RPAGF Chapter 786: My Best Friend
Chapter 786: My Best Friend
Cassius was really surprised about how much Joy was willing to let him touch her.
At first, he had kept his hands over her clothes—just groping and squeezing through the fabric, giving her occasional kisses on her cheeks and neck.
It was playful, almost innocent compared to what he really wanted to do.
But eventually, he grew bolder.
His hands started sliding under her clothes, feeling her bare skin directly.
He expected her to say something about it. To scold him, push him away, or at least give him a warning glare.
That would have been the normal reaction. That would have been the Joy he knew.
But to his surprise, she only shivered slightly before giving him a certain look and glancing away—almost as if she no longer cared.
So he continued.
He got to feel her body up all over.
Her soft breasts, which felt so warm compared to how cold her eyes usually were.
Her thick, fat ass, which he got to slide his fingers between and spread open while she petted another animal.
And while she was distracted, he could even slide his finger right over her pussy as well!
As long as he was gentle enough and didn’t really disturb Joy, she just didn’t mind it at all.
It was really baffling to see how much Joy had opened up to him.
This was the same woman who had wanted to kill him at first sight.
And now she was openly allowing him to touch her body.
Little did Cassius know that with how much he played around with Joy’s body and all those passionate times they had shared, it had deeply instilled something in her that made it impossible for her to resist when Cassius touched her.
Especially when her sensitivity was raised because of her succubus blessing, every touch felt amplified, more intimate, more natural.
So even though his hands wandered all over the place and touched the most sensitive parts of her body, she felt it was almost natural for him to do so.
Almost as if he had a certain ownership over it.
But of course, she would never dare admit anything like that. Instead, she just ignored him and minded her own business.
Cassius didn’t mind that either.
Soon, one by one, they went through every single enclosure and every animal they had.
Until finally only one remained.
It was an animal called Woolly Sheep. But even though everyone in this world called it that, Cassius always called it an alpaca, since it looked very much like an alpaca from his own world.
It had thick, fluffy hair all over, looking like a goat that was wearing a coat of wool.
Cassius put a hand over Joy’s shoulder and squeezed her breasts so openly while thinking about how he should immediately increase the amount of animals in the zoo.
That way he could have much more alone time together and thoroughly play around with her body.
But just as he was about to comment about it and joke around with Joy, he suddenly looked down at her and was shocked at what he saw.
Joy, who was staring at the alpaca enclosure, had a very dark look on her face.
Not the scary kind.
No, this was different.
This was a sad, pitiful darkness.
A look that suggested she was immersed in something, a memory, perhaps, that was deeply painful and traumatic.
It wasn’t just her face—but her entire body had gone rigid.
Her face had gone pale, drained of its usual composed color.
Her breathing had become shallow.
It was as if looking at that particular enclosure had triggered something inside her, something she had carefully suppressed and hidden away.
Cassius immediately stopped his casual exploration of her body.
He stepped forward slightly, positioning himself where he could see her face more clearly.
"What’s wrong, Joy?" He asked, his voice gentle and genuinely concerned. "Why do you look so pale right now? You’re trembling."
He glanced back at the woolly sheep grazing peacefully in its enclosure, then turned his attention back to her.
"Does it have something to do with that woolly sheep over there?"
"Do you...do you not like it, perhaps? Or is there something about it that bothers you?"
He tried to inject some lightness into his voice, attempting to soften the moment with humor by saying,
"Hehe. Maybe in the past it spit on you or something."
"Maybe that particular incident left you with a trauma that’s coming back to haunt you right now?"
He chuckled slightly, offering her a gentle out, a way to dismiss this moment as something trivial if she wanted to.
But Joy just continued to stare at the woolly sheep.
There was a weight to her stare, a depth of emotion that went far beyond what a simple unpleasant past experience would generate.
When she finally snapped out of her daze and seemed to realize that Cassius was looking at her with real worry and concern in his eyes, she was about to say that it was nothing.
She opened her mouth, preparing to dismiss his concerns, ready to deflect and move on as she always did when her emotions threatened to become too exposed.
But the moment she opened her mouth to form those dismissive words—
She couldn’t.
Or rather, more accurately, she didn’t want to.
In that moment, with Cassius looking at her with such genuine concern, something shifted inside her.
Some dam of emotional resistance cracked slightly.
She actually wanted to open up.
She wanted to speak about this.
She wanted to tell him the truth about what she was feeling and why.
So, while holding her hands in an attempt to stop them from trembling, she looked down and started saying,
"In the past, most of the animals I worked with were all just normal animals you would see on farms. Pigs, cows, chickens, and sheep and whatnot."
"Since the household didn’t deal with any sort of demon race or anything exotic, they kept it all the same."
Seeing that Joy was opening up once again, Cassius didn’t hesitate to guide her toward a bench nearby that perfectly viewed the alpacas in front.
Both of them sat side by side.
Cassius listened intently as Joy went on to say with a bit more light in her eyes and a small smile.
"But there was one exception." She said, and she glanced up toward the alpacas before them. "There was one woolly sheep. Just one special one."
She took a shaky breath.
"Apparently, the household had gotten some kind of trade deal with another estate, and one of the things they received from that was a woolly sheep as a gift."
"And that excuse of a human being decided to put it in the stables, which of course meant—
She let out a small chuckle that seemed quite hollow.
"I was the one who was going to raise it. But I honestly didn’t even mind. After all..."
She looked at Cassius with a small smile that looked so sad right now.
"It was probably love at first sight."
Cassius blinked in surprise, while Joy went on to happily say,
"The moment I saw the woolly sheep and how adorably cute it was chewing on its grass while being so fluffy at the same time, I couldn’t help but go over and give it a hug."
"It instantly became my most favorite animal in the world!"
Her eyes grew distant, lost in the memory.
"And for some reason, that same woolly sheep that normally spit on people who came near it didn’t really do that to me as well. Almost as if it also liked me."
Cassius held onto her hands like he wanted to share the joy.
"That was probably one of the happiest, best things in my entire life."
She let out a giggle.
"To get acceptance from an animal that doesn’t accept anyone else. It truly was something that struck deep in my heart at that time."
Cassius also couldn’t help but smile as well, as he knew exactly what she was talking about
But not toward an animal, but toward Joy herself.
After all, this was the same Joy that no one could really crack through, and even her own mother and sisters struggled to do any of that.
But here she was opening up to him, which made him also feel the same way in an awkward, bizarre manner.
Joy then went on to say in an enthusiastic manner.
"After that day, me and Sir Fluffington became the best friends ever!"
Cassius played along with a smirk and asked, "Sir Fluffington? That’s its name?"
"Yep!" She nodded happily. "And it suited him perfectly! Even though he was a woolly sheep, he had this dignified nature. Always standing tall, looking down upon others like a true noble gentleman."
"And at the same time, he was so fluffy!"
She waved her arms, describing his cloud-like softness.
"So I called him Sir Fluffington."
"A truly worthy name." Cassius agreed.
Joy nodded enthusiastically.
"We spent so much time together. I always gave him the best meals—the other animals would get jealous."
She chuckled. "And I spent hours grooming his fluffy hair. It was such tedious work, all that fluff flying everywhere, landing on all the other animals’ faces. They’d come crying to me about it."
Cassius watched her expression soften, her eyes filled with warmth. This was a Joy he’d never seen before—vulnerable, open, genuinely happy.
"There were many nights." She said quietly. "where I wouldn’t even sleep in my own bed. I’d stay in the stable with him. He was so fluffy that even at night, when I hugged him, I felt so much warmth."
She looked down at her hands.
"We truly had a wonderful relationship. If all the other animals were my friends, then he was definitely my best friend."
The love in her voice was unmistakable. She wasn’t talking about just any animal.
This was something deeper, like a sister she’d been raised with, someone she couldn’t imagine living without.
But then her expression changed.
The warmth drained from her face, replaced by that same pale, despairing look from before.
Her hands started trembling again.
"Then...one day...one day....I...I..."
She couldn’t finish the sentence. Her voice cracked, and her body shook.
Cassius reached over and gently slid his hands over hers, holding them tightly.
The simple gesture seemed to ground her. She looked up at him, and his reassuring gaze gave her the courage to continue.
She interlaced her fingers with his. Took a deep breath. And began again.
"It happened on a rainy day." She said, her voice hoarse. "A big storm had come. I rushed to the stables to put all the animals inside. Especially Sir Fluffington—I didn’t want him to get wet. With how fluffy he was, it would take forever to dry off, and I was terrified he might get a fever."
Her grip on his hand tightened.
"But when I entered the stable..." Her voice cracked. "I saw him."
She closed her eyes. A single tear slipped down her cheek.
"I found him dead on the ground."
Cassius’s breath caught.
"He was just lying there." Joy continued, her voice hollow. "But...I didn’t realize it at first."
"I thought maybe he was sleeping. He didn’t sleep in that position, but I tried to convince myself."
"I called out his name over and over, thinking he’d wake up."
Her voice broke completely.
"But when I finally looked closer...he was completely covered in a puddle of his own blood."