Empire of the Ring

It was again proved that Youngho's dear wife, Fatima, was a saint.

After bathing Rena and watching her fall asleep, she came to the bedroom.

"Is Rena asleep?"

"She must've been tired. She's an angel."

"I sorry I didn't tell you the full story. It was because I didn't want to worry you. Thank you for understanding."

"You mentioned it one time, remember? You said that the manager of the hotel in Tskhinvali is a woman who used to work for the CIA."

"Have I? I didn't want to hurt little Rena's heart, so that's become this. I just couldn't ignore her when she called me papa."

Youngho was being talkative as if he was making excuses.

But, Fatima gently touched Youngho's hand and smiled.

"I will take care of Rena just like you have taken care of me and my siblings. Don't worry."

"Thank you for believing me without a doubt."

"There's nothing to doubt about. If you had something to hide, you wouldn't have taken the doctors and their families to South Ossetia. If I had known about this, I would've told you to bring Rena so she can play here and spend more time with you."

"…"

"By the way, is Rena's mother that beautiful?"

Youngho was dumbfounded to hear the question.

It seemed that she had heard about Katya's beauty from the doctors' wives. He could not answer to that question right away since the truth might make Fatima jealous.

The next day, the living room on the first floor was a mess.

Leon, Jelyan, and Rena looked like they had been up and playing for quite a while, and nothing seemed to be in its original place.

In Tskhinvali, Rena's only playground was the hotel lobby and she could only play with her friends when they visited her. Now that there were two friends in this house, she did not want to miss a single chance to play with them. Although they did not understand each other's language, it did not bother them when playing. They communicated through facial expressions and body gestures. Their laughter and giggles filled the house.

"Since when they have been up?

"I have no idea. They were already gathered in Rena's room when I woke up."

The two were also excited to have a new friend in the house. They must have been curious about each other and started playing together.

Youngho looked closely and noticed that Leon was not letting go of the end of Rena's pajama. After the follower couple left to Korea, the two had been sad and lonely since there were not many friends in the autonomous state to play with. It was imaginable how exciting they must have felt to see a new friend around their age.

As the kids saw Youngho coming down, they all clung to Youngho. He needed to hurry to get ready for work but it seemed that he would have to play with them for a while.

Rena's face was brighter than ever and her laughter was gradually becoming louder.

She seemed to be comfortable here just like she used to be in her home in Tskhinvali.

***

"The Archduchess didn't give you an earful?"

Jong-il had been worried that Fatima might not like the fact that Youngho brought Rena with him.

"Fatima asked me why I waited until now to bring her here."

"Man, she's a saint. If it was Karajan, she would've pulled out all of my hair."

"She wouldn't do such a thing when you were only trying to take care of a little girl."

"Oh, you have no idea. Girls in Islamic culture can be so jealous. They might look quiet but when it comes to other women, they turn into angry cats."

Although having Rena in the house did not seem to have any trouble, Youngho could not stop reading Fatima's countenance. He did not make a terrible mistake but he still felt guilty.

"I'm not so comfortable here but Rena did not do anything wrong. I can't hurt her when she believes I'm her father."

"Fatima must understand that you deal with a lot of stuff as you travel to many places around the globe. Man, anyway, I guarantee you that she's an angel."

"This happened before I married her and that must be why she's so understanding."

"But you still need to be careful. You know how women can be moody."

'You must think that all women are like Karajan but that's not true at all.'

"The kids get along so well that it's so satisfying to watch them. Leon is all for her. For a long time, he's the only friend had been for Jelyan and now he's got Rena too."

Because Leon was too young to be in a kindergarten, his only friend was Jelyan. There were many kids including Jong-il and Insoo's children at Zeynep Farm in Baku but he had not had a chance to meet a friend in the autonomous state yet.

He was an angel when he was asleep, but a little devil when he was awake. Youngho wondered how long Rena would be able to endure him.

Recently, as people were getting used to the life at the autonomous state, there had been a baby boom among women in 40s. There were also many newly married couples in the state that so many pregnant women could be spotted on the streets.

The autonomous state had been encouraging people to have babies because of its limited population. And it was also because that people were feeling peaceful now that the autonomous state was growing. It was estimated that there would be almost 500 newborn babies soon.

Now when the Koryoin immigrants from Kyrgyzstan were added, the population of the autonomous state would be dramatically increased.

It was still not enough since more than 100,000 families could live in the state's vast territory. Youngho was jealous of China for its overpopulation. Since the number of people could represent a country's national power, he wished that there would be more people in the state.

"How many people have registered for immigration so far?"

"When I checked before I left Bishkek two days ago, there were about 60 families. It was about 300 people in total. You know, the immigration is not promoted very well now but I'm sure we'll easily have more than 400 families."

"Whoa, that many people have registered already?"

"They are the ones who live in nearby cities. If people who are in mountainous areas hear about this, everyone will try to register. I'm going to send a few more agents so that they can promote this in those remote regions too."

Youngho was quite surprised to hear that so many Koryoins in Kyrgyzstan had registered to move to the state already. He was glad to help them who were discriminated in the country and suffering from a hard life.

***

As the new year came, the follower couple returned to the state earlier than expected, and Princess Isabella finally visited the state.

The private jets that the state ordered from Cessna had arrived just in time, so Youngho could fly to Istanbul's international airport to pick her up.

This time was also her unofficial visit again. She brought a smaller group of people as her entourage compared to her last visit but they were still eight people. Two of the jets were used to bring them to the state.

The state only managed to fly the jets because of the pilot instructors that were sent by Cessna. Since the jet was completely different than airplanes with propellers, pilots would have to train for at least 200 hours before they could fly the jet. So, Youngho and Jong-il could not even touch its cockpit.

Kim Il-kwon was the only one who could fly a jet among the group since he was trained in North Korea. However, he also had to receive basic training because the jet was a newer model.

The training course included: theory education, safety education, flight simulator training, take off and landing training, and hours of practice flying. The process was much more complicated from the light airplane flying training process.

Youngho paid 1.6 million dollars for a flight simulator, which was half amount of the price of one jet. This was even a cheaper version since the simulator from many professional flying schools used was about 18 million dollars.

The autonomous state had made an investment since the state planned to train new pilots continuously from now on.

As two private jets came to receive the princess at the Istanbul's airport, the princess' entourage was quite impressed. Those jets were proof that showed off the autonomous state's position and wealth.

"Brother, are you buying two jets?"

"Yeah. I pushed myself because Princess Isabella is visiting us. So, you need to make a lot of money to make up for that, okay?"

"How will I earn such a huge amount?"

"You're going to be a king's son-in-law, so I don't want to give you any rough work. Instead, I'm planning to make an investment company soon. Study about business management hard until then."

Youngho had been thinking about establishing an investment company for a while. He was only hesitating because it would cost him a lot of money but considering Szechenyi's position in the future, he thought it was going to be a perfect job for him.

"An investment company?"

"You need to have a decent title now that you're getting married. The company will basically takeover other companies to manage them or to sell them."

"You'd have to have quite a lot of capital to start that."

"It's my job to find that money. As for you, you should focus on the wedding next fall."

Since gold bars had been accumulating at the Serbian ranch in Baku, he could use them to establish an investment company.

"What? You want me to marry her that early?"

"Hasn't the princess talked about it?"

"No, she never talks about such a thing."

"Man, you need to be more mindful of her title and age. This could also be considered shameful from the royal family's perspective."

"She said that her brother, the crown prince, had no problem even though he got married late."

"Oh, don't think that man and woman will look the same to the public's eyes. You'd be saving the princess' face when you propose to her first."

"I need to study more and experience more things…"

"You can do any of that after getting married."

Considering Szechenyi's character, if Youngho did not push him right now, he would never try to settle down since he was so open to learning new things and having new experiences.

Although Princess Isabella might not be grilling him right now, she would have been stressed out about this. She was not too young according to the marriage traditions in Europe and the Caucasus.

"Mr. CEO, is she the famous Princess Isabella?"

Suh Min-seok and Kim In-hwa could not believe what they were seeing with their own eyes.

"I'm not sure if she's famous but she's the youngest princess of the Danish royal family."

"So that was true that she's getting married to Szechenyi."

"Yep. The royal family has already accepted them as an official couple. It's just not known to the public yet."

Youngho was proud to say that.

He had started his journey as a poor merchant from Korea, and now he would be turned into family-in-law of a royal family.

"No way! No way! No way!"

Kim In-hwa was overly excited to hear that.

"Mr. CEO, can we take a picture with the princess?"

"Well, I don't think she'll agree with that. Visiting here is an unofficial event for her, so she's not going to want to expose it to the public. You can take as many pictures as you want with her at her wedding in Denmark next year. I'll put you two in the invitation list."

"No way! No way! No way!"

Kim In-hwa kept on shouting exclamations.

"Are you inviting us too?"

Suh Min-seok was also excited.

"Of course. You're my secretaries, I can't go there without you."

"Wait, what should I do? I don't even have a tailcoat."

"I don't even have a dress."

The two were not going as wedding guests but as Youngho's assistance, and they were as excited as if it was their own wedding.