I’m Really Not Trying to Be Chased by the Heroine as the Villainous Playboy! – Chapter 72

Chapter 72: You Can Do Whatever You Like in Private

As soon as Roy stepped off the carriage, he was met with a wave of elegantly dressed gentlemen and ladies, all polite and eager to make his acquaintance.

He’d seen crowds before, but this was the first time he was under such intense scrutiny, and it honestly made him a bit nervous.

Fortunately, these weren’t rabid fans; the etiquette among nobles was always kept to a bare minimum.

“Mr. Ainbrad, I’m Huck Ronald, and my father often speaks highly of your diligence!”

“I’m Ryan Stark, and I really regret missing the chance to see you take down that scoundrel Raymond last time!”

“Mr. Roy! I’m Nina Mond, the youngest daughter of the Mond family. Our estates aren’t too far apart, so if you have time…”

Noble peers came one after another, and despite each person only saying a few words, the crowd was overwhelming for Roy.

This was the normal social treatment for a marquis’s son.

Now that Roy had shed the ‘good-for-nothing scion’ label, he was a true son of the “Iron-Blood” dynasty. Many wanted to get in his good graces.

Of course, not everyone was warm and welcoming. Roy noticed a few cold, even hostile glares from the corner.

That must be the Ainbrad family’s rivals.

Even so, they still approached Roy with the bare minimum of courtesy to introduce themselves.

After going through the crowd, Roy felt like his smile muscles were about to cramp.

Thinking about how Charlotte faced this kind of scene every day, he couldn’t help but admire her.

Whether deemed polite or hypocritical, just as Roy was starting to get used to mingling with these peers, a harsh, jarring laugh cut through the air.

“Look at you, Roy! You’re really shining now!”

The crowd parted, and there stood Ryan, glaring viciously.

Compared to last time, Ryan had changed so much that Roy almost didn’t recognize him.

His shabby old suit was awkwardly unbuttoned, and his previously messy but manageable hair had now grown down to his ears. His eyes were bloodshot, dark circles around them, looking fierce yet utterly unable to stand upright, like a starving wild dog.

“You’ve turned me into this, and now no one can stop you from pursuing Charlotte, huh? Are you satisfied now?!”

“But don’t think that means Charlotte will look at you! You’re just a clown, a waste! Just a scoundrel tricking women with sweet talk!”

After listening to Ryan rant, Roy simply replied with, “Huh?”

What on earth was this guy babbling about?

To put it bluntly, whatever happened between him and Charlotte had nothing to do with Ryan, right?

Before Roy could say more, someone next to him retorted.

“The useless scion of the Raymond family is here!”

“Oh, Ryan, my good brother, how did you get so skinny?!”

“Shut it! Have you forgotten that Lord Raymond is in confinement? I bet the food in prison isn’t to your taste!”

“Ryan Raymond, you’re the one who brought this on yourself. What does it have to do with Roy?”

Ryan was getting roasted left and right, his face turning red from embarrassment.

Among those people were others he had bullied before, as well as pure troublemakers, but what infuriated Ryan the most were the members of his own crew!

“Huck! Are you itching for trouble?! You dare to disrespect me…”

Ryan’s intimidation crumbled under the barrage of taunts, not making a single splash.

He used to act ruthlessly, relying on his strength and power.

Now his faction was gone, punished severely by Duke Raymond, and most importantly, Roy was here, a fellow son of a founding knight standing behind him.

One was a scion punished by his own family, while the other was a marquis’s son treated well by a princess, recently rising to prominence. It wasn’t hard to choose sides.

Now that Ryan dared to show his face, naturally, people were out for revenge or just looking for some entertainment.

No matter how fierce Ryan acted, he couldn’t regain the former glory in front of so many. He was furious, but completely powerless.

He clenched his fists several times, but memories of that man’s crushing blow to his most vulnerable spot pierced deep within him. Recalling Lord Raymond’s cold warning, he ultimately didn’t dare to strike back.

Just then, another stir arose in the crowd.

“Her Highness has arrived!”

Here among the nobles, there was no need for knights to clear the way; people gracefully parted to let a path open.

Charlotte walked through the crowd, and the moment she spotted Roy, a smile was almost on her lips, but the eager gazes of everyone made her suppress it.

Yet her light, brisk steps didn’t falter.

“Roy, I thought you weren’t coming.”

Seeing Charlotte, Roy relaxed, forgetting for a moment that they weren’t alone, and casually said: “How could I not come? If Charlotte is coming, then of course I will too.”

As soon as those words left his mouth, Charlotte paused slightly, her cheeks flushed, her brows slightly furrowed, looking adorably annoyed.

Skipping over the formal greetings, their conversation felt natural, like friends of equal standing rather than a ruler and subject.

Whispers erupted among the crowd.

“Did you hear that? He called her by name!”

“No way, when did they get this close?”

Calling a royal maiden by her first name, directly referring to a princess in that manner, was indicative of an unusually intimate relationship!

But what shocked the crowd even more came afterward.

Charlotte leaned closer to Roy, her brow slightly furrowed, and quietly whispered, “Don’t call me by my name in public.”

“Does that mean I can call you by name in private?” Roy joked, masking his earlier slip of the tongue.

“…In private, you can do whatever you like.” The girl shyly averted her gaze, and her cold, indifferent tone was the biggest implicit acceptance Charlotte could give.

Roy only guessed half right; besides feeling shy, the princess also harbored a romantic fantasy about their ambiguous relationship.

Being distant sovereigns in public while being close and personal in private was practically a must-have trope in knightly romance novels!

The two only exchanged a few brief words.

But to the eyes of the unaware crowd, their almost face-to-face act appeared overly intimate!

“Let’s go, I’ll take you over there!”

Charlotte smiled again and led Roy towards the hunting grounds.

As soon as the two left, the accumulated whispers finally erupted.

“Did you see that?!”

“That, that looked like…”

“Guess how far they’ve gone?!”

“Your Highness! May you find happiness!”

“No, no, maybe they’re just nobility with a slightly better relationship?!”

The crowd fell into heated discussions and speculations, trailing after the two, completely forgetting about Ryan Raymond, who was left alone in the back.

Ryan knelt on the ground, gazing distantly at Roy and Charlotte laughing together, a fiery frustration building in his chest, wanting to scream, but there wasn’t a single target to argue with.

He finally realized that the greatest humiliation didn’t come from mockery, but from the utter indifference to his existence.

Meanwhile, Roy accompanied Charlotte to the hunting grounds.

As he expected, Ryan was not a threat.

There was a similar scene in the original story where a little maid came to play with Charlotte but was mocked by ‘scoundrel Roy,’ after which Charlotte stood up for the maid.

Now, however, that clown role had shifted to Ryan Raymond.

But this was just a small interlude, not a significant crisis that would disrupt the turning point of fate.

So, what exactly was the turning point of fate connected to Charlotte that also threatened his own life?