Chapter 12 Preview, Part 9: R Low Romance

I've started working on the dedicated romance scenes, yay!!

Today I finished up the low romance variants for R, and posted a little sneak peek for it on my Tumblr, but of course you guys get a bigger preview for it here. The low romance variant for R as well as the other LIs will have 1 scene that will give your Crown 2 choices, one of which will help you recover the low romance, and the other which will, uh, make it worse 🙈

You know, if you wanted even more angst. Or if you needed a leg up to get out of the dog house with R lol

Here's some snippets. Sorry for the name/pronoun variables here! I'm too lazy to edit it all out haha:

Finally, $rname meets your eyes, $rtheir impassive features painted over with a remorseful look. “Forgive me. I didn’t mean to… I’m sorry.”

You frown at $rthem. “What are you apologizing for?”

“You have enough problems without me adding to them.” $rname sighs, hands folding on $rtheir lap. “I’m always making things worse for you. Even during that very first meeting with the nobility, arguing with Lady Naza—”

“Don’t tell me you’ve been chastizing yourself over that this entire time?” You can’t keep the disbelief from your voice, stunned that it has still been bothering $rname even a month later. “I forgot all about it. Besides, you’ve proven yourself many times over since then.”

IF YOUR CROWN INTERVENED ON R'S BEHALF IN CH9

“Have I?” $rname looks down at $rtheir lap, where $rthey begins to fiddle with the decorative coins hanging from $rtheir belt. “I could not even be trusted to handle the nobles during your first official court meeting.”

It takes a moment for you to remember what $rthey speaks of. When one of the officials was trying to make an issue of court procedure to undermine $rname’s authority, you intervened on $rname’s behalf instead of letting $rthem handle it on $rtheir own. You thought you were doing $rname a favor, though it was also true that you did it out of concern that $rname would not be able to maintain $rtheir composure.

“You’re still learning,” you insist. “Same as I am. Neither of us have been in this position before.”

$rname gives you a wan smile. “Yet you seem so much better at it than I am.”

“I’m really not—”

IF YOUR CROWN LET R HANDLE THE COURT THEMSELVES IN CH9

“Have I?” $rname looks down at $rtheir lap, where $rthey begins to fiddle with the decorative coins hanging from $rtheir belt. “I thought myself clever enough to study the Void, yet I failed even in that. All I ended up accomplishing was to leave you to deal with the court on your own while I was forced to recover from the consequences of my own hubris.”

“You’re far too hard on yourself,” you say, trying not to sound disapproving since you know scolding $rthem will only make things worse. “You were only trying to help.”

$crthey gives you a wan smile. “And look where it got me.”

“No one could have anticipated—”

Poor baby 🥺 I feel so bad for R while writing their low romance scenes, just wanna give them a hug and tell them it's okay 😭