnishings lent the room an aura of wealth and power.

The Saionji house was originally a branch family of the Fujiwara Clan1, the greatest noble house in Heian Empire.

This was the first time Lily had stayed in the house of a high-ranking official. The biggest difference that she noticed was that everything here was more elegant and artfully decorated.

By the time Lily had woken up, dawn had already broken. It was still dark out, even though it should have been morning already.

However, at the time, Lily wasn’t worried about that. She looked down and began to blush.

She felt like she was going to die of embarrassment!

Some people don’t remember anything from when they’re drunk.

But Lily was the sort that remembered everything clearly despite her mind being fuzzy at the time!

She didn’t have the heart to see anyone.

Last night, despite that being the first time she met Nanako’s mother, she was being so… shameless！

‘Oh my god! Why did I do something like that!’ ‘Even though it was due to the wine, but how can my tolerance really be that weak! Just a little sip was enough to make me like that…’

“Senior sister…. I beg you, please wake up soon and punish Lily!2 Lily actually went and did something so embarrassing!” Lily pushed open the blanket and held the mirror in her arms.

This “morning”, Lily was following behind one of residence’s maids with a lantern in hand. She was being guided to see Saionji Kotoka. Lily really didn’t know how to face her, but since she was imposing in their house, it was impossible for her to refuse meeting the head of the house.

As they walked through the winding courtyard of the Saionji house, one could see delicate constructions all over the place. The garden was well taken care of and in between the thick brushes, stone lanterns could occasionally be seen still lit up with flickering orange light.

After entering Kotoka’s study, Lily, who had originally been quite distressed, calmed down. Kotoka didn’t seem to be around and the room was filled with a variety of books and crafts, which showed the owner’s tastes and the extraordinary heritage of a noble family.

The calligraphy and paintings hanging in the study attracted Lily’s attention at once. They were interesting and elegant, the artistic conception was also extraordinary. The drawing faintly emitted some kind of profound and mysterious spiritual energy with each stroke. It seemed as if the brush was encoding some kind of message that Lily couldn’t understand, yet at the same time, it made people feel as though the spirit energy was unintentionally integrated into the painting by the artist.

The painting in question was of a cow grazing in front of a stone tablet, a boy was playing on the edge of the grazing area, and in general the painting seemed to be a picture of a peaceful countryside, but there was also something deeper that drew the viewer’s interest.

Lily got closer and examined it, and noticed some familiar-looking runes on the stone tablet behind the cow.

Obviously she couldn’t read the runes, but just by looking at the ancient symbol she could feel a kind of forlorn longing…

“This is… the same kind of runes on the stone walls of the mirror space! Although I can’t understand either of them, I’m sure that these are the same runes!”

“Why! In this painting there are runes similar to the ones in that incredible space? Ever since I came to this alternate world, I could understand the language and writings here, but only these runes I am unable to make sense of. Even so, I’m sure these runes have some connections with senior sister and me! Otherwise, why would they appear on the eight sides of the mirror space…”

“Miss Kagami, do you have a fondness for that painting?” Came Kotoka’s voice from behind.

“Ah?” Lily rapidly turned, having been too distracted to notice Kotoka in time.

At the moment, Kotoka was wearing a light kimono and a pair of deep agate red glasses on the bridge of her nose, which put together made her look very capable and intellectual when paired with the businesswomen’s temperament.

Naturally, Lily knew about glasses.