Chapter 68: The Girls' Bathwater
"Just in case, can I ask one thing first? Did you hear any strange noises today?"
Jun asked with a stiff face while resisting her sister's pinch.
"Strange noises? Nope,"
Utaha answered, sitting next to him.
Under the thick blanket, Jun could feel something soft pressing against his thigh.
Her legs—yes, the girl's legs had already wrapped around his without warning.
"I see... if that's true, then that's good."
Jun didn't have time to react, but his legs were already completely tangled.
"Onii-chan, something definitely happened when you went out today, didn't it?"
asked Megumi who had just quietly removed her pinch from Jun's thigh and replaced it with a similar gesture-winding her legs around Jun's other leg.
Warm... soft... Jun was starting to feel that winter wasn't so bad.
"There is nothing at all,"
He replied in June because he didn't want to worry the girls.
Also, even if they knew a new monster had appeared, they didn't have a solution.
Unless that monster was like the giant bear from yesterday, fighting other beasts. Then they could come later to eat the remains.
But in winter, like this one, almost all animals were hiding.
It was almost impossible to rely on luck like that.
Reindeer aren't like bears, which go crazy for honey.
"Nanako, come here!"
Utaha finally called out to Nanako, who was sitting near the fireplace.
"Utaha-nee?"
Nanako sat on Utaha's lap.
She quickly noticed that Utaha's and Jun's legs were wrapped around each other. Was this a sign that they were going to mate? Nanako started thinking a lot about how adults' bodies are positioned.
"Did something bad happen while you were out earlier?"
Utaha asked Nanako while tidying up her twin ponytails. The ponytails had gotten a little messy from being covered by a bearskin hat.
Nanako looked at Jun.
Jun's gaze clearly conveyed a strong warning: Don't say anything.
"No, nothing bad happened. Everything's fine!"
Nanako answered Jun quickly and cleverly, understanding what he meant.
"Is everything okay?"
Utaha wasn't sure, but she did believe some of it, and she held Jun's leg more tightly.
Jun just gave a strange smile.
"Yeah, we found a lot of carrots under the snow,"
He put his hand on Utaha's thigh to tell her to relax.
When Utaha felt Jun's hand touch her, she started to relax a little, but her cheeks went red.
"Oh, so that's why those deer like to dig through the snow?"
Megumi pretended not to be interested as she spun a carrot on the table.
But she knew full well—her brother was lying again. This was happening more and more often.
She had to find a way to make him talk. But who could she use?
She looked around, and her gaze finally stopped on Yui.
Earlier, her brother had secretly looked at Yui several times.
It was obvious—there had to be a connection.
Megumi the "Detective" started to figure out that her brother must have met another strange creature today.
— — —
After dinner, they stayed seated around the round table.
The two snow rabbits were now placed in a small cage on the table.
While eating carrots, the two rabbits sometimes looked at the treehouse residents with worried expressions.
Ginko remembered when she and Utaha had also been locked in a cage. She saw the frightened faces of the rabbits, and it reminded her of that time.
Maybe… back then, their faces looked just as scared.
"Senpai, are we really going to eat these rabbits tomorrow?"
Ginko was asked, and he started to feel guilty.
"Can we not eat them?"
Yui added, "I'm sorry," as she gently stroked the rabbit's long ears.
It must hurt a lot.
Yui, the amateur "zoologist," decided to bandage the wounds of the two rabbits.
"In that case, we'll have to look for carrots to feed them every day."
Jun sighed.
In this kind of winter, even thinking about going outside was exhausting.
"You're wrong, Katō-kun,"
Yui said that.
"The snow rabbits here can eat meat, you know?"
She then threw a piece of bear meat into the cage and took the carrot from the rabbit's mouth.
"Shiiihh..."
The two rabbits made warning noises, but once they caught the scent of the meat, they devoured it eagerly.
The snow rabbits in this world were much tougher than the domestic rabbits in their previous world.
They could survive for a long time even if they only had meat.
"So rabbits can eat meat too, huh..."
Ginko, who had been upset earlier, looked more relaxed now that she saw the rabbits eating so quickly.
"In that case, let's raise them for now,"
Jun finally spoke up.
"One is male and one is female. Maybe they'll have babies later."
Yui was very happy.
She immediately threw the carrot back to the rabbits.
"Good... you don't have to die just yet. Eat a lot, okay!"
Yui was now taking care of the rabbit, even though she had more experience taking care of dogs.
"It's a good idea to raise them. At least we won't be too bored,"
Yukino said this while she was quietly watching the rabbits.
She remembered the cat they once kept on the beach.
— — —
After playing with the two rabbits, the girls were once again faced with a classic winter problem: bathing.
You can get clean water from melted snow, but how do you get hot water for bathing? Much harder.
There was very little firewood available. There wasn't enough for one person, and there certainly wasn't enough for seven.
They couldn't live without bathing, especially the girls who cared a lot about cleanliness.
People started talking about the bathing problem.
"But... there's that! Hot water...!"
Nanako said this with a nervous tone.
"Hot water?"
The girls were confused.
"There's hot water for bathing near the mountain."
Nanako finally managed to express her point.
— — —
✨ Special thanks to my newest Patreon supporters!
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Joseph Sepulveda, Big Brizzz, Michael Thomas, Austin, Aaron, Naugara02
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Your support means the world and helps keep this series alive!
— — —
📚 Want to read more chapters or get early access?
Join my Patreon here:
🔗 patreon.com/FaaanzKun
✅ Enjoy 100 chapters ahead of WebNovel!
✅ Plus, get 1-2 new chapters every day, exclusively on Patreon!
> Already caught up with the latest chapter on WebNovel?
Continue the journey early for just:
$5/month
Join now and dive deeper into the story—weeks ahead of the public release!
Thank you for your amazing support 💖
— — —