Eikichi Hosokawa listened patiently as first Kayumi and then Donna spoke, reading and re-reading the proposals on the table as he waited for an opportunity to get a word in. It was, in a word, frustrating that the situation in Troyes had reached this point, not to mention how the actions of the Aostan military had risked further exacerbating it, but that was the past. They were, in his opinion, jumping the gun, so to speak; it would've been better to act as  a unified body rather than let it reach this point.
   "As far as I am permitted to say, these terms are acceptable for the Empire of Fusan." He said before continuing with "However, I feel must voice the objection of my government to the continued presence of Aostan naval vessels within Marsellais without their expressed consent. I would therefore urge that, until such a time as the government in Montaulon clarifies whether it views their presence as not amounting to a violation of their sovereign territory, Aosta withdraw its vessels to positions outside of their territorial waters as defined by the FSC."

The widow of Kyle Barren received the message and instantly wanted to throw it in the bin. The Rokkenjiman's, just like every other Helus-forsaken nation on Mundus could have easily brought her beloved Kingdom into existence but instead they had played the Morelanders game and branded her and her people as terrorists and criminals. She had no idea about what to respond with, at first she had considered ignoring it, then she wanted to spit venom at Lucinda, finally she went to see Giles Gedding.

"What was Kyle thinking" Giles said after reading the note, "Letting Rokkenjiman intelligence or whatever she is into the centre of Borland operations. We can't trust a word these Rokkenjimans say, they're not our way out of this and infact its clear they much prefer things in Northfort the way they are. I do not want you replying, I'll take care of this." Giles said as he slid the letter into his desk drawer. Beatrice was more than happy to allow that to happen, she just wanted to fade into the background now and watch after her sons interests and inheritance.

The next day Giles figured out a response.

"Lucinda. You'll know only too well we lived our lives together dedicating ourselves to trying to do right by the Borland Folk. We expanded that folk far beyond what people would imagine in our homeland. To have the person you love gunned down by criminals pretending to be heroes breaks my heart and I know I will never truly recover. You can be assured we will not forget him and his legacy will be built upon by generation after generation unready to be slaves to the illegitimate regime. For now my focus is on our son, the true King of Northfort. I hope that perhaps one day our paths, and his may cross on better terms."

---

Giles, had left instructions to his subordinate that he expected to be followed to the letter. The subordinate in this case was his nephew, Riley Meadows, a man in his mid twenties who was well versed as one of Giles' legitimate businesses "White Knight" hackers, testing cyber security for a fee. Today though he was up to no good. For the past few years under Giles instruction the group had run a neferious website known as the Valerian Bazaar on the Darknet. The concept was easy, sellers signed up and created digital wallets and utilised the sites "auto-encrypt" functions. Once a buyer had ordered their drugs, contraband, weapons or other nefarious items the buyer transferred digital currency from their regular wallet, to a Valerian one, then to the seller and then days later their goods turned up wherever they'd wanted them. The seller could then move their currency from their Valerian wallet to their digital one and then if they wanted into their bank account. Several tens of millions usually sat in these Valerian wallets any single time as sellers became buyers and vice versa. Today they were in for a nasty shock. No sooner would they have logged into their account to do business than a message appeared telling them the site was shut forever and that their Valerian Wallets were now the property of the Bazaar. While this loss of funds would be bad for most of the people using it the next message was even worse. It appeared the "auto-encrypt" hadn't exactly functioned the way people thought, nor had the feature of deleting personal messages after 72 hours. Every transaction, every transfer had been saved and while the exact identities would likely never be fully known there was a significant amount of data that would be interest to authorities. There was of course a way of the user avoiding this, a simple one of payment could be made ensuring your data never found its way online. Failure to make this payment, determined by how much money you'd transferred, would see everything leaked. "You have 7 days" was the final message before the site plunged the users screen into nothingness.

Donna Gianna smiled to herself and then glanced over at her friend from Abertone. "Each of us here then I believe is now on record as saying that Troyes is already the territory of Marseille. We will therefore agree that as and when the representatives of the Marseille government request us to leave their territorial waters we will naturally comply. I believe this is a fair compromise for us to reach in that regards. We are grateful for the support you have given here by stating that Troyes is already sovereign Marseille and therefore the Seaforthians are there essentially as squatters."

To: Prime Minister Konishi, Fusan
Empress Serenity, on behalf of Gowu

Respected Minister,

I believe in that aspect our Empires are most in alignment; while the Principality is not legitimate and stands as a roadblock to a reunified Marseilles so to does the self-proclaimed Republic and yes, I share your concerns with "Real Marseilles" in regards to the people of Troyes and broader Marseilles. A lack of recognition from the Republic of Marseilles is concerning, and it is a matter of concern to me that our partners in Aosta and Abertone are using the invitation of the self-proclaimed "Republic" to operate within the waters of Marseilles; this is an issue which has been addressed by Kōshaku Rhodes, our representative to the ADSN and, most recently, by myself.  The First Empire would, while recognizing that there is no mandate for the Empire to do so, welcome a second call for foreign vessels to cease operations in the territorial waters of Marseilles without the explicit permission of Montaulon and recognize that such operations do not enjoy any protections under the Fair Seas Concordat as they are at the invitation of a body which lacks the legitimacy to grant any authority or authorization for foreign vessels to operate within those waters.

I appreciate the understanding of the Empire, as well as its willingness to offer assistance given the difficult position Rokkenjima and Achkaerin finds themselves in this moment. Trust me when I state that I did not wish to be in this position, however, Rokkenjima has given its word to the Kingdom and it is the highest duty of a Rosari to honour their commitments. As I've shared with our friends from Abertone and Aosta this situation, one which could see Rokkenjima called upon to defend Seaforth in this moment despite our shared goal of a Troyes reunited with Marseilles, could have been avoided through fully utilizing our shared strength represented through the ADSN. Unfortunately, our paths forward will be fragmented until they subscribe to the path put forward by the Achkaerinese before the ADSN, and I pray that they see the reason and logic which our friends in Achkaerin have put into their proposal and see it put into motion with haste.

I thank the Empire for their continued dedication to the path of diplomacy and the champion of peace in this most recent flash point and pledge that I will do all I can see to ensure your efforts succeed in facilitating a successful diplomatic resolution to this situation. I am pleased that we are partners in this affair and, just as we defied expectation in seeing peace succeed between our nations, let us sow together the seed of peace and prosperity in the present crisis before us. With our goals aligned and our vision set on the same target there is nothing that can guide us from a path I'm confident will be most successful.

Yours;


Empress of the First Empire of Rokkenjima
Princess of Littlebrook

---

To: Prime Minister Konishi, Fusan
Empress Serenity, on behalf of Gowu

Aunty Serenity,

I agree with you there and recognize that we're in a difficult position, it only takes one mistake here for the entire house of cards to collapse into a disaster I know none of us wants to see. Both of us have our ties to Seaforth, a nation which has proven itself a true friend to both of us but then it's our responsibility to guide our friends when they're doing things that, in the long run, are harmful to them. I know you're headed to Seaforth and I've sent Evanthe as well and, I hope, between the both of you we can assure Seaforth that yes we're here for them, but Troyes is as foolish an endeavour in maintaining as QAMB was for Rokkenjima in the Illumic. We have to help them see that there is an off-ramp, that their contributions to Troyes can be recognized while they gracefully exit, that this is not a zero-sum game before them.

Let us both pray that our efforts result in success, and that in the coming days we're not making life or death decisions because I doubt you, nor I, nor the Fusanese or even those in Abertone or Aosta wish to be making such decisions in the coming days. Let's show what diplomacy can do, and have faith in the march of peace and prosperity in our region.

Yours;


Empress of the First Empire of Rokkenjima
Princess of Littlebrook

To - Emperor Lucius III of Eboracum, Empress Serena of Aosta, Emperor and Queen Natalya of Lodja

I would like to invite you all to a four nation conference in Tanith Magna. The four of us share very close border in South-East Albion and I believe that we could all benefit from a range of mutually beneficial agreements. I hope that each of you will attend the meeting with ideas for closer co-operation. Tanith for one would like to expand the Lodja-Aosta high speed rail network further South and if successful explore talks with Holmvik or Weissenwald to begin exploring links heading South to North. It is my hope that we can also discuss matters of significance to each of you.

I am hopeful of your acceptance.

Best Regards

Regent Prince Maximus Astralix