Empire of the Ring

Suh Min-seok pounced into the office.

Youngho could only guess one reason for his rush. It was because today was the day that the executives of D Drones visited the autonomous state.

“You’ll fall and break your knee. Take it easy.”

“Mr. CEO, the people from D Drones have arrived at the airport.”

“You said they will come in a private Jet. That was quite fast.”

“I got a call from the control tower, and it’s twice as big as ours.”

“Do you envy theirs?”

“Yes, you can go to anywhere without stopping for gas.”

“Well, then I’ll get one more.”

“Are you sure about this? Should I look for another one right now?”

These days, Suh Min-seok measured people’s wealth by whether or not they had a personal jet and how big their jet was. He had been pushing Youngho to buy another one lately giving him many reasons why. Non-stop travel was one of the reasons.

With Youngho’s wealth, a dozen 12-seater Jets which were only about 20 million dollars would not be an overwhelming purchase, but he had not been paying so much attention to it. But, Suh Min-seok had a point. In order to travel to Siberia and Denmark from time to time, Youngho would be better off with a Jet that could have 12 passengers on board with a longer range on board, rather than six passengers with a shorter range. With the bigger one, there was no need for intermediate refueling as it had a range of 6,000 kilometers and could fly about three times as far as the six-seater.

Anyway, it seemed that D Drones’ visit to the state would lead to the purchase of a new 12-seater personal jet.

“Now that you’ve seen the living conditions of the state’s factories and workers, you must have all guessed it. They live in family-like communities. There’s no discord because they’re the ones who chose to come to our autonomous state. They all agreed to accept the Archduke-system of the state as well.”

“Is that an official system of the state?”

“Well, yes. We’re going to have a coronation in September.”

“It’s amazing that people are embracing a system that’s going back to the past, in modern time like this.”

“The state was originally built by Serbian people. There can’t be disagreements.”

The Archduke system was planned to be confirmed by a referendum in the future, but Youngho had already declared it as an official fact, which was problematic since it would turn out to be a lie when the actual voting was executed.

Many engineers from D Drones would be traveling to the county for a while because of the technology partnership, but a loud referendum would prove the just-released remark to be false. Youngho did not feel comfortable about his lie. Reading his face, Kim Chun quickly made a comment.

“Our residents were the ones who acknowledged the Archduke system from the beginning. Even soldiers who are serving in the Kazakh Navy live here, and of course, they follow the laws of the state. The prince consort here is determined to make this place a well-fed and well-earned paradise, and the residents here are just grateful for him. Would you believe that everything you’ve ever seen here has been accomplished by his own money? If it wasn’t the Archduke system, who would dare to pour such a large sum of money into a desolate place like this?”

Youngho coughed repeatedly because he felt Kim Chun was going out too much, but Kim Chun carelessly kept on without changing his face. If Kim Chun’s words were true, the state would soon be transformed into a paradise that the world had never seen before.

It seemed that Youngho would have to ask the leaders to call out the public voting. Old Niksic would be exuberated to hear it.

“Great. We thought that there was a reason that the state’s defect rate was zero. With such a stable social structure, the technical partnership is something we should have done. Mr. Lee, I’m hoping to see greater things here.”

“I started my own business out of personal goals, and somehow it turned out this way. Your company’s good judgment will come to fruition within a few years. You won’t be disappointed.”

According to Kim Chun, Youngho had almost the same authority as a king. He could feel everyone’s jealous eyes on him. So he had no other choice but to tell them not to worry about anything, and proceed with the technical partnership.

***

“So you told me in a flash that the Archduke system was fixed? Man, I’m sure Commissioner Kim must have backed it up.”

“Man, I was ashamed to death. Now, how can I see the faces of the leaders?”

“Well, I think it’s good. The system was going to be passed by overwhelming votes from Serbians anyway. You won’t have to waste time anymore. This system was established in the first place when the state was formed. It’s funny to re-discuss it.”

Even Jong-il was on Kim Chun’s side.

“Man, I don’t know about this. It’s not the same when people choose to accept the system and when it’s forced on them.”

“Again, every time the Archduchess visited, everyone, including Koryoins and Kazakhs, came to greet her with hearts. Don’t make a fuss about it. It’s pointless.”

“Jeez, I’ll have to meet the leaders and convince them not to have the vote.”

“Don’t worry about it. Kim Chun and I’ll talk to them. You should stay still. Sometimes you need to be brazen too. Phew, I knew this would happen from the moment you opposed Chief Niksic’s opinion.”

Jong-il rather liked how things turned out to be since the state did not have to go through a voting process.

Niksic was the most pleased one to hear it.

“I knew you’d make that decision, prince consort. Thank you for listening to the old man.”

“I’ve been promoting our state to foreign business people a little too far, and now I have to change my words. Please excuse me for this.”

“What do you mean? You shouldn’t apologize to people who’re under you, prince consort. Even if you’ve made a mistake, you should be pretending not to know about it.”

Niksic was asking the same as Jong-il, to be brazen as a leader whole-heartedly.

Youngho was afraid that he was going to be a real shameless human being at this rate.

***

Youngho invited the D Drones executives to dinner. They were served as special guests of the state.

“I haven’t prepared much, but I hope you enjoy it. Since it’s a bleak place, we don’t have a variety of food. This is our specialty, Ural River trout, and Serbian grilled lamb.”

“It’s a delicacy for Americans who are used to instant food. I’m not sure if we’re taking too much advantage of our technical partnership since we’ve been treated so well here.”

“People here say that the guest is a gift from God. They treat their guests for days until they leave. I think it’s because people are precious in this remote region.”

“What a beautiful custom. It used to be like in our country too. If you go to the countryside of the United States, people still treat outsiders quite well.”

“I see. Well, I hope you’ll have a very comfortable time here.”

Not even people from D Drones, but also people from a well-known global laser company under D Drones corporation that had welding technology and laser equipment factories all over the world joined them. They were also here to make a technical partnership.

Youngho shared a little detail about rough diamonds. He also mentioned the Evenks and said he would contact them directly in the winter to get not only rough diamonds but also the jewels, which he described as red stones. He did so because it would be beneficial to remain as a strategic partner with technology-intensive businesses such as D Drones and the laser company.

D Drones was not going to give an eye to the state after ending up with a technical partnership, but it was intrigued to hear about diamonds and jewels in Siberia.

Youngho thought that there must be another reason for this to happen, as D Drones and the laser company would have a reliable supplier of those key materials.

Later, he called an executive of the laser company to the balcony alone when others were busily talking. He was a little drunk with Zeynep Wine, but he was still sensible.

“I wondered why you’re interested in natural ingredients when you can use artificial rubies and diamonds.”

“The artificial diamonds and rubies are not good enough compared to the natural ingredients yet. It’s the limit of human beings who can’t cross nature. Natural materials give you the best results in production.”

“You mean you’re going to have a better product if you have natural materials?”

“Yes. The diamonds you sent with Johnson last time were in great quality. If you have a rough ore that size, it’s not hard to develop a new product. We’re doing a technical partnership because you promised to supply us those rare raw materials.”

With the technical partnership, the state would bring in one-third of the laser company’s original technology.

“The diamond prices offered by the mafia are very high. I’m a stranger to diamonds, so I can’t argue with them.”

“Don’t mind the price. I know that mafia members don’t charge exorbitant prices. What I’m interested in is what the Evenks call ‘red stone’. I’m expecting it to be natural ruby.”

“They will return to the Taiga forest from the tundra this winter. I’ll take a closer look at it.”

“I’ll look forward to a good result,”

The executive of the laser company did not mind the price.

Industrial diamonds were easy to distinguish under the light since they were opaque and scratched. If Youngho would send industrial diamonds with some precious ones to the company, the company would think that he was sending all of the diamonds he received from mafias in Siberia.

From tonight, Youngho would be busy identifying the diamonds for industrial use among the diamonds he took from the Chinese company. He would be throwing some diamonds to the laser company for a taste. It was the first step of the long-term groundwork.