Empire of the Ring

Zeynep’s eyes sparkled as if she was interested in the idea.

“Oh my. Oppa, are you sure it’s something that can be handled by someone young like me?”

“A social welfare foundation is a voluntary organization that many nobles desire to own for themselves. I’m asking you because I’d be too busy to manage this.”

“Phew, I’ve been so occupied with editing the school newspaper lately, and I will soon go to France to study design. I think Fatima would be more suitable for the job.”

Since the position was too good to refuse, she was making all sorts of excuses.

“Your sister is busy enough with taking care of the immigrants. Also, to use the foundation’s money, you’d have to travel to different locations to survey, your sister won’t like it. This is perfect for you. I’ll send guards along with if necessary, so why don’t you try it with a noble sense of duty to help people in need?”

Zeynep’s face turned more strange at the mention of ‘a noble sense of duty’ since it sounded more grandiose and intriguing.

“Phew, what do I do? Would it be okay if I pick people whom I want to work with? Should I ask for help from Park Seoyoung?”

‘She’s hooked!’

Zeynep continuously used ‘phew,’ which meant that she was interested. Youngho was humming inside because the chance had finally come to make her settle in Baku.

He was recruiting Zeynep for the position of the Arirang Foundation’s head. It was a decoy to lure her to settle down in Baku since she had been wanting to get away from the family. Knowing what was going on behind the situation, Fatima had to cover her mouth to hide her smile.

“There’s a job you should do right away.”

“What is it? Tell me.”

Zeynep was fully motivated to get to work.

“There are not much for Kazakh teenagers to entertain themselves. It seems that they have nothing to do after school and many wander off to bad places. We need to make a program for them.”

In many local towns, there were only residential buildings and schools in an empty field and all kids could enjoy was a little playground. Youngho wanted to create something for them.

“You’re trying to help people in need but you want the foundation to help people play?”

“Of course. It’s to support unfortunate youths and to guide them into the right path.”

“Should I use K-pop? School kids love it.”

Zeynep suggested K-pop, which she was crazy about.

“I knew you’d be perfect for the head of the foundation. Okay, are you going to do it then?”

She laughed for a while and replied.

“Well, I have too many things to do, but I’m only accepting it since you’re asking. How can I refuse your request? Just give me enough support.”

As soon as she finished her words, she left the house quickly, saying that she needed to find an office spot for the foundation.

“Settling down Zeynep, complete!”

Hearing Youngho, Fatima burst out with laughter.

“How did you think of something, honey?”

Fatima was also satisfied that Zeynep was staying. She had been worried to send the little Zeynep alone.

“I won’t stand it when she brings a tall, great-looking guy without a brain from Paris. It can only happen over my dead body!”

“Hahaha…”

Korea was being recognized internationally through K-pop recently. Since Kazakh kids and teenagers were also charmed by the K-pop trend, Zeynep’s idea seemed to be plausible.

Youngho guessed that many of the Serbian immigrants’ children would already know about K-pop as well. Moreover, it was what Zeynep was head over heels about. For this, she would not go anywhere away from him for a long while. Thinking about that, Youngho could not help but to smile.

***

Having received the third generation of immigrants, the farm had plenty of manpower. There were 1,200 young and aged men and as they worked in housing and farming, the construction process was sped up.

Youngho spent most of his time at Arirang Farm in Kazakhstan. Since Fatima and Leon were staying with the people, they were greatly motivated to work. Youngho even had to convince them to go home in the evening because they worked until it got dark.

Although the farm was operated in a cooperative atmosphere, Youngho did not want this to be the cause for decreased productivity of the farm. It was the same reason that caused the fall of communism.

If people’s efforts and labors were not rewarded properly, complaints would pile up soon like a mountain. Then, people would start to not work properly which would eventually drop the farm’s productivity. There was no reason to try hard in the frame of the joint distribution, as there was nothing more to come for more efforts.

Youngho’s mind was busy as he planned to boldly distribute his assets to people when everything was set in each field. The housing would be a gift of the Archduchess for the immigrants since they had worked in the construction. Although Youngho had invested his funds for the construction, the housing was completed through the immigrants’ manpower and their heart of respect to the Archduchess.

Their respect was an invaluable asset to the farm since no leaders would be able to meet such innocent and loyal people. They were not sincere to the farm because the farm had provided them with food, housing, and jobs but because they had one goal to re-establish their old kingdom.

There were many categories of assets that would be distributed to the people on the farm.

The farmland, craft workshop, restaurants, shops, and other real estates would be distributed under long-term repayment contracts. Also, people in the specialty area of administration, public order, and technical professionals would be paid properly. Then the city would be operated by itself. The farm’s development and wealth would also spread to nearby areas of Kazakhstan and bring wealth to the country in the future.

The cultivation area for this year would be increased a few times more than the area planned in the beginning since Youngho had not thought of the people from the second and the third migrations earlier. It should only happen that way since the people were working so hard like ants that never ceased to work.

Because there were a large number of immigrants who had been ranching, Youngho decided to buy goats, cows, and horses on top of the sheep that were already on the farm. Due to the increase of animals on the farm, a cheese factory needed to be built and workshops for byproducts were also being built.

People used to make clothes out of animal skins and furs but now they did not need them, so many women stepped up and began to make carpets. Youngho tried to stop them with a reason that they were not highly profitable for such efforts but people insisted that they would sell high-quality carpets to other countries.

They said that the price of properly-made high-quality carpets was up to the seller.

So, Youngho reluctantly provided a block of a town that was supposed to have housing as the site for workshops and they were built in a few days by willing people and various craft items were produced soon.

People are incredibly dexterous.

***

“Hey, boss! It’s been a while. It must’ve not been fun without this director of the Kazakh intelligence team.”

“Don’t you see my tanned face? I heard you drank with lunatic soldiers!”

Jongil was hanging out with military commanders as he often visited the border of Iran and Azerbaijan to buy the land that the railway line north of Iran would pass through.

“Man, they’re not lunatics. They’ll be the one to lead Azerbaijan in the future.”

“They’re the bulwark of Azerbaijan but they go to Baku to drink instead of guarding the border?”

“What are you talking about? You haven’t heard that most of Iran soldiers were sent to the backside of the country? Since they are gone, the border patrol soldiers don’t need to stay alert.”

“That’s still nonsense. Iran has been maintaining a close relationship with Armenia until not long ago. You think they’re not a threat just because of some railroad business?”

There were more Azerbaijani people living in Iran in the north than the ones in the territory of Azerbaijan. Because the Azerbaijani people in the north had been wanting to form an autonomous region, the two countries’ relationship was uneasy.

Also, the Iranian government was aggressive toward war and it was still insisting on nuclear armament. As three countries, Russia, Iran, and Azerbaijan exchanged memorandum of understanding with each other to connect the railroad, the conflict was not still over.

“Bring all of them here. I need to train their minds.”

“Don’t even think about that. They have their own system and they’ve been through this so long.”

It was true. The Azerbaijani people had been having ethnic disputes for a long time that they enjoyed as much of the time of peace as possible when it arrived.

The region was where people of different ethnicities and languages lived over a little valley.

At the region of the Caucasus Mountain Range, countless ethnicities lived together. Since those people insisted to be autonomous regions, there existed numerous autonomous regions even within a small country.

The Autonomous Republic of Adjara located in Georgia was a good example of that. Only 110,000 people resided in the region and its capital was Batumi, which was Georgia second-largest city. It was where Youngho was building Arirang Hotel.

Georgia was reluctant to allow an autonomous region, but it had to since the people of the region insisted that they would be part of Turkey if the Georgian government did not allow their autonomy.

Youngho was upset because the Azerbaijani soldiers who know about such situations so well were not doing their jobs.

As Youngho put on his jacket to go outside, Jongil followed him along.

“You’re going to Sevan, right?”

“Man, what a ghost.”

If Baku’s situation was unstable, Arirang Farm in Kazakhstan would be affected by it too. Although it was a little thing, Youngho was concerned about the loose guard at Iran’s border.

In order to protect the grape farm and the ranch where there were gold mines, the Azerbaijani officials would have to stay alert. Youngho rather welcomed sloppy and corrupted officials at the beginning stage of his business but now that everything was settled well, they were such a bother.

It was a little antinomic but it was Youngho now.

The president, blinded by long-term dictatorship, was quietly turning a blind eye to corruption of the officials who supported him and thus eroding national competitiveness.

Although there was a big country Russia, people of the Caucasus could make irrational choices in conflicts. That was why Youngho was going to make sure that such a thing would not happen.