[NR] The Rest Of The Team Getting Along - Chapter 451 (Patreon)

Rosha and Courtney

Rosha smiled as she led the way down the road, Courtney just behind and to the side of her. While she missed Jason’s quiet stoicism and, of course, Lily’s soft fluffy presence, it was nice to have a relaxing walk with Courtney. If only she would walk side by side with her.

Though thinking about that, Rosha realized a fun way to force the issue. So she turns around and looks Courtney straight in the eyes. “Courtney, I’m going to order you to walk beside me or suffer the consequences!” She declares in an exaggerated way while pointing a finger to the sky.

Courtney rolls her eyes, “I accept the punishment then.” Though her eyes take on a worried look when Rosha breaks out into a very wide smile.

“If that is how you want it.”, Rosha giggles, “Then that is how it shall be! Your punishment will be to hold my hand until we have to stop for something.” And before Courtney can respond, Rosha grabs Courtney’s hand and forces her to walk side by side, anyway.

Rosha giggles, “There, that wasn’t so hard, now was it?”

Courtney just stays silent and tries to ignore the warmth in her hand. This most certainly wasn’t proper maid like behavior. Not that she had much of a choice.

Of course, she could have stopped holding hands at any time. Rosha wasn’t even gripping too tightly. But it was a punishment, so she should go along with it, right?

Suffice it to say, Courtney didn’t really get much thinking done over the next couple hours as the two walked down the road together.

Then, of course, something had to interrupt them. A nasty looking giant slug oozed out of a small collection of briars, the slugs ooze protecting it from the very nasty-looking thorns.

This necessitated Rosha letting go of Courtney’s hand so she could draw her bow. Then it was a simple matter of peppering the slug with arrows before it reached them. An easy enough task, despite how close it was. It hadn’t exactly gotten all that much faster, despite its greater size.

Fight over and after a quick visual check for any loot, Courtney goes to grab Rosha’s hand again so they can continue.

Rosha pulls her hand back and smiles. “Your punishment was only until we had to stop for something. So since we just stopped, you don’t have to hold my hand anymore.”

Courtney freezes with her hand half extended, her face completely dumbstruck.

Rosha giggles at this, “Though I guess if you want, we can continue the punishment? I might have to change it up a little bit, though!”

Courtney is conflicted. As a maid, she should follow her master just behind and to the side. Even as children, she had kept to that rule. Of course, the two of them are working on separating her from Rosha’s family’s control, but that doesn’t mean Courtney wants to stop following her.

Seeing the conflicted look on Courtney’s face, Rosha just smiles and waits. She wasn’t clueless like rich girls got portrayed as all the time in fiction. While she didn’t know what their relationship would be, at the very least she wasn’t going to let Courtney escape being her closest friend, if not hopefully something more.

After a few minutes of struggle, Courtney made up her mind and with a look of determination reached out to grab Rosha’s hand.

Though as she does that, Rosha, with a toothy grin, also reaches out to her. “I said we might have to change it up a bit!” And taking advantage of Courtney’s open hand grabs it with her own except this time with interlocking fingers.

Rosha’s smile practically glows, “Now let’s continue our adventure! I’m sure it can’t be all slugs out here and while I’m certainly not poor, equipment won’t be cheap.”

Courtney stammers out, “We, we should be able toooo, uhhh, get some new gear next town?”

Rosha nods, “That sounds like an excellent plan! I’ll need to upgrade my bow and maybe get some new arrows. After all, without Jason, we’re missing our dodge tank. So if I can’t manage a better DPS, how would I protect you?”

Courtney reacts on instinct at this point. “It is my job to protect you! Whatever it costs me, I won’t let anything damage a single hair on your head.”

Courtney tries to continue walking, but Rosha stops and since they’re holding hands, Courtney ends up turning towards her and is forced to stop as well.

With a solemn look, Rosha stairs straight into her eyes, “I’d rather we both protect each other. Don’t give yourself up for dead so willingly. At this point, we both need one another.”

Courtney is stunned and they stand there until Rosha flashes her a smile and then starts to walk again. Courtney isn’t sure how to react to any of this. Since childhood, she had been drilled to protect “the young mistress” and now everything felt wrong. Not in a bad way, but that didn’t make it any easier to find her footing.

Rosha, on the other hand, despite being a rabbitkin, seemed to take more after a catkin as she easily landed on her feet. From that day forward, as long as the roads weren’t too dangerous she would make sure to hold hands with Courtney, especially while sitting next to the campfire at night. She might not be 100% sure of what she and Courtney wanted, but that could all be figured out later. For now, though? She took her time and enjoyed being alone with her closest companion, best friend, and maybe, just maybe, someone that could be so much more.