A duplicitous female is truly loathsome to a snake!
Abyss believed that Carlotta was being calculating, but Henry knew that Carlotta truly didn't want to be held by him.
One of the innate abilities of the Silver Fox Clan is the power to see through people's hearts.
Even though he knew Carlotta was speaking sincerely, Henry didn't want to let go of Carlotta.
He smiled slightly and said, "Despite the strict security in the imperial palace, there are occasionally assassinations by orcs from other countries. Miss Carlotta, I don't want to see you get hurt in any way."
Henry's words made Carlotta feel too embarrassed to struggle further.
After all, Henry was thinking about her safety, just like in the doomsday, when her brother with enhanced special abilities insisted on letting her sit on his shoulder to protect her from sudden attacks.
She might as well consider Henry as a brother.
Thinking this way in her heart, Carlotta gradually relaxed.
Henry sensed that Carlotta had accepted him, and the curve of his smile became a bit wider. He quietly changed the way of holding hands to interlocking their fingers.
In the past, Henry would have scorned such a petty trick.
The fundamental reason why Henry and Abyss could become friends was that he thought he didn't need to connect with females on an emotional level, and Abyss happened to dislike females as well.
But now, being able to interlock fingers with Carlotta and having the sweet scent on Carlotta lingering around his nose, Henry felt his heartbeat accelerating significantly.
The body temperature of male orcs is inherently higher than that of females. After Henry's heartbeat quickened, his body temperature rose sharply.
That searing temperature made Carlotta involuntarily recall the intimacy with Abyss in the cave. At that time, Abyss's body temperature was even higher than the palm temperature of Henry at this moment.
Carlotta's heartbeat also accelerated, but she didn't dare to let herself go and randomly found a topic to distract herself: "H... Your Highness the Crown Prince, are you often targeted by assassins?"
Henry's heartbeat skipped a beat when Carlotta showed concern for him.
"Yes," Henry thought for a while and said gently, "The most terrifying incident was on the day of my tenth birthday banquet. I was burned on my shoulder and tail by an assassin with fire special ability."
"At that time, I was still young. Although my shoulder also hurt a lot, I was only worried that I would become the Crown Prince with the baldest tail in the history of the Norr Empire."
"So dangerous?" Carlotta subconsciously responded, "Then did your wound heal later? And what about your tail? How is it now?"
Carlotta's concern was very pleasing to the Crown Prince, and he continued in a low voice, "There is no scar on my shoulder, but my tail is indeed a bit bald. Fortunately, it's not obvious and can only be seen with a careful look."
"That's good." Carlotta turned her head and smiled at Henry, then glanced at his back.
She was very curious about what Henry's slightly bald fox tail, which was said to be unnoticeable without a careful look, looked like. But this was just a thought, after all, an excessive request would seem impolite.
Henry noticed Carlotta's curiosity, and a faint blush appeared on his fair face. He asked softly, "Miss Carlotta, do you want to see my tail? I can show it to you now."
Carlotta was about to nod when the meaning of a male revealing his beast form suddenly popped into her mind.
— Courtship.
In the orc world, a male orc only reveals his beast form when courting a female. Whether it is the female asking the male to transform or the male doing it on his own, it means that both sides are asking if the other wants to become mates.
She almost agreed to Henry because she was not originally from this world. But Henry was a native male orc. Didn't he know the meaning of this question?
Carlotta looked sideways at Henry and then realized that the handsome face of Henry beside her, which was as white as porcelain, was actually tinged with a bit of blush.
A man in a white royal prince's uniform, as elegant as a jade tree in the wind, showing such a shy expression really made people's imaginations run wild.
Carlotta couldn't help thinking that if it was Henry she had marked in the cave, making such an otherworldly man fall into the throes of passion would surely create a vivid and alluring scene.
Especially, she could also carefully examine Henry's tail to see if the injury he suffered when he was young had completely healed.
... Wait.
Realizing that she was thinking about strange things again, Carlotta quickly drove away the improper images in her mind.
When her reason returned, she began to think about the reason why Henry asked her this.
Carlotta didn't think that Henry would fall in love with her in just a few hours. As the Crown Prince, with such a noble status, how could he fall into such a clichéd plot like love at first sight?
So, the most likely reason was because of her spiritual power and fertility value.
Henry might want to have offspring with excellent qualifications.
Thinking about this, Carlotta's originally agitated heart gradually cooled down.
Marking Abyss was out of necessity. If she really had to take more male consorts in the future, Carlotta still hoped to have an emotional foundation.
In her original world, her parents were deeply in love and never had a quarrel because they loved each other.
If her parents had united for the sake of interests, it was very likely that, like the other wealthy and powerful families she had seen, their family would have fallen apart in the later stage.
Thinking of this, Carlotta lowered her eyes and said softly, "Your Highness the Crown Prince, I'm sorry. I don't want to see your tail."
Immediately after, she tried to withdraw her hand from Henry's palm.
A flash of disappointment crossed Henry's face, and he let go of Carlotta's hand.
A male showing his tail to a female is actually a form of courtship.
He had thought that since Carlotta liked the statues and paintings of their fox clan so much and he was an excellent 3S male, Carlotta wouldn't reject him.
But Carlotta rejected him so straightforwardly and didn't give him any chance.
Was he really that unattractive?
While Henry was thinking, Abyss, who was behind the two, had a complex look in his purple eyes.
Crown Prince Henry had a gentle temperament and a handsome appearance, and there were countless females chasing after him.
Such an outstanding male had already hinted at courtship, yet Carlotta could reject him so resolutely.
Why?!
Abyss couldn't understand.
[The council chamber is here.]
The voice of the intelligent navigation in the hovering vehicle broke the silent atmosphere among the three.
Carlotta peeked at Henry, worried that her rejection would make him angry.
But she saw Henry smiling at her again.
"I'm sorry, Miss Carlotta. I was too impatient."
Henry remained a gentleman. After getting off the vehicle himself, he extended his hand to protect Carlotta as she got off.
Seeing that Henry's smile didn't seem fake, Carlotta felt relieved.
But as soon as she thought about meeting the Empress soon, her breath caught again.
Carlotta recalled the images related to meeting the Empress in the original body's memory again, made sure there would be no mistakes, and then had the confidence to walk in with Henry.
The floor of the council chamber was covered with a red carpet. On both sides of the carpet were the important officials of the Norr Empire standing, and at the end of the carpet was the throne belonging to the emperor.
The Empress of the Norr Empire was sitting on the throne at this moment, looking down at Carlotta.
Since there was no rule prohibiting looking at the emperor's face, Carlotta looked at the Empress's face generously.
The lifespan of a 3S-level orc is 500 years, and the Empress was already 350 years old. As a female who had entered the middle age of orcs, there were inevitably signs of age on her face.
But those changes in age did not reduce the Empress's charm. Instead, they made the Empress even more graceful and magnificent.
When she noticed the Empress looking over, Carlotta composed herself and bowed to the Empress: "Greetings, Your Majesty the Empress."
"Miss Carlotta, it's a pleasure to finally meet you," the Empress said with a smile. "I'm very glad that Admiral Abyss could be saved by you. You are a blessing to our Norr Empire. Therefore, in addition to the original remuneration paid to you, I have decided to grant you the title of Duchess."
Not expecting to be directly ennobled, Carlotta was extremely pleasantly surprised.
She was about to bow to accept when she heard other voices.
"Your Majesty the Empress, I don't think it's appropriate to directly grant Miss Carlotta the title of Duchess."
The speaker was a middle-aged woman with short hair standing on the left side of the red carpet. The woman was wearing a pure white military uniform, obviously holding a position related to the military.
Carlotta looked curiously at the woman with short hair and surprisingly found her identity in the original body's memory.
The director of the Imperial Counseling Institute, Marquis Leo.
The original body remembered Leo because Leo Johnson had the same surname as hers.
As for the Counseling Institute, it was a place for counseling those male warriors without female owners.
This institute was founded by Leo ten years ago. At that time, the female birth rate in the entire interstellar had dropped to 20 percent.
At the press conference when the institute was established, Leo clearly stated that the institute was to serve the vast number of single male orcs and prevent them from dying due to a mental breakdown without female counseling.
Before the establishment of the institute, male orcs who were not wanted by females could only privately pay females to help with counseling.
However, in those private transactions, often before the transaction was completed, the male orc would be forced into a male competition by the female's male consorts and then beaten to death.
Now, with the existence of the institute, male orcs paying for counseling will no longer be regarded as seducing females, thus avoiding the occurrence of male deaths due to male competition.