Empire of the Ring

The reason for training the security crew hard was that many clients who requested for personal guards were being targeted by extreme terrorist groups. Since the clients were wealthy businessmen, terrorists madly look for ways to abduct them for the price of their ransom. Also because the families of the clients were also being targeted, they needed well-trained security guards.

Although the Azerbaijani government was also trying to get rid of extremist terror groups in the nation, their effort was inadequate. That was why many owners of oil corporation or minefield owners hired expensive private security guards from security companies of Western Europe. Now that the word had spread that a security service company consisted of guards from Korean Special Forces was established in Baku, the company was getting requests from new clients. Sevan of Main Police Department was also a great help for spreading the word.

Because of the risk that comes with taking security service requests, Youngho did not take clients whom his crew could not handle. Although he would be making more money, his employees’ safety was his priority. For now, he focused on assigning people at the pipeline facilities at District six and seven because guarding the facilities were less stressful for the security crew and they could have more free time to study languages.

Youngho had worried about the amount of payments for the security crew who came from Korea. Based on the regular employee payment rate in Baku, he could pay only thirty million won in Korean currency but he was stunned to find out about the amount that corporations in Korea paid for their employees. They usually paid forty million to fifty million won for college graduates, he realized that Korea’s payroll costs were pretty high.

Usually, security companies spent most of their profits on employee payrolls, because the companies could only operate by decreasing the amount of employee payrolls, security guards would get the least amount of payments. For Zeynep Security Service’s case, the company also offered living costs for its employees since they were staying in the foreign land for their job. Youngho concluded that he could pay fifty to sixty million won to the employees by minimizing the company’s own profits. Although right now he would not be making much money from the company, once the company gains popularity, he could ask for more service fee for each request. Also, he could not exclude the fact that his employees were specialized workers since they had served in the Navy Special Forces. Moreover, he wanted to make a sustainable and decent job for his Navy juniors. Having the ambition to make the company the greatest security service in the Southeastern European regions, he suggested somewhat immoderate payments for the employees.

It would be a great investment if he could start making profits after a year of operating the company. That was why he used local employees for simple guarding positions and his Korean crew for supervising or leadership positions. If they could resolve the language problem, they would be like warriors whom each worth a hundred persons.

Zeynep Farm, which now had a security service company alongside it, was considered as the safest place in Baku. No thieves would dare to come near the farm since it was crowded with thirty bulky young men. Youngho had bought two minibusses for the security service company’s use and every time the whole crew went out to downtown on the bus, people watched them in curiosity. When the minibusses that had the logo of Zeynep Security Service passed by, big restaurants competed with each other to take the crew as their customer because once the thirty young men with voracious appetites visited a restaurant to eat, they would eat up all of the prepared food of the restaurant.

The employees on their guarding duty now resided in the apartments downtown and only visited the farm on weekends. The ten employees who joined the crew later were still residing on the farm since they were like half-mute now, not knowing the language. When they run around the farm every morning and night, the whole farm was filled with their shouting voices, which meant that they were training as hard as they could. Youngho held many barbecue parties to encourage them but being young lads as they were, they always seemed to be hungry no matter how much meat they ate.

***

As the grapes were almost gone from the trees planted this year across the Southern river of the farm, the visitors of the farm were now crowded for the winery tour. The authorities of the city of Baku requested Zeynep Farm and other small-scale farms in the city to open for the public, so Youngho gladly agreed on opening the farm as a travelers’ attraction. The visitors were mostly West Europeans and backpackers from around the world, who would be Youngho’s future customers, so it was also beneficial for the business.

Youngho wanted to treat them well, so the visitors would never forget Zeynep Farm’s label. Since they came to see winery, he provided wines for tasting as much as they wanted along with some cheese so people would not get drunk.

One day, Gerhardt had pushed away all of the cheese and Youngho asked why.

“Boss, because the quality of cheese is so good, the visitors won’t leave the farm. They even get drunk so often so I thought we’d better not provide cheese.”

It seemed that Europeans also went crazy for free stuff.

“How can we serve wine without cheese?”

“We’re getting an overwhelming number of complaint calls from travel agencies. They say that the rest of their travel schedule for the day is messed up whenever people visit Zeynep Farm and other souvenir shops’ sales are falling.”

“Hahaha…”

“It’s not something to laugh about. This is fine for individual backpackers or visitors but for those who are group-traveling through agencies, they’re supposed to stop by other souvenir shops and attraction spots as part of their package. If we keep receiving complaint calls like now, Zeynep Farm will be excluded from the list of tour stops. We can’t allow that since this is a great opportunity to advertise our wine.”

Gerhardt was speaking the truth. Although the farm was giving away free drink, it was to secure potential future customers. It would be stupid if the farm lost the opportunity to advertise the wine due to giving away too much free stuff.

Now that the farm was crowded with many visitors who came to experience the winery, the farm needed a new makeover. In order to create a different vibe, the farm family re-decorated the gateway and around the mansion. The mansion’s exterior used to have concrete finishing but now stone siding was being installed around the building. Youngho’s philosophy used to be ‘inside is more important than the outside,’ and that was why he did not pay attention to the exterior of the building. Having a sturdy building was enough for him, but now the farm was at the point where exterior also mattered.

Since the rooms inside the mansion were also being remodeled for Youngho and Fatima; Fatima, Zeynep, and Karajan took charge of beautifying the farm.

Baku was an old, historic city. Its structural relics were relatively maintained well and there were some buildings in the old city even looked like artistic figures. However, some insensitive property owners could be spotted from time to time destroying the old artistic relics for property development. Even though the authorities of the city tried to regulate the property development to preserve old buildings as they could be great tourist attractions, it was hard to regulate more than two million people residing in the city. In those houses of the old city, there were many outstanding outer wall decorations and outdoor statues and Fatima and the girls bought them out one by one at cheap prices. If cleaned and polished a little bit, those decorations would not be weird if they were displayed in a museum and they were now being collected to Zeynep Farm.

As they were set up at likely spots, they made an antique atmosphere around the farm. The farm which was only a few years old was now turning into an antique, historic farm. As the delicate touch of girls fixed the farm’s exteriors, the farm was transforming into something elegant and new.

***

“Oppa, hold that side. It’s going to rip if you pull so hard so be careful.”

“Fatima, step aside. Hyung and I can do this alone.”

Szechenyi interrupted Youngho and Fatima trying to hang up a curtain.

The delicate, white-lace curtain was such a pain to hang up. There was an intricate geometric pattern embellished on it if the two sides did not match symmetrically, it looked like it could ruin the whole aesthetic view. The big windows were also difficult to deal with. After a few tries, the curtain was finally all fixed and the patterns were symmetric.

“Fatima, do we really have to put this up?”

“I’m doing this because this is a pattern that brings peace in mind. Now, we only need to put up the heavy outer parts. Stop complaining and put this up on the hook.”

Fatima, who could not even look at Youngho straight when there was a wedding rumor, was now an entirely different person after the proposal. She did not try to hide from him anymore and her attitude turned a little bit bossy. Her changed attitude startled Youngho.

Youngho was happy now that he could kiss her any time after the proposal, but now he did not know how to react to her different attitude. He asked Jongil for help but he was not in the position to help Youngho because he was also on a very short leash by his bossy wife, Karajan. Youngho thought that it must be usual in the Caucasus regions for women acting like this once they get married. Gerhardt was the one who gave a hint for his wonder.

“Boss, Turkey and Azerbaijan are Islamic countries. The governments allow polygamy and women here tend to take charge in the beginning of their marriage, so their men can’t look the other way.”

Youngho was surprised by the idea, he was an innocent and faithful person when it came to romance. He never looked at other women but Fatima, he even refused beautiful Katya in South Ossetia. He also thought the idea was absurd since If women acted too bossy, men would be even more drawn away from them.

“Um, I don’t think that’s a good idea. It will actually have the opposite effect on men.”

“You know, they’ll change their attitude once they trust you.”

“So you mean, it will get better and better in time?”

Looking at Gerhardt smile, it seemed that he was satisfied with his marriage. Youngho asked if he had told Jongil about this but he shook his head. Poor Jongil had no idea why Karajan was so feisty. He was always looking for opportunities to stay away from home and that was causing Karajan to act even more bossy and spiteful. It did not seem too bad for men to be a little subordinate at the beginning of the marriage if their wives could finally trust them and be nice to them.

It seemed that marriages would not be so boring if women kept changing their attitudes. In fact, it would be refreshing if women acted like a different person. Youngho thought that all married couples here were love birds and they might be because of women’s high-level strategies. What if a calm girl like Fatima comes to bed acting like a temptress? Imagining bedtime with Fatima, Youngho’s body trembled in excitement. As if Gerhardt knew what Youngho was thinking, he walked away to the wine factory laughing loudly.

Youngho also thought it was strange for women here being obsessive of makeup even at their old ages. Although their bodies get weighty as they get old, their smiling eyes were the most beautiful in the world. It was all because they wanted to attract their men.

It would not be fair for Youngho if he kept this to himself so he hurriedly called Jongil to share the wisdom.