Empire of the Ring

Denmark’s royal family had been the longest in Europe and people endear them since the royalty did not subordinate under the rule of Nazis.

However, now that the peace had been maintained for a long time, it only was symbolic to the country as other royal families in Europe. However, many rich families wanted to get married to royalty to gain honor. Easily said, they wanted to earn noblesse by marrying into the royal family.

Many people sent their children to royal school to make the royal family’s acquaintances and supported the royal family in secret to become part of the royal family.

The people who came along with the Crown Prince and Princess’ winter trip were those kinds of people. Most of them were many times wealthier than Youngho, owned global corporations, and were from well-known European noble families.

However, they did not have a high status like Youngho’s family. Since the siblings were direct descendants of the ruler of the fallen Kingdom of Serbia, the regular noble families did not compare to their status. Not to mention, the siblings had unconditional followers, the descendants of the kingdom. It was something that Youngho could proudly tell since the Archduchess’ family was different from other European royal families that had become only a symbol to many nations now.

It was not sure if such attitude was naturally shown to other people but Youngho’s family’s inexorable actions were naturally taken by others. Even the Crown Prince and Princess carefully treated them with respect. It seemed that Youngho’s bluff had made quite an impression.

To the Denmark royal family, Youngho was a man of unattainable position with his enormous estates and the Serbian followers. They treated Fatima as a queen.

Youngho exaggerated the number of Serbian people living in his estates since those numbers of people would be achievable in a few years. With that much followers supporting the kingdom, it seemed natural the Archduchess’ family was so well off.

Lestina, the nanny was the one who made everything seem believable. She showed off her loyalty whenever she opened her mouth.

“Your Highness. That cannot happen. You should consider the descendants of the kingdom who only look live for you.”

“Lestina, I’m just going to ski. You don’t have to be too worried. I’ve done this in Georgia many times.”

“Vaso, call your father. Our Archduchess is insisting to go for dangerous skiing.”

Although it was not a show and Lestina was being serious, Youngho could not help his laughter. Trying to hold his laughter, he kept clearing his throat.

***

Kim Chun was puzzled after receiving a request from Youngho to expand the runway of Arirang Farm. It was because the runway they had now was too long for the light airplanes. He wondered if Youngho would be buying a jet airplane soon. Nevertheless, it was a request from his boss and the farm had plenty of materials to build a longer runway. Since the road construction was in full swing to the branch of Ural River, it was not difficult to use equipment and materials used for the roads.

The weather that had been much colder since the New Years’ and people frequently hardened the roads with heavy equipment in Kazakhstan. In the Northeastern regions, people still built buildings even though the winter lasted for six months. Compared to those regions, Atyrau’s weather was spring.

When Youngho first brought two airplanes and ordered to make a control tower, he thought that was unnecessary but now that there would be farming airplanes the runway was frequently used, everything seemed to be necessary facilities on the farm.

Wondering if there was anything to be done voluntarily in addition to the boss’s instructions, he smacked his knee for an idea that just popped up in his head.

He just thought of what Doctor Park Youngsun had ordered earlier. Kim Chun smiled as he rushed to his office. He liked staying busy and wanted a time like this could last forever. Since he would have to think about his boss’ schedule for his visit tomorrow, he would not even have time to sit down today.

***

Youngho felt rushed after coming back from the trip to Austria.

He had only visited Arirang Farm in Atyrau in his free time and did nothing else for himself but he was chased by his tight schedule. Since it was the beginning of the year, he would have to go and look around each business site but he did not have time for such.

He sent Cha Insoo to Vladivostok’s warehouse complex and Kim Ilkwon to Arirang Hotel in Tskhinvali, South Ossetia.

His priority now was to close the freighter deal with Steve Janssen from Baku’s shipyard.

Youngho liked the fact that Steve had picked a composite freighter but he was being reluctant to buy it at once because of another reason. The freighter was in the 50,000-ton class that it was too big for his use.

It would cross the Atlantic and sometime it would pass the Mediterranean and return to the Black Sea but it was inefficient to buy such a big freighter to transport cargo for only a few times a year. He could not even imagine a ship with a length of 220 meters and a width of 32 meters. It seemed that it would cost him a lot just by its maintenance fee.

It was because Steve had overestimated Youngho’s scale, which was weird since Youngho had never shown off his wealth to him except to the Denmark royal family only. However, since he liked the price of the freighter, he wanted to meet Steve to discuss it.

“Hey, are we opening an era of the ocean? We’ll be traveling the five seas and the six continents?”

“We’ll be able to go to the North Atlantic but we have no business in other places.”

“If you own a large ship, we can just go anywhere, don’t you think? We can even rent a nice island in the South and Central America and spend our winter there. I’m saying you shouldn’t insist freighters only.”

Since Baku and Atyrau were both windy regions, people usually stayed inside during the winter season. Sick from staying home all the time, Jongil wanted to get out of the reality.

“Let’s decide after checking out the ship first.”

“Haven’t you heard what Dr. Park said? He told you to consider efficiency first. You don’t have to buy big ships just because you have money to do it.”

Jongil was talking about the canal incident again. It was just an idea and Youngho stopped after hearing Park Youngsun’s advice but Jongil kept his skeptical eyes whenever Youngho was going to make a decision.

“Man! Dr. Park said it was an innovative idea.”

“Did I say something? Why are you all upset? You must know that you don’t fit as a great leader. If you think you’re not up to this, you can hand your position to me.”

Jongil had a point. Youngho had decided everything by himself up until now and many of them were spontaneous decisions. Luckily, everything had gone well so far.

“Okay, you can take the boss position and you’ll see how stressful it is.”

“Are you sure? Am I becoming the boss now?”

“Take care of Serbian descendants well. I’m going to spend my time traveling with Fatima.”

“What are you talking about, dude? They are your people! I’m only going to take care of the wine business and hotels.”

Youngho wondered if he should call Doctor Park Youngsun now. With his experience and knowledge, he would be a great council when Youngho had to make big decisions.

“Jongil. Why don’t we employ Doctor Park Youngsun as our advisor?”

“Man, then my boss position is gone now.”

***

Love is everything to people who are in love.

With love, it would not matter if you were rich or poor since it is the same to everyone. Love at first sight would be even passionate. Moreover, when the guardians of the couple supported their love, the lovers would get close to each other even faster.

It was the case of Szechenyi and Princess Isabella.

The royal members of Denmark’s Kingdom debated over marrying a commoner but Szechenyi was also of a royal born. It was not just a noble but a prince of the Archduke’s family. Although the family had fallen, it was rebuilding now. Not to mention, his guardian’s wealth was immense.

It was something that the Kingdom of Denmark should encourage. There was a slight problem that Isabella was four years older than Szechenyi and Szechenyi was still a college freshman. However, since marriage could wait, it would not be a problem at all.

Because of many reasons, the two young lovers were getting close quickly. Youngho also supported the two to the best of his ability.

The union of the Archduke’s descendant of the Kingdom of Serbia and the princess of Denmark could be a huge issue. It would be even better if they would live on Arirang Farm in Atyrau, Kazakhstan.

If that happened, Kazakhstan would be the center of global attention. The reason that Youngho was actively supporting Szechenyi’s love was to prepare for when Arirang Farm’s right of autonomy would be discussed. It was not like Kazakhstan’s territory was small that it could not accept a small kingdom.

Since there were 120 ethnicities in the country, it would not matter for the country if there was another ethnicity added to its territory.

It would not be a bad deal if the Kingdom of Serbia that was rooted in European royal family started its kingdom since the Kazakh government would be recognized more internationally and gain more voice in the international society. It was only Youngho’s thought but it was not an impossible idea.

Kazakhstan had not established full independence because of Russia’s influence over it. Although the country was trying hard to get out of it, Russians had economic power in the nation. If there was more influence that was helpful to the nation, Kazakhstan would benefit from it. If needed, Youngho was willing to invest more to the nation’s development.

Youngho called Doctor Park Youngsun to Baku. Since the underground water development was stopped during the winter, he did not need to be in Kazakhstan alone away from Park Seoyoung, his only daughter and family. Now, she was home from the Europe trip with Zeynep.

“Dr. Park. You know where we come from, right?”

“Sure I do. I know that you’re all from the fierce U.D.T. Unit. I served in the military in the early ’90s and hear about the notorious unit as well.”

“Well, we weren’t too bad. It was a little strict.”

“Have you gone to North Korea too?”

“No no. We had a separate unit for that.”

“By the way, why did you bring up your past?”

“I just thought it’d help you understand more about us. Since we were only soldiers and don’t have any business management knowledge and experience, we’ve been through many troubles. It’s pure luck that I was able to make this far. My business is getting expanded at a fast pace and I need help.”

“…”

“I was going to ask you to manage Arirang Farm in the future but I’m in need of someone like you now. Please help us.”

“I’m only a geologist, what do you think I can help you with? Besides, you’ve done a great job without me until now. You won’t have any problems in the future.”

“I just realized that I’ve made so many reckless decisions without giving a deep thought. And through the recent canal incident, I learned that how trusting my gut can be dangerous.”

Youngho realized that one misjudgment could risk the happiness of the whole people who relied on him. After thinking for a long while, Park Youngsun finally answered.

“Well, I haven’t lived so long but if you need my advice, I’ll help you with one condition.”

“…”

This time, Youngho could not respond to him. He merely blinked his eyes.