"That is a little burdensome to the government because of budgeting. I doubt whether the National a.s.sembly will approve the budget."

"If you don't have enough budgets, the royal family will pay for ministers' education, so don't worry."

Youngho thought if officials could study in developed countries for about two years with their family members and return to Kazakhstan, it would create a new wind in the civil service community. Moreover, it was obvious that their loyalty to the Kazakh royal family would be strengthened.

"Your Highness. Why don't we expand that to include not only ordinary civil servants but also those working in special jobs?"

Park Jong-il, who was listening to their conversation next to Youngho, interrupted them.

The special job he described must be referring to intelligence agents and soldiers.

"Would the Director of Intelligence be interested in this project? I know you haven't even finished your studies at Baku University yet."

"Oh, how can I leave Kazakhstan when I'm in the position to support you. In particular, the Army needs new education. New weapons come out every day, and we can't really utilize them with our existing operational concept."

No matter how good a state-of-the-art weapon was introduced, it was useless if soldiers were not educated to operate it.

"From what I hear, we should start with the Army. It would be very helpful for soldiers and intelligence personnel to have an advanced education for about six months. Defense Secretary and the Director of Intelligence, please select agents that need to be sent for education of the operational concepts of advanced countries. The royal family will pay for the cost."

Kazakhstan's Air Force or Navy had already been sending soldiers to Sweden or South Korea to learn how to operate the latest fighter jets or wars.h.i.+ps, and foreign instructors were coming directly into Kazakhstan to teach advanced technology. But the Army did not even have a chance to do so, so it was urgent to send soldiers to acquire advanced technology and its operational skills.

***

-Hyung, Zeynep is ordering something strange. Do you know about this?

"I've already heard that she's going to invest money in an a.s.set management company."

-This is not something of that sort. She is going to order a s.h.i.+p from the Danish s.h.i.+pyard, so I wondered if you're aware of this.

"Did she ask for a yacht?"

-I wouldn't have called you if that's the case. She asked about the cost of building a hospital s.h.i.+p.

Youngho had a flash of thought in his mind when he heard it. Fatima tipped him off about Zeynep wanting to build a hospital.

"I heard she was going to build a hospital. Was that a hospital s.h.i.+p?"

-I think so. She's such a free soul. I don't know what she has in mind, but the size of the hospital s.h.i.+p that Zeynep is asking for was too big.

"How big was it?"

-It's a hospital s.h.i.+p that can accommodate 300 people at once. I checked with the s.h.i.+pyard that a s.h.i.+p of that size should be at least 20,000 tons.

"What? It's not 30 people, but 300 patients? She's going too big. What the heck is she going to use such a big s.h.i.+p for?"

-She didn't say much about the details.

It seemed that Zeynep wanted to build a hospital s.h.i.+p equipped with wards and medical equipment that would travel around the world to treat people in the places where medical service was not provided well.

"I think she's up to something. Give whatever she asks for. Zeynep is not a child, she must know what she's doing."

After talking to Szechenyi on the phone, Youngho went to see Zeynep, but she left him hanging, saying that she needed to go do volunteer work at an orphanage. She wanted to talk later at the dinner table.

She knew exactly why Youngho was there, knowing that Szechenyi would have told about their conversation already.

It was clear that she wanted to buy time. So, Youngho asked Suh Min-seok to find out if there were any countries that operated large hospital s.h.i.+ps.

"Your Grace, there are no privately operated hospital s.h.i.+ps, but the navies of the United States, Russia, and China have it."

"How large are the hospital s.h.i.+ps owned by the U.S. Navy or other countries?"

"The U.S. operates 70,000-ton s.h.i.+ps and has two hospital s.h.i.+ps that have modified large tankers. It's like a general hospital with 1,000 beds and dozens of operating rooms each. And the Chinese navy has 20,000-ton s.h.i.+p, and the Russian navy has 12,000-ton s.h.i.+p."

Youngho could not keep his jaw closed at the size of the U.S. hospital s.h.i.+p which could easily exceed the level of decent general hospitals.

To maintain a s.h.i.+p of that size, only the labor costs of medical staff and maintenance personnel would be extremely high.

It was also surprising that Zeynep was planning a s.h.i.+p of such size.

Listening to it made Youngho even more curious about what Zeynep was up to.