Empire of the Ring

After checking out the Aegis destroyers at the Abu Dhabi Ports that flew to Copenhagen accompanying Kim Il-kwon and Suh Min-seok only.

It had been a while since he visited Denmark. It was because he did not have to come since Szechenyi was looking after all royal businesses in Denmark. Also, he was not fond of all the formalities of meeting the Queen and the Danish royal family if he visited. Nevertheless, he had to come to Copenhagen this time.

It was because there was a launching ceremony of an icebreaker at the Danish Shipyard.

With this ice breaker on the lead, it soon would be followed by the completion of Yaniv’s three 20,000-ton-class icebreakers and Nikolay’s two icebreakers. Since the two icebreakers would be operated by Arirang Shipping and the revenue would be shared with Yaniv and Nikolay, it was like Youngho was the owner of the vessels.

With Princess Isabella’s breaking of a champagne bottle, the icebreaker moved its way into the water for the first time.

Youngho watched the ceremony with an amazed look on his face. The era of the North Sea was finally opening.

“Hyung, how do you like it?”

“What have I done? It’s nothing compared to what you and Fatima are doing at home.”

“Now that the shipyard is in position, please take it easy. Your health is the most important. By the way, what’s she doing instead of attending this ceremony? Didn’t you tell her that Isabella has to take it easy now?”

Youngho was talking about Zeynep. She was supposed to take the role of breaking the champagne bottle at the launching ceremony today instead of Princess Isabella, but somehow she stayed in Frankfurt saying that she had an important business.

Isabella was now pregnant with another child, so she was supposed to refrain from outside activities.

“She said that she had an appointment with the doctors who will work for the hospital ship. The ship design is finished just now but she’s making a big fuss already.”

“Make her a small hospital ship first. I’m afraid she’ll take it out on me.”

“There are no empty docks at the moment. We are not able to digest other orders now. There’s no way we can start with a big hospital ship.”

Youngho could already see what must have happened in his head. Zeynep must have been grilling Szechenyi about the hospital ship.

“Then we’ll have to build a small hospital ship at the royal territory.”

“If you’ll do that, we will be able to take a breath at the Danish Shipyard.”

Even a small hospital ship is 1,000 tons, so it takes quite a long time to dry.

Youngho was also looking forward to this project because it was a project that JIFA was pushing for as a focal point and it can enhance the image of the royal family.

“Other than that, I need to extend the dock further.”

“Did you get a new order?”

“I got an order for five 3,000-ton frigates from the Arab Emirates. The weapons system is going to be Saab’s products, so send a shipyard official to Sweden and the United Arab Emirates to exchange a memorandum of understanding.”

“Five 3,000-ton frigates?”

“Yeah, after seeing our naval ships, Prince Al-Sarki was so smitten that he ordered it right away.”

“You get 30 percent of the Danish Shipyard’s ship orders.”

“Are you surprised at that? We’ll need to secure more ship engineers because we’re going to have more orders in the future.”

“We can have more technicians anytime if our shipyard can grow.”

***

As it was an official visit, Youngho had to visit the Danish royal family.

Queen Margrethe was looking forward to Youngho’s visit.

Her hospitality for him was rather burdensome, as it was too much.

Not only had Denmark’s chronic resource supply issue had been solved due to the Kazakh royal family, but also Denmark’s economic situation was getting better, so the Queen was grateful for Youngho.

“Your Highness. Does the food suit your taste?”

“Your salmon dish is excellent. I think I’ll keep thinking about it even when I go back home.”

“Hohoho… My family has criticized me for my poor cooking, but you are a gentleman.”

“No. I really enjoyed it. If I have time, I would like to visit your palace every day and eat your salmon.”

“Hohoho… A meal with the gentleman is always welcome.”

The name of the salmon dish, which was one of the representative foods of Denmark, was Gravlax. It was a favorite food of the Danish people, and since Youngho loved fish, he loved the dish.

“Your Highness, may I ask you a difficult favor?”

“If it’s your request, I’ll do anything. Don’t feel bad to ask.”

“Usually, the royal family does not get involved in government affairs, but I had to step up since I couldn’t just watch it.”

“…”

“The world is in a very unstable situation as the world is in a trade war, and there are difficulties in managing foreign exchange. So the prime minister and the central bank governor requested me to ask you for help.”

Although she said that it was foreign exchange management, it seemed to mean an intention increase in gold holdings.

When he met the queen in the past, he secretly boasted that the Kazakh royal family had tons of gold bars in store from the legacy of the Serbian Kingdom. It seemed she remembered that.

“Do you mean gold?”

“That’s right. They said each country is bent over to increase their gold holdings but it’s not easy to find even with money.”

Denmark, despite having a much larger economy than Kazakhstan’s, did not have much gold in its holding. Its neighbor, the Netherlands, had 612 tons, but Denmark had only about 67 tons, ranking 40th in terms of the world’s gold holdings.

Since it was smaller than 600 tons held by the Kazakh royal family, it was comparatively quite little.

“Tell me how much gold you need. Our royal gold mine produces about 60 tons a year. I think we can split some of it for you if we need to. If I had known, I wouldn’t have signed a gold deal with Germany.”

“Oh, I see. May I ask how much gold you contracted to give to Germany?”

“We’ll be supplying 400 tons within the next 10 years.”

The Queen was silent to hear such amount. Then she soon found peace and expressed her gratitude with respect.

“Your Highness. Thank you very much for doing this favor. This saved our royal face before the Prime Minister and the Central Bank governor.”

“I should, of course, help my in-laws. I’m glad to see Your Majesty this happy.”

The next day, Prime Minister Rasmussen of Denmark and the head of the central bank sat in front of Youngho to discuss the price of gold.

“Your kindness has saved Denmark’s economy.”

“No problem. By the way, I have a question for you, Mr. Prime Minister, may I ask?”

“What do you want to know?”

“I just don’t understand how Denmark had not gathered much gold with its economic power.”

“It was a mistake of our government to have been sticking to a policy that values cash reserves for a long time. Denmark is not a resource-rich country, and it’s dependent on trade, so that was why we chose that way.”

“Very well. Up to how much gold do you plan to increase?”

“We plan to increase it to about 200 tons. We’re continuing to increase it, but it’s been so slow that we’ve asked the Queen for help.”

“Our royal family is also increasing gold holdings, so we don’t have much to spare, but I think we can spare about 20 tons a year.”

“That’s enough to make us breathe. May I pay for the gold in euros or dollars?”

“I have a lot of cash. Do you have any other means of payment?”

“We have no alternative because we are in a position to reduce our cash reserves.”

“Can you pay with a share of the state-owned company, Dong Energy?”

“We’ll do that. We should give in something as you’re giving in something for us as well.”

“We’ll start supplying gold this year. Please don’t forget it’s a secret transaction.”

Dong Energy which Youngho said he would receive in stocks as the proceeds from gold trading, was the main force in the power industry and also produced crude oil and gas in the North Sea, making Denmark an oil exporter.

The reason he wanted Dong Energy’s stocks was because it developed oil fields in the North Sea, which was known for its harsh weather. Having the company’s shares would be helpful in the future as he develops businesses in the Arctic Ocean.

“Prime Minister, you know that three Aegis destroyers and a very large multi-purpose landing ship will be built at the Danish Shipyard, soon.”

“I’m well aware that, Her Majesty has been very proud about that. So we already have a dock for the Kazakh Royal Navy in Copenhagen.”

“Those ships could be deployed in Copenhagen, depending on the situation. It’s a deterrent to conflict in the development of the Arctic Ocean.”

“We’d welcome that if that’s true. That means they’d be in charge of a lot of our armed forces, too.”

“I want stocks to jump into the Arctic Ocean business with the Danish government.”

With no connection to the development of the Arctic Ocean, Dong Energy was absolutely necessary.

“Oh! That’s why you wanted the stocks. Then what do we need to do to help?”

Prime Minister Rasmussen understood Youngho’s intention at once.

“Please help us anchor our navy ships in Greenland. Then, I’ll take care of Denmark’s back.”