Empire of the Ring

The repairing and remodeling of the hotel in Tskhinvali, South Ossetia was finally done.

It was the grand opening day of the hotel.

Youngho, Jongil, and Ilkwon who had arrived two days ago, were staying at the new guesthouse next to the hotel building, and which was now Katya’s house.

At the request of Katya to name the new hotel, Youngho and his friends on the farm had come up with the name, ‘Arirang.’

Although the name sounded a little old-fashioned to Koreans, it was well-known in the regions of Northeast Asia, Central Asia, and even Eastern Europe. It was because Koryoins who wandered from place to place sang the traditional Korean song ‘Arirang’ wherever they went.

‘Ari’ meant long and ‘rang’ meant hill.

Therefore, ‘Arirang’ was known as the word that indicated the highest mountain or river in the region where Koreans resided. That meant wherever Koreans went, there was Arirang.

Youngho liked the name since he was fond of the sound of the word and it was easy for foreigners to say. He decided to call all of his future hotels this name.

“Ilkwon, is the metal detector on the first floor working fine?”

“Jongil hyung. I checked twice already. There’s no problem, you can relax.”

The metal detector malfunctioned since it kept making beeping sounds. It seemed that as they carried the sensitive machine on the rough mountain roads to South Ossetia, the machine was damaged. Thankfully, they could repair the machine because they brought Ilkwon who could easily fix any electronics.

They brought the metal detector since Jongil had insisted that security devices should be installed where there were a lot of visitors coming in and out. In fact, most decent hotels in Western Europe had metal detectors as a basic security device.

Having the machine would give an impression that the place is safe. Although there was a low chance of terrorism in Tskhinvali, it was actually a great idea to install the machine since the place has a symbolic meaning in the region.

The hotel had been receiving guests from a month ago but the official opening ceremony was today.

Like Azerbaijan, South Ossetia also had plenty of deposits of crude oil and natural gas. Many people in the oil and gas business visited Tskhinvali.

Since Arirang Hotel had many rooms and was a great facility, it naturally had become popular.

Katya proudly showed the sales record for the past month.

Since the average usage of guest rooms was higher than 70%, she was excited.

Even though the cost of the room was raised from $70 to $100, people did not make complaints about the price adjustment. Since the old-fashioned rooms were a few times bigger than modern hotel rooms, the cost did not seem that high.

Many hotels made more money from subsidiary facilities rather than from selling guest rooms. Arirang Hotel in Tskhinvali was that case.

The city had not much to enjoy even in downtown. Once people decided to stay at the hotel, they had to spend time around the hotel. People usually spend time at the hotel café, restaurant, and bar. The profits from the sales of the souvenir shop and the convenience store on the first floor were also great.

Since there existed a sauna facility and fitness center in the hotel, it was becoming the main attraction in the city. Hotel guests also loved the trail connected to the hilly area behind the hotel, which Youngho had made when remodeling the building.

***

Youngho had brought Kim Ilkwon. Not only was it because Ilkwon was fluent in Russian, but he also wanted to make Ilkwon a contact person for South Ossetia since Youngho could not come here every time.

As if he had noticed something between Youngho and Katya, Ilkwon treated her politely.

“Ilkwon, you might be misunderstanding, but Katya and I are just pure business partners.”

“Boss, I didn’t say anything. You don’t have to make an excuse.”

Ilkwon had a smile on his face. It did not seem that he believed Youngho’s words.

“Who made an excuse? Hey! Just ask Jongil.”

“Boss, you might only think that I’m an ignorant person who was only trained as an agent, but I’m also quick-witted. I can see that you enjoyed being called ‘Papa’ when Rena called you that way.”

“I just let her call me that way since she doesn’t have a dad.”

“What about Katya’s eyes looking at you?”

“Is that my fault?”

“I’m just saying. You’d be in trouble if Fatima found out.”

“Man, you’re being risky here.”

Ilkwon and Youngho had become close now to the point where they could open up their hearts to each other and make such jokes.

“I’m going to shut up, so please raise my payment. I’m going to be a father soon.”

“You didn’t even get married yet.”

“There’s nothing to a huge wedding. Isn’t telling others that we’re married enough?”

“I’m going to plan a big wedding for you next spring. You can just follow me, or your wife will complain for the rest of your life.”

“Boss, you can give that money to me instead so I can pay you back for the money I owe you.”

“You don’t even have a bond of debt, who are you going to pay back?”

“Haha. Boss, you just made a huge mistake. North Koreans can be really stingy and you didn’t even write a bond?”

“Don’t laugh like that. You’re disgusting.”

The opening ceremony of the hotel ended successfully.

It was a ceremony even the Republic’s Prime Minister, Kulumbegov, attended.

It was understandable since South Ossetia only had 50,000 people residing within it, so there were not a lot of huge events in the country and the prime minister did not have much work to do.

The position of prime minister was as humble as Korea’s remote region’s governor, that even a foreign investor like Youngho seemed to hold a higher position than him.

The grand opening of Arirang Hotel was a big issue in South Ossetia that an entrepreneur of Azerbaijan, who had an enormous farming business, invested in a Tskhinvali’s hotel. Even if Youngho did not invite him, he would have come to see the hotel.

There was a huge meaning behind it since not only had a foreign investor cared for South Ossetia, but the hotel that had been a symbol of Tskhinvali was also remodeled and reopened.

Until then, there had been no proper place for the country’s official guests to stay in when they visited. Now that Arirang Hotel was there, which even had a reception hall, the government’s official events would take place at the hotel naturally from now on.

Because of that, Katya became popular in the country.

Although Youngho would freak out if he found out that she was thought of now as a famous hotel manager who had an Asian businessman as her husband.

***

Knowing that Yaniv would flip out if Youngho did not visit him after staying in South Ossetia, he could not go straight to Baku without stopping in Volgograd. Yaniv would have already heard that the hotel in Tskhinvali had a grand opening through his henchmen delivering the supplies in South Ossetia.

Sergey greeted the gang at the airport.

“I should’ve known when you asked me to introduce you to a hotel interior designer. Phew, because you didn’t tell me, I got an earful from the boss.”

“Brother, South Ossetia would flip upside down if Mr. Yaniv showed up for the opening of a tiny hotel.”

“But he still feels sorry that you didn’t tell him. You should make it up to him. He’s turning more childish these days.”

“Hahaha! I got it. If I can’t change his mind, I’ll have to sell Zeynep’s name.”

“Hey, you didn’t deposit the wrong amount for the first half-payment of the Vladivostok warehouse, did you?”

“What’s up? Is it too little?”

“What are you talking about? Boss said it was too much. I also thought so too.”

“It’s because we were able to decrease the employee payments. You know that we’ve hired Koryoins as the security guards. Since they’re also in charge of storing goods, we could save a lot of money.”

Since during the day, there were not a lot of things to do for the security crew, so the guards began to help out with warehousing goods in storage units. They were more efficient than lazy Russian employees because the guards already knew the whole map of storage units as part of their security duty.

In the end, they were also in charge of loading and unloading goods from delivery trucks.

“Indeed, Koryoins are smart and diligent. Then you should raise their pay. It’s like we took advantage of their hard work.”

“They insisted that they would not get a raise but I paid them for the additional hours. They won’t blame us for that.”

Youngho did not try to be greedy since the warehouse complex was only built since Yaniv made an investment while trusting Youngho’s idea. He could make more if he wanted, but he did not want to be so stingy to earn just a little more money.

Although what Youngho paid them did not compare to the money that they paid Youngho for his share of Georgia’s warehouse retailer store, but Youngho still wanted to give back what Yaniv invested for the complex.

He knew that any business in Russia was not possible without Yaniv’s influence because mafias exerted their power and influence in any category of business.

Youngho, who owned a security company, did not fear mafias, but there was no reason for him to do business while fighting against mafias. To avoid unnecessary contact with them, Yaniv’s influence was necessary.

Yaniv and Sergey not only considered Youngho as a complementary business partner but also as their family. Youngho did not mind that at all since Yaniv’s existence was absolute in Russia.

***

After returning to Baku, Youngho focused on finding the record of slaves in the public library. Many of them survived, but their descendants had disappeared from the public’s eyes so he could not find where they were now.

He only found some of the miners whom he hired at the beginning stage of stabilizing the mines after he bought them.

Youngho had taken care of the workers well during the mine stabilization process. It was because they were in poor situations. Most of them were not educated properly, and since they were so compliant, he wanted to give them more if he could.

When the word spread out that he was hiring miners, he was surprised since the people who showed up did not look like traditional Azerbaijanis. They were more similar-looking to white Western European people.

Surprisingly, they were the descendants of the mine slaves.

According to the historical record he found, Turkey brought Serbia to the ground in the 16th century. As Turkey continuously tried to oppress the Serbian people, the descendants of the rebellious forces were caught and dragged as mine slaves in the region of Azerbaijan.

They were the Fatima siblings’ people.

When Fatima’s ancestor the archduke was defeated by the army of the Ottoman Empire or Turkey, his people had scattered to different nations. Therefore, there was a high chance that they would be Serbians like the Fatima siblings.

It was indeed a strange coincidence.