Kalistan

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Her Highness, the Minor Princess Carolina Ananto-Hulanevek, talks to the Press



Minor Princess Carolina gives Exclusive Interview to La Moda
Crown Princess talks about her Mother, music and Preparation for National Service
Kaliburg, Grand Duchy of Ananto
April 30, 5563

Upon the return of Her Imperial Majesty, Empress Pavlina I Ananto from Kundrati, where the Minor Princess, Her Highness Carolina Ananto-Hulanevek, Crown Princess of Ananto and Kalistan, recently celebrated her 17th Birthday, La Moda requested an interview with the Empress to find out about her and the Minor Princess' visit to Artania.  The response we got was surprising.  Instead of an interview with the Empress, we were offered an exclusive interview with the Minor Princess Carolina, who normally is kept well away from the press.  But this can be seen as something of a debut for the young royal, who enthusiastically looks forward to taking up a more active role in Kalistani society as she transitions into her majority.

Below is our interview.

M(aria) S(alvatore, of La Moda):  Hello Your Highness.  It is a Pleasure to meet you.

(Her Highness,) M(inor) P(rincess) C(arolina Ananto-Hulanevek, Crown Princess of Ananto and Kalistan);  Thank you, it is very exciting to speak with you today.  You know, Ms. Salvatore, I am quite pleased that they sent you to interview me:  I read your columns on fashion and its relevance to Kalistani Society and find the articles very interesting.

MS:  My Lady, you honor me greatly.

MPC: The privilege is mine.  And please, speak with me as you would anyone you interview.  I know the law regarding what everyone has to call me and all that, but I am, after all, just a girl, and will have to put up with people not talking directly to me when I am the Empress someday.  So please, if I may request it of you, just speak to me like you would anyone you normally interview and it will put me at ease too.

MS:  I will, My Lady.  I won't break the law or anything, but I'll try to keep the conversation light.

MPC:  Thank you.  I am so nervous.  I don't get to talk to the press often, or ever really, this is my first interview, so if I slip up or something I hope you will make me look good.

MS:  We will edit your words charitably, My Lady.

MPC:  Alright, let's do this.

MS:  How was Kundrati?

MPC:  Oh, it was ok.  It felt a bit colder there than I remember from when I was a kid.  I stayed with relatives in my mother (Her Imperial Majesty, Empress Pavlina I Ananto) and father (The Late Emperor Fredrick I Ananto)'s house, and I was supposed to go visit Ikradon, but that didn't happen.  I was kind of disappointed, as I told my mom.  But I think she figured that the whole conference was a waste of time for us to even be there, and so she decided that we would return to Kalistan, where at least people liked us.

MS:  Your first few years in Kalistan were hard, but you've never really had the opportunity to talk about this. 

MPC:  No, it was harder I think for my mom and dad.  I was a little kid and didn't really understand all of what was going on in Kalistan at the time.  I do now, of course, but like from the perspective of someone reading about it in a history book, rather than as someone who lived through it.  My mom said it was dangerous "on the mainland" which in my mind was very far away, and for a little while, I had to go to school with a bodyguard, but I think my teachers kind of understood what was happening with my family, and they certainly helped me, especially when some of the kids would say something, the teachers were always there to squash it, so I was never really bullied.  I think some of the teachers were more afraid of being seen as letting someone say something wrong to me, because of who my parents were, but I was lucky because I never got into any fights.

MS:  And when your dad lost his life on that terrible night, how did you get through that?

MPC:  I remember being woken up and picked up by my mom who was really freaking out.  There were a lot of people, a lot of soldiers in our house on Wilson Hill, and they were all trying to make sure my mom and I got to safety.  But I didn't know what was going on, I was just tired, because it was like 1 or 2 in the morning.  And I was asking where my father was and nobody was telling me anything.  We got on a helicopter and then on a plane and by the time the sun came up, we were in Gaduridos.  My mother was so sad and so angry during that time.  She almost couldn't do anything else.  She kept talking about wanting to go back to Kalistan and saying nobody was listening to her, but I remember one time, my uncle, he's not really my uncle, but I call him that, because he was my dad's cousin, but my uncle Mark was talking to her and trying to calm her down and she was waving a knife around and yelling in Lurrian about wanting to hurt herself, and Uncle Mark didn't speak Lurrian, and kept asking her to calm down and talk to him in Vrassan, and that was probably the most scared I was during that whole time.  My mom was so sad, and she was very scared, and I felt alone a lot during that time. 

When she came back up to Eshar to work, and I moved into my Uncle's house for a few months, it was finally calmer, and I was a little worried to return, but seeing my mother again, I was happy.  We went to Eveari for a little while to sit with my father and be quiet, and I think that time healed my mom a little.  They really did love each other, I know that, but since he has died, she probably will never be really happy again.  Not like before.  I just miss him.  He was very kind and very intelligent and very gentle, he never raised his voice, and he loved to laugh.  I really miss him.

MS:  That must be very hard to think about.

MPC:  It is a very dark part of my childhood, but yeah.  I'll never forget it, but I think my mom will never forgive, not fully.  She is a great woman for showing the people who were responsible for that so much mercy.  It took a lot of strength.  In that moment, when she told me that she was going to try to help the people who did this to our family, and I was begging her to stay and we were both crying and everything, I saw the kind of person I want to grow up to be: a really strong woman who does what she does because she believes it to be the right thing to do.  My mother is one of the smartest women in the world, and she has a huge heart that has known unimaginable sadness.  But she's a much different person than before all this.  And so I want to always be near her, to support her and to make sure that nobody ever disrespects her or hurts her ever again.  To let her know that she is loved whenever she doubts that.  That's kind of weird:  you'd expect a mom to do that for her kid, not the other way around.  But I know what she has done for me, and I know what she is doing for a lot of people, and I think that I am fine doing this for her.  People killing my father made me grow up pretty fast.

MS:  I hope you don't mind me asking about these very personal matters with you.  I don't mean to bring up ghosts from the past.

MPC:  It's alright.  I was a kid:  Kids go through hard things too.  And I may have lost my dad, but my mother lost so much more than me that night.  My mother still cries a lot.  And we've talked about all this too, many times.  I think we've talked about it enough in my house but most people don't know the whole story, so she said it was ok if I shared it with you too, and I told you you could ask about it before the interview so its ok.  I hope someday my mom will see the sun again--but today will not be that day.  Tomorrow probably won't be either.

MS:  I would like to change topics, if I may.  How are you doing now?  You are seventeen, and you are about to be a senior in High School.  Do you have plans for the future?

MPC:  Well, of course, me and my girls are going to sign up for National Service together.  I'm really looking forward to that:  I'll get to travel around to different parts of the Empire to do great things for my country.  There's a lot of pride in service, my friends who have older brothers and sisters always talk about how great they are and all the cool things they are doing and seeing.  Its a real rite of passage, you know?

MS:  It is, My Lady.  It's very hard work though, no matter what you do in the NSP.

MPC:  I welcome that.  You get strong in the Service.  That's kind of what I also need to work on.  I've been sheltered from a lot of things that kids I go to school with have done or gone through.  Obviously living my life, we never have to worry about money or anything.  And my mother gets kind of upset with me when I tell the house staff to leave me alone and let me do things myself.  She always says (imitating her mother's accent) "Carrie! Someday you will become Empress--You must not work self!  If you don't let Mr. Temmon serve you plate, his family starve because no job.  Let Ms. Dawson help you get dress, is her job.  I don't want fire her..." and things like this.  I haven't been allowed to do a lot for myself, and I think when I join the NSP, I'll finally get to do those things, to see if I even can.  I believe in myself and want to know I can do good things by myself, and I think the NSP will help me build that confidence and those skills for myself.  So when I do have to come back and take a larger role in the State as the Crown Princess, I will know I can do anything I please.

MS:  My Lady, Is there a job you would like to do when in the Service?

MPC:  My father was a mechanic for the NSP.  He tried to teach me the basics of internal combustion engines and diesel engines, which were his favorite, as well as electrical motors, but I think I was too young to really understand any of that.  But I think I would like to do something along those lines.  I hope they can teach me how to build airplanes, actually.  That would be very cool.  But I think I will be happy with whatever I am assigned to: They have their ways of matching people on aptitude and interest with jobs.  I've already taken some tests and watched some movies, and it said I might be headed for a life in communications, I don't know.

MS:  What is the typical day in your life like?

MPC:  Oh, hahaha, well, it's probably not as interesting as you would think.  When I can, I try to be just a normal kid, just fitting in you know, as much as I can.  I might get in a little trouble telling you that I try to get around some of the laws that are designed to keep me separate from my friends.  I don't make them call me Your Highness or anything like that.  Except when adults are around.  My mother is very set on this, because she says that she merely married an Emperor, but I was born to be the Absolute Sovereign of this Nation, like it is my destiny, and so even my friends will bow before me someday.  We'll see about that!  But I really try to be as normal as I can, while I can.  We listen to music, talk about boys that kind of stuff.  I am lucky to have a driver who can take my friends and I places around Kaliburg or Eveari when I am home there.  We go see movies and concerts and go hang out at the mall.  I am really lucky, to be honest with you that I can do so much without any worries.

MS:  What music does My Lady listen to?

MPC:  Well, I happen to like Noise Alternative.  It is what is popular now after all.  And I watch a lot of "Travis and Bob,"  those guys are great.  So I listen to a lot of music on Travis and Bob.  It makes me want to go out and find new music, like stuff I never heard before.

MS:  You watch "Travis and Bob"?  Does Her Imperial Majesty watch with you?

MPC:  Oh no.  She does not approve of Travis and Bob!  She says they are stupid and calls them "product of drug addict mind."  But you know, they're hilarious, and I love watching that show, so I think she and I have sort of come to an agreement that I will not watch Travis and Bob while she's in the living room, and if she wants to be in there when the new episodes are on M7, I can go watch them in my room.  It's something she and I won't ever agree about, but I think she'll come around.  Soon probably.  When she gets a sense of humor...  Did you see that one where they came to Kaliburg?  That episode was hella funny!

MS:  Regrettably, My Lady, I did not see it.  But, last question:  When you finish national service, what do you anticipate you will do next?

MPC:  Well, they have already told me that I will be taking on some role in the House Ananto.  My mother would like me to learn finance, and said I could work with my Uncle in Sulari, to get some experience there.  I will probably also pick up one of my father's titles, either in Dulnerstaad or Luxon.  I will formally be inducted into the Peerage before I go off to National Service, and that's a little scary, and I'll lose the 'Minor Princess' title and just become regular Princess.  I don't know.  I would like to go to school too:  Last year I began to get interested in philosophy, and am going to be taking philosophy courses this year in school, so maybe that would be something I would like to do too.  I would like to stay near my mother, obviously, so maybe Polytechnic or Imperial, but I could also think about Eveari too, for a more small school approach.  The whole world, literally is open to me.  I have so many advantages that most girls my age do not.  I want to try to not waste them.  And then someday my mother will want to retire.  But that's still a long way in the future.  I'm not even thinking that yet.

MS:  Well, My Lady, I thank you for giving La Moda this interview and talking about a lot of these things.  Our readers will be thrilled to learn more about you, and to hear that you are doing well.

MPC:  Thank you for the opportunity to talk with you.  It has been my best interview yet!

MS:  Considering that its been your first Interview, My Lady, I hope that is praise.

MPC:  It absolutely is.  Thank you for visiting me.  It has been a pleasure.

MS:  I am honored.