TSARGRAD - Fans of the budding romance between Rokkenjima's Empress Asuna and Tytor's Thomas Waverly-Edwards, the Earl of Eastwood, had their hopes dashed this weekend by a post the Empress made on Instagram on Friday.  In the post, which went live just after 6 PM in Tytor, the Empress announced, "I am single."  She continued, "I just realized maybe no, I'm not ready to tie myself down.  I'm only just an adult, let me make some mistakes."

This announcement comes as some surprise to watchers of the royal family, as the Empress and the Earl of Eastwood had been seen together less than a week ago, shortly before the earl departed Rokkenjima aboard HTMS Agility, the frigate on which he has been stationed as a midshipman, with no indication given of strain in their relationship.  Due to his deployment, the Earl of Eastwood could not be reached for comment, and the Admiralty declined to comment on what it called "the love life of a regular commissioned officer".  The office of the Prime Minister similarly declined to comment.

Reached for comment, the Rokkenjiman embassy in Tsargrad gave TBS a statement which it authorized for full publication: "It is not the policy of Her Imperial Majesty's Diplomatic Service to comment on the personal life of the Empress, nor on statements shared via social media. As per the operating policies and guidelines of HIMDS only those statements which are shared via Chrysanthemum Throne itself are regarded as legitimate for the purposes of this office. As Chrysanthemum Throne has not made a statement on this matter one way or the other it would thus be inappropriate to comment on the matter further. Once such a statement has been made we will consult with Chrysanthemum Throne.

"In official talks with the Imperial Palace the Embassy has been instructed to relay the continued importance of the Rokkenjiman-Tytorian special relationship despite what it views as a temporary passage through disturbed waters."

With the relationship between the Empress of Rokkenjima and the Earl of Eastwood now in the past, TBS asked Tsargrad Times pollster and foreign policy analyst Mark Ashland for comment.  "This smacks of damage control," Ashland says, when asked about the Rokkenjiman embassy's statement, "Obviously the diplomats can't comment publicly as long as the Imperial Palace is silent, but even a blind man could see how damaging this will be to popular perceptions of Rokkenjima here in Tytor.

"As of the most recent polls, published last month," he continues, "Empress Asuna had a favorability rating nearing eighty percent, with much of that resting on the popularity of her romance with the unfortunate Earl of Eastwood.  With the relationship terminated so abruptly, I can't imagine her popularity in Tytor ever reaching those heights again."

While the long-term impact of the breakup remains to be seen, there have been reports that Prime Minister Madeline Thatcher summoned the Rokkenjiman ambassador to her office on Saturday morning.  These reports, which TBS has not independently verified, suggest that the news caught the Prime Minister by surprise, and that the summoning was intended as a way for her to express her displeasure at being left out of the loop, as it were.

Ashland suggests that these reports make it clear that the special relationship between Tytor and Rokkenjima is in danger of imminent collapse.  "Here we have a personal relationship that symbolizes the international one between the two major cross-straits powers," he says, "And the Empress throws it away without any warning to the Tytorian government.  That doesn't make it look like Rokkenjima sees Tytor as its equal on the global stage, and that bodes ill for the long-term viability of our bilateral relations."

So that was it.  An "internal matter" featuring an "adversary" who was targeting the empress.  Thatcher slowly reread the empress's letter to Ensign Waverly-Edwards.  Her anger did not dissipate, which did not surprise her, but rather it began to shift to target whoever this was who was endangering both Rokkenjiman democracy and the Tyto-Rokkenjiman Special Relationship, which did.  She folded the letter and slipped it into the inside pocket of her suit coat.

"As it happens," she said deliberately, "The Admiralty tells me they discreetly forwarded a copy of this Instagram post to Thomas's captain last night.  I'll see about sending this the same way."

She leaned back wearily in her chair, studying Ambassador Hayata's face for a long moment.  "Well," she said at last, "We still have a communication problem.  We're allies.  I have one of Mundus's most skilled intelligence agencies at my command, in the form of the RIS.  You know this, or at least you ought to.  Certainly the Imperial Palace knows it; we gave Beatrice direct covert assistance during the Patriotic War, after all.  So now, I have a different question for you."

Thatcher paused again, considering her next words carefully.  "Given this knowledge," she said, "Why is this the first I'm hearing about your, er, enemy?  Why haven't you been in here before to ask for my help?  And perhaps more importantly, what can we do, moving forward, to ensure this failure doesn't happen again?  Let's fix this together, shall we?"

   Not even five years ago, it might've seemed strange that the sitting Emperor of Fusan would attend a conference such as this; after all, matters such as these were, more often than not, seen as being below his station. Yet despite this, since first becoming Sesshō to his father in 2019 and then Emperor the year after, Eijirō had attended more meetings like this than his grandfather had in his nineteen years on the throne, and certainly more than his father. Only his great grandfather had him beat, and that was simply due to him reigning for nearly half a century and through one of the most tumultuous periods in the nation's history, no less. More often than not, matters such as these would be handled by the Prime Minister or some other member of the Cabinet. Sometimes, even a member of the Privy Council might attend, if the need arose. Yet for some reason, this subject called to him, no doubt a result of his background, and so, he found himself leading the Fusanese delegation.

   And what a delegation it was. While also joined by the standard array of aides and assistants, he found himself in the company of the current Minister of War and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Field Marshal Okimoto Esashi, with whom he'd had a good working relationship for some time now. It was not lost on him, of course, that theirs was a relationship more close than most former War Ministers had with their Emperors; after all, for starters, most of the time the War Ministry wasn't headed by someone who, albeit technically, still held a commission within the Armed Forces, much in a similar fashion to himself as Commander-in-Chief, but there was more to it than that. He had grown up around him after all, at least in his teenage years, and he could be partly credited with inspiring Eijirō to join the military. Him and a certain Achkaerinese royal, back in the day... Those were far better times, simpler, too. Either way though, the group was rounded off by Kunihiro Marutaka, the CEO of Zayasu Heavy Industries, and Yuko Harada, President of Kasori, both of whom had a vested interest in the field and had thus managed to secure an invitation, though they would be arriving separately.

   "Remind me why I ever agreed to Marutaka-san tagging along?" Eijirō asked Okimoto as he straightened his outfit aboard the plane. It wasn't as though he disliked the man, but it hardly seemed appropriate that he join.
   "You'll have to ask the Prime Minister, your Majesty." The sixty-one year-old Esashi replied from one of Suzaku One's many seats. "But I will remind you that having people involved in the field can be helpful in determining policy."
   "To suit their own interests, maybe."
   "Maybe, but I know him well enough to know he's a man of principle. Well, as much as you can be in that field, anyways."
   "And what of Harada? What do you know about her?"
   "No more than most. She's as reclusive as you can get for someone in her position, but I'd imagine she's more likely to work to further her own agenda and that of her company. Just be careful around her."
   "I will."

   A short while later, the group would arrive at the site of the conference, whereupon the Fusanese Emperor, speaking on the behalf of the delegation, would greet his Morelander counterpart.
   "Your Majesty, it's a pleasure to see you again." Eijirō said with a bow before motioning to his companions. "Field Marshal Esashi, Mr. Marutaka, and Mrs. Harada." He said so as to introduce them. "On the behalf of the government of the Empire of Fusan, I wish to make clear our sincerest hope that these talks will be most fruitful."

Andrew partly agreed with Serenity, "The idea of a referendum is one that will either never come to fruition as you all argue over the ins and outs of how it should run, who runs it etc. Even when it does eventually happen it will be impossible for it to be run in a way that both myself and the Marseille government agree is fair. This is why i've put forward the alternative that we'll hand over the city in return for concessions. I think though Serenity has kind of misunderstood what I actually want. The base will stay under Seaforthian control in order to protect the port there which will be our gateway to trade in Albion, tariff free. Not in Marseille tariff free but Albion tariff free. We are willing to say that we'll accept that any goods entering Albion will be tax free only if it goes through Troyes but what I don't want to happen is for our produce to hit the border with say Aosta and suddenly have to pay some kind of tariff. That way the vast economic input we made will have some tangible outcome." As he finished speaking the phone rang and he picked it up. "Hello.......good to hear.......yes we can begin whenever your ready." He hung up. "I've just authorised our first flight in, it'll take 120 members of the Bracorina Regiment and fresh equipment and supplies. They'll arrive in around 15hours. Once off loaded they will pick up families for evacuation, around 240 people. I'm asking Rokkenjima if they will, in order to allow faster completion of reinforcement and evacuation, to allow the following to happen. We would like to send the rest of the Regiment down to Rokkenjiman air bases, from there we can cut the flights down to 3hours in duration. So can we base around 400 Seaforthian soldiers and their kit in Rokkenjima for these flights. Then can we hire a hotel or something for those transiting back to Seaforth? This will speed up our operation to secure the safety of our base? In the meantime if your talking to Sauzee you know what I'll accept."

"Respected Minister," Mikina said in a formal and calm fashion, "the First Empire continues to value the relationship between Rokkenjima and Tytor to the highest of regards, however, there is an internal matter which we have hoped to address without foreign complications. Due to the unpredictable nature of our adversary, however, incidents such as these could not have been accounted for and I convey the deepest apologies of the Imperial Palace for this incident. I cannot state much, as despite my requests for the relevant clearances they've been denied, but I believe I have the ability to paint a broad enough picture to remain within the constraints of my restrictions whilst being fully honest with you."

"I am certain you will recall the Shuttle Ensei disaster earlier this year. While it has not been publicly stated a source from within Imperial High Command issued a command to the shuttle, one reserved for unmanned operations when the safe re-entry of the Shuttle could not be ensured. We believe this source to be behind the present issue before us; the incident I mentioned is believed to be something done to break the spirit of the Empress, just as this situation is likely meant to cause the Empress distress with the added benefit of alienating a key ally and security partner of Rokkenjima. In a completely hypothetical situation, the Empress would likely find herself incapable of responding despite her wishes to; it would simply be beyond her means to do so due to present circumstances. It would likewise be necessary that the adversary believes they accomplished their goal, which is why a genuine response would be necessary on your part and why I might be precluded from intervening prior to your summons. On that matter I would naturally convey the regrets of both the Imperial Palace and myself, in what would be a  hypothetical scenario, of course."

She drew closer to Thatcher's desk, almost whispering, "the present challenge before the Empress is in many ways a matter of life or death, the future of Rokkenjiman democracy depends upon her success over this foe. I promise you once the immediate threat has passed your government will be briefed in full, but for now we cannot jeopardize our adversary learning that we're a step or two ahead of them so please, I know you are angry and you've every right to be, but please try to have a measure of patience if understanding is not possible; again, I understand. I don't know if Thomas knows yet, however, if you've a way to discreetly send a message to him, you'd be doing me a favour as relayed to me by a mutual friend I hold with the Empress. When she was informed that her account had been compromised and that was posted she nearly vomited, and became a shell of herself." Moving back from the desk she continued, "it is a most unfortunate affair we have before us, however, I have cleared the entirety of my schedule until we find a way forward that is mutually agreeable to both of our Governments," she concluded as she handed Thatcher a letter, "I have it on good authority that you may read it if you wish to."

---

Dear Thomas,

I don't have long so this will be brief and I don't know if my gambit will even work in getting to this to you so please bear with me here. I don't know what kind of connection you have at the moment so if you see a certain Instagram post I'm not even able to go on the internet right now, let alone pick up a phone, quite simply it wasn't me. From what I gathered from the chatter between security here my account was hacked and used ahead of a meeting I was set to have, not only to hurt you and I but to alienate the Throne from one of our closest allies, so while I can't do anything publicly I couldn't stomach you sitting there thinking there was any truth to that for a moment longer so I broke the rules a bit, trusting you to keep this to yourself, I might get a stern talking to but I promise I'll survive that. The next chance you get do listen to Roy Orbison's Sentimental and when you get back I'll be here waiting for you I promise and, hopefully, by that time I'll have defeated the enemy before me so we can share some care free moments together. Until then stay safe, and know just how sorry I am about all of this.

Yours always.

PS: Akira misses you, he won't leave your coat alone that you left behind and is currently snuggling up with it. If I get the clearance he'll be with me on the United States when we track your ship down for a visit. Be prepared for a loving tackle from him and the kisses to follow.