Empire of the Ring

Youngho’s second child was born on the last Wednesday of August, when last-minute heat was in full swing and wheat harvest was just beginning.

As expected, it was a princess.

The princess was named ‘Ljubica’ after Princess Ljubica, who was the wife of Milos Obrenovic, the Serbian Archduke.

The family did so because it was Serbian Kingdom’s tradition to name princesses after famous female ancestors.

When Ljubica was born, Syrian refugees also recognized her as their princess. They mimicked the Kurds who recognized Jelyan as their princess.

Their reason was that Princess Ljubica was born at the time they moved to the royal territory. It was a bit far-fetched, but it was a point where the desperation of the Syrians was revealed.

Although they found rest after wandering from here and there, they must have wanted to lean on the newborn princess as they lived in a strange place. They were determined to live a stable life and end their weary life as refugees.

When Ljubica was born, the whole country was in a festive mood.

The people rejoiced over the royal birth as if it were their own.

The people were happy because the number of heirs to the throne had increased by one more stabilizing the royal family.

After Kazakhstan became a constitutional monarchy, the whole country and individual lives changed, and people did not want to live in the same political system and undemocratic world as before.

They believe that the stability of the royal family was their happiness.

When Ljubica was born, so many congratulatory gifts were sent to the royal palace to the point that there was no more room.

There were various kinds of gifts, and some nomads near Shymkent sent live goats as gifts and made everyone laugh.

Youngho, who had spent happy days answering congratulatory phone calls from various parts of the country after the princess was born, now returned to his daily life.

Today, Kim Chun and Youngho were at the docks of Arirang Wharf to greet new refugees.

The number of refugees increased dramatically in August, making the administration busy.

Kim Chun was also busy taking care of Syrian refugees as well as the royal celebration, and his fatigue was visible on his face.

“Commissioner, take it easy. You’ll get sick.”

“Well, I should. I must have been born with a blessing of work. We just need to be busy this year, so I’ll try my best to stay focused.”

“Please hold on for a little while. I’ll give you a good break at the end of the year. I heard a lot of people came in August.”

“There have been 70,000 refugees so far. Over 40,000 people came in during the month of August.”

“The European countries are working hard.”

“I think they are going to finish the migration before winter comes.”

When it got cold, there was more to be supplied to refugees, and the European countries were trying their best to avoid such a situation.

“I hear the refugees coming from Greece have increased now.”

“The Turkish and Jordan governments have closed their borders, and many of them are using ships to flock toward Greece. We might end up getting more refugees than we expected.”

“We can’t help it. We told the Greek government that we would accept them unconditionally.”

Since the Kazakh royal family had agreed with the Greek government to receive a Greek island on the condition that it would accept Syrian refugees in Greece unconditionally. It was because Greece was in no condition to pay for refugee’s settlement in an economic crisis.

The island to be received this time was an island east of Crete past the Aegean Sea, which had now been turned into an uninhabited island because Greece’s administrative power was not within its reach.

Kasos Island, with the size of the Meltemi Island, was close to the Suez Canal, so it would make a perfect spot for the intermediate stop.

It was only about 750 kilometers from the island to the portside of the Suez Canal, which was a good location to pass the Red Sea and approach the Arabian Sea.

Youngho planned to use the Meltemi Island, which was attached to Arirang Island, only as a ship repair station and an armory, and the Kasos Island as a forward base.

Because the island’s location where the power in the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean power could easily be combined in the case of emergency, Youngho had pointed out the remote island that the Greek government did not even care for.

It would also serve the purpose of disguising the islands of Meltemi and Arirang as normal islands. It was also a bit risky for naval ships to come and go in the islands where tourist-carrying cruise ships and fishing boats frequently passed by.

He also did not want to provoke the Greek and Turkish navies.

***

A strange scene came into the eyes of Park Sung-won, the head of Arirang Island’s base, who was touring Kasos Island bought by the Greek government with a small missile ship.

The Greek and Turkish coast guard vessels were fighting a war of nerves.

It was a serious situation facing an imminent fire.

Near the coast guard vessels, two old fishing boats were swaying around in the waves, full of people who appeared to be refugees.

He could tell what the situation was at a glance.

The two countries’ coast guard vessels were pushing the refugees’ boats into the other’s waters to prevent them from entering their waters.

He wanted to intervene, but it would provoke a bigger problem if he did as the Kazakh navy was only a third party in this fight.

The waves caused by the high-speed maneuvers of the two countries’ coast guard ships were likely to tip over the small boats at any moment.

The confrontation would have been over if it had been a power that leaned heavily on either side, but both sides had no concessions, as they were of an equal size of 1,000 tons.

On the one hand, both sides seemed to mistake that the Kazakh Royal Navy would stand on their side as it was nearby. It was because Kazakhstan was ally to both Greece and Turkey.

“Base Commander, I think we’ll have to get out of here to end the situation. They seem to think we’re going to help them.”

Captain Yeom Dong-chan, the captain of the ship suggested.

“I don’t think either side will take care of the refugees if we leave…”

Although the base commander, a lieutenant commander, was superior and had a high rank, he could not force the captain since he could judge everything and issue orders on his warship.

“They are strongly misunderstanding that we will side with them. I feel like we’re going to make it worse if we stay around.”

“Then why don’t we step back toward Greek waters for now? If we get out of here, they’ll go their separate ways.”

When they had just turned around to leave, they spotted old fishing boats filled with refugees also turned around to follow the Kazakh missile ship.

If they followed them, they would be entering the Greek waters only troubling the Greek coastal guard.

Since they could not help it, they stopped turning around the ship and stayed in open waters.

“What should we do? If the refugee boats follow us, the Greek coast guard will leave them to us alone.”

“This is frustrating.”

The refugees on the high seas were under no one’s jurisdiction, so they did not know what to do.

The refugees that were now being accepted by the royal territory were Syrians who were staying in Europe, not directly escaping from Syria.

They had come to see the new island, but now they were caught up in other countries’ conflict.

Turkish and Greek coast guard vessels were struggling to keep the refugee ships out of their waters, and the refugee ship continued to follow the missile ship’s tail, apparently thinking it was the only way to live.

“Communicate with both coast guard vessels. Tell them that we can no longer sit idly because their fight is intimidating private ships in international waters.”

“Commander, I could warn them as part of a multinational force if we were in the Gulf of Aden, but it will be a problem if we meddle with other countries’ vessels in the Mediterranean. And now all the ships have just come into Greek waters. This is the case of a Turkish coast guard vessel intruding into Greek waters.”

As the waves washed over, all the ships had already been pushed toward Greek waters.

This would happen frequently when people did not take close attention to the sea because there was no boundary line in the wide sea.

Usually, friendly cases could be fully understood by either side, but the vessels were in a standoff now.

The Turkish coast guard ship was stepping back in a hurry to find out that it had invaded Greek waters.

“The Turkish vessel is going back on its own.”

“It’s making a rapid manoeuvre. I guess they just found out that they had crossed the territorial waters.”

While watching the Turkish coast guard ship scurrying, the refugee boats were already close at hand.

“What the hell are they doing? Why are they so close to our ship? What if they get hit by our ship pushed by the waves?”

As the old refugee boats’ hulls were old FRP, the hull would crack as soon as they hit the missile ship that was almost like a lump of metal.

However, the reason why they came so close to the missile ship was to get drinking water.

Sailors were forced to throw small water bottles over the refugees’ boats to help them.

“Oh well… I just have to blame myself for choosing the wrong date to come. Let’s bring those refugees with us.”

“Wouldn’t we get in trouble and get reprimanded for taking them without the consent of the higher-ups?”

“If we don’t help them, the refugee ships will certainly be overthrown by the end of the day. You want me to ignore this situation for fear of reprimand? Even the superiors in the royal territory won’t tolerate such conduct.”

“Then we have no other choice. First, we’ll have to hand out some food and get some of them on our boat. They’ve already exceeded the number of people on board, so I’m afraid the boats will flip over.”

“Great. I’ll buy you a drink later.”

“You have to keep your promise. I’ll be glad if we didn’t get blamed for this.”

“His Highness will compliment you for your decision. There’s no one to blame, so don’t worry.”

“It would be a headache if we built an advance base on the Kasos Island. All sorts of refugees from North Africa and Syria will pass by it.”

Kasos Island was the southernmost island in the east of the Mediterranean Sea, so there was an advantage of being close to the Suez Canal.

On the other hand, from the standpoint of refugees, it was the island where they first met after floating aimlessly.

“They won’t be able to enter the island because of the naval vessels. Besides, by the time the port is completed, the Middle East will be stabilized to some extent.”

“Will there ever be complete peace in the Middle East? It looks like there’s going to be a world war starting here. I don’t know if it’s a good idea to set up a base here for nothing.”

“We Kazakhstan are an ally to many countries around the world, so we’re not going to barge in so recklessly.”