There had been days that
Emerson Ravenswood had started to doubt they'd ever get to this point, throughout his time as Viceregent he had had two significant responsibilities the first had been why the then Empress Beatrice had appointed him - to clean house, he was the outsider, he was the new broom and more importantly he was someone that could be vouched for as being free from the taint that had hung over Pyrena and as someone who wasn't going to mince his words. Cleaning house had been where Emerson had wielded the sledgehammer, the Anausa had been removed from their role as protectors of the throne, the Imperial Council had been entirely reconstructed, not to be the Empress's rubber stamp but to hold her accountable and to make sure her actions were credible. The second had been a responsibility that was equally important and one that Emerson had been preparing for from day one - to prepare the path for Asuna to take the throne, some might wonder why he'd been thinking about it even back when Beatrice had been on the throne the answer was simple enough, like most people who'd analysed it he'd understood the implications brought on by the 2018 Imperial Address, from that point Beatrice's days on the throne had been numbered, some hadn't wanted to admit it but it was the truth. From that point on Emerson, Evanthe and the Imperial Council had been building the foundations for Asuna's reign that remained ongoing alongside the day to day work that went on in Pyrena but they were now at a point where the word 'transition' was the watch word, the process itself would be lengthy but to even be considering it was a victory in itself for Emerson.
The process, journey or whatever people wanted to call it had two focuses - the first was orientated around Pyrena, the building of Asuna's platform, her support pillar and that was where Gregory McKenna came in, just an Imperial Liaison but it was just about the worst kept secret in Pyrena that McKenna was going to be Asuna's viceregent, this first prong was about getting ahead of the game, years ahead. Emerson made his way to Evanthe's study "She touches down in ten minutes and Gregory's here in five." he said "You ready to start this ball rolling?"
The second prong was happening not in Pyrena but up in the frozen north, this was about preparing Asuna in a manner that didn't seem to undermine Evanthe, in truth the Crown Princess needed experience and probably needed to develop a fair bit as well. So a fair bit of talking and taking advantage of the Network of Crowns provisions had led to this Asuna coming to Achkaerin for her higher education years, educationally speaking her first year was going to be sixth form based which would ensure she had the qualifying grades to get into university which would of course be what the other years would be about. Of course there was far more to it this was about the future Emerson and Evanthe could get Gregory and Rokkenjima ready but that was only half the equation, the other half was about prepping Asuna herself and perhaps there was an element of fate, irony or humour to it that this landed at the door of
Crown Princess Serenity. It was a well thought out idea, Asuna could accompany Serenity on her official duties and see how Serenity did it which would in turn build up her own experience, plus it would go some way to establishing a relationship between the two after all they were both going to be the rulers of their respective countries. There was a further intrigue, though perhaps not unexpected, that Asuna was bringing Euphemia with her.
Serenity leaned against her car, not one of her supercar collection in this instance but her school run car, and glanced at the clock on her phone they'd have touched down by now, so provided they didn't find themselves having to comply with a customs spot check she shouldn't be waiting that much longer.
