Empire of the Ring

After seeing how China treated Uyghurs, Youngho thought that he should draw a clear line after all refugees crossed the Kazakh border.

Since China was advocating nationalism, there was no way that Kazakhstan would be amicable to China.

Youngho was going to take a break at the end of the year, but it had become a new year already as he was busy with the Uyghur refugee problem.

Fatima and the kids, who had been excited to celebrate the New Year with Youngho were upset that they could not go on a trip because of his busy schedule. Zeynep, who returned to the royal territory to spend family time, also complained.

“Your Highness has ruined my winter break again! How are you going to repay me?”

“Grow up, little girl! How can we enjoy a family trip when the Uyghurs are risking their lives to cross the border?”

“Our welfare foundation has donated money to help Uyghurs. Also, we had many volunteers to go help them, but we weren’t allowed because of the security problem. It’s sad that they’re suffering, but we have our life too!”

Zeynep had a point.

In the poorer countries of the Third World, there were people who starved to death because they had nothing to eat right away when some people around the world were enjoying their lives and spending money on vacations instead of helping poor people. It was unfortunate, but it also sounded unfair if people had to give up their joy in life to help poor people. If they had helped poor people with some of their money, they had done their social duty.

“I’m going to go on a resource sales trip to Europe in a few days. I’ll take all of you there. You can enjoy your winter vacation there.”

“Are you also going to France?”

“Of course. This trip is for the countries of the Mediterranean coast.”

“Awesome. You’re going to give me enough money to go shopping, right?”

Zeynep already knew that Youngho was planning on a resource sales trip. She pretended to be upset to get more allowance from Youngho.

“By the way, how much have you ripped off Yaniv, Zeynep?”

“What? Why do you say I ripped him off? Grandfather Yaniv voluntarily gave it to me.”

“You didn’t force him to do so?”

“He called me to say hello, so I just told him about our foundation.”

“And he gave you money on his own?”

“Yes, but how did you know about it?”

“I heard he paid you because you pushed him.”

“Oh, that grandpa is so funny. I stopped him, but he insisted to pay more.”

“How much did he pay last time?”

“It’s only three million dollars.”

No matter how rich people were, it was not easy for them to pay such a huge amount for charity. Youngho was certain that Zeynep had pushed Yaniv.

“Make sure you include his name when you build a school or a particular building.”

“Does he want buildings dedicated to his name?”

“It’s just to show that his money is being spent on society. It will make him happy because Mr. Yaniv is quite regretful about his past mafia life. That’s why he is being more generous to the foundation.”

“Whoa, that means I can ask for some more. Should I ask Mr. Sergey to pay too?”

“Oh, please don’t. They’re like a family, and if you keep pushing them, they won’t answer your calls anymore.”

“I’ll take care of that. Pretend that you don’t know a thing.”

Zeynep was living a stressed life because she became a member of the Kazakh royal family. She could not even enjoy the romance of college life since she was surrounded by bodyguards.

She said that her only joy was to see the money collected on her foundation. It seemed Sergey would also suffer from her joy.

Sometimes she said that her old life at Baku’s farm was better. Becoming a royal family was great for the family, but it was an uncomfortable life for her.

Youngho thought that he had been too insensitive for his family that had to sacrifice their privacy as part of the royal family.

He expressed his apology for messing up Zeynep’s hair as he used to in the past.

His wallet would be wide open for Fatima and Zeynep on this trip since shopping was a form of deviation and stress relief for the girls.

***

“Your Highness, I’ve got a message from Korea.”

Suh Min-seok hurriedly entered Youngho’s office.

It was not a surprise because the Kazakh ambassador in Korea, the Korean government, and defense companies frequently contacted the Kazakh government and the royal family.

“What is it that you’re making a fuss?”

“The Korean governments asked how many Korean college graduates can the Kazakh government receive.”

“Oh yeah? Does that mean that they can send any number of Korean workers if we asked?”

“I think that’s what it means. There will be a lot of graduates and job seekers. So we informed that we don’t have a quota.”

As part of the expansion of technical manpower, Kazakhstan had decided to accept Korea’s outstanding human resources and asked for the Korean government’s help.

Although Youngho was being admired by young Korean people as he became the Duke of Kazakhstan as a Korean, Youngho worried that Kazakhstan was not an appealing place for Koreans. However, there were a huge number of applicants.

“It’s nice to hear that. Korean young people are quite adventurous to apply to work in this remote place.”

“Your Highness has set up a good example for them, so it’s not an adventure for them. Probably my case is close to an adventure.”

“You sure had an adventure. You bet your life in an uncertain future. Don’t you think you made a great decision?”

“Of course. It was the best decision in my life. I’m honored to serve you.”

“You’ve gotten a lot better with your flattery these days. You want to take a vacation to go home or something?”

“The family members of In-hwa have also decided to settle down here soon, so I don’t have to go back to Korea anymore.”

“Did you find a house for them?”

“Commissioner Kim has assigned them a house near the palace.”

These days, it was very difficult to get housing allocations because many people wanted to live in the Arirang royal territory.

Now, the state did not pay for people’s houses. It only provided land and people would have to pay for the construction cost of their houses. The area near the royal palace was quite saturated already. It was because the construction of buildings is strictly restricted for security purposes. Most of the people who lived near the palace were civil servants.

“Your Highness, I’d like to suggest something about the Korean young people.”

“What is it?”

“I was wondering if we could grant them a green card on the condition that they get a job in Kazakhstan. There is a high chance that they will go back to Korea because they won’t receive any medical or educational benefits with their resident visa.”

“Do they need educational benefits too?”

“I’m sure there will be a lot of people who will want to go to graduate school here. Many of them want to move to Kazakhstan because many of them can’t pay for their tuitions anymore in Korea.”

With the inauguration of the new government, Kazakhstan had been covering all tuition fees from elementary schools to universities. However, foreigners were the only exception.

Any foreigner who had obtained a permanent residency was exempted from tuition bills as it was part of an effort to resolve population shortage and induce foreign settlement.

Foreigners could easily settle down if they wanted to, but in order to receive permanent residency, people must meet certain conditions set forth by the government.

Suh Min-seok wanted to issue a special green card to encourage the settlement of young Koreans.

It was good news for Youngho to hear that many Koreans had applied to come to Kazakhstan, especially because he had been trying to attract European people during his trip to Europe for resource sales. That meant he would not have to sell resources at a lower price in exchange for workers.

***

A large jumbo jet took off the royal territory’s airport.

Leon and Jelyan cheered as the plane soared into the air. Rena went to South Ossetia for her winter break, so she could not be together this time.

Although their dad was on his way to work, the children thought that they were on a vacation trip. Since they could not go outside the palace due to the harsh cold for a while, it was exciting just to get on an airplane.

When the plane reached its normal height, Leon and Jelyan got up from their seats and began to walk around downstairs and upstairs.

Fatima, who had been scolding them, shrugged her shoulders as she looked at Youngho to ask for help.

“Leave it. The attendants downstairs will take care of them.”

“I don’t know from whom he got that from. Were you so busy like him when you were little?”

“Why are you looking at me? He might have gotten that from you.”

“I’m afraid that he might not grow up to be a reliable prince. I’m going to discipline him very strongly from this year, so don’t even say a word.”

As Youngho never scolded his kids, he was a hindrance to their discipline.

“Oh, he’s going to calm down in time. A kid is bound to act like a kid.”

“No, you should leave our children’s discipline to me one hundred percent.”

“Okay, okay. You’re becoming scary, Fatima.”

As the two were discussing who should take a lead to discipline the kids, Suh Min-seok came to inform Youngho that ministers were gathered at the conference room.

“Report that we have gathered in this conference room.”

For this trip, Eriksson, Commander Kabak, the minister of energy, and the industrial technology minister, foreign affairs, trade minister Government and other officials accompanied Youngho.

Negotiations between governments would be done by working-level officials, but the negotiations with the European companies were left to the Information Agency. At the earnest request of the royal family, the Information Agency had hurriedly formed a consulting team.

There were many world-class consulting firms, but it was hard to find a trustworthy company, so Youngho asked a favor to Basten, and he readily accepted it. It was a relief to know that there was a great negotiation team that knew about Kazakhstan’s situations more than any other company.

“Commander Kabak, please stop by the national defense company and see if you can test its weapons performance.”

“I don’t know if France is going to open its advanced weapons to us very easily.”

“They should. They’re the ones who can supply weapons to the country that supports terrorism if they can make money. It’s their chance to get resources, so they’ll open most of their technologies to us.”

“That’ll be great if they’re so cooperative, but I only hope that they don’t make any unreasonable demands.”

“Be confident as a resource-rich country. When the waterway is expanded, we’ll have a direct route to Europe. Kazakhstan is no longer a landlocked country. The royal family also has the right to manage the Volga-Baltic Waterway, so you can be as loud as possible.”

As the first stop of their trip would be France, Youngho was educating the ministers about France. Since Kazakh ministers had little experience in negotiating with foreign countries yet, Youngho tried his best to encourage them.