Let go of that monster girl!

Another group of rat girls dragged broken door panels and chairs with only legs left from that mountain of garbage, and piled them up in front of the stove to burn as firewood.

The town of Flower is nestled next to low mountains, and its hot springs, one of its signature attractions, naturally feature a design by Mo Lun.

The murmuring river water flows along the underground channel into two interconnected pools, and then flows into the blazing furnace.

Boiling water flows out through pipes and back through the inside of the two pools.

The water meanders and the heat is absorbed layer by layer by the pool water, gradually cooling down before finally flowing into the hot spring through the open channel on the ground.

The ingenuity of this small design lies in the fact that the water tank near the boiler absorbs excess heat from the furnace and pipes, and itself becomes warm water.

The water is already warm when it flows into the furnace, and it heats up quickly, ensuring a continuous supply of hot water.

On the other hand, even if the mouse girl in charge of tending the fire falls asleep, the hot spring will only be filled with hot water that has been thoroughly cooled by the pool.

We would never turn an unlucky guest into a pot of rat soup.

Before long, steaming hot water gurgled and gushed into the hot spring pool.

The logging team's rat girls soaked in hot water, comfortably turning into a bunch of rat balls.

The hot spring water gurgled and splashed, washing away the thick fungal spores on the rats' heads. The rats drifted slowly towards the outlet with the current and eventually flowed into the cheese river.

"Ah, it feels so good, I'm melting."

Cats are naturally afraid of water, but they can't resist the comfort of hot water. They hunch their shoulders and slowly rub down, until only a bunch of lazy cat heads are visible.

Jimmy stretched out his cat paws and held a bottle high:

"Hehe, look at this! The cat got a few bottles of berry wine in exchange, meow!"

"Long live Jimmy, meow!"

Low hills never lack water, but in areas without sunlight, fuel is a scarce commodity.

Hot water is scarce on weekdays, so the rats have to wait in long lines and most of the time they can only pitifully fill a bucket with cold water.

The mice and cats were divided into several groups by Molen, taking turns to work, stand guard, and rest. Only those who were on rest were allowed to take a bath.

There were three hot spring pools. One pool was for mice, one pool was for cats, and another pool was for mice.

As for the ultimate private aristocratic pool with its marble low walls, it naturally belongs exclusively to the great Baron Morren.

The pool wasn't large, and there were even a few deep red rose petals floating on the surface, carrying a faint fragrance. I wondered if the foreman mouse had dug them up from some hidden corner and kept them as dried flowers.

Ah, this is what it means to enjoy life! This is the life a noble should have! At this moment, Morren felt like he was the Roman emperor.

Molen casually unbuttoned his shirt and tossed it aside, preparing to walk down the flooded steps.

The cat's voice arrived before the cat did, and laughter drifted in from outside the low wall, clearly tinged with drunkenness.

Molen didn’t even need to turn around to know it was Jimmy.

"What are you doing here, Miss Jimmy?"

The catgirl's voice was muffled, meowing softly.

"Hehe, meow, Baron, meow..."

"The Baron is making a fortune with his cat. The cat even rubs the Baron's back for free."

Thump, thump, the catgirl's wet footsteps echoed through the water. Moren silently wrapped the towel tighter around himself, turning his back to the drunken cat.

Jimmy's small, soft palms, warm and damp with a faint smell of alcohol, drifted over from behind. The cat's movements were initially quite orderly, but gradually they became chaotic.

The towel slid from her left shoulder to her right waist, then from her right waist to the back of her head, and I had no idea what she was wiping.

"The cat is really envious of the Baron."

Jimmy's voice was muffled, "You have so many rats around you, and they're all incredibly capable."

This cat has definitely hit a brick wall.

Molen almost couldn't help but laugh, but he managed to hold it in.

No matter where you are, the reputation of the Rat Girl among all races is basically equivalent to cowardice, lowliness, and only knowing how to dig holes.

This was the first time he had ever heard someone use the word "capable" to describe the Rat Girl.

“Miss Jimmy is also very capable. She started a caravan of more than a hundred people from scratch at such a young age. That’s amazing.”

"hey-hey."

Jimmy chuckled twice, unaware that the towel had somehow fallen into the pool and drifted away with the current.

"Even cats don't want to be this capable."

She rested her chin on Morren's shoulder.

"If possible, cats would rather be stray cats."

"When the catgirls reach a certain age, they leave the village to wander around, searching for what they want."

"Most of them will wander around outside for a few years, and then return to the village with their adorable kittens."

"The cat heard a story about a particularly powerful cat warrior whose journey was endless because she was determined to defeat all the bad guys who bullied cats."

"Cats also want to be as free as heroes, meow."

Jimmy's voice became increasingly muffled.

"But there are still many cats in the village, cats that aren't very capable."

The aroma of dried roses rose from the hot water, mingling with the scent of alcohol and permeating the rising steam.

Molen felt the smooth texture on his back with two rough spots, staring at the two nails on the opposite bathhouse door.

"Whoosh whoosh." A steady snoring sound came from behind.

Fell asleep.

That stupid cat.

What should I do if I regret agreeing?

Molen sighed deeply, and finally picked up the cat, who was still talking in its sleep.

"Your boss has had too much to drink, take him home quickly."

"When did the boss sneak out, meow?"

In the very center of the pool, a ripple silently rose on the surface, and several transparent bubbles bubbled up.

An almost completely transparent head slowly emerged from the water, revealing only the area above the eyes.

Lyme's body became one with the hot spring water, and she remained half-submerged and half-floating in the center of the pool.

His bangs, now completely colorless from soaking up the hot spring water, were plastered to his forehead, covering most of his face, and a towel, seemingly out of nowhere, was perched on top of his head, making him look quite comical.

His eyes, peering through his bangs, remained fixed on the direction Morren had left, not blinking an eye.

It was quiet for a while.

Transparent fingers stirred silently beneath the water's surface, a few petals swirling between them, scattered and then gathered again, gathered and then scattered once more.

I finally found the flower pot after a long time, and I waited for so long.

Lem lowered his head a little further, and a few bubbles rose to the surface.

After a long while, she finally uttered a few words in a muffled voice that only she could hear.

"I'm so envious."

Chapter 17 A Triumphant Return

Molen stood atop the towering mountain of garbage, hands on his hips.

The timber salvaged from various buildings in Flower Town was piled up haphazardly, exuding a musty, rotten smell.

A large amount of furniture was scattered around, and a variety of tools were placed nearby.

What pleased Moran most was the small pile of treasure in the corner: tens of thousands of silver coins, hundreds of gold coins, bags of copper coins, and several boxes of gems and stained glass.

If the giant rats were to carry the cargo back to the low hills, the cat-and-rat caravan might have to make seven or eight trips to finish.

But Morren's choice of Flower Town as his base was not without this consideration.

The rat women cut down the wood mushrooms in the mushroom forest, chopped off their huge caps, leaving only the waist-thick stems, and rolled them one by one into the river.

The rat girl in the town sorted the timber from the dismantled buildings into several piles according to size.

Then, using ropes, strips of cloth, and nails salvaged from the ruins, they hammered together simple wooden rafts.

It's not exactly sturdy or durable, but it's convenient and functional.

Furniture and small belongings that couldn't get wet were firmly tied to the center of the raft and pushed into the Cheese River, joining the vast army of drifters.

"This, this is huge."

"Who is this for?"

A rat girl squatted next to a huge breastplate, and when she looked closely, she realized that her whole body was not even as tall as those two raised steel peaks.

Another mouse girl climbed onto the breastplate, trying to flip over to the other side to take a look, but her foot slipped, and her whole little body landed directly in the two wide ravines.

Big.

too big.

Moren jumped down from the garbage heap and walked up to the breastplate to examine it closely.

In terms of its design, this breastplate is nothing special; it's just a very ordinary set of female rider plate armor, with neat craftsmanship and smooth seams.

However, judging from the front of the breastplate, these two enormous steel peaks, large enough for four female rats to lie side by side, suggest that its former owner was probably over six meters tall.

Moreover, she possesses an extremely healthy and extremely voluptuous body.

It's almost healthy enough that it can treat a Chimera Beast like a teddy bear.

The rat girls placed logs under their breastplates, and a dozen rats lined up in two rows, chanting as they pushed forward inch by inch.

The sleepers creaked and groaned under the weight, and each time they were pushed a little further, they had to be replaced. Sweat streamed down the round faces of the mouse girls.

"It's so heavy, I can't push it."

"Change the cat, let the cat do the pushing."

"Even a cat can't move this thing."

"Ouch, so heavy, meow."

The rat girls who carried the leg armor and arm armor weren't much better off; each armor plate was as tall as a rat.

Several mice dragged their leg armor, their little faces contorted in frustration, but they couldn't drag it much before collapsing from exhaustion.

Jimmy peeked over from the side, staring wide-eyed at the pile of metal lumps, and exclaimed:

"Meow! Such a big suit of armor, meow. Who can wear such heavy armor, meow?"

Moren couldn't help but laugh when he thought about the story behind the armor.

"This is a relic of the knight before the last knight of Flower Town, a moose girl."

"She is known for processing logs by hand and for single-handedly providing all the cheese ingredients for the town."

"Later, it was said that she was exiled to the north because she accidentally sat on her husband in the basement from the bedroom."

"But these are all legends. When I first came to Flower Town, this breastplate was already being used as a counter in a cheese shop."

As they talked, the rat girls, panting heavily, pushed the breastplates to the riverbank.

A dozen rats worked together to lift the breastplate onto the waiting raft on the shore, the steel hitting the wooden planks with a loud clang.

The raft sank violently, and then, with a snap, the entire raft broke into pieces in the middle.

The planks scattered and flew everywhere. The breastplate, along with the broken wood, crashed into the river, splashing water several meters high and drenching the exhausted rat girls.

"Ahhhh!"

The rat girls lay on the shore, watching helplessly as the wreckage of the raft drifted away with the current.

"We still need to fish this thing out."

"How did you manage to scoop it out? It's so heavy."

Moren called out to the mouse girl by the river: