Having totally not read the guy’s mail, Simon gathered Nama is close to Doro, both of whom are listening to Ophelia's pitch, and that in addition to mentioning her attempt to reach out to Youmi, her letter to Doro expressed a lot of concern for the Flowerlands’ safety during the skirmishes, to the extent that in his half-written reply he had to remind her that sending Mountain Clan samurai would make matters worse. So, presumably, they’d want to consider that the union of the empires would leave the Flowerlands bookended by powerful allies, and the Empresses now both extended family of its ruler. The Flowerlands can’t very well just move after the Merging left it literally sandwiched between the two empires, so this is the best way to protect it when it’s in the vulnerable position of geographically surrounded by two larger empires: give both a vested interest in its safety.
As a bonus, both empires covet the Flowerlands’ resources and this eliminates the tug-of-war between the three of them and the threat of the Flowerlands just being swallowed up by one empire, which would both be bad for the Flowerlands and deny the other empire a slice of the trade pie.
The Flowerlands will be in the literal middle of all this, so there’s no avoiding them during all this cultural exchange stuff, but they remain an independent territory, so they don’t threaten the empires’ matriarchal values. They’re just more secure, and therefore also in a better position to trade. If Doro's amenable to it, they can sell that sweet, sweet Flowerlands dirt (and whatever else they have there??).
Ideally whatever of this is useful would be phrased in such a way that it isn’t super obvious that somebody in Ophelia read the stuff on Doro’s desk. Super ideally, somebody else likes the sound of this and is down to clown with saying it publicly in front of ethereal royalty from another dimension instead of Simon doing it (but whatever he’s a team player) (but for real though).
FLOWERLANDS
As a bonus, both empires covet the Flowerlands’ resources and this eliminates the tug-of-war between the three of them and the threat of the Flowerlands just being swallowed up by one empire, which would both be bad for the Flowerlands and deny the other empire a slice of the trade pie.
The Flowerlands will be in the literal middle of all this, so there’s no avoiding them during all this cultural exchange stuff, but they remain an independent territory, so they don’t threaten the empires’ matriarchal values. They’re just more secure, and therefore also in a better position to trade. If Doro's amenable to it, they can sell that sweet, sweet Flowerlands dirt (and whatever else they have there??).
Ideally whatever of this is useful would be phrased in such a way that it isn’t super obvious that somebody in Ophelia read the stuff on Doro’s desk. Super ideally, somebody else likes the sound of this and is down to clown with saying it publicly in front of ethereal royalty from another dimension instead of Simon doing it (but whatever he’s a team player) (but for real though).