American: Native Empire

“…Ugh!”

Sob.

A suppressed sorrow burst out of the industrial director’s mouth. 

At the same time, tears flowed down his wrinkled cheeks.

His clenched fist revealed his feelings. 

Kim Ki-woo patted his back and said.

“You’ve worked hard as the industrial director for a long time. I hope you enjoy the rest of your life and experience many fun things.”

Still, the industrial director could not control his emotions, and it took him a while to reply to Kim Ki-woo’s words.

“…In my life, it was a great blessing to serve the great emperor. Please forgive me for leaving my position first.”

“Come and visit me often if you feel lonely.”

That’s how the current industrial director retired. But Kim Ki-woo was calm.

‘Another one is gone.’

That was all he thought. 

He had seen countless people leave the political scene until now.

To them, Kim Ki-woo must have been irreplaceable, but to Kim Ki-woo, he was just a director. 

This was the same for everyone who left his side after becoming a loyal tree.

Only,

‘I hope the next industrial director leads the industrial department well.’

He had no more feelings than that.

Knock knock.

“Your Majesty, the new industrial director has arrived.”

“Let him in.”

Speak of the devil. 

When he was thinking about the new industrial director, he arrived at a good timing.

“Nice to meet you.”

“It is an honor of my life to see Your Majesty!”

“Please sit down.”

Kim Ki-woo gestured to the chair with a natural smile, ignoring the industrial director’s admiring gaze.

“You are very lucky. You are taking charge of the industrial department in such a turbulent era.”

“I can endure it for the sake of the Wakan Tanka Empire and the great emperor. I will never be a burden to the empire.”

“Your words are reassuring. But I’m not lying. You must have seen it yourself from your previous work. How fast the empire’s society is changing right now.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“But it will be even more drastic in the future.”

For a moment, a hint of sadness flashed in Kim Ki-woo’s eyes. 

He might have been one of the busiest industrial directors in history.

Considering that the industrial department was divided into several departments afterwards, he could imagine how much work would increase.

“I will keep Your Majesty’s words in my heart.”

The industrial director nodded heavily.

He knew it too. 

The fact that the gates of hell were opened before his eyes.

Kim Ki-woo looked back at the present.

‘It took a long time to get here.’

The empire’s industry had finally spread its wings wide.

Various agricultural machines were popularized for farming, and agricultural production increased day by day, while the number of farmers decreased sharply.

What about construction? 

Various heavy equipment were supplied to construction sites, and many constructions that could not be done quickly in the past were progressing rapidly.

‘Most importantly, cars are becoming popular.’

Car brands sprang up like mushrooms in the empire, and the competition in the car market was fierce. 

That meant there was a lot of demand for cars.

The empire was too vast. 

As the living radius of the imperial citizens widened, cars rose from luxury goods to major transportation means.

Thanks to the endless boom, there was enough money in the hands of the imperial citizens to buy cars.

Nowadays, cars completely replaced carriages and entered their heyday.

As a result, roads were repaired, bridges were built, and highways were laid out everywhere. 

It was only possible because there were various heavy equipment and massive government investment.

‘How can I not be busy like this?’

A tremendous amount of raw materials went into the automobile and construction industries.

The construction industry had already adopted the reinforced concrete method extensively. 

The amount of iron and concrete that went into this was beyond imagination.

Moreover, the materials that were laid on the roads were also enormous, and the production of automobiles increased dramatically, consuming a huge amount of iron. 

And this trend would continue to grow for a long time.

The same was true for the raw materials that went into ships and airplanes.

Many fields were dominated by private companies, but at least the raw material markets such as iron, coal, oil, and cement were monopolized by the state. 

It was inevitable that there would be complaints from the perspective of the Ministry of Industry, which managed them.

Afterwards, Kim Ki-woo discussed various issues with the Minister of Industry and sent him away.

Then he thought about the problem he was facing.

‘I should start preparing soon.’

After the oil field exploded in Texas, there was no worry about oil for a while. 

That was because the supply was overwhelmingly greater than the demand at that time.

But the situation was changing. 

By now, the demand for oil was increasing uncontrollably.

Automobiles, ships, airplanes, heaters.

On top of that, petrochemicals had been developing day by day, making this trend even more severe.

Of course, it was still fine. 

Thanks to the large oil fields that had been discovered in various places after the first major oil field.

‘But as time goes by, it will be hard to cope with just the domestic production.’

The world was in the midst of modernization. 

It was all thanks to the World Union.

A lot of capital was invested from the Empire, and many technicians and companies led the modernization of various countries.

In this process, the companies of the Empire also took root more firmly in various regions. 

They made a fortune by taking over various industries of those countries.

This gave them a powerful motivation. 

As a result, some countries were considered to have achieved a considerable level of industrialization even by the Empire’s standards.

If only a little more time passed… they would naturally switch to an oil consumption system. 

Oil had an overwhelmingly higher utility than coal.

The domestic demand was already skyrocketing, but if they started to consume oil in large quantities overseas as well…

‘I don’t even want to think about it.’

The current oil price was almost free. 

Kim Ki-woo wished that this period would last longer. 

That way, the oil system would be firmly established.

‘I have to increase the oil supply.’

This was Kim Ki-woo’s conclusion.

Kim Ki-woo immediately expressed his thoughts at the Imperial Council.

“Oil will become an increasingly important resource in the future. As more and more countries overseas modernize, that time will be sooner rather than later. But the oil produced in the Empire is limited.”

At this remark, each minister showed signs of agreement. 

The ministers who ran the country knew well how important oil was becoming day by day.

Kim Ki-woo continued his speech.

“But the world is wide, and oil is not a resource that only comes from Waktanga continent. So I will conduct a large-scale oil exploration around the world.”

“Please do as you wish.”

***

After the Imperial Council ended.

Kim Ki-woo’s decision was soon realized. 

The government did not hesitate to recruit experts related to oil exploration.

This naturally drew the attention of the Imperial citizens. 

But there were few people who thought it was strange.

Oil was already widely used.

 Weren’t they driving cars themselves?

Thanks to this, a large-scale oil exploration team was formed very smoothly. 

And White Snow was appointed as the leader of this group.

“Even if you can’t find an oil field right away, I won’t say anything, so don’t worry and run the exploration team well.”

“I’ll do my best!”

White Snow answered cheerfully.

 Kim Ki-woo looked at him and added.

“You can get some information that we’ve collected so far from the Ministry of Interior. Based on this information, make a plan for how to proceed with the exploration first.”

He had collected various information from different places through Shadow for a long time. 

As a result, he was able to select some areas that seemed to have potential oil fields.

‘Actually, I don’t need them all.’

Kim Kiwoo knew very well where the large oil reserves were located. 

That’s why he didn’t need to collect any information.

And in fact, he was heavily involved in these information. 

He changed the regions where oil was likely to be found to be more specific, and he quietly added some areas that were omitted from the expected regions.

It was very easy to manipulate information as a shadow, a dot organization. 

No one except Blue Earth knew of Kim Kiwoo’s actions.

In other words, what was provided to White Snow was the future information that Kim Kiwoo knew.

“Let’s withdraw for now.”

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

After he left, Kim Kiwoo called the foreign minister.

“Did you call me?”

“Yes. How are the negotiations related to oil extraction going?”

The foreign minister’s face stiffened slightly at his words. 

It was because the negotiation process came to his mind. 

However, his expression returned to normal soon.

“Most countries want a lot of things from this opportunity.”

“I see. That makes sense.”

It was obvious. 

They wouldn’t be unaware of the importance of oil.

The empire’s appearance was a role model for each country.

That means they could easily predict that if they were modernized like the empire in the future, the consumption of oil in their own country would increase tremendously.

So if oil came out of their own country, they couldn’t help but think about the benefits they would get from it.

“But they can’t go against the empire’s will at this point.”

Going against it now meant that they didn’t want the empire’s support. 

This decision was the worst at this point.

They would eventually compromise to some extent.

“You can give up some of the profits from oil. It’s much better to maintain a good relationship continuously. People tend to pay more attention to what they lose than what they gain.”

Even if they made a lot of money, they wouldn’t feel good if they thought that the empire took too much oil from their own country.

“However, make sure to negotiate so that they can’t use oil as a weapon.”

The most important thing was the stable supply of oil. 

Kim Kiwoo didn’t want to see the oil-producing countries band together and play with oil, causing an oil shock.

The empire had a high chance of being the biggest victim of the oil shock. 

He wanted to prevent this from happening through negotiations from the beginning.

‘If they still play tricks in the distant future…’

He had no intention of showing mercy then.

***

After meeting with Kim Kiwoo.

White Snow received information from the Ministry of Interior. 

And he began to set up an exploration plan in earnest.

“…Oil comes out of this desert?”

White Snow couldn’t shake off his curiosity as he planned.

He didn’t know the source of this information. 

Of course, there were no complete secrets in the world, and the existence of shadows had not been revealed at this time, but it was somewhat speculated that there was a secret information organization in the empire.

White Snow had also heard rumors about it, so he guessed that this was where the information came from. 

But even so, the expected regions were quite specific.

But soon he shook his head.

“Don’t think too much. I just have to operate the exploration team based on the information I received.”

White Snow knew his role exactly. 

That’s how he could rise to his current position from the bottom.

After that, he silently did his job. 

He planned and distributed exploration teams accordingly. 

And he provided them with adequate funds and equipment.

Thanks to this, several exploration teams scattered around the world and started exploring their assigned regions.

And as time passed, oil burst out in many regions, starting with the Middle East and Indonesia.