"Um, quite impressive."

To deal with this group of mutated beasts, they had spent nearly two hours.

From noon until the afternoon, the sky had started to darken.

The distant sunset was dyed hues of deep red and purple.

Hannah looked down at the corpses of the mutated beasts littering the ground, frowning slightly, "What should we do with these? Leave them here?"

They were standing right by a stream, its waters babbling as they washed the blood from the shore.

"Just like last time, we can gather some branches and burn them together," Arnold Simmons said.

After finishing his sentence, he led Hannah to the edge of the stream, gesturing for her to squat down, then took a clean handkerchief, wet it, and began to wipe her hands.

There were so many mutated beasts that, despite being cautious, it was inevitable that their bodies would get stained with blood.

The situation of Hannah and Arnold was still manageable, but Gregory Lawrence was the most disheveled.

Now that he had caught his breath, the smell of blood on his body was so overwhelming he almost threw up, "It’s disgusting, really disgusting, ugh..."

As he spoke, he ran to the creek.

Unlike Arnold’s gentle patience, Gregory just jumped directly into the water.

The stream wasn’t deep, barely reaching above the ankles.

"I can’t stand it anymore, I’ve never been this filthy in my life."

Gregory relaxed in the water, exhaling a sigh of relief.

He then looked up at the two on the shore, "Don’t you two want to come down and wash?"

Hannah declined, "The water is dirty."

Gregory looked down.

It seemed to be true.

Centered around him, the originally clear stream water had turned murky, mixing mud with blood, indeed looking rather... dirty.

Arnold chuckled and ruffled her hair, messing up the hair she had tidied, "The stream is flowing, it will clear up after a while."

"Then I’ll wash later," Hannah said as she took off her shoes, standing barefoot on the pebbles along the bank.

The stones still carried the warmth of the sun, sending a comforting heat that seeped into her body.

It felt incredibly comforting.

Hannah squinted slightly, leaning on Arnold’s shoulder, watching the sunset in the distance.

The trees by the stream weren’t dense, leaving an open area where one could look up and see the sky.

Gregory was busy washing Gollum and Daisy, helping them bathe.

Gollum struggled to return to its owner, while Daisy seemed quite pleased with the bath.

Hannah didn’t catch Gollum’s pleading look; her eyes only saw Arnold’s handsome profile and his beautiful eyes.

"Arnold."

"Mmm?" Arnold turned his head, asking softly, "What is it?"

She stealthily glanced towards Gregory.

Gregory was humming a tune while energetically washing Gollum, clearly enjoying himself.

Hannah felt reassured and gently placed her hand on Arnold’s waist, whispering, "When I take my bath later, I want you to stand by." 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Arnold paused, his eyes meeting her shiny black ones, something crossing his mind that made his earlobes turn slightly red, "Um."

Hannah blinked, touching his warm earlobe, "What are you thinking about? I meant that you should stand guard in case there are any more mutated beasts nearby."

There were a few fixed sources of water in the Blackwood Forest, where mercenaries and hunters commonly doing tasks would come to drink, as did the mutated beasts.

Realization dawned on Arnold, and he coughed lightly, forcibly suppressing the flush on his face, "I wasn’t thinking about anything."

"Really?" Hannah moved closer, her nose almost touching his chin, her eyes gleaming with a mischievous and alluring sparkle.

Soft, warm breath fell on his neck.