Empire of the Ring

Youngho was back to the Arirang state after he sorted out the affairs of the capital.

It was not desirable for him to continue staying in Astana for the sake of the new government. The new government could implement its responsibilities on its own because it had a big framework in place. It would be seen as interfering if he kept staying in the capital city.

When he got to the Arirang state, it was the children who welcomed his appearance the most. Rena and Jelyan, who could not follow him to the European trip because they were in the middle of the school year, were quite upset. When they used to go to the international school in Baku, they could skip classes during the semester, but it was not allowed in the royal territory because they were princesses. It was not plausible for them to get privileges just because they were princesses.

They blamed Youngho for leaving them behind, so he was punished by them severely with cries and nagging. They made him pledge that if he had to go abroad in the future, he would go when they were on vacation.

He planned to go to the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, and Luxembourg royal families in the winter, so they made him promise that he would take them to the trip next time.

Rena and Jelyan were not the only ones who had complaints to Youngho. He had to get an earful from Kim Chun for rejecting redecorating the palace, which had been turned into a royal palace now.

"Your Highness, I cannot help but feel sorry for the residents of the royal territory. They collected money to redecorate the royal palace. Rejecting it will be ignoring their hearts."

"Commissioner, it's not right to use such money just to decorate the palace that's already in fine shape. Let's give it out to students who come from outside to study. I know their families do not live well."

"We can help them out with the state's budget. We had a great crop this year, so the income of direct farming is quite high. So please don't refuse the residents' favor. If you refuse, I'll quit my job."

There is no such big threat. If the commissioner who was in charge of the direct control of the state, quit abruptly—rumors would arise that he had developed discord with the royal family. He was throwing a tantrum just like Leon who was now a kindergarten student.

"Oh, I got you. Do as you please, Commissioner. Instead, please consult with the Queen and Zeynep about the decoration."

"Sure. Her Majesty wanted to fix the inside anyway. There is more than one decoration that the Crown Prince had wrecked."

"Did Leon cause trouble?"

"It's embarrassing to say it with my mouth. If you take your time and look inside the palace, you'll find the prince's works since they're quite noticeable. There are some works of young princesses, so please refer to them too."

Leon was a troublemaker, but apparently, Rena and Jelyan did their part too. It was fortunate that they did not cause any damage outside the palace but caused troubles only inside the palace.

"Phew, I don't know where he got that. I'm sorry for bothering you with such mishap."

" I'm just glad that the prince is growing healthy. It's not a bad thing because everyone gets into trouble when they're young."

"If he's done something wrong, please give him a hard time. He should be disciplined as the next monarch of Kazakhstan. If he doesn't have the dignity of a prince, he won't be the royal heir."

"What do you mean? Even in the Constitution, he's written as the next heir of the royal family."

"How can he sit on the throne if he's not qualified to lead the country?"

"Your Highness, it's a dangerous idea to say that. It would be a good excuse for those who deny the royal family."

"It's for the future of Kazakhstan. No one who is not a vessel should be allowed to rise to the throne."

"If the royal family violates what is clearly stated in the Constitution, it will be hard to avoid criticism for breaking the law and order."

"It's better than the country being shaken by a clumsy king."

***

The royal palace of the Arirang state was built to look magnificent from the beginning. There were no buildings or facilities within a three-kilometer radius of the palace except for trees and plants. After passing through such a constructed park, there was a residential area of single houses.

The reason for doing so was security. But now, the city planning had to change. It was because there was the fourth military training and office facilities were being built after the Army, Navy, and Air Force facilities. The fourth military facilities were for the cyber unit.

The concept of cyberspace as the fourth territory after land, sea, and air was spreading rapidly in developed countries.

Since Kazakhstan was a country where even conventional weapons were short, cyber education was where Kazakhstan could catch up with other advanced countries in a short period of time. That was why the Arirang state was focusing on training people in that area.

Cho Chul-hwan and Park Jong-il were excited to have a new unit in the state.

"It may be a little late, but I'm glad you recognized the importance of cyber training even now. The U.S. military has been operating a cyber unit for ten years already. I was so jealous of them when they explained to us about electronic warfare."

"Hey, you've only been to the U.S. for commissioned education for three months. Isn't that too old to mention now?"

"Oh, what about you?"

"This man. I've trained for the CIA."

"You received training in Germany only for a month. I was in the U.S. for a long-term education, man. I've already had some common knowledge about cyber units since then."

"Everyone knows that intelligence service is inseparable with cyber education. The vicious special forces and cyber troops are ultimately different."

Park Jong-il and Cho Chul-hwan argued about where the cyber unit would belong. Cho Chul-hwan thought that it should belong to the Kazakh military and Jong-il thought it should belong to the Intelligence Department that he was in charge of.

How formidable a cyber attack was well shown in the case of Estonia. When the Russian cyber unit attacked the place, it paralyzed the entire nation, including banks, government offices, power plants, and media companies. All the systems in the Internet space stopped for a moment, paralyzing the entire nation, which meant it could penetrate into high-tech weapons such as missiles.

Disabling the functions of missiles and other weapons was also a way to secure formidable forces, which could be a perfect strength for Kazakhstan with a limited military force.

The U.N. also predicted that if World War III occurred, it would be a cyber war, not the nuclear war that would be followed by conventional weapons war.

"Now you understand why I've been telling students to keep their computers on their sides when I built the school in the autonomous state?"

"You were producing hackers, weren't you?"

"I'm describing it as a cyber unit. Shouldn't we be familiar with the related weapons to disable missiles or fighter jets?"

"Can we start now and catch up with Russia or China?"

"Our children can catch up very quickly, and we've been studying with cutting-edge educational materials, so their skills are considered to be higher than those in advanced countries."

In fact, there was a case in which a student from the Arirang Autonomous State won a prize at the International Hacking Competition. Inspired by the achievement, Youngho hired expert teachers to teach the students of the state. He did not try to be stingy when it came down to the education of the students.

"Where does the cyber unit belong to?"

"Shouldn't they be with the Department of Defense in order to get to know and study the weapons? It's kind of like a combat unit, of course, it should move with the military."

"No. They should be with the intelligence department. If we improve the equipment that the intelligence department has, it'll help the cyber unit. The intelligence services and cyber units are under the direct control of the royal family. There is no reason for it should be part of the Department of Defense. It's also a means of checking the government and the military if we control the information they don't know about."

Chul-hwan and Jong-il suggested respectively.

"Jong-il, you should run the cyber unit together with the Intelligence Department. Just be careful not to get involved in useless things."

"Yeah! This is all for the royal family and Kazakhstan!"

"Oh, you're just happy that you get to have more people under you."

"Of course, I'm happy about that too."

***

Finally, the submarine-only shipyard had been completed.

When Nazarbayev was in power, the construction was secretly processed, but with the start of a revolutionary government, it was hurriedly completed. It would adopt a 500-ton submarine with 110 people capacity as its main focus, and contracted with H heavy industry company to produce the submarine.

A 500-ton was a small-size submarine that was mostly used for offshore use. It could last two weeks underwater with its batteries fully charged. Equipped with the automation function, it could be operated with a minimal number of people. On both sides of the submarine, a midget submarine could be attached, so it was perfect for secretive operations.

"Your Highness, I'm so thrilled that you're leaving the submarine unit to me. Now the Caspian Sea will be a sea of Kazakhstan."

"You've done a great job in this revolution. I'm confident in you, captain Jun."

"I received a special promotion in the Navy this time. People will get jealous that a Koryoin received such a huge role."

"Well, you deserve it. Now an era where everyone can become a general and a defense secretary is opened in Kazakhstan."

Victor Jun could not hide his excitement.

"We've got all the rest of the patrol ships from the United States, so please be sure to keep your guard at bay off Baku. It was what President Aliyev asked."

"Don't worry. We've included Baku as our perimeter patrol area already since we have to escort bulk freighters traveling to Baku anyways."

Although they were only 500-ton class vessels, the Kazakh Navy now had 22 ships with the latest missile ships and five Maritime Police vessels, giving it more leeway in naval operations. Also, the royal family had icebreakers, so the Kazakh Navy had become the only naval force in the Caspian Sea to have an icebreaker for all-weather operations.

"Because the submarine is small, the building period is very short. As the power supply is also released at the same time, the actual deployment is possible right after it's completed. Please select naval soldiers to send to the UK Navy for commissioned education."

"We haven't formed an alliance with the UK officially yet. Is it going to be all right? You should at least notify the National Assembly."

"It's not a troop dispatch. It's just a commissioned education. We don't need to get the National Assembly's consent. And there are a lot of Russians in Congress. We have to keep it secret for a while. There's a lot of potential leaks."

"I'd like to go to England this time. Could you arrange that for me?"

"Why would you want to go there? You're not going to drive a submarine yourself, are you?"

"I'd like to learn some of the operational systems of the ocean navy. If the Russian canals were blocked, we'll have to advance to the Mediterranean Sea or the Persian Gulf, but I'm not confident because I only operated small ships so far."

Youngho realized something when he heard Victor Jun's concern.

The five oceans were not always peaceful. If Kazakhstan needed to send important goods from overseas through an ocean, the navy must escort the transport. In order to do that, there needed to be a military base somewhere along the way as well as huge vessels to cross an ocean.

Huge vessels could be made in Korea or Denmark, but the key was where to place the port for continued use.

In order to use the Black Sea, the Kazakh Navy would require cooperation from the Georgian or Turkish governments, and in order to use the Persian Gulf, it would need cooperation from the Iranian government. If cooperation was not possible, Kazakhstan should buy an island in the Mediterranean. It was quite complicated to think. It was such a pain to be a landlocked country.