<h4>Volume 4, Chapter 28 - The Pub in Omi’s Vige</h4>


    Trantor: Aoi


    As Lake Biwa’s shores weed nightfall, the immenseke, as well as the misty mountains, produced eerie sounds of water and an unpleasant wind blew across thend while carrying the scent of the woods and theke with it. An ordinary woman was bound to shiver in fear at thiskeside unless she was a samurai woman with a decent level of strength as the picturesque vista showed its other side at night.


    No one knew just how many monsters were hidden across the vast and darkkeshores, lying in wait to prey upon unsuspecting solo travelers.


    Lily and Shimizu also felt more than a single set of eyes lock onto them and stare at them from within the tall reeds and the woods on the other side.


    However, the monsters were still hesitant and didn’t dare to act rashly.


    Lily and Shimizu naturally found no reason to unleash their spirit power without cause, but they still had their hands on their katanas. Even if they weren’t inbat, they still oozed a powerful grudge from their bodies unless it was suppressed deliberately, and the monsters were able to sense this grudge.


    Although the two pretty girls were attractive prey, they knew that they might have to pay a terrible price if they wanted to obtain them.


    The monsters thus hesitated to attack them and followed behind them while remaining hidden.


    A stunning woman like Lily rarely paid any attention to the gazes directed at her from others regardless of the intent behind those gazes or the angles with which they looked at her. If she began minding about them, it would make it impossible for her to even walk through the city streets properly and the same applied to the wilnds infested with demons and monsters.


    A little vige was situated at thekeside beneath the hill ahead of them and it was sparsely lit with the glow of torches at this moment. Lily noted that there was also an old and oblique torii constructed at the shallow waters across the vige from where it was possible to oversee all of Lake Biwa.


    “Look Sister Shimizu…” Lily pointed at the dimly lit vige ahead of them.


    “Who could’ve imagined that a human vige existed at this monster-infestedkeshore,” Shimizu stated ruefully after seeing the vige.


    “Aren’t they afraid of monsters?” Lily asked puzzledly.


    “By the looks of it, it seems like this vige has existed for many years now. I think there might be a reason for that. We’ll know when we enter it, I suppose. If possible, I hope we can lodge in the vige tonight,” Shimizu answered.


    “Mhm,” Lily nodded.


    The yukata-robed duo walked towards the vige.


    Lily noticed an oval-shaped boulder that came up to her waist beside the vige’s entrance. This boulder had a rope running across it with paper streamers tied to it and emitted a faint magic.


    Shimizu pulled Lily’s dress and pointed at the surroundings, “Look.”


    It wasn’t just the entrance that had this kind of boulder. The whole vige was actually surrounded by such boulders set at certain distances.


    “It might be some kind of formation that’s able to ward off monsters,” Shimizu spected.


    Lily nodded, but she also knew that such formations were practically ineffective towards the real archdemons. It was just that an archdemon might not actually bother to ughter the residents of a small and barren vige, just like how a liege lord didn’t find it essential to exterminate rare animals in hisnd that held no threat to him.


    This human vige was like those rare animals. They were fortunate yet misfortunate enough to survive in these wilnds protected by none.


    The torii built across the shore leading to the vige was constructed from wood and looked quite simple in appearance. It had stonenterns set on both sides and had two men with harpoons guarding it.


    The vige was a really unusual one and had no one patrolling the road leading to it at night, just like an abandoned vige.


    Lily and Shimizu were thus able to enter the stone formation without a problem.


    The duo arrived beneath the torii and finally saw the visages of the robust-looking men guarding it with the help of the stonenterns’ illumination, and they seemed like fishermen from the vige based on their attire.


    “Where do you hail from,dies, and what are you here for?” One of the fishermen questioned.


    The fact that a viger had questioned a noble samurai wasn’t actually worth mentioning, but Lily was actually taken aback by the fact that the two vigers were both early-stage sword masters!


    Although it wasn’t that high a strength, it was quite unusual for a deste vige’s fishermen to possess such strength.


    This made her suspect that there might be other reasons as to why this vige was able to survive until now in the monster-infested Omi protected by no one.


    “We hail from Kamakura and n to go to Iga, so we were hoping to lodge in this vige tonight,” Shimizu answered.


    Lily remained calm in response to Shimizu’s answer that they were aiming for Iga despite the fact that they weren’t actually nning to bypass Lake Biwa and set out south for Iga. It was just an excuse to conceal the true purpose of their travel.


    “Oh, I see. I thought you were here for that underwater pce as well. Please go in, then. A gigantic bird monster flies across the shores of Lake Biwa at night and preys upon humans specifically. The vige, however, is safe, so make sure you don’t wander outside the vige at night,” the viger advised frankly.


    “I see. Thank you for the reminder,” Lily responded politely.


    The duo was thus able to gain entry into the vige without an issue because of the frank viger.


    “I wonder what the underwater pce that viger mentioned is. Do you know about it, Sister Shimizu?”


    “Who knows what it might be. It might be a ritual of the vige.”


    The duo walked forward while chatting and saw a duo of short and tall samuraie towards them from the other direction while directing indecent gazes at them, especially Lily.


    Lily feigned ignorance and stepped aside slightly along with Shimizu. The two samurai men, on the other hand, sauntered off smugly after seeing Lily and Shimizu make way for them.


    “What a rude bunch,” Shimizu muttered.


    The samurai men had unsightly appearances and were also dressed shabbily, but one of them was a middle-stage sword saint while the other was ate-stage sword saint, so they actually possessed some decent strength.


    Lily also began to suspect why such powerful samurai were in this little vige out in the wilnds and soon realized that they weren’t men from this vige after scrutinizing their attire.


    A pub and an inn were situated ahead of them, and both were built next to each other.


    “How about we visit the pub for a while first, Sister Shimizu?”


    “No… let’s go to the inn first,” Shimizu stated.


    Lily noticed that Shimizu looked a bit anxious for some reason, so she decided to go to the inn with her first.


    The old inn had a few wandering samurai dining inside it while sitting on the floor.


    The inn’s hostess was actually a stunning and curvaceous woman and weed them as soon as they entered it, “Are you nning to stay for the night,dies?”


    “Yes. Please give us both the best rooms you have,” Lily answered.


    “I apologize for the inconvenience, but the vige has seen a sudden influx of wandering samurai recently, which has resulted in a scarcity of vacant rooms. We only have one of the best rooms vacant as of now and it’s quite pricey, too.”


    “How much is it?”


    “It’s one kan for a night,” the hostess answered.


    Although Lily didn’t care much about this amount of money, she still cursed the hostess internally. What a rip-off!


    It cost one kan to book a few geisha in the best geisha house of Kamakura’s Kabukicho district, so charging one kan for lodging overnight in such an old inn was really too much.


    However, Lily didn’t want to waste any further time after seeing the look of fatigue on Shimizu’s face and handed over a gold coin, “Give it to us.”


    The hostess epted the 100 g weighted gold coin and raised her brows slightly, but she didn’t show much surprise. This in turn left Lily amazed as this made it evident that the hostess was someone used to seeing a big sum.


    The hostess guided Lily and Shimizu to the 2nd floor and brought them inside a room from where theke’s vista could be seen. Although it was a pretty simple room, it was bright, spacious and tidy enough, even possessing a certain tranquil elegance to it, which made Lily admit that perhaps it was reasonable for the room to have a higher price.


    Shimizu spread the quilt a few momentster andid down on it to sleep.


    This made Lily a bit disappointed because she was quite curious about the vige.


    “Are you going to sleep now, Sister Shimizu?”


    “Mhm.”


    “Are you feeling ill?” Lily leaned over and asked concernedly.


    “It’s nothing serious, my… period came,” Shimizu answered squeamishly.


    This was a pretty ordinary event for a mature and healthy woman.


    Lily almost felt nothing every time it urred because of her wholesome body and just required some advance preparation to operate normally once it passed.


    Shimizu’s inborn illness had healed for the most part, but she still felt weaker whenever her period arrived, which left her really downcast.


    “We dipped in theke before. You won’t catch a cold, right?” Lily asked worriedly.


    “I’m fine,” Shimizu shook her head, “I was fine until recently and it arrived when we reached the vige.”


    Lily pondered for a moment and took out a bunch of silky white ribbons from the mirror space that had strings on both of their ends.


    “I took these out from the room in the mirror space that had the celestial raiment. I use them sometimes and they’re veryfortable to the touch. You can use them, too.”


    Shimizu received the ribbons and touched them gently. They were really soft andfortable to the touch as Lily said and had a nice affinity with the skin. Shimizu revealed an emotional smile, “Okay. You’re really kind to me, lil’ sis.”


    “No, not at all.”


    Lily’s quick breaths and worried appearance made it obvious to Shimizu that Lily didn’t n to sleep before she did, so she suggested this to her, “How about you go for a walk in the vige and check it out first? I’ll try these out here in the meantime.”


    If Lily were in Shimizu’s position, she also wouldn’t have wanted someone else in the room while changing, so she nodded knowingly, “I’ll go out for a walk, then, Sister Shimizu.”


    “Mhm. Stay vignt and don’t mess around too much. Also, make sure that you aren’t duped by some man.”


    “As if that would happen, Sis.”


    Lily got up and gave Shimizu a concerned look. However, as it didn’t seem like a huge problem, she left the room and closed the door.


    Lily exited the inn and made a round trip across the vige. Themoners’ houses were actually built from orange logs and had thatched roofs. A lot of the houses close to theke were actually built on tforms above theke water and actually had fishing boats moored in front of them.


    A bonfire was lit above an open space in the center of the vige at night in the direction of the torii on theke. The vigers sang and danced around the bonfire merrily with songs about the future and the present as the sadness of the past tended to turn the mood heavier and mncholic.


    Lily’s eyes traveled to the pub’s top when she returned to the stairs of the inn. The pub also had a veranda that faced theke, and the signboard of the pub was actually painted in the Ukiyo-e style, which made it look a bit wild.


    It had the words ‘Pub of the Sea’ written on it. Lily knew Lake Biwa was once known as Awaumi, which held the meaning of freshwater sea, so she surmised that the pub’s name was based on it.


    As it was quite early to sleep, Lily decided that she might as well check out the pub.


    Lily pushed the curtain aside and strolled inside the dimly-lit pub, which had a bunch of men drinking at the tables right now.


    “Hahahahahaha! This is some nice sake, hostess! Bring more of it!”


    A man’s rambunctiousughter reached Lily’s ears the moment she entered the pub.


    Lily had experienced a lot of things throughout her journey across the Heian Empire, but she had never heard such rambunctiousughter that seemed tough at the world dauntlessly.


    Theughter came from a robust-looking man seated at a square table in the corner of the pub. The man was donned in shabby white training robes and had his rugged chest and arms bare outside. He also had a vivacious, square face with thick eyebrows and big eyes and a broad, powerful, shaved chin while his hair was styled as ostentatious and messy braids. He carried a dark straight sword at his waist and had a lot of emptied wine caddies on top of the short table in front of him.


    The pub’s hostess was an enchanting, purple-kimono-dressed, short-haireddy, “You still n to drink? Please pay for the sake first.”


    “Huh?” The robust-looking man was taken aback, “Pay for the sake? I’ve long spent all my money. Hahahahaha! Give me sake first and I’ll pay you back with the money I make from selling the anima of the monsters I kill tomorrow.”


    “That won’t do. We don’t ept a tab at our pub,” the hostess stated emotionlessly.


    “Huh? Does that mean I can’t enjoy drinking sake to the fullest? Hahahahaha!” The manughed while drinking and hisughs were as rambunctious as ever even though he couldn’t drink any more sake, which left Lily amazed.


    Lily sat down at the table next to him and tapped down a gold coin on the table, “Allow me to treat this brother with a drink, hostess.”