Demon Sword Maiden

Book 2: Chapter 112: The Location of Minamoto no Yoshitsune and Lady Shizuka’s Final Parting

“My forces have been defeated and my land deprived, I am now forced to part with my beloved wife here. The path ahead is too dangerous, yet I have to crush that person’s ambition! I fight for neither fame nor power, only for the Heavens! No matter how the future generation sees it, I have no regrets even in defeat! However, I just don’t know whether I’ll be able to see my wife and my unborn child again. —— Minamoto Kurou Yoshitsune.”

“If the Heavens were to give me another chance, I would still choose this man without any regrets and even accompany him to the ends of the world. The saddest thing for me isn’t the fact that I’ve accompanied him to the end of our lives, but rather that I cannot accompany him in death. Lord Kurou wishes to seek the mandate of Heavens, and a weak, pregnant woman like me is powerless to accompany him. I will wait for your return along with our child, and if the wait turns out to be futile, may we meet in the underworld. —— Lady Shizuka.”

Lily found it hard to stop her eyes from tearing up after reading the characters on the rock wall1. Lily was someone who was deeply infatuated with someone, so it was unexpected for her to discover that the teacher who had guided her silently till now, Lord Yoshitsune, who she couldn’t meet yet was fated with, had such a heroic and romantic final parting with his wife.

Expecting a nod from you, as long as you accompany me, I need nothing else in life.

Who would have imagined that the unforgettable love between the most heroic samurai of the Heian period whose tales were spread wide and far, and the prettiest woman of the Heian period awaited such a tragic ending.

Lily had read about the tale of Lord Yoshitsune once and knew he could never see Lady Shizuka afterward ever again.

However, although it was rumored that their place of final parting was Mt. Yoshino, no one had ascertained it until now, and if it weren’t for the fact that Lily had fallen down the cliff accidentally, she too wouldn’t have discovered it.

Lily suddenly heard the voice of an ancient and powerful will within her mind, “Who is it… Is it my lover… Why do I sense my lover’s aura?2”

Lily didn’t know which grand existence this will belong to, but the majesty and profundity within it made even the current Lily feel subservient from the depths of her heart after hearing it.

However, she was puzzled about what this grand will meant.

Lily could feel that this will hadn’t originated from this cave and had actually emerged from further ahead of the rock wall, a much deeper region…

“Nanako, did you hear that majestic voice?”

“Huh? I didn’t hear anything. I can only sense the sadness within the cavern, which I obviously didn’t notice when I entered inside.”

Lily got up and stated, “Nanako, let’s leave as soon as possible. This is the location of Lord Yoshitsune and Lady Shizuka’s final parting, so it’s improper for us to disturb the place further. We absolutely cannot tell anyone about this place.”

“Mhm. I understand,” Nanako nodded.

However, right after Lily and Nanako had restored the cave back to its original state and were planning to bid farewell to the cave, Lily sensed a dangerous aura creeping closer from outside the cave.

“Dammit!” Lily raised her head to look towards the roof of the cave, “Something’s scaling down the cave!”

“What?!” Nanako was also astonished.

In the next moment, a bunch of red Hannya masked ninjas, as well as a large number of silver Hannya masked ninjas, rappelled down the rocky walls of the mountain using long ropes.

They then surrounded the cave-dwelling with a greater number of human-faced dogs behind them.

“Boom! Boom!” A savage samurai that was over 3m tall and another who was taller and regal than him, a demon ninja donned in black robes with grey skin and golden eyes directly jumped down onto the fault instead of using the ropes, causing a tremor to pass through the land.

Lily became disheartened when she sensed the descent of these two powerful auras. To the side, Nanako clutched Lily’s sleeves tightly and intended to open the Sakura Parasol.

Yet Lily pushed the parasol down and shook her head to indicate that it was useless to do so.

“Mirror… Inside…” “Woman… Also… Inside…”

The human-faced dogs barked towards the cave.