Chapter Sixteen: A Beautiful Tomboy
Kaihime watched as the Japanese samurai surrounded her, shouting and cursing at her female warriors. She felt resentful but powerless. Although she was a noblewoman, her female warriors were not. Despite their high level of martial arts skills, their social status was far below what they possessed.
Kaihime was the daughter of Narita Uchinaga, a military commander of the Hojo clan. Raised as a boy, she displayed exceptional skill and strategic acumen. However, the arrogant samurai never commented on her martial prowess or strategy, but only praised her beauty. Kaihime was hailed as the most beautiful woman in the eastern country and was the pride of Narita Uchinaga.
Kaihime has always admired the spirit of the samurai. She found many girls to practice martial arts with her, hoping that one day she could make a difference by fighting bravely on the battlefield and change the low social status of women in Japan.
But hope is beautiful, while reality is cruel. Although she was of noble status and no one dared to offend her, the female warriors under her command did not receive the fate she had imagined. Watching the female warriors she had painstakingly trained being sent away one by one to become princess warriors, her heart was torn apart.
Because of years of war in Japan, women were also pushed onto the battlefield, becoming the famous Princess Warriors. They fought in the daytime, but at night they were required to serve the lord or meritorious warriors in bed. The physical toil and exhaustion were one thing, but the psychological trauma was often difficult to heal. If the war was won, all was well; if it was lost, they were forced to "commit suicide" like the perverse male warriors, except they were allowed to slit their throats instead of committing seppuku, as a sign of mercy.
As the leader of these female warriors, Kaihime naturally didn't want her subordinates to become female warriors, but even her father refused to comply with her wishes this time, leaving her disheartened. Just then, she learned that nobles from the Great Xia Kingdom were recruiting warriors, and with a determined heart, she led her remaining twenty-odd female warriors to Tangjin Town in Edo.
When they found the recruitment location of the Great Xia and joined the long waiting line, the surrounding samurai swarmed around them like boiling water. They cursed and shouted, saying that they were insulting the dignity of the Japanese samurai, and some even used vulgar language and tried to physically assault them.
"You call yourselves samurai?" Kaihime retorted without backing down. In her eyes, these people were nothing but country bumpkins, trying to fool the people of Daxia. She was a samurai? Did they deserve the title? Was a samurai who had lost his daimyo still a samurai? Was someone who didn't even have a sword a samurai? Besides, many of them were just idiots who knew nothing about martial arts.
However, Kaihime's words enraged almost everyone present. They fell silent, but the fierce glint in their eyes indicated what they were about to do: they were ready to defend what they considered the dignity of a samurai.
Kaihime, with her fiery temper, drew her sword, and her female warriors, each wielding a sword, formed a battle formation, creating a standoff with the surrounding samurai and ronin. For a moment, both groups were frozen in place, unable to advance or retreat.
"Stop! If you have a grudge, settle it somewhere else. Don't fight here in our shop and ruin my young master's business." Seeing the chaos, Lin Yongqian initially didn't want to get involved; it was all the Japanese people's business. But seeing that someone was about to die, he cursed his bad luck and quickly came over to stop the situation from escalating.
"Your Excellency is wise. It's not that we caused the trouble; it's that they've gone too far. We came to apply, but they're blocking us from entering." Kaihime quickly explained her purpose when she saw the people from Daxia come out, hoping that the Daxia people would allow them to go and take the exam.
"Women? We never recruited women! You've got it wrong. We recruit warriors to fight against people." Lin Yongqian looked at the Japanese woman who possessed both valor and wildness. She was wearing a standard Japanese samurai bamboo armor, as if loudly proclaiming her identity as a warrior.
Upon hearing Lin Yongqian's words, the woman, who had been holding her head high and acting as tough as a man, clearly had tears welling up in her eyes. She struggled to keep the salty tears from flowing down her face, her lips pressed tightly together, her expression becoming increasingly stubborn.
"We've never wanted to recruit women... but we've never been incapable of recruiting women either, have we?" A languid voice rang out from the periphery of the crowd, drawing everyone's attention. The voice spoke in the language of Daxia, which most of the people present couldn't understand, but... Kaihime clearly understood Daxia.
While others were looking out, she quickly wiped away the tears in her eyes, regained her vision, and looked at the person who had spoken earlier. Then, as if frozen in place, she was unable to move.
How could there be such a beautiful man in the world? His face had soft, angular features, and his eyes were as dark and deep as a moonless night, yet they shone with a mesmerizing brilliance. An air of nobility emanated from him naturally, but the mischievous smile on his face made him seem like a playful boy. His beauty was completely contradictory, beyond the power of words to describe.
Little did Qin Mo know that he was also quite amazed. He hadn't expected to find such a woman among the Japanese. Japanese women were generally short and stocky, with short legs and thick necks. But Kaihime possessed two long, straight legs, and her height was estimated to be at least 1.65 meters, making her more than half a head taller than the Japanese men around her.
What's even more valuable is that Kaihime possesses a strong, resilient, and decisive aura, setting her apart from most women in the world. This sight brightened Qin Mo's eyes, as if she were seeing those domineering female CEOs from the internet again.
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