Empire of the Ring

“How many?”

“A whopping 1,250 people in 250 households.”

“Then over 350 households have come from the spring.”

“What’s that look on your face? Are you crying or laughing?”

“It’s a laughing face, and I also want to dance. It’s too bad that we’re still short 100 households from our expectation.”

Now that summer had begun, it was breathtaking to receive immigrants crowding in, but it did not matter since the population of the state was growing now. Most of the houses were in the final stages of building for the new residents. The water supply, roads, and even housing sites were prepared in advance, so it would take only two months to build a whole town.

“Man, it was overwhelming because people suddenly rushed in altogether. If it wasn’t for the help of Agent Smith at the U.S. Embassy, I couldn’t have arranged the train tickets for everyone.”

Jong-il who was in charge of taking Kyrgyz Koryoins was describing the process of transporting the new immigrants to the state.

“The Kazakh government gave the Koryoin immigrants visa without any conditions. I’m sure arranging a train was not a big deal.”

“Dude, have you seen how other travelers complained about the train?”

The Kazakh government welcomed new immigrants since its population would increase too. It was also because diligent and sincere Koryoins living in the neighboring country were moving in. Especially, they were not going to big cities but to a remote region of the Arirang Autonomous State where they would not be disturbing Kazakh people’s life. There was no reason for the government to refuse them.

Kazakhstan was a country that was 12 times larger than the Korean Peninsula, with only 17 million people. Despite its small population, the birth rate had been falling, and the rate of infant death was even quite high due to the lack of medical facilities. But now, there were about a thousand immigrants living there. Youngho thought that the government should give the Arirang Autonomous State a ‘Thank-you’ card or a medal.

The state was not an exception. It was not able to maintain even the minimum amount of military power due to a population that was not enough, but it was resolved by the large group of new immigrants. People were so precious in the state.

The most excited people who heard the news were Kim Chun and the follower couple.

The train had not arrived yet in Atyrau, but they brought a car ferry at the port in advance and waited a full day to greet the people.

Because they made a fuss to bring doctors and nurses along, there was a happening in the autonomous state in which a pregnant woman had to have a baby without a doctor. Thankfully, both the mom and the baby were healthy.

It was still very important to look into the health of those 1,250 new immigrants. Before entering the state, they would get shots for various vaccinations since there was no way that they received vaccinations in Kyrgyzstan. In particular, hepatitis A was a disease that spread from person to person, and it was a must-have vaccine since people did not have an antibody.

They were very vulnerable people in modern times since they lived in the untouched natural surroundings of Kyrgyzstan; it was called the Switzerland of Central Asia.

It was the state’s first time to receive this large group of immigrants at once since the Serbians moved in, so Youngho flew to Atyrau as well. Since the car ferry could carry only 572 at once, the rest of them would have to use other transportation means to enter the state. They came in different boats and trucks.

The houses were still not done yet, so many of them were assigned a yurt to stay in temporarily. Fortunately, it was summer now. With yurts set up on the sight of their soon-to-be homes, new immigrants’ hearts were already full.

***

Original residents of the state also welcomed and helped the new immigrants to settle down since they were happy that the population of the state was increasing. With 1,200 new households. The fact that there was a comparable precedent brought psychological stability to the new immigrants and the cooperation of the Serbians played a huge role in it too.

The meeting between Youngho and Fatima itself was a combination of East and West, just like Koryoins and Serbians, and the fact that they were all immigrants who had nowhere to go to made them compassionate toward each other.

“Aren’t you guys overworking now? Go to sleep.”

“You can sleep as much as you want later, Mr. CEO. If we don’t have the demographic and economic census now, we’re going to be in trouble later.”

“The intelligence agents have thoroughly investigated that already when they asked people to relocate.”

“We understand that but we can’t use it as a statistic only by looking at their age, gender, and jobs. It’s a violation of their private life, but you know that we need to investigate their assets.”

“I don’t think anybody will be honest with their properties.”

“There’s a way. We’ll ask each person, and we’ll be estimating their assets based on your standard, Mr. CEO. You said that about 30 percent of the whole property is hidden when people share it.”

Every man for his own trade. Although people would not be truthful when they shared about their assets, the follower couple would be estimating their assets with their own standard.

“It will only be fair if we supply basic necessities on a uniform basis, not according to their assets.”

“You don’t have to look at it that way, sir. More than 200 people are already using Arirang Bank’s private safe. Isn’t that proof of the existence of personal wealth?”

“You’ve got to understand their thinking. They must’ve been holding on to their precious metals and valuables like their lives. If you ask about their assets, they may think their lives are being threatened.”

“Oh…”

The follower couple suddenly got quiet.

“What is it? What’s wrong?”

“We didn’t think about that. I just admire you so much, Boss.”

‘Wait, you’re touched only by this?’

Youngho felt ashamed that the follower couple was touched by the man who was greedy for land and precious metals and jewels. He recently decided to be brazen, but it seemed that he would have to do more good deeds to impress the follower couple.

***

“Thanks for all your hard work. It was an inevitable choice as we tried to establish the basis of our state. Just think about taking a rest and doing something new from now on.”

“Considering your sins, I was not going to see you again, but I had to accept this when I heard your bodies are hurt. Just know that prince consort was very considerate for you.”

After Young-ho, even Niksic stepped up to say a word to the returning former Serbian militia members. They were shedding hot tears without saying a word.

Having lived in such a rough environment in Xinjiang Uyghur, they looked at least ten years older than their actual ages. Youngho felt sorry for the crimes they had committed.

“Your past mistake is not completely washed away, but think of it like you are born again as of today. You can’t just live with the guilt. Let’s start off by recovering your health and then we’ll talk again.”

“Sir, thank you for taking sinners like us. We’ll repay you for your mercy.”

After the former militiamen left, Niksic thanked Youngho who did not know what to do by the unprecedented action.

“Sir, thank you for your decision prince consort.”

“Oh, no need to thank me, Chief Niksic. We can’t dwell on past events. They’re already part of us.”

“But when you think about the whole group, you can’t accept them easily.”

Youngho himself was not clean enough to be proud of his life. He felt sorry for them.

“Have you always lived right? I would’ve done a lot worse in their situation. It would have been a lifelong regret for my family.”

“It’s qualitatively different from committing unspeakable crimes in madness.

“That doesn’t justify my sins though.”

“For the sake of the residents here, please don’t think that way prince consort. As you said, let’s forget about the past and move on. I’ll assist you to the best of my abilities.”

“Oh, Chief, it sounds like you’re asking me to pay more for the residents.”

“You should never do that now. There’s no guarantee that Prince Leon will do as well as you do, but you should save your funds for future governing. We should never repeat your previous failures.”

Niksic was talking about how the Serbian Kingdom fell in the past. The kingdom had fallen because of a lack of funds to fight against the enemy. So, even though the descendants of the knights were sold as slaves in the gold mine, they hid the vein for the future. Niksic never wanted to follow the footsteps of the fallen kingdom.

“Don’t worry too much. I’m also making a lot of arrangements for the future.”

“The state is still doing well without any extra input, so you can just watch. We have to keep our money in reserve so we won’t have to worry about any emergencies in the future.”

Youngho had been using the gold, produced at the Serbian ranch in Baku by the knights because they have been stored for the future of the kingdom anyway. Now that the foundation had been built, Niksic was saying that the riches should be stored for future needs. And, Youngho was going to do that even if Old Niksic didn’t tell him to do so.