Empire of the Ring

The eleven new recruits who came in July from South Korea were doing a morning run with the preexisting security company employees. They sang loudly together as they ran.

This time, folks who could speak some English were hired because it was inefficient to teach recruits after they were hired. Therefore, Youngho had already informed the U.D.T Union and the ones who had been studying English to get hired were picked as the new security crew.

It was rare for people from wealthy families to volunteer for Special Forces. Most of the ones who served in the U.D.T. Unit were from poor families and had no college diploma. That was why they did not have decent jobs even after their discharge.

Only lucky ones got to be hired by security companies in Korea, and many worked part-time jobs for a living. Because of this background, it was hard to expect them to speak English fluently. It was only possible because Youngho had donated money to the U.D.T. Union to support English education for his U.D.T. juniors.

The juniors were excited to be hired in the security company that their senior from the same unit had established in a foreign country. Because once they were hired, high pay and a future were guaranteed, so the juniors studied hard, determined to get employed.

Because their hard efforts paid off, the new recruits received their training excitedly. Their singing voices and hopeful faces were satisfying for Youngho. Another reason for Youngho’s gratitude was that he was dreaming to find a vein of gold soon.

As the lodging facility of Zeynep Security Service was completed, the farm’s lodging facility now turned into a guest lodging. It was because the farm’s guests have been increasing, and Youngho also had Zeynep’s friends who often visited and stayed at the farm overnight in mind.

Baku’s summer was extremely hot.

It was bearable only because the humidity was low.

Because the whole of Europe was exposed to terrorism and many people feared traveling by train or by plane, the farm had turned into a resort for Zeynep’s friends from the international school who could not visit their relatives in Europe.

After the security company was made, the rumor that Zeynep Farm was the safest place in Baku was spread and even more people gathered at the farm.

The rumor was believable since the security employees who could not speak English were still staying on the farm until they could learn the language, so people felt more secure at the farm.

Who would dare to come near the farm with bad intentions when the security crew even guarded around the reservoir? While working and communicating with the visitors of the farm, the crew also learned languages fast.

As the number of guests in family groups increased, it was like having a festival on the farm every day. When the day’s fun continued until nighttime, many families would stay the night at the farm. So, Youngho had to open the employee lodging quarters to the public.

The international school had 120 students, and excluding local students, the students from Europe were about 70. Except for the ones who returned home for the summer despite the danger of terrorism, 30 to 40 kids visited the farm every day.

Among them, five or six families insisted to stay at the farm, saying that they would camp out.

Youngho usually welcomed the families’ visits. Since their parents were usually diplomats from European countries or high rankers from global corporations, he could collect resourceful information from getting along with them.

They hung out in the farm whenever they wanted and cleaned up after themselves when they left, so there was nothing to worry about. The farm was livelier because of many foreigners’ visits. To suit their tastes, more modern facilities were set up near the reservoir and the antique statues that Fatima bought added more value to the atmosphere.

Since there were many opportunities for Yunsuh and Sangchun to get along with the visitors of the farm, they were getting over the fear of speaking with foreigners.

Originally, they planned on going to Austria and opening a wine shop there, but they had to change their plans due to terrorism. Cho Sangchun was now learning about wine production and management as he helped out on the farm. Youngho was glad that Sangchun voluntarily helped out in the farm since Cha Insoo now was focusing on managing the security company and the farm needed someone to look over the farm and the wine factory.

Even though Gerhardt was there, he was still not strong in documentation work.

Sangchung’s parents were also happy in their minds since their son’s family was fixed in Baku due to the terrorism. As all parents do, they still wanted to have their son around even though he was not a child anymore.

***

The ranch with dead mines was two hours away from Baku’s downtown, but it was an hour and a half away from Zeynep Farm. If the tough roads were paved, it would only take an hour to get there.

Whenever Youngho visited the ranch, he always stayed there for the night. Fatima thought that he was training with the security crew but he was actually exhaustingly digging deep into the mines to find gold all night long with Park Jongil and Kim Ilkwon. They went in deeper and deeper into the dead mines whenever they could.

The ring’s power was only related to improved senses and sensing near danger, and it was not related at all with finding certain minerals. Youngho tried hard to see if he could gain X-ray vision to no avail.

A vein of gold was a result of sole physical labor and sweat.

In the early morning, the sound of the security crew’s military song echoed deep within the caves.

Youngho and the Jongil were loading rocks they had dug up all night on a wagon and there was a strange sound coming out from the ceiling that had been quiet all along. It was a minute sound, but it was clear in Youngho’s ears.

“Jongil, come out this way. The ceiling must be weak. Let’s step back quickly. I think it might collapse soon.”

After a moment, with rumbling sound, the cave was filled with dirt. The gang waited until the dirt had cleared before going back inside.

What they saw under lantern light was a flower garden of gold.

“Youngho, what is this? Aren’t these rocks of gold?”

“I don’t know. Let’s break the lumps. If it’s all gold in between rocks, we won’t even need to have the complicated smelting process.”

The old literature said that after veins of gold reached a sandstone layer, gold ores would show up. The sandstone layer was found deep in the mines where the firm rock layers ended.

Under the light, they seemed to be a huge amount of gold but the content of gold would only be figured out after they went under the separation process. However, they clearly found gold in the mines. From now on, sandstone layers were waiting for them instead of the firm rock layers.

Sandstone was soft so it could be dug using hoes.

The two went out and smiled to the security crew not because they were glad to see them, but because they found gold. Calming down their minds, they closed the entrance of the cave. In Youngho’s pocket, there was a little gold ore.

The process of smelting gold was relatively simple but since Youngho was not in a hurry, he only left them after the separation process.

The separation process was also easy since the gold ores mixed in sandstone were separated when hammered. Even though there would be byproducts after the gold had undergone the smelting process, he would still gain some gold.

For now, he could store the separated gold. And when the whole mine was excavated enough, he would install a smelting factory.

Youngho bought an additional 3,000 acres to expand the ranch with a plan to buy 10,000 more sheep. Government officials also actively supported the plan to develop a barren land with hills in the mountains and valleys with little streams.

Because he had submitted a business plan to build a large-scale cheese factory, he could buy the land for almost free.

Now, Youngho was a businessman who owned the largest farm business in Azerbaijan. Compared to other manufacturing and oil-related businesses, his farming business would not come close to their profits, but the size of his grape farm and sheep ranch were incomparable to other agricultural corporations.

Since he had no other choice but to expand the ranch business at an attempt to develop the gold mines without contracting rumors, until then, he had no idea that the cheese factory would become an agricultural industry of great value in the future.

***

Although Fatima’s belly was now huge, she was busy looking after work in the ranch and wine factory.

As the number of sheep grew, more local shepherds were hired by the ranch and there was now a separate restaurant at the ranch. Fatima was busy taking care of the restaurant work. She checked if the menu was nutritious enough and if Korean foods given to the security crew had not expired yet.

Since the ranch was also producing cheese out of sheep’s milk, Fatima and Zeynep who especially favored cheese often went in and out of the ranch. They ordered cheese to their own likings and came back to taste the produced cheese. The production line was at the trial step as of now but it seemed that by winter, the cheese processing facility would be completed and the release of Zeynep Cheese was expected.

When Fatima traveled, Kim Ilkwon immediately moved alongside her to guard her. Kim Ilkwon’s philosophy was that only a trained person for terrorism could fight against terrorists. He was confident that any terrorist would be useless like scarecrows before him.

Since Youngho had only been working in the mines without any official schedule, he volunteered to be a personal security guard for Fatima, so Youngho gladly accepted his request. Ilkwon was beloved by Youngho because he actively found his own job in changing circumstances.

Even though her due date was close, Fatima was active and lively as never before.

When she was with Youngho in Zeynep Farm, they always went out for an evening walk together and Youngho never saw her lying down because of fatigue or heaviness.

Except for her big belly, she did not look like a pregnant woman at all.

The farm’s atmosphere with classical music streaming all over was also a great influence for her and the baby. Her happiness was great since she also enjoyed serving the guests of the farm’s reservoir during the summer.

Although the farm was having a peaceful time at the moment, the outside world was wildly shaking.

Turkey was now on the blacklist for travel, and except for some countries in Northern Europe, the whole of Europe was not safe from terrorism.

Whenever French bombers air-raided Syria, suicide bombing attacks were launched in the main streets of Paris as threatened. Israel and Lebanon were in a missile war.

Russia and Turkey kept bashing Syria, provoking extremists, and it was predicted that Europe’s economic growth rate would fall by 0.5%.

The advanced continent’s economic growth rate was said to be great around 2%, but if it was reduced by 0.5% from that, it would mean the continent’s major retrogression. If the rate fell below 1%, to stimulate the economy flow, they would have no other choice but to print euro currency. If so, naturally, the value of euro would plummet and the only ones who would gain from reflective interest would be the US and the United Kingdom.

This was how the world was run, but Youngho’s hostility against Jews was growing because of what Eriksson had said.

The gold ores excavated from the mines were estimated to be more than one to two tons a year, but the funding Youngho would make from those would not be of a match to the Jewish capitalist’s.

However, there was an old Chinese saying: ‘The beauty of a flower will not last ten days.’

Any authority or power’s influence would face its end someday.