Empire of the Ring

Even in the busiest times, bringing gold bars from the deadmines was one of Youngho’s routines.

Youngho already had more than four hundred one-kilogram gold bars in store since he sold four tons of gold bars which were made from smelting the hidden gold from the pile of waste rocks of the deadmines.

He was thrilled to see gold bars piling up every day. That was why he visited Serbian Village almost every day. The faces of the residents were livelier than ever since they were making money from busily producing cheese and by-products of sheep. It was because Youngho distributed the profits from selling cheese and by-products to the people apart from paying them for their labors in the mines, ranch, and farms.

Nermin, who had informed Youngho about Serbian mine survivors, escorted him around the cheese factory.

“The Archduchess and little Lady visited here yesterday, and they complimented the taste of our cheese.”

Whenever Fatima visited the village people, it was a huge event for them. They stopped what they were doing and followed her around. Since she complimented the cheese, Nermin’s voice was full of pride.

He still did not understand why their ancestors made such a will that they worship Fatima, who was only the shadow of the last Serbian dynasty.

“Leon also eats quite a lot of cheese made in the village.”

Nermin was exuberated to hear that.

“We make a special cheese only for the little prince. The Archduchess had requested that.”

“You can produce more of them and share them to young children of the village.”

“How dare can we share the prince’s food? It’s unspeakable. We have plenty of sheep’s milk, and the residents come to get it for free whenever they need milk. So, please don’t worry about them.”

Youngho could not insist because Nermin was so stern about honoring the Archduchess and the little prince.

After he went around the whole village. Youngho asked about the village chief’s health.

“How’s chief Niksic doing? The spring wind is still chilly in mountains. He needs someone to take care of him.”

Niksic had been refusing to see a doctor for his bad cold relying only on a home remedy and eventually ended up passing out for developing acute pneumonia a few days ago. Fortunately, there was a satellite phone. As soon as Youngho received the urgent call, he sent a doctor from Baku and gave him first aid.

Niksic was a stubborn old man. He might have been able to overcome any sickness because of the knight’s breathing technique when he was young but such things did not work anymore when he was now in his eighties.

“He’s showing a lot of improvements. Medicine these days are amazing. He said that he could finally breathe well, now that his coughs are gone.”

“He’d feel uncomfortable if I visited him. Please tell him to get better for me.”

“Actually, the Archduchess came to see him yesterday and he said he feels much better. If I tell him that you worried about him, he’d spring up from his bed by tomorrow.”

The villagers were thankful for any compliments or caring words even though they were not special. It must be because they were not treated as they should be by others until Fatima’s appearance in their lives but Youngho could not take such appreciative words anymore.

The construction of the village of 105 residential families would be completed when the main road through the center of the village was paved. The ranch village was now surrounded by high concrete stonewalls and it would be a safe zone once the entrance was shut. Because of the high walls, the village was warm against harsh valley winds.

Each residential house had about 16,000 sq. ft. of garden space, so people could grow vegetables on their own. Even if the ranch was cut off from the outside world, people would be able to survive on their own inside. Since there were enough spaces between houses, the view of the village was great.

Youngho came up with this measure because it was not plausible to have houses so close by each other for sanitary reasons. In the past, houses were built closely, so that they could work as a wall to defend the village and castles from enemy’s attacks but because of the narrow alleys did not allow enough spaces for people to throw out filth. It must have been uncomfortable and unsanitary.

Other walls on the ranch used to separate mines, the cheese factory, sheepcotes, and a new armory. Because of Jongil’s panic toward possible war, the ranch turned a bit ugly since it was built as a fortress and shelter for difficult times. However, for the people related to Youngho, it would be a great shelter in case of war or calamity.

From the construction of the foundation, the basement of the ranch was built sturdy that it would not fall even if it was bombed. Youngho liked it since the basement would be a great wine cellar in times of peace.

Except for the little trails used for shepherds and sheep, anyone had to go through the village in order to get to the ranch, which would work as a double or triple watch against intruders since they would have to pass through the security posts at the gate of the village, kids’ playground, and then through 150 residential houses to get to the mines and inner parts of the ranch.

All of these seemed a little too much protection but it seemed like a great defensive system.

Near the entrance of the village, there was a playground for kids. During the daytime, at least three or four kids would be playing in there, and they would be little watchers for any new faces and intruders because curious kids always liked to be nosy about new people. The potential little watchers were screaming in the playground at the moment. They were enjoying the playground since the construction was completed faster than the one on the Zeynep Farm. Looking at the dozens of kids playing in the spring sunshine, the corners of his mouth were automatically lifted.

***

As Youngho was reading a weekly report of the amount of oil production in the offshore oil field, which came through telefax, Edward in Panama called him.

Edward’s voice was so low that Youngho felt like he should comfort him instead.

“I reprimanded Tracy for what she’s done. I’m so sorry, Lee. There won’t be another request from her.”

“That’s alright. She must have been so frustrated that she came up with such measure to use the foundation’s fund that should be used for peace to buy weapons.”

Youngho had no complaints because he made a huge amount of money, thirty million dollars and gained arms to strengthen the defense of his farms and ranch.

The only thing that worried him was that his identity was revealed but it did not seem like she would expose him to anyone. It was solely Edward’s fault that he made a thoughtless move to expose his identity to Tracy.

Edward was extremely sorry since he only introduced her to Youngho thinking that she would be helpful for his businesses.

“She was so stern that I had to get mafias’ help to close the deal but I drew the line, saying that I could not help her anymore. I only helped her to save your face.”

“I found out about that yesterday. She called me and asked if I can get additional ammunition for the weapons. I cut her off firmly. She wouldn’t do any reckless actions to hurt her reputation.”

“Edward, I would’ve refused her request if it was impossible, though I only did it for you.”

“Lee, I don’t know what to say. You’ve been helping our people but I’ve only given you trouble. I think she understood what I meant. She won’t be bothering you anymore.”

“That’s great. You should forget about it now too. You only did it to help me.”

“Lee, I can’t just let it go. Would you be interested in providing arms to Columbia? Rebels in here requested arms supply. You’d be able to get commission this time.”

If a CIA agent was involved in the arms deal, it must be an official deal. The rebels in Columbia were known to be relatively rich due to dealing drugs. Edward was asking if Youngho could be a middleman between arms companies and the rebels. It seemed that Edward suggested this because Youngho had refused to receive the commission from Tracy, although Youngho made a commission from an arms company.

“I’ll get on to that. Please send me the items list.”

“I’ll send it via e-mail.”

Youngho could not hide his smile while looking at the list that Edward had sent him. He was a little worried if Eriksson would be willing to take the deal since there were too many items on the list. It meant that he would have to deal with multiple arms companies. With their plenty of funds, the rebels were buying many different kinds of items, from AK rifles to Jeep cars.

The rebel organization seemed to be a decently trained force since they ordered ammunitions first. At a glance, the cost of items seemed that it would exceed a hundred million dollars.

Youngho called Eriksson and explained everything. Without any comments, he agreed to take the deal. He said that there would be more commissions if there were more types of items. He only expressed his concern that there were a lot of transaction problems from Columbia.

According to Edward, Port of Cartagena in the Atlantic Ocean is the destination of the supply delivery and the rebels have agreed to pay the rest of the money at the port, so Youngho did not worry about the transaction. If they did not pay, he could simply stop the delivery.

***

Youngho had visitors from Istanbul.

They were the staffs from Turkish companies that would be designing and building Arirang Hotel. Youngho invited them to Baku’s Arirang Hotel since he wanted to see if the unique and historic hotel’s exterior could be applied to the new hotel building in Batumi.

If there was no problem for the construction, Youngho wanted to make pillars at the entrance of the hotel building. The staffs of the companies liked his idea, saying that they had been struggling to come up with the entrance design.

Some of the staffs kept taking pictures of statues on the exterior of Baku’s hotel, saying that the hotel was Neo-Renaissance architecture and it would be useful for their designs. Also, they said the marble pillars supporting the hotel’s entrance seemed to be cut off from another structure. They photographed little details of the hotel like the little decorative statues in front of the entrance stairs.

Since architects and building experts made a fuss about the hotel, Youngho was excited thinking that his hotel might have a great historic value. It was possible because Baku’s old downtown was registered as a world heritage. If that happens, the hotel would be full of tourists who came to see the historic building.

According to the staffs of design and construction companies, Baku’s Arirang Hotel’s arch-shaped sculpture was Neo-Renaissance architecture which highlighted practicality and the marble pillars at the entrance were Greek architecture.

In short, the hotel was a structure of unknown nationality but it had begun to look more valuable to his eyes. He was intrigued to find the origin of this hotel. It would be a jackpot if he had luckily acquired something that could be a world-heritage. After returning to the farm, Youngho excitedly explained everything to Jongil.

“Arirang Hotel is an architectural structure of two mixed cultures. The Turkish construction company’s staffs praised about the value of the building nonstop. Do you think we can spread out the word to the public?”

“You stupid, would you come to sleep in a famous building? People will come to take pictures only and not to mention, there will be street vendors around the hotel. Don’t even try to do that, it’ll only get the streets dirty. It’s only just gotten so neat around the hotel, are you trying to make a mess again?”

“You’re saying we shouldn’t even try because you’re too chicken about it? We can clean around the hotel every day and take care of the vendors with our men.”

“Man, you said you’re going to lay low for a while. Just stay quiet for now, you dumb head!”

Youngho suddenly came to his senses at Jongil’s words. People say, ‘A cornered stone meets the mason’s chisel.’ If an invaluable cultural heritage was taken by a private businessman, the government would not just stay back. It was highly possible that the government would take it as their property by any means.

Although Youngho was an acquaintance of the president, this was a different story. He always discussed important matters with Jongil because he often got to the heart of the matter while talking. After all, Jongil’s keen ideas had proven that his brain was not all made out of muscles. If Youngho had not discussed it with Jongil, he would have missed an important point.