Empire of the Ring

Chapter 223: Hot Summer (1)

An invitation came from Queen Margrethe II to visit the Danish royal family.

It seemed that Youngho’s gift to Princess Isabella was quite effective. The symbolism of the gold bars must have been great.

Although the princess was dating Szechenyi, it was not yet exposed to the media, so Youngho had thought that the queen did not really pay attention to their relationship but it was surprising that he received her invitation soon after the princess attended the building dedication ceremony. It was evident that the queen was looking at the two with a great weight.

It looked like that he received a passing score beating out Europe’s most prestigious royal families. Well-off Archduke family was a hundred times better than a poor royal family. Whether it was for a political marriage or for a romantic marriage, it was natural to choose a wealthy family that would save the face of the royal family. There was no royal family that wanted its princess to live in destitution.

The queen wanted his visit to be an unofficial event, so along with his family, Youngho decided to bring five security guards including Kim Ilkwon as the leader and four other Serbian guards. Among them, there was Vaso, the grandson of Chief Niksic. Youngho brought Serbian guards since he was going there as the representative of the Serbian Archduke family. It would look better if he brought Serbian guards.

It was in the evening when he arrived at Copenhagen Airport after getting connected to Frankfurt. Although it was an unofficial visit, staffs from the palace came to receive Youngho’s group. One of the staffs said that Princess Isabella also wanted to receive them at the airport but she had to give up due to paparazzi. He politely requested to avoid exposure to the media as much as possible.

It seemed that the Danish royal family thought that the Archduke family was as famous as them but unfortunately it was not the case. No one would gather to take pictures of Youngho’s family here. The supper with the royal family was scheduled the next day, so Youngho’s group went out to tour around the city.

“How do you get rid of all the paparazzi when you went out with the princess? You should’ve gotten exposed intentionally. Have you been hiding the whole time?”

“Isabella is great at disguising, so we’ve never been found by paparazzi so far.”

“You should date her officially after properly meeting the queen tomorrow. It’d be fine if the rumor spread out.”

“The princess won’t like it…”

“Man, you’re frustrating. You need to make it official as fast as you can. You need to think about the princess’ age too.”

Princess Isabella was four years older than Szechenyi and if he took time until he graduated from college, she would soon be thirty. So, Youngho thought that it was better to hurry.

It seemed that the Danish royal family also was concerned about that. The princess was at her peak age for marriage and if it did not work out well with Szechenyi, her value to other royal families or other noble families would decrease.

Youngho also wanted to hurry the wedding since he was also uncertain about his family’s future. It was doing great for now but it might not be this way in five years.

Not knowing his concern, innocent Szechenyi had no idea why Youngho was pushing him.

Youngho had expected a royal family’s supper would be glamorous but it was just a common dinner with a common family. The queen must have reduced the supper intentionally since it was a small, intimate gathering.

Queen Margrethe II was as tall as Youngho and she did not lose her beauty even though she was in her sixties.

Her major interest was not in Youngho’s abilities but in the wealth of the Archduke family. After seeing the gold bars with the Archduke’s emblem on them, she had been curious about the family’s wealth. When the queen asked about the family’s wealth, Fatima was hesitant to answer her, so Youngho interrupted her and began to bluff.

He lied that the descendants of the kingdom had been keeping the Archduke family’s heritage which was 30 tons of gold. It would equal to 1.6 billion dollars in cash. It was not a total lie since it was the amount that he could attain in ten years from the gold mines in Baku. Moreover, Youngho also said that he had land that was the size of Seoul, the capital city of Korea, in Kazakhstan.

Since the queen would not come to check his wealth, he exaggerated everything he had. It must have sounded like a beautiful song to the queen. She seemed pleased that the princess might get married into a wealthy family.

“Hyung. Do we really have that much gold in our family? I’ve never heard of it.”

“I was saying that we’ll have that much amount in the future. I already have a very rich minefield and there’s another one developing in Kazakhstan.”

“What if Isabella asks to show the gold?”

“It’s useless to worry about that. You need to tell them that the gold is tied as a reserved fund.”

“Oh!”

“Also, I have enough for you guys to get by. Just think about how you can bring her quickly, alright?”

Fatima almost cried for laughing so hard and Zeynep nagged asking if Youngho had left her portion as well. At a hotel in Copenhagen, the Fatima siblings joined Youngho’s plan to take away Princess Isabella.

After the supper, the queen officially accepted the relationship of the princess and Szechenyi. That meant that she accepted the Archduke family.

Although the Archduke family did not have a reputation like the Danish royal family, she understood that the Archduke family had enough wealth and position that could level with her family.

When they said goodbye, everyone had a satisfying smile on their faces.

To get married to a royal family, one would have to either have wealth or have a reputation.

Even a free love relationship required some basis of such things.

Even in the 21st century, the princess was about to be sacrificed for an arranged marriage but she was satisfied since she met Szechenyi at a ski resort and fell in love with him.

The subject of royal marriages had been the royal family of neighboring countries, but most of them were close or far relatives. It was the news of the century for royal blood to meet common people and somehow fall in love. Since it was like transfusing new blood to the royal family, the Queen was delighted.

Youngho felt a weight was lifted from his shoulders now that he had taken care of Szechenyi and Isabella’s business. The next one on his mind was Zeynep but he had a feeling that it would not be easy since he was like a loose cannon. She was someone who could not be tied down.

Youngho sent Kim Ilkwon to Sarajevo in Bosnia.

It was to keep the promise that he made with the Bosnian civil war victims whom he met on the car-ferry ship. Ilkwon was sent to find out what kind of help and compensation the victims needed. Since Ilkwon had been a representative of North Korea, it seemed that he would be able to smoothly resolve issues with them.

There was a Korean saying, ‘when a woman bears a grudge, there will be frost in the month of May and June.’ There must have been countless women who held a grudge and who had died unjustly. The only way for Arirang Farm to overcome moving on without its future being jeopardized by the victims of the former Serbian militiamen was to admit their faults and correct them. Since Youngho was the leader who was in charge of Serbian immigrants, he felt responsible to console the past victims.

After sending Ilkwon as his special emissary, Youngho flew back to Arirang Farm.

He had been visiting the farm at least once a week because the leader’s continuous attention would give a high motivation for the farm people.

Wheat in the field was growing well.

Although he had already known that they grew in harsh environments, it was still surprising to see that they could grow well with occasional water sprayed on them. The kind of wheat that was sown in Arirang Farm was known to be cultivatable only 110 days after sowing.

The reason why that wheat was the people’s staple diet was that it could grow fast in a place like this where the winter took one-third of a year’s time.

It was when Youngho was having dinner with Kim Sungchan.

From his mouth, a surprising suggestion came out.

“Chairman Lee. There’s not much for our people to do in here. So, I’d like to go fishing in the river.”

“Mr. Kim. This is a free land. There won’t be anyone who would bother you because you’re going to fish and in fact, that sounds like a great leisure activity.”

“No. I won’t be fishing for fun. I’m saying that I’ll be a fisherman.”

“…”

Youngho was curious since he did not have to work for money. He must have had received plenty for selling gold that his town people collected.

“I’ve been to the river several times and there is plenty of fish in the water. Koryoin town people can catch them and provide them to the towns in Arirang Farm. I don’t think I can handle the amount of fish without any equipment.”

“Are you saying you’re going to catch them with nets?”

“Could you get a small boat for me? Since Arirang Farm’s people are only eating meats from their livestock, I’d like to provide fish for them.”

A light bulb was lit in Youngho’s mind. He had fished several times on the deck of his ships while sailing along the Ural River and its branch river. Although it was only to catch fish that could go with some drinks, it was a great idea to provide fish for the towns in Arirang Farm.

“Mr. Kim. That is such a great idea. I’ll get you two or three decent boats!”

A variety of food was directly linked to the health of residents. Youngho was excited to think that fish would become another source of nutrition and add variety to the meal tables of each family.

The sight of the powerful trout and other rumbling fish in the Ural River was often spectacular, and the idea of bringing it up to the table was amazing.

Youngho hurriedly went to the inner city of Atyrau with Kim Chun because there were several small and large shipyards in the city.

“Boss. You’ve got to admit that Koryoins are smart.”

Youngho could not say no since a Koryoin was complimenting his own people.

“Alright, I admit. If it wasn’t for Kim Sungchan, I wouldn’t have even dreamed of this. I’m ready to buy some boats if there are plausible ones.”

“Don’t worry about it. You know how I am. I’m the one who has the widest circle of acquaintances in Atyrau. If I get all of my former students, I’ll be able to get even the boats that were sold.”

In fact, it was not an impossible story in here. In Kazakhstan, connections would get a person anything he or she wanted. There was a saying that many Russians used.

‘This is Russia.’ Sometimes it was used in a self-mocking way and it was used as a proud way as well. When irrational things happened, Russians would say that phrase and would not bother about what would happen. A similar thing would happen in Kazakhstan today but no one would be bothered by it.

If common sense did not prevail, people would only shrug it off.

Driving on the Oral-Atyrau industrial road, Youngho smiled.

‘Right. This is Kazakhstan.’