Kalistan

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Catching up with the Prince Consort
"We are never apart," says Rosenfeld of Empress
Eveari, Grand Duchy of Ananto
July 10, 5725


Prince Consort poses for portrait in his Study at Ananto Estate

La Moda caught up with His Highness, the Prince Consort Lord Elliot Rosenfeld at Ananto Estate in Eveari this month. Our interviewer asked about the life of a man who has stayed largely out of the headlines and what life is like living with the most powerful woman in Terra.

(La Moda's) L(aurie) J(ones)- Good afternoon Your Highness. Thank you for sitting down with me.

(His Highness, Prince Consort) E(lliot) R(osenfeld)- Yes, I am glad we finally got this together. We were playing phone tag for a while, and finally, we got schedules to match up.

LJ: I am glad for that. Your scheduler was a very slippery person.

ER: Well, its kind of hard to keep appointments sometimes when you are married to an Empress who insists on having her way about everything. She'd get 20 minutes of free time and there goes my schedule for the day...

LJ: Do you two spend a lot of time together?

ER: We've never been apart, to be completely honest, but now that the kids are all out of the house and its just us two, its just really easy for her to come over from the office and hang out or whatever. I'll spare you the details. She has a lot of energy...

LJ: Well. Haha...

ER: Oh, well, it's all perfectly innocent... I mean... mostly anyway. Well part of the time... My wife may come off in public as this prim professional, with everything perfectly all together, but I assure you, when the cameras are not on her, and people are not staring at her, she is definitely the opposite of that. It's an act, you see: She's not naturally very outgoing. She's very erudite and kind of awkward and goofy, even after all this time, she's a real nerd who is trapped in the body of a supermodel. She's smarter than anyone in any room ever, and she knows it. So she will come home from her office, and she may bring her trivia book and talk about something in the book that she learned about, and then researched for three hours, and how its the wildest thing she's heard in a day, or she'll pour herself a bowl of cereal and want to play videogames with me. She's like a kid, and it feels like she's just hitting her stride. It reminds me of how old I am. But the proper act that she puts on when she leaves the house, she thinks that is how respectable people should be, and so that's what she does. I have given up trying to get her to stop and just relax--It hasn't made a bit of difference for decades now.

LJ: Do you two still play Go together?

ER: Most certainly. We try to set aside some time each week to play against one another. She's only gotten better. I can't say, even with my handicap that I've beaten her in years... But I still play, because I get such joy out of the challenge, and when she wins, of course, she's delighted, and that's the pay off for me.

LJ: It sounds like you two haven't lost the spark.

ER: How could you with that woman around? She likes to wrestle sometimes, can you believe that. How could a guy say no to that? She's a big weirdo. Love of my life, to be completely honest.

LJ: And how about you? Tell us a bit more about yourself.

ER: I have my diversions, of course. I enjoy going to the shooting range: We set one up here in Eveari, and that is great fun. I go golfing at least twice a week with my friends from the club. When Willy was here I would go to the skatepark with him to watch him beat himself to death on a half pipe. I still teach go classes three days a week when I'm back in Kaliburg, and I work at AYIC the other two days. I am proud to say that we will be beginning Redn classes in Valruzia I think next month. So I will go there to help set that up with the Valruzian Redn speakers in Chynberg. Carolina will of course be accompanying me: I don't plan on spending any more nights without her. We'll be there for maybe a week or two. I'm still so busy with everything. And my wife and I are planning to begin attending the Theater again regularly. We kinda stopped going when we had kids because there was always something every night we hardly ever got out.

LJ: What club do you belong to?

ER: I am at the Imperial Club now of course. It's a new one... there are so many new ones popping up nowadays here in Ananto. But I suppose it was about time really. The Ladies still run High Society in Kaliburg and Sulari. The Clubs could be seen as like another part of that. But Carolina is also a member there too. Before that she was just in the Garden Club, but, and no offense to their members, but they were just too old for her. She said if she wanted to hang around fossils, she'd go to the Natural History Museum.

LJ: Some are saying that there is talk of some of the clubs becoming men only. Have you heard about this?

ER: Not that I am aware of, certainly not the Imperial Club. All the clubs, the political ones like the Nationalist Club and the Democracy Forums, those are all fully co-ed. The new Orthodox Club is going to be co-ed too. Every club I can think of is co-ed. I don't even know why anyone would want a single sex club... Can you imagine how dreadfully boring it would be to be surrounded only by men? Hahaha.. I'll just say it, and I know plenty of people who feel this same way: Any place my wife is not welcome is not a place I want to be either. I'd rather just stay at home with her than pay a mountain of money every year to exclude her. Can you imagine? Any club that is just all men or just women isn't going to last very long.

LJ: I'd like to switch gears a bit and ask a question more geared toward your personal philosophy.

ER: Excellent!

LJ: Given your experience as Prince Consort, what would you say the proper role for a Consort during any reign should be?

ER: That's an unexpected question. Well, let me think about this for a second. I can speak for my role: I get fulfillment from helping my partner make our family what it is. Together we raised three wonderful kids. I can safely say, she was far more busy tending the affairs of state, but we shared the family things pretty evenly. We both spent time with our children when they were sick, or needed medical treatment. We have been there to support one another in the things we wanted to do that were above and beyond the things we had to do. So if my experience is instructive, I think the proper role of the Consort is to be a good partner to the Monarch. This was not what I saw myself doing as a child. Not at all. But I think my wife and I are good complements for one another. She has been the best wife to me that I could ever even imagine. She does so much for me just to show me she cares. The least I can do is make her life as easy as I can: She has so much stress and responsibility. So a Consort should be there to shoulder as much of that burden as possible.

LJ: Did she ever ask you to become Emperor?

ER: Oh goodness no. Hahaha. This is Carolina Ananto you're talking about. She may be everything I have ever said, and I still love her with every fiber of my body, but she is still very much an Ananto, and nothing I can do will ever change that. And she will let you know that the moment you attempt to demonstrate that you think you are better than her or smarter than her. She turns off the sweetness and light and turns on the lawnmower to cut you off right at the knees.

LJ: Yes, that was the image I had of her.

ER: Oh yeah, she's very forgiving, even to people who I would say probably do not deserve it. She is very humane, and she is very compassionate. But she is the most arrogant person I have ever met in my life too. She will agree: but to her the arrogance is her birthright, like she earned it from being born. She will not hesitate to inform you that you are not her equal.

LJ: Do you find this causes friction?

ER: No, I think I very early came to the understanding that it was just true. We've had this exact conversation several times. It goes: her, then her children, then all the Anantos, then everyone else--like in the whole world. I say her kids, because they are ours, but they are Anantos, and I merely married an Ananto. Lady Melanie was born Alvarez, but she was a descendant of the Gaduri Anantos, so she was always above me and now that she's been promoted and is part of the Kundrati Anantos, she's above me even further... haha. It doesn't bother me. It's just how they see themselves. I am happy to be the closest non-Ananto to her. That's a bit of a consolation. And unlike everyone else in the entire world, I'm her husband and we have kids together, so that's an easy win in my book.

LJ: But you're not intimidated by her?

ER: Why should I be?

LJ: I would be.

ER: Ah, I understand. No. She can be insufferable on occasion but she's harmless. There are like three spirits striving within her: She's an Ananto, but she's also a Brethrenist too. So as Empress Ananto is chopping you into minced shark bait, Friend Ananto is already planning on how to fully rehabilitate you. She is a very complex person. I know she is not mean spirited, but I also know she can't help it. Her superiority complex comes from being an Ananto and being from Kalistan. Her family had been Emperors and Empresses for centuries before my family ever arrived from Valruzia. How can anyone compete with that? But its nothing to be intimidated by. She just is what she is. A beautiful, playful, multifaceted bookworm who was unfortunately promoted to Empress and is now the most singularly powerful woman in the world. Most nations do not give absolute fiat power to a person whose arrogance is hard coded into their genes. But Kalistan did, so, we get what we have here today. She would have been happier, I think, as a librarian.

LJ: Well, Your Highness, it seems that we have spent more time talking about Her Imperial Majesty than we have talking about you?

ER: Well, I am a simple man. I am comfortable not being the center of attention. I get the blessing of not being under a microscope and not being the target of a bunch of corrupted idiots overseas whining about our system of government at entirely inappropriate moments. I don't have to put up with that, and I don't have to accept it as a personal attack. I really do live a very charmed life. I have everything I could ever possibly want. I do as I please, and am really very happy at home. My heart still leaps when my wife enters the room, even when we are fighting because I know making up is always so much fun. I have all the room in my life to do the things I find enjoyable-- I have plenty of opportunities to do things with friends. But I really just prefer her company to anyone else in the world, and my friends who know me well understand that. If I can make her part of what I am doing I try, not because I feel like I have to, but because I genuinely want to. So when you talk to me, and you let me talk about what I like talking about, I am going to be talking about my wife.

LJ: That's fair. I think your scheduler has buzzed you. I suppose that means we are out of time.

ER: Actually, it means Carolina wants to meet you. It will be the end of the interview, but you are welcomed to stay with us. Would you like to meet my wife Carolina? Off the record of course.

LJ: Oh lord... I don't think I... I haven't prepared anything... I don't... um....

ER: Fantastic. I will ask her to come in now. Thank you for the interview. Please stay put, you are a guest at our home, and she will tell you to ignore the protocol anyway.

@LaModa