Chapter 593: Dangerous Oiran

The Oiran procession continued to move forward slowly, and Dorothy watched the continuation of this parade with great interest.

This was a massive procession of about a hundred people. Walking at the very front were some witches wearing yokai masks.

The Home Witch looked at these masks and discovered they were all common yokai in the East, such as fox spirits, kappas, tengus, and so on.

These eccentric witches were the vanguards of the Oiran procession. While performing strange dances that looked like shamanistic rituals to Dorothy, they hummed songs with peculiar melodies.

However, although the singing and dancing were a bit odd, the effect was indeed excellent. This seemed to be some kind of mysterious ritual; in any case, Dorothy could perceive that as these vanguards sang and danced, the emotions of the onlookers were stirred up. They clearly became much more excited, and consequently, the scene became much livelier.

"This seems to be some kind of war dance, though the effect of strengthening battle intent has been weakened, it still makes people easily get hot-blooded."

Dorothy evaluated these songs and dances, inwardly exclaiming that these Eastern witches really knew how to play. A war dance that should have been used on the battlefield to boost soldiers' morale and make their blood boil was actually being used in such a bizarre place—what a talent, she meowed.

Emmm... fine. In a way, this Oiran procession could also be considered as "setting out on an expedition," it's just that the battlefield was a little bit special.

Behind those yokai vanguards were musicians playing various instruments. Walking at the very front were two witches holding shamisens, a traditional Eastern instrument. These two led the entire orchestra with skillful techniques.

Likewise, this music was not ordinary; Dorothy heard traces of impressive "Sound Magic" within it.

In this idealistic magical world, sound also contained powerful energy, and magic that could unleash this energy was Sound Magic.

The simplest and most common Sound Magic is actually known to all witches, after all, magic spells require chanting.

And slightly more professional Sound Magic has two branches.

One is the Art of Sound Killing, which uses sound as a weapon to directly kill, such as the Lion's Roar Spell or the Ghostly Crying Spell.

The second is the Art of Illusionary Sound, which uses sound as a carrier to cast spells and influence the target's body or even spirit. It usually involves various illusions, but there are also strengthening auxiliary magics like war songs.

Now, the Home Witch could hear the flavor of Illusionary Sound in this band, but she only had a slight understanding of it, so she looked at her little junior sister beside her.

As an actress witch who dreams of the stage, Audrey is very proficient in Sound Magic.

"Mm, it is indeed, and the realm is not low."

The little fox nodded and then manipulated her puppet to speak.

Thus, Dorothy nodded and continued to look back.

Following the band was a group of bodyguards, numbering about thirty. They wore haori-style battle robes, carried katanas at their waists, and held wooden clubs in their hands.

"Good heavens, all of them are Grand Witches? Am I strolling through a pleasure district or visiting a battle group?"

After roughly sensing the mana aura of these bodyguards, the Home Witch couldn't help but click her tongue in secret, calling it absurd in her heart.

As a Martial God, she could see through their respective combat levels at a glance from the posture of these bodyguard witches as they walked. These bodyguard witches were not bad at all; basically, they had all condensed their Martial Souls and achieved the Wu Sheng realm.

To be honest, such an elite armed group acting as bodyguards for an Oiran is truly a waste of talent. With this level of combat power, throwing them to the front lines would be enough to easily conquer a medium-sized world.

Behind the bodyguard group were maidens carrying lanterns. There were fewer of them, only about ten, divided into two rows of five. Each held a red lantern with the "Yin Chui" pattern, heads bowed, taking small, quick steps.

"Fine, after the assault group comes the artillery group."

The Home Witch was already unfazed. Her gaze quickly swept past the ten "Lantern Maidens" whose mana auras were all around 500,000 Total Mana, and she looked further back.

This brought them to the center of the procession.

Immediately following the Lantern Maidens were a pair of identical little girls in red clothes. They looked about ten years old, their chubby faces were like carved pink jade, very cute, and they were clearly beauties in the making.

The little girl on the left held a long tobacco pipe, while the one on the right held an exquisite tobacco box.

Dorothy thought about the specifications of the Oiran processions she had seen in her previous life and knew that these were the so-called "Kamuro."

"Kamuro" are the Oiran's personal maids, usually little girls around ten years old. Because their hair hasn't fully grown yet, they are called "Kamuro."

While serving as the Oiran's maids, "Kamuro" are also future Oiran candidates. Generally, those qualified to follow an Oiran in the Oiran Procession have the potential to become future Oiran.

And the twin "Kamuro" in this procession looked very promising; after all, being twins is a super bonus.

It's just...

"Emmmmm... ten-year-old little girls with around 150,000 Total Mana?"

The Home Witch looked at these two powerful "Kamuro," then looked at herself, who only had 50,000 Total Mana at her age, and couldn't help but feel dejected.

Has the sex worker industry become this competitive these days? Do Oiran positions require genius witches to fill them?

And after these two "Kamuro," they finally reached the absolute protagonist of the entire procession.

That Oiran lady, who seemed to go by the name Yin Chui, finally made her appearance.

She wore a heavy yet gorgeous and vibrant Oiran outfit. The bright red garment, woven from the highest quality silk mixed with gold thread, was embroidered with patterns of a hundred flowers, which was exceptionally luxurious.

Her raven-black hair was piled high, with all sorts of precious hairpins inserted into the bun, looking like a peacock spreading its tail—dazzlingly beautiful.

On her fair and slender feet, she wore a pair of three-toothed wooden clogs with very high soles. Those high, solid wood soles looked very heavy and were definitely not something an ordinary person could handle.

Of course, that refers to mortals. If it were a witch, this level of weight wouldn't actually be a burden. However, what left Dorothy speechless was that she carefully examined the material of the clogs and recognized it as a high-grade spirit wood called "Meteor Ironwood."

This kind of wood is generally only used for forging top-tier melee weapons. As long as a little bit of wood shavings is added to a weapon, the weight and hardness of that weapon can be greatly increased.

And now, such a whole piece of Meteor Ironwood had been made into a pair of shoes. Not to mention whether it was luxurious or not, just the weight alone was enough to make the Home Witch respectfully call the warrior who dared to walk in these shoes a "real woman."

The weight of these shoes was not much lighter than two ten-thousand-meter-high mountains.

Anyone who could put on these shoes and still walk was definitely a real woman who could literally lift mountains and cover the world.

But in reality, these shoes, heavy as mountains, were worn on the feet of a charming beauty.

The beauty could even elegantly walk slowly but quite beautifully using a special Oiran footwork called "Soto-hachimonji" without changing her expression.

Well, it was beautiful, but it was also really slow. A journey that would normally take ten minutes would take at least an hour using this Oiran gait. The saying "Oiran is as slow as an ox" was indeed not just talk.

Beside this Oiran Yin Chui were two exceptionally tall witch attendants. One wore red and the other wore blue.

The Oiran rested one hand on the red-clad witch's shoulder for support, while the blue-clad witch held a long-handled umbrella to shade the Oiran.

"Mm, two peak Martial Saints, also top-tier Grand Witches. Very good, very nice."

Looking at this red and blue duo, the Home Witch nodded expressionlessly.

Then, her gaze met the Oiran lady's charming eyes.

Dorothy realized that her Mirror-Like Still Water technique had been seen through.

But this was a matter of course. It wasn't that her magic wasn't effective; it was simply that the target was too far out of her league. She was just a little witch with only 50,000 Total Mana; being able to deceive Grand Witches with exquisite magical attainments was already very impressive, but this Oiran lady was a Peak.

Mm, a genuine Peak witch, not a water-filled fake Peak like a certain Dean of Students.

Although their gazes only collided for a moment, the feeling this Oiran lady gave Dorothy was already no less than Teacher Spider or Ms. Maria of the Apocalypse Battle Group.

It also had about ten percent of the pressure level of her own Long Ma—truly terrifying.

Fortunately, Dorothy had no grudge against this Oiran lady, so their gazes quickly shifted away. The Oiran lady blinked in surprise, then a smile appeared on her charming face, and she continued to walk slowly with her elegant Oiran gait.

The Home Witch fell into deep thought.

After the eight "Furisode Shinzo" at the very end of the Oiran procession—the evolved form of the "Kamuro," the true Oiran candidates—also walked past her with elegant steps, swaying their alluring waists, Dorothy finally raised her head again.

These Furisode Shinzo were also about the same age as her, fifteen, just having reached adulthood, but they each had over 200,000 Total Mana.

Oh my, is the pleasure district such a terrifying place?

The Home Witch looked up at the sky and fell into deep thought.

"Sophie Liya, what do you think of this?"

Dorothy turned her head to look at her roommate and asked.

The Pure White Witch was also somewhat amazed.

"Big Miss, I think you probably can't handle that kind of Oiran; your small frame can't withstand her tossing."

Sophie Liya was being truthfully sharp-tongued.

"Senior Sister, I think the President is right."

Even Audrey, who always trusted her Senior Sister, said this while soothing her tail, which had been startled into fluffing up.

The Oiran's beauty could not make the three sisters feel amazed, but the Oiran's strength brought a little bit of shock to the three of them.

To this, the Home Witch rolled her eyes.

"What are you two talking about? When did I ever say I was interested in that Oiran? She's already a Peak witch, she must be an old woman of several hundred years old. I'm not desperate enough to make a move on someone of the auntie generation, okay?"

Dorothy said.

But this was a lie. In fact, for her, as long as they were beautiful, they were all big sisters, and she was completely fine with it. Anyway, Grand Witches are nearly immortal; an age gap of several hundred years really isn't a big problem for immortals.

It's just that such things are better kept to oneself; saying them out loud makes one easily mistaken for a pervert.

However, it wasn't entirely a lie. At least she really had no interest in this Oiran lady. After all, the other party wasn't as beautiful as her little junior sister, and she was an Oiran despite having such high strength—there must be a problem. She looked like a troublesome character; it was better to stay away.

Of course, the main thing was that the display just now looked very expensive, far from what a poor little witch like her, who was short on money, could afford.

Click...

Not far away, Ms. Yin Chui, who hadn't gone far due to the turtle-speed movement of the Oiran gait, almost twisted her ankle. But her professional demeanor and terrifying Peak strength allowed her to quickly recover and continue her elegant parade without changing her expression.

Mm, no change in expression, it's just that she almost bit her silver teeth into pieces.

The Oiran lady, who had been in a good mood today because she met an interesting little one, was now a bit angry because of the "old woman" evaluation.

However, it was working hours; she couldn't mess around. She needed to be calm and not irritable, otherwise, it wouldn't be good if she destroyed the whole street in a fit of rage.

"So, Big Miss, do you still want to continue strolling through this pleasure district?"

The Oiran procession gradually moved away. The Pure White Witch looked at her Big Miss and asked with a smile.

"That is of course..."

Dorothy had to admit that she was a bit provoked by the mockery on her roommate's face—"Big Miss, can you actually handle it?"—but she forcibly suppressed the Fairy King's retort of "Why don't you try it yourself?" and chose to follow her heart.

Mm, this pleasure district is really a bit scary; it's better not to stroll through it.

"I think I'm still young, and I might really not be suitable for staying in such a stimulating place for long. Let's go back."

The Home Witch prepared to head home without looking back.

With the quality of that Oiran procession just now, this is a pleasure district my foot; it's probably read as a pleasure district but written as a barracks.

Having only stepped onto this Eastern island for a few hours, Dorothy had already deeply realized that the waters of this island were truly very deep.

She only came here to travel and relax, not to cause trouble. It's better not to get involved in such troublesome-looking places.

The main purpose of her trip was to find immortal fate, but immortals or whatever couldn't possibly be in this pleasure district, right? It's better to go to temples or shrines in the mountains to look for them.

That's what the Home Witch thought in her heart.

It's just...

Half a day later, the Home Witch, who was following Auntie Zi to a restaurant for a free meal, looked at this familiar pleasure district and was speechless for a moment.

My dear aunt, are you sure you want to entertain an old classmate you haven't seen in a long time and a niece you're meeting for the first time? You're treating us to a meal in a place like this?

... Home Witch in a daze...