Chapter 272 Just let me be
After breakfast, Scarlet and Esong escorted the guests around, but only to the easily accessible areas which were open to everyone. It was like taking a trip at a zoo, you could see the animals behind glass walls or fences but you could not go inside and interact with them. The guests could see the outside of the buildings but they could not go inside.
Princess Carana had many questions but Scarlet veiled her explanations explanations to ensure that she did not give much away.
During the tour, the empress insisted on sitting with Carolyn and Markey, she had many questions to ask Carolyn after all.
All through the tour, instead of looking at the buildings, the empress looked at Carolyn who became so uncomfortable that she covered her face with her hands.
"Don't be shy little one, I have to look at you carefully before deciding if you are the right fit for my Markey. Your face is only the beginning, what will you do when it's for me to observe your body?"
"Eep!" Carolyn squeaked and her hands fell away from her face.
"Hahaha." The empress laughed, it's another tradition as well, as the wife to be of a prince, your body must have no malformations or extra appendages."
"Appendages!" she repeated after the empress.
"Oh yes dear." The empress replied nonchalantly, "but do not dwell on this, and have no fear, it is the way of royalty."
Carolyn looked at Markay and she raised both of her eyebrows up in a questioning manner. 'Why didn't you tell me that your mother is going to inspect me like a prized cow?'
Markay shook his head and shrugged, 'I didn't know either.'
"Do you intend to continue working after your wedding?" the empress suddenly asked.
"What wedding?" Carolyn asked.
"Your wedding to my son of course." the empress answered. She was even perplexed that she looked at Markay and asked him with her eyes, 'What are you up to?' "I assume that you two are dating with marriage in mind of course otherwise this is a waste of all of our time. Am I wasting my time having this conversation with the young lady Markay?" the empress went on to sternly ask.
"Royal mother, I have not proposed yet because we are still in our courtship phase, but we are dating with marriage in mind." he answered.
"Excellent." the empress declared. She looked at Carolyn and said with a gentle smile on her face, "Now, let's discuss purity, have you had sexual relations with my son yet?"
"ooh," Carolyn groaned and buried her face in her hands with a strong desire you fly out of the car window.
When the empress insisted on joining them for a small talk she assumed that it would be about the small things, like how did you meet my son, where did you go to school? Do you really love my son and not a discussion of her sexual purity or it's lack thereof. The empress had gone straight for her jugular by asking the hard questions directly.
"Don't be shy dear, I know that there is a ninety nine percent chance that you are already intimate since he rushed here after survival day. Unless, you are the open minded type of woman and you allowed him to go through his heat phase with another woman. I will be the first to tell you that such a decision would be foolish on your part because some mecha warriors do catch feelings for the women they go through that phase with. This is why over the years I made sure that whichever woman he went through the phase with in the past was always veiled and it was never the same woman. I do hope that you do not hold this part of his past against him dear, all of that will be stopped now that he has you. Oh, and if you two are being intimate then you will need to study the best positions, angles and techniques to please your husband. He will have to study how to please you as well, a royal marriage sometimes falls apart due to lack of sexual compatibility." The empress tugged on the hand of Carolyn's shirt, urging her to look up and face her so that they could speak candidly.
"Oh God!!, please make it stop." Carolyn thought. "Just let me be."
"Come now, don't be embarrassed, these things you will someday have to ask the woman your own son brings home."
"Mother!!" Markay groaned, "Please stop." he said.
"Why?" the empress asked him. "I need honest answers out of both of you if we are to do this thing right. And, we must hurry up because Sader is injured irrevocably and your father will need to name a new crown prince soon. If he names you, the nobles will be rushing to bring their daughters forward as the most excellent candidates for a marriage alliance. We must iron out every crease and make sure that you two appear to be a solid couple."
"Can we iron the creases out in the privacy of a locked room?" Markay asked.
"Sure, just as long as you two are not afraid to answer the hard questions."
The empress stopped asking questions and finally looked outside the window of the moving car.
Carolyn could now lift her head up and look forward while pretending that her face was not as red as a tomatoe.
"You know," the empress said and Carolyn braced herself for the impact. "This is quite a lovely city you all have here, it's homey and I hate to use the word human but that's how I feel."
"How is that?" Markay asked.
"In the capital, our humongous high rise buildings stand out more than anything. The skies are congested and so are the streets. Everyone moves with a humanoid robot butler or a weapon, and billboards, holograms and exaggeration of unnecessary kind fills our sight. But look at this city, the people are moving together and laughing with no weapons. The children run around so freely with happiness. I have not seen one robot butler in sight, the skies are clear. Most of your billboards and holograms are in the middle or at the top of the buildings and every once in a while I smell delicious scents in the air. Everyone just seems to be happy and content living simply."
"That's because my sister has many rules about what the best society should be like. Carrying of large weapons is illegal here. Children of all ages must engage in one sport daily in teams, that's why most of the children walk in groups in the evenings. Flying cars are illegal, unless its a tour or sight seeing car. Littering on the streets is illegal, no blinding lights on the lower levels of buildings, all robot butlers should be kept indoors and if they are used outside, you must get a special permit from the RGB. No playing of loud music in residential areas, no civilians are allowed outside when an alert is sounded. Some are too many to keep up with, but everyone has a rule book of the planet on their terminals."
"Do you think a society like this is sustainable?" the empress asked no one in particular. Either Carolyn or Markay could address the question.
"I think we need planets like this to balance the chaos of the capital." Markey replied.
The empress turned to Carolyn and she asked, "What about you?"
Carolyn thought for a moment, deeply, then she looked at the empress and she said, "I think we are happy, and that's all that really matters."
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