Empire of the Ring

Istanbul was home to the Fatima siblings. The memories of their childhood lied in there.

It was a place where they spent their childhood in dire poverty in which they had to worry about each meal, so it might be a place where they would rather forget about.

Despite that, Zeynep smiled brightly as she got off at Istanbul Airport saying that it smelled familiar. Fatima had a complex look of emotions on her face.

Youngho also felt strange looking at the two. It was because it reminded him of the siblings' slum life in the past. If Youngho had not gone looking for Fatima at that time, what would have happened to the siblings' lives?

Zeynep would have died after suffering from a disease, and Fatima, who was such an outstanding beauty, might have turned to prostitution to make money for her little brother.

The thought made Youngho shiver. It would be heartbreaking to have that happened.

Yet, the siblings were bright and contented despite their past.

Fatima, who was walking down the air trap with Youngho, grasped Youngho's hand and said,

"If it weren't for you, we wouldn't have survived. Coming to Istanbul reminds me of how great a giant you were to us back then."

"I knew that the tanned, skinny girl I saw at the flea market was going to be such a beautiful lady."

Youngho made a joke since Fatima was about to tear up.

"Thank you. You gave me a new life, and I'm so grateful for our child, Leon. If we haven't met you at the flea market, we would've been dead by now. We didn't even have food to eat, and I wouldn't have been able to give Zeynep medicine for her pneumonia. Because of that medicine, she was able to hold out until you came to look for me at the slums"

"I just helped you because of pity, but it was fate to meet you. If you weren't on the market that day, I'm sure I would have been single until now and only focused on expanding my business."

"I believe that it was fate, but I don't trust your second word."

"How dare I lie to you, Your Majesty? It was the best luck of my life to have met you."

Youngho tried to change the mood with a light conversation, but Fatima could not easily let go of her emotions.

"It was only a small sum for you, but it was a lifeline for us."

"You looked desperate when I first saw you. The moment I found you squatting with a blank look in the middle of the market place, I somehow wanted to help, and I don't know why I did it, but I think I was just attracted to you."

Youngho could never forget the day he first met Fatima.

The image of a little girl who had spread old leather shoes, rings, and kettle on a cloth on the ground amid numerous stands was still vivid.

He still felt sorry for the siblings to think about their house in a slum when he found them later. Zeynep was nothing but skin and bones. That was why he was always weak in front of Zeynep.

However, the girl from a slum of Istanbul now turned into the Queen of the Kazakh Kingdom and returned to her old home today.

The Turkish government treated Youngho's group special because of it.

Kazakhstan and Turkey had a brotherly relationship historically, and now the Queen was known to be from Turkey. It was bound to be special to the Turkish government.

At the airport, there were too many people who came to see Fatima.

"It's a big crowd. It would have been a shame if we had excluded Turkey from this trip."

"It's what I didn't expect. I can't believe the people voluntarily came out to see her, not arranged by the government."

Eriksson was dumbfounded by the huge welcoming crowd. Youngho was surprised as well.

He did not expect the popularity of the royal family to be so much. Istanbul residents cheered as if Fatima was their queen.

"Your popularity is sky-high."

"They must be curious that the last descendants of the Serbian Kingdom's royal family are from the slums of Istanbul."

"You seem to enjoy this kind of welcome nowadays."

"Of course, regardless of their reasoning, I'm flattered to be welcomed like this."

"If the diplomacy visit to Turkey is successful, just know that it's because of me."

Since Kazakhstan had been engaged in resource exchange, there was not much to talk about except for the request of Greece. It seemed that it would not be a problem as well in this welcoming atmosphere.

***

After a grand welcoming ceremony at the airport, Youngho's group unpacked their belongings at Four Seasons Hotel.

Four Seasons Hotel was a place where the Turkish government served state guests.

It showed the highest level of glamour since it was used to be near a palace where the Ottoman Empire's sultans lived. The hotel was facing the Bosporus Strait.

Since there was still time until dinner, he was taking a walk around the hotel with Eriksson.

"It doesn't make sense to use such a beautiful building as a hotel instead of leaving it as a cultural heritage."

"It would be more economical to use it as a hotel rather than leaving it as a cultural heritage."

"It's a shame that Kazakhstan doesn't have ruins like this."

"We've got nature of paradise in the east and in Kyrgyzstan instead. I prefer to have a clean nature than historical treasures. The ruins will be gone one day, but nature will stay."

"I agree with you. That's why I'm not going to touch Kyrgyzstan's resources as much as possible. I think it's better to just do the exploratory work and preserve it."

"Are you trying to protect nature?"

"Yes. Kyrgyzstan is a small country, and how many resources could it be in there?"

"Are you going to give it up even if there's a gold mine?"

Youngho had to hesitate at the mention of the gold mine.

"Well, I'm going to have to think about that a little bit. In that case, I'll have to come up with a measure that won't damage nature as much as possible while getting gold. Once the gold standard is restored, it will become a strategic asset."

"Hahaha… You just can't refuse gold. It's a good idea to just do a resource survey and leave it there for the time being. Kazakhstan's resources are enough to supply the needs of both Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan."

"I want to preserve Kyrgyzstan as much as we can and show it to people around the world. Seeing the remains of Turkey, I feel convicted to do so. I wish I could turn the world's attention to Kyrgyzstan."

"The priority is to expand its airport. And we also need to build a lot of decent accommodations. Then visitors will come naturally."

"You're saying that our effort to improve the mountainous villages in Kyrgyzstan now."

"That's important, but we'll have to establish a lot of luxury facilities that Europeans could enjoy."

"Well, then we should also improve Kyrgyzstan's roads."

"It's expensive to build roads in the mountains, and there's a high risk of safety accidents. It's more economical to put lots of airfields all over the place so that you can travel by light airplanes."

"That's a good idea."

***

Besides Greece's request, Youngho wanted to have the technology transfer of Turkish white goods from Turkey.

Turkey's white home appliance sector, along with its auto industry, was the country's main industry. Electricity and electronics in Turkey were developed around white appliances, with refrigerators, dishwashers, three tables, and ovens topping the list of European countries in terms of annual production.

This would be a good technology for Kazakhstan because most of the Turkish white goods were medium and low-priced products and their specifications were not too complex.

The ministers of Kazakhstan discussed the appliance technology transfer with the issue of oil exports to Greece. The conductor of the negotiations was Eriksson as it had always been.

"Your Highness, Turkish officials asked to increase our grain exports a little bit."

"Well, that's something we can do."

"They didn't have much disagreement about sending oil to Greece. However, Turkey wants to participate in the submarine pipeline project."

"I was hoping that. It's a little bit too much to build it on our own, so it's a relief if Turkey would participate."

Although Russia would care a little if Turkey stepped in, Youngho thought it would be safe because it would involve a Turkish private company rather than the Turkish government.

"Then I think it's safe to build a white appliance manufacturing plant in Kazakhstan. The government was quite excited about the submarine pipeline, so the rest of the negotiations were nothing but a piece of cake."

"That was surprisingly easy."

"Your Majesty's popularity also played a part. The government seemed to be under a lot of pressure because of the Turkish people's attention to Her Majesty."

Turkey had been going through a lot lately.

It had almost started a war against Russia at the Black Sea, and even a coup took place, making the whole nation go disorderly. And after being targeted by various terrorist attacks and fighting the IS, the Kurdish residing in Syria were now reinforcing its militarization against it.

The Turkish people, fed up with such a windless domestic situation, cheered the Queen's visit fanatically. The fact that the Queen's hometown was a slum in Istanbul shook the people's spirits, and they wondered what made Kazakhstan improve so much after the new government and the royal family were established as they heard that Kazakhstan had taken a leading role in the canal business with Russia. Since Turkey had numerous disputes with Russia historically, the Kazakh leadership contrasted with the incompetence of the current Turkish administration.

"The Turks' interest in the Queen is kind of like a syndrome. They're quite out of control."

"Is there any reason the Turkish government would feel frustrated about that?"

"I think Turks are trying to ease their frustration over the current government by going fanatic over the Queen."

"It must be embarrassing for politicians. Wouldn't it be polite if we were to leave in a hurry?"

"Even if you leave, Her Majesty's popularity won't go away easily. It's going to get bigger and bigger. I think this will develop into a movement to serve our royal family."

"I feel like we're involved in something I don't want. I'm not sure we're just causing trouble to Turkey."

"Isn't it fun? Her Majesty's existence is powerful enough to even shake Turkey. This phenomenon will have a positive impact on us, too. Turkey will not be able to treat Kazakhstan recklessly from now on."

"We have a friendly relationship anyway."

"It used to look down on us until not so long ago."

Until now, Turkey was considered the older brother and Kazakhstan was the younger brother in their relationship, but the Queen's presence turned this around. It could be an impossible dream, but Youngho could not help but to imagine all the neighboring countries including Turkey, which would be Kazakhstan's federal states one day.