Empire of the Ring

Chapter 71: Suffering of South Ossetia (1)

Hearing from Katya in almost two months, her voice was very excited. After talking about work for a while, Youngho noticed that she had been calling him ‘boss,’ not with his name.

“Boss. Thank you so much. I don’t know what to say about taking care of Rena and my mom.”

It seemed that now a phone was installed in Katya’s home in Volgograd. She would have called Youngho before if she had known ahead.

“Katya, you can work better when your family is in peace. My friend in Volgograd took care of their situation even before I got to Volgograd. He owes me a lot, so it wasn’t a big deal.”

Youngho had to make excuses in order not to give a wrong impression. What he did might already have made wrong impression but he had done her a favor as a boss.

“Boss, when will you be back here? I’ll buy you drinks when you get here.”

Youngho was not sure whether she was drawing the line by calling him her boss but she surely came across as a male friend when she talked about drinking.

“Katya. Since you don’t have any special mission going on at the moment, why don’t you visit Volgograd? You really should. You haven’t seen your child for years. I’ll report it to the European chapter, so don’t worry about that part.”

“Thank you. I won’t forget your favor, boss.”

“It’s not a favor. You know we’re comrades now, we should help each other.”

Katya kept saying that she would pay back for Youngho’s favor. It made him wonder what she meant by pay back, but he soon forgot about that part. It was natural for Katya to be extremely appreciative for Youngho since she and her family had been harassed by the moneylenders for their debt but now it was gone because of his help. It made him smile to hear her genuine thank you.

After attending the monthly CIA meeting in the European chapter, Youngho met Arsen and Batzen, the students at Goethe University. Youngho had requested them to find a linguist to interpret an old literature piece and a pattern that he found at a French museum and now they contacted him as the results came out.

Since they did not want to get paid because it was not a complicated process to find a linguist, Youngho just treated them with an expensive meal and some gifts in appreciation.

Apparently, the old literature piece was written in Cyrillic letters that was widely used around A.D. 1100, and the current Serbian language was originated from the letters. The contents of the piece were just nonsensical that the linguist told Arsen and Batzen that the literature was not creditable. If the contents were absurd to a linguist, they could be written about old magic. Youngho wanted to see what was inside the interpreted document as soon as possible but he could not do it in front of Arsen and Batzen. He decided to be patient and to open it with the siblings together. It was exciting to imagine the siblings’ faces as they reveal the secrets of the mystical ring and leather shoes one by one together.

The patterns that were same as the mystical items was a symbol belonged to Archduke Aleksandar who ruled over Serbia before Serbia was governed by Turkey in 1400. The little piece of information from the pattern of the mystical relics revealed the ancestors of the Fatima siblings. Youngho guessed that because of Turkey, the fallen family of Archduke Aelksandar must have scattered and settled in Istanbul. There would be more information of the pattern in the document received from Arsen and Batzen. The descendants of an Archduke must mean that the Fatima siblings were aristocratic. It explained the siblings’ distinguishable appearance. Youngho felt like a weight had been lifted from his chest.

The farm was extremely busy because it was the cultivation season. On one side of the farm, grapes were picked by automatic harvesters, crushed, and went into the fermenting room. On the other side, wine aged in oak tanks was bottled, wrapped, and loaded in boxes on a semi-trailer truck for delivery.

It was so busy that even Zeynep’s young hands were helping out with the farm work. A day was not enough and people worked hard missing out their meals. Hearing that Zeynep Farm paid workers well, many laborers came and helped out with the process but cultivating more than 350,000 gallons of grapes was still overwhelming. However, if they did not hurry and complete the cultivation soon, the grapes would pop due to excessive nutrients from the roots. It would be sweeter if they left them longer on the vines but they would lose their freshness, which was not suitable for extracts to be aged to wine. It was a process requiring chain of work and Azerbaijani national broadcasting station was recording the cultivation process of Zeynep Farm since the farm was Baku’s only large-scale grape farm. It was disturbing to the process but since Zeynep Farm would be on TV, Youngho welcomed the broadcasting staffs.

The public favored Zeynep Farm because all of its wine was exported to Russia and earning foreign currency. Also, because of Zeynep Farm’s decision to export all of their wine, small-scale farm’s wines distributed in Baku were sold at the right prices without a huge monopoly company like Charles Wine Company charging high prices for customers. Because Araz of the Charles company was gone, Baku’s small scale farms produced great tasting handmade wines and raised sales. Azerbaijani government now promoted Zeynep Farm as if they had intended all this. The broadcasts insisted that the government should accept more foreign investors to develop the wasted hilly areas by offering them the sites free. Youngho did not miss this chance and sent some of his premium wine aged in oak tanks to the president.

Invited to a lunch feast at the presidential palace, Youngho had a chance to meet the president again. However, the meal did not come free because the president asked him to develop more hilly areas during the meal. Youngho necessarily granted the president’s request and now 600 acres of the hilly site next to the stream near his farm were added to the farm area.

The contract condition was same as before, and since it was not a bad thing to have more area, he gladly accepted the president’s offer. The president was satisfied and even mentioned about awarding a medal to Youngho as a foreign investor who made contributions to the country’s economy.

The price of the farm site that he would have to pay next year was 1.1 million dollars but it was not an overwhelming amount now. The profit he made from distributing wine exceeded four million dollars and he would be able to make ten million dollars by next year. Now that he would increase the number of oak tanks even more, he anticipated making more profits in time.

Sergey in Volgograd was happy to hear that Youngho would be producing more wine next year. People in Southern Russia were now drinking more wine than vodka since Yaniv started distributing Zeynep Farm’s wine. The wine was received well since it was high in quality low in price. Distributed wine was sold out in different market. Some retailers in different regions even called Yaniv personally and complained that they were receiving less wine than other retailers. So Sergey had been thinking about raising the price of wine. However, as Youngho planned to produce more wine, his problem was resolved now.

Jongil now became friends with most of officials in Baku. Youngho wondered how he had made everyone his friends because it was hard for himself no matter how hard he tried. He was a naturally talented, social person. These days, he became close with Sevan, the chief manager of Main Police Department. He had been saying that he would sell security systems to Sevan. It looked like he would sign a deal soon.

Jongil’s house was almost completed, it was located in the remotest place on the farm. He said that he chose that place since it had the most beautiful view but Youngho knew that he wanted to reinforce farm’s security by lighting up the remotest area.

Since his wedding is in November, Park Jongil sent out invitations to his relatives and friends from Korea. The farm needed to get decorated for guests since the Yunsuh couple and their parent would be visiting Baku too. They were upset because Youngho had not visited Seoul for the last New Year’s Day, so he had invited them to Jongil’s wedding with Jongil’s consent. He worried about how to explain the scale of the farm to the couple but could not think of anything yet.

In a quiet Friday evening, Youngho and the siblings gathered around a table after finishing up their dinner meal. Youngho started reading out loud the interpretation document of the old literature.

“The gold regular hexagon shape overlapped in many layers acts as a passageway to collect energy. This gives peace of spirit, increases focus, and strengthens activity.

If it interacts with its owner for a long time, it changes its color. If the color reaches transparency, the owner will gain strength five times more than a regular man. He will reach to the top of a mountain in a moment.

As body is restored and detoxed, vision and hearing will improve. The owner will reach to the supernatural world and will be able to sense near danger. The magical power of the pattern on the ring makes the leather shoes invisible...”

“...Should I keep reading?”

The siblings were yawning because of the boring story of the literature.

“Oppa, I don’t understand a single word from the literature. Can you explain it later to us after reading it?” Asked Fatima as if her patience had run out.

Zeynep was sleeping on Fatima’s laps. Szechenyi’s eyes also looked tired. Unlike Youngho had expected, the siblings did not care about the old literature. They were happy to find out who their ancestors were but they were not appealed by the boring explanation of their family relics.

After the siblings had gone to bed, Youngho read every word on the document. There were some parts that were not understandable but the gist of it was that the ring would exert its full magical power when it turns transparent. It was a little disappointing that there was no mention of how the ring was made.

‘I will find out in time since I’ll keep the ring on my finger.’ Youngho thought.

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