In the open space behind the farmhouse, the night breeze already carried a hint of chilliness.
An old iron-clad wooden barrel sat atop a rudimentary stone stove, the flames beneath it burning vigorously.
Tiny bubbles gradually began to rise from the water, and wisps of white steam drifted upward in waves~
Reiner had been squatting beside the stove and bustling about for quite some time, and by now he was so tired that he was covered in sweat.
He wiped his forehead with the back of his hand and finally let out a satisfied sigh.
“Great.
The first barrel of hot water is finally ready.”
Ellie had been thrown to the ground by Annie countless times that day.
By now, she was covered in sweat and dust, looking as dirty as a little puppy so, before their hand-to-hand combat training had even started, she had specifically asked Reiner to boil the water in advance.
According to the original plan, once training was over, the three of them would take turns bathing.
That way, they could all wash up comfortably before going to bed.
Reiner had agreed readily at the time, after all, it was just boiling some bathwater.
How could anything possibly go wrong?
As it turned out, he had spoken far too soon.
“Huh?”
Reiner turned around, preparing to add a few more pieces of firewood to the stove.
Yet no one could have expected that the seemingly plentiful firewood in the woodshed had already begun to rot!
Some of it was damp and moldy, while the rest had been hollowed out from the inside.
The moment he shoved it into the stove, it produced nothing but a massive cloud of choking white smoke.
Out of the entire pile of firewood, less than a third was actually still usable!
“No way…”
Reiner wore a troubled expression and let out a resigned sigh.
This little bit of firewood was barely enough to warm the bottom of the barrel, let alone boil a second one and the remaining dry wood had to be saved for cooking and keeping warm during the night.
There simply wasn’t enough to boil another barrel of water.
He glanced back at Ellie and Annie, who were waiting nearby to bathe, and very perceptively picked up his change of clothes.
“Um…
there isn’t enough firewood.
You two can use this barrel of water to wash up.”
Reiner pointed toward the hazy grove outside the farm.
“I’ll just make do in the nearby stream.”
“Wait, the water in that river must be freezing at night, right?”
Ellie tried to stop Reiner but, he had already picked up his change of clothes and put on an expression of tragic determination.
“It’s fine.
I’m not afraid of the cold.
Take your time washing.
Don’t worry about me!”
Having said that, he plunged into the pitch-black night without looking back.
It had to be said that Reiner truly displayed the responsibility of a real man at a critical moment, he voluntarily gave up the precious hot water and headed to the nearby stream with his change of clothes, leaving the bathing opportunity to the two girls.
The problem was…
There were still two girls left on the farm.
But there was only one barrel of hot water.
Watching Reiner’s receding figure, Ellie swallowed hard and slowly turned to look at Annie beside her.
Th-th-this?!
Could it be that she had to share a bathtub with Annie?!
You had to understand that although her current body belonged to a little girl of around ten years old, her soul was that of a genuine adult!
Th-th-this…
What difference was there between this and a boy accidentally wandering into a women’s bathhouse?!
“I…
I…”
Ellie awkwardly scratched her cheek, her gaze darting around in every direction as her toes involuntarily curled inward.
“This bathtub isn’t very big to begin with.
Wouldn’t it be too cramped if we bathed together…?”
“How about…
I just don’t wash today? This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
I can sleep first and wash tomorrow, haha…”
“Don’t even think about it.”
Annie spoke coldly.
“If you dare crawl into my bed covered in that stinking mud, I’ll throw you straight out the window.”
“But…”
Ellie’s face flushed bright red, and she nervously poked her two index fingers together.
“Bathing together…
is just too embarrassing!”
Hearing this, a faint blush also flashed across Annie’s cheeks.
To be honest, deep down, she was just as reluctant to bathe together.
She had always acted alone.
Even when living in the communal dormitories at the Marley training camp, she would deliberately stagger her bathing time so she wouldn’t have to wash alongside others.
Now, suddenly having to squeeze into the same narrow wooden barrel with Ellie…
Just thinking about it made her uncomfortable.
However…
Annie looked down at Ellie, this idiot had fallen into the mud countless times just now.
Her hair was full of dust, while her cheeks and arms were smeared with mud and she looked as though she’d just been excavated from a dirt pit.
If this idiot crawled into bed looking like that…
Annie’s germophobia immediately overpowered her embarrassment.
“Stop talking nonsense.
Once we’re inside, sit back-to-back and wash your own side.
If you don’t wash, you’ll sleep in the pigpen tonight.
Those are your two options.
Choose.”
Ellie’s little face collapsed.
What kind of choice was that?!
In the pigpen, let alone a bed, there wasn’t even a single pig!
Was she supposed to hug a pile of hay and call that sleeping?
“Ugh…
Fine!
I’ll wash!”
Driven into a corner, Ellie steeled herself and decided to throw caution to the wind.
A few minutes later.
Two pairs of fair little hands gripped the edge of the wooden barrel, with two heads poking out above the water on opposite sides.
The wooden barrel was even smaller than they’d imagined!
The two of them were each wrapped in simple linen bath towels, huddled face-to-face on opposite sides of the barrel.
Inside the barrel, even the slightest stretch of their legs would cause their knees to bump into each other, sending hot water splashing over the sides.
Ellie squeezed her eyes shut, her chin almost disappearing beneath the water and her gaze remained firmly fixed on her own toes.
Calm down!
Ellie, you mustn’t act like a pervert!
Absolutely do not let your thoughts wander and make the atmosphere even weirder!
Just then, her toes accidentally brushed against Annie’s little feet.
Annie immediately recoiled, her back hitting the side of the barrel with a “thud” and sending a huge splash of water into the air.
“You…
don’t move around.”
Annie’s voice came from across the barrel, carrying a rare hint of panic.
“No, no!
I didn’t mean to…”
Ellie hurriedly opened her eyes.
She hugged herself with both arms, her cheeks flushed red as she sat there so nervously that she seemed to have forgotten what to do with her hands and feet.
That usually icy iceberg beauty had somehow turned into a shy little girl!
Looking at Annie’s appearance, Ellie suddenly snapped back to her senses.
Wait…
What on earth am I even getting shy about?
Annie is only eleven years old right now!
She’s basically a completely flat washboard, okay?!
I actually feel shy around an eleven-year-old loli?
Do I really have the potential to be a pervert?!
Once she’d accepted that premise, Ellie instantly calmed down.
She let out a long breath, and her body relaxed along with it.
“Phew…”
In fact, putting aside all those messy thoughts, the Annie in front of her really was quite cute.
Her delicate features appeared much softer beneath the halo of steam, making her look like an adorable little golden-furred kitten.
However, when Ellie’s gaze inadvertently drifted across Annie’s shoulders, back, and ribs, her eyes froze.
Across that fair skin were quite a few faint old scars, crisscrossing one another.
Some were bruises left behind by years of beatings, while others were faint marks from abrasions and cuts that had long since healed.
None of them were particularly serious, but there were enough of them to be concerning, these must have been left behind by Annie’s high-intensity combat training since childhood.
But Annie clearly possessed the Power of the Titans.
Whenever she wanted, she could completely heal those scars…
Ellie sighed silently in her heart.
“What are you looking at?”
Sensing Ellie’s gaze lingering on her, Annie recoiled like a startled kitten, she hugged herself tighter and glared over with embarrassed irritation in her eyes.
“Wro—Wrong?!”
“Why…
why are you looking at my body like a pervert?!”
“What on earth are you trying to do, Ellie?!”
“Eh?!
I wasn’t looking at anything~”
Ellie snapped back to her senses and hurriedly waved her hands.
Then, deliberately leaning forward a little, she gently poked Annie’s puffed-up cheek with a finger covered in water droplets.
“I just think Annie looks super cute when she’s blushing, that’s all!”
“You—”
Annie’s face instantly turned red all the way to her ears.
She abruptly raised her hand and splashed a large handful of bathwater straight into Ellie’s face.
“Shut up!
Wash your own side!”
“Wah!
You ambushed me!”
“Take my counterattack!
(≧▽≦)/”
“Stop messing around!
You’re going to splash all the water out, idiot!”
Splashes immediately flew everywhere inside the narrow bathtub.
To be precise, though, Ellie was the only one having any fun and as for Annie, she was beginning to seriously regret not insisting that this idiot sleep in the pigpen.
After the two of them had splashed and thrashed around long enough to practically flood the entire farm clearing, the two little lolis finally finished their bath.
It was truly, a joyous and congratulatory occasion.
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Was insanely tempted to delete this chapter, but it kinda shows how their dynamic & how their relationship is progressing so i kept it.
im watching this guy walk a salmon, what is this video bro have a good one 🙂
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