Empire of the Ring

Chapter 222: Growing Pains (3)

Youngho believed that if one had committed a crime, he must pay the right price.

Although it was unfortunate that the former Serbian militiamen had to go through such horrible situations, it was wrong to torment innocent civilians who were not involved in the civil war. The 27 militiamen said that they could not help but to follow orders but it had to be serious if Bosnians had been tracking them down for the past 20 years.

Being the leader of the Serbian immigrants, Youngho could not ignore this situation. There must be proper compensations for the victims and their families as well as showing genuine sympathy for them.

At first, Youngho was going to banish the former militiamen from Arirang Farm, but he just heard about the independence struggles in Xinjiang, and the CIA was quietly supporting the Uyghur people.

He reckoned that since Serbian people looked similar to the Uyghur people, they would be well-disguised, and moreover, because they were trained as militiamen, they would be able to fit the role of mercenaries or drill instructors. There were in fact, a lot of European mercenaries active in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

It was two days later when Chief Niksic brought 27 former militiamen who were now in their forties. He was haggard as if the recent issue of the Serbian immigrants had hit hard on him.

“Prince Consort. These fellows had given their lives to you. They agreed that if you keep their families safe, they would do anything for you. They don’t want to live in pain any longer.”

All of the 27 men looked determined, but Youngho had to say sharp words.

“I won’t make this long. Helping the Xinjiang region’s independence is how you can pay for your past faults since the Uyghur people will also suffer what the Bosnian people had suffered if we don’t help them.”

“…”

“I will do anything to compensate Bosnian people for what you’ve done to them. Of course, it won’t be compensated with money but that’ll be the only thing I can do. Your families will be taken cared of at the farm. So, if you want your family’s well-being, you should forget about here.”

People were stirred to hear that Youngho was going to compensate Bosnia for their wrongdoings since they knew that it was a hard decision for Youngho as a leader of countless people. Niksic kneeled down at Youngho’s words and the 27 men also followed after him. One of the men spoke on behalf of the whole group.

“Prince Consort. We don’t know what to say. We’re ashamed of our past now but if we survive this, we’ll return as proud people of the Kingdom of Serbia.”

As the 27 men trained their bodies, Youngho received Russian passports from Sergey to disguise their identities. They now looked like official mercenaries hired by Yaniv’s mercenary company. It was to prepare for the worst case for they get arrested in Xinjiang.

Although the men were not in their best physical conditions since they had not been training for a long time, they were training hard for their goals. While they were training, Youngho was contacting Uyghur independence group. There was an expert who could connect him to the group. It was Agent Smith who was working at the US embassy in Kazakhstan.

Agent Smith in Astana was excited to see Youngho and Jong-il in a long while.

He proudly reported that he had made acquaintance with local mafias in the meantime. It seemed that he had met Yaniv’s mafias in a pub that he frequently went with his girlfriend, and those mafias suddenly began to treat him nicely. He had no idea that it was because of Youngho’s connection to Yaniv.

“Mr. Park. You should teach me some lethal movements this time. I need to have at least one lethal move as an agent. Don’t you think?”

“Agent Smith, who are you trying to impress with that? It’s not even special.”

“When I go back to the headquarters, I should be able to prove that I’ve been in the field. Junior agents won’t be able to look down on me if I show them some moves.”

Although Smith was saying that, it seemed that he wanted to impress his girlfriend with martial arts. It was too bad that lethal moves could not be learned in a short period of time.

“I’ve already talked with the Uyghur independence group. They’re expecting a lot since I told you you’d be bringing mercenary warriors and drill instructors. The CIA’s headquarters also agreed to support Xinjiang region, so there’s going to be a movement soon.”

“Smith, can you get us two Chinese identifications?”

“I don’t think anyone will ask you to show your identification cards. You look like Chinese.”

“No, we don’t. Koreans and Chinese totally look different!”

Although Youngho was upset about what Smith said, it was true that in Westerners’ eyes, Asians were hard to distinguish.

The boundaries between countries had become meaningless as the boundaries of the media had become wider. In particular, the development of broadcasting and communication had allowed the world to communicate in real time, surpassing the limits of time and space.

Despite the fact that the global community had become one, minorities in Southeast Europe, the Caucasus region and Central Asia still insisted on their own fences and wanted independence. It was a natural request since they had been persecuted as minorities. It was an old dream for them to have their own country.

The independence movement of such minorities was no exception in China. Especially, the calls for independence in the Xinjiang region were rising as the days went by as many of Russia’s satellite states became independent.

Currently, Uyghur people were carrying out a separate independence movement centering on the East Turkistan exiled government, the National United Front and the Islamic Party. When a massive uprising broke out in 1997, the Chinese government launched a tough crackdown, which led to the formation of independent groups. Although it was not reported in the news, there had been frequent bombing attacks by Uyghur independence group in different regions of China. Youngho was sending the former Serbian militiamen to help the independence group.

Sending them could be considered a form of deportation but if they returned alive, he was going to accept them as proper residents of Arirang Farm. There was a saying, ‘hate the sin but don’t hate the person.’ Hoping that the growing pains of Arirang Farm would stop at this level, he had sent the militiamen for a dangerous mission.

Arirang Hotel in Batumi, Georgia was finally completed.

It was a 220-guest room, five-star hotel with two basement levels and eleven floors above the ground.

Youngho’s family from Baku, Yaniv, and Sergey from Russia, Yunsuh and Sangchun from Germany, and Szechenyi and Princess Isabella came to the building dedication ceremony. Since the hotel was not open for guests yet, all the attendees of the ceremony planned to stay at the hotel for several days.

Among all guests, Princess Isabella was the most important guest. Youngho had prepared a special gift for her and he was curious about how she would react when she received the gift. Away from the loud ceremony room, Youngho sat down with the princess at the café on the hotel’s first floor.

“Princess. I’m honored that you’ve come to celebrate my hotel. I’ve prepared a special gift for you, would you like to see?”

“Oh, you’re welcome. I haven’t been very busy lately. If you didn’t invite me, I would’ve been sad.”

As she was saying, she could not take her eyes off the present which was wrapped beautifully. Although it was considered rude if someone did not open a present in front of the giver’s eyes here, the Princess seemed to be hesitant because of her face.

Szechenyi, who was standing next to her, pressed her.

“Isabella. Why don’t you open it now?”

Isabella’s face changed as she carefully opened the present. Then she quickly lowered her voice looking around for people.

“Wow. This is gold bars. It has the Archduke’s emblem on it.”

“The descendants of the Kingdom of Serbian had kept some gold, so I made a ceremonial gift. Do you like it?”

Since Youngho could not say that there were gold mines, he said that there was a hidden fortune of the Archduke’s family. Also, he was implying that there was plenty more gold.

“Hahaha… There would be no women who don’t like gold or jewels, especially if it’s this heavy gold bars. ”

“I was worried since you must have had everything you wanted as a princess.”

The princess smiled as Youngho teased her.

“Oh, I won’t decline even if you give me more. You can give me this kind of gifts at any time. Hahaha…”

Her tone of laughter became even louder. She seemed to like the family’s wealth.

She was already in love with Szechenyi, and if her future husband’s family was wealthy, it would act as an advantage for her if they got married.

Now that Youngho had shown her the gold, it was obvious that the whole family of the Kingdom of Denmark would find out soon about it. The princess would not keep it quiet since it was good news that the family she would be married into was well-off.

So, Youngho took a further step.

“Princess. You should visit my farm in Kazakhstan in the winter. The town had been getting big because more Serbian immigrants moved in. The descendants would love your presence.”

“Oh, that sounds lovely.”

“Also, a winter hunting in the continent is quite fun. I also bought several breeds of hunting dogs. You’d be able to chase wolves with them.”

As soon as she heard ‘hunting’, she was exuberated.

“I’ve gone to dog hunting several times with my brother. It was much more thrilling than gun hunting!”

The more strictly grown, the greater the longing for wildness. When she heard that she could sleep in a yurt in the rough wilderness where wild wolves roam around, she seemed eager to go at any moment.

“What did you tell Princess Isabella that she’s so excited now?”

Hearing Isabella’s excited voice from afar, Fatima asked to Youngho.

“I gave her gold bars that had the Archduke’s emblem on it and I also invited her for winter hunting at Arirang Farm.”

“Well, that’s enough to make her excited. Sometimes, you can be really mischievous. Now that she received the gold bars, she’s going be extremely curious.”

“Well, I don’t know about that. It must be casual for her.”

“Hahaha…”

Fatima knew exactly what Youngho had in mind. The princess had already known that Youngho’s family was rich but seeing the gold bar, her curiosity must have reached its peak.

Princess Isabella was taken cared of now, and it was Yaniv’s turn.

Having had plenty of food and drink, Yaniv held on to Zeynep and made a big speech. Hearing that Zeynep was involved in a social welfare organization, he was saying that he must pay a contribution.

“Why are you refusing when I want to make a contribution?”

“Grandpa Yaniv, it’s because you’re going to be nosy after donating money. I don’t like it.”

“Of course, I’ll be curious where my money is going to be used. What if I don’t?”

“My brother said he’s going to pay for whatever we need, so grandpa, you can just stay still.”

Yaniv was trying to talk to Zeynep for longer since he had missed her dearly. As Youngho approached the two, Yaniv tried to wave him away.

“Mr. Yaniv, if you don’t listen to what I’m about to say, you might regret it.”

Yaniv did not seem to be intrigued.

“You’re talking about making money, aren’t you? Go to Sergey and talk to him! He’s better than me with that sort of things.”

“I might be in charge of Azerbaijani private-sector’s managing underwriter for Moscow-Azerbaijan-Iran Railroad business. Are you still not interested?”

He reluctantly turned his body toward Youngho.

Meanwhile, Zeynep, who was finally able to get out of Yaniv’s attention, hurriedly left the table.

“Who’s going to make you a managing underwriter?”

“There’s no other person who’s going to take the role. That is if you’d be kind enough to tell President Aliyev.”

“I thought you weren’t interested in the railroad business.”

“I don’t want to let go of my interests but it’d be overwhelming to do it by myself. So, I’d like to give you half of its profits.”

It was an offer that did not need a long consideration.

“Did you say half? Alright, now you’ve got my attention!”