Empire of the Ring

In many modern countries, administrative officers would make sure to reach people living in distant places, but such public service could only happen in dreams for the people in remote regions of Caucasus Mountain Range.

About 60% of the descendants and their children did not even have their birth certificates. Of course, they could not even expect to get benefits from the government. What kind of benefits would they have when their names were not even registered in the nation’s computer network?

Only people who lived from the outside and searched for jobs were registered to get their social security number in the employment process.

Youngho tried to restore their proper identities as citizens of the country with Sevan’s help. The descendants were marveled as they received their identification cards for the first time.

Uneducated children older than schooling age were educated in the village while the rest of the children would be attending school starting next September.

Now the village had 531 people from 105 households but the number would increase to over 150 households when the spring comes.

Sevan helped Youngho to register the official name of the village as ‘Serbian Village’. They installed the sign for the village on December 25th of 2015. While official name had been already decided, they agreed on making the Christmas day as their official village establishment date with the old kingdom’s name in it.

Under the village sign, it said ‘Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase. (Job 8:7)’

Even though Youngho was an atheist, he liked the saying. It suited the village people’s lives.

People from Serbian Village would fulfill their dreams in all over the world as parts of Zeynep company group in dozens of years from now. That night, people celebrated with drinks, meat, and dances.

The traditional dance and music were presented as well as the knight’s martial arts techniques, for the first time ever. About ten young adults were presenting their skills with a wooden sword in their hands. Their movement was sharp, yet beautiful.

Youngho’s heart was pounding so hard while watching the knights’ presentation because the ring reacted to their martial arts. Unknown energy from the knights’ movements waking up another mysterious power of the ring.

While Serbian Village located at Northwest of Baku was in new hope, the major cities of the world were undergoing terrorist attacks.

Azerbaijani military units near the borderline were attacked by the Armenian militia, which had been quiet all along. The militia had been building up their force based in Nagorno-Karabakh. As a tactic, they had launched their attacks when everyone in Azerbaijan was celebrating the end of the year.

Sadly, this pathetic attempt became the trigger of the disappearance of Nagorno-Karabakh in the map. The Azerbaijani government considered the militia’s provocation as another terrorism.

Youngho also tried to convince Margos, the former militia commander, several times and remind him how pointless their attacks were, but he merely said that the militia was already out of his control since he was not part of it anymore.

Youngho had been worried about a huge battle in the Middle Eastern countries but unexpectedly, Azerbaijan was the one having battles.

Before things get worse, Youngho began to diligently store daily supplies, grains, and arms. The Zeynep Farm’s wine aging room had enough space to store grains that could feed the people of Serbian Village for several years. Also, rifles, rocket launchers, and other heavy firearms ordered from a Russian black market were arriving at the ranch’s village on wine delivery trucks.

Since he was not sure what would happen in Azerbaijan now, he wanted to secure the defense of the ranch. Youngho was not over-reacting to the situation since the two countries had been viciously fighting against each other throughout the past twenty years.

***

“Lee, any news of Armenia?”

As expected, Michael made a frustrating call.

“The militia is stubborn. Margos the former militia commander also can’t do anything about it. Why don’t we just summon Edward in Panama?”

“If Edward can resolve this, I would’ve already called him. How’s Azerbaijan?”

“The government is waiting for the militia to provoke more battles. It looks like they are planning to erase Nagorno-Karabakh once they have enough reasons. President Aliyev is doing this to stop Russia’s involvement in advance.”

Armenia and Russia had formed a military alliance and the Russian army was residing in Armenian territory. Russia was in a bad position since it was preparing a war with Syrian extreme terrorist groups, but Armenia had mand an unexpected move.

The Armenian government was only claiming that the government had nothing to do with the provocation but it was the militia’s independent action. Trusting funds from the Armenians overseas, the government had been obsessed with finding a way to secure a territory that could connect the country with the land of Nagorno-Karabakh which was isolated.

“Chief, the CIA wouldn’t get involved in this, right?”

“Of course not. The US is offering a load to the Azerbaijani government. What are we going to get from Armenia if we help them? Lee, I know your friends are in Armenia but you should stay away from this too.”

“I understand what you’re saying. I’ll report back to you if things change.”

Frequent battles in the land of Nagorno-Karabakh were a great opportunity for Youngho to make money but he could not be so ignorant about what was happening there. He was frustrated since the lives of 50,000 Armenians, who still are stubbornly living in Nagorno-Karabakh, were at risk. The militia’s reckless action could destroy them all.

Since there was a CIA’s order to stay out of it, there was nothing Youngho could do to stop it anymore. Therefore, he decided to make a profit out of the situation and then maybe someday he would be able to help Armenians after the war. As before, he could buy necessary supplies in advance before the prices skyrocketed and sell them to Armenians and Azerbaijanis at a decent price. If he sold them lower than other competitors, it would be a win-win for both for him and the buyers.

***

“Insoo. Isn’t there an owner of grain importing company, who requested security service from us?”

“Yup? What about that?”

“I think there will be a big war soon because of the Nagorno-Karabakh’s militia. I’m going to buy grains in advance and make profits out of them later. If I make a lot of money, I’ll help Armenians too.”

“Will there be any change? They always fight without any improvement between them.”

“This time is different. If they fight, Nagorno-Karabakh will be wiped away and other surrounding nations will be affected by it too. The European chapter is predicting that it won’t be over easily.”

“What about Russians? Aren’t they going to interrupt them?”

“The Azerbaijani government will take care of them before the breakout of the war. Also, since Russia is collaborating with Azerbaijan to establish railroads with Iran, the Russian government might be on Azerbaijan’s side this time.”

“Well, alright. Let’s see the client list.”

Zeynep Security Service’s name became popular and there were now ten people who requested private security guards. Insoo smiled as if he found the person Youngho was looking for.

The businessman whom Insoo suggested was the owner of an importing company of grains and daily necessities. His large-scale business encompassed Azerbaijan and Iran’s Northern region. Since more than ten million Azerbaijanis people living in the whole Azerbaijan resided in Iran’s Northern region, it was often called South Azerbaijan. Even the current leader of Iran was from Azerbaijan.

Although Azerbaijani occupied more than 20% of the Iranian population, the two countries were no closer than other unrelated countries. Politically, they just maintained a certain level of relationship but the civilians maintained active exchanges with each other.

The businessman must be indeed an influential figure in both countries. Although Youngho was hesitant to partner with Azerbaijani businessmen, he could not ignore them forever, now that it was his country. When he needed to be partnered with an Azerbaijani businessman, he always investigated the owner’s personality and reputation. The guy seemed to have a great reputation and had an easy-going relationship with both governments too.

“I get to see the most famous person in Baku, I’ve always wanted to meet you someday. Thank you for visiting me.”

“That’s very flattering but I’m just a lucky person who happened to become an Azerbaijani, Mr. Shamakhi.”

Shamakhi, a bulky man in his mid-fifty, had a comforting smile on his face. He was using a simple office even though he was a wealthy man with several skyscrapers in Baku’s downtown.

“I’m appreciative of Zeynep Security Service since now I can go about the city comfortably because of the guards. They are also polite and skillful. I’m very satisfied.”

“Thank you for choosing our company, is there any room for improvements?”

Since it was their first time seeing each other, the two exchanged some small talks to learn about each other. When it was about time, Youngho cut to the chase.

“Mr. Shamakhi, you must’ve heard about how things will change for Nagorno-Karabakh.”

“I sure have. My business is already affected by that.”

“I wanted to talk about that…”

Youngho’s steps were light as he left Shamakhi’s office.

The grain importer had agreed to Youngho’s business proposal to import an enormous amount of grains from South Russia. Although Shamakhi knew that he would not be dealing with normal business people but with mafias, he did not seem to mind knowing Youngho’s relationship with them. He had no reason to reject Youngho’s offer since he could buy grains at much cheaper prices than he used to pay, from the mafias and because he had Youngho’s assurance.

As an aftermath of a war, when the grain prices skyrocket, it would cause fewer problems if a businessman from Azerbaijan treated grains rather than Russian mafias. That was why during the last battles, Sergy only treated daily necessities except for grains.

Grains were considered sensitive items that could even be a cause of war between two nations. When his people die from hunger, their leader would do whatever to secure their lives.

The reason that Youngho turned his eyes to grains was that the price of grains hit bottom. The amount of grains produced in vast plains of Southern Russia was unimaginable. He knew that the price was cheap since they had been cultivated recently. Since grain sellers could not store too much amount of grains, they tended to engage in dumping sales at this time around. Especially, when mafias requested to provide the grains, the sellers would give grains without hesitating. Mafia organization was great to take advantage of for occasions like this.