Chapter 86

Chapter 86: Training.

As a result of giving out cigarettes for free for a month, the number of smokers increased tremendously.

Of course, there was no such thing as a smoking area in this era. 

People just smoked cigarettes while walking on the streets, and indoors as well.

This made many non-smokers interested in cigarettes again.

“Why do you smoke this? Is it that tasty?”

“Haha. You’ll understand why I do this if you try it a few times.”

“Really? Then give me one.”

Thanks to the curiosity of the people around them, the smoking rate steadily rose.

And this meant the success of Flame Top.

“We’re running out of cigarettes! How’s the talk with the tobacco farms?”

“I’ve been around everywhere… but didn’t you already scrape them all off? There’s no more!”

“Damn! Then we have to increase the number of tobacco farms!”

Flame Top was waging a war.

It was because of the shortage of tobacco supply due to the sudden popularity of cigarettes.

There weren’t that many tobacco farms in the first place, so it was inevitable.

Therefore, Flame Top directly increased the number of tobacco farms.

“Smokers will keep increasing anyway, and they’ll probably stay steady for a while. So let’s pour all our resources into increasing the number of tobacco farms.”

“Yes, Top Master!”

Yellow Footprints invested most of their soaring profits into building tobacco farms.

This was an opportunity to establish themselves as the undisputed leader of the tobacco industry, as there were no competitors yet.

Smokers would get used to their cigarettes over time.

As time passed, Yellow Footprints’ decision paid off.

Giant Tops who saw the potential of the tobacco business jumped in one after another, but people were already accustomed to Flame Top’s cigarettes.

Also, they were operating tobacco farms at almost a monopoly level, so it was hard to catch up with them in a short time.

Meanwhile, Flame Top’s cigarettes dominated the market.

As a result, Flame Top grew into a giant Top of the empire with a huge success from the start.

***

Time passed, and cigarettes began to surpass their place as a popular preference product.

But many people worried about this phenomenon.

They hated cigarette smoke itself, and suddenly there were more smokers, and secondhand smoke occurred everywhere.

Moreover, it had been passed down orally for a long time in various tribes that cigarettes were bad for health.

So they hated smoking cigarettes that were not only bad for health, but also smelled bad.

Therefore, arguments to ban smoking itself began to emerge one after another.

This even reached the point where it became an official agenda of the imperial conference.

“Your Majesty, cigarettes not only have a negative impact on the health of the imperial citizens, but also smell disgusting. We must ban the sale and smoking of cigarettes immediately!”

Kim Ki-woo somewhat agreed with the words of the hygiene director.

‘Cigarettes are definitely harmful to our body.’

Most imperial citizens only knew that cigarettes were not good for their body, but Kim Ki-woo knew very well how harmful they were to health.

Kim Ki-woo was also a non-smoker, so he wanted to pass the smoking ban law as the hygiene director said.

‘But I can’t do that.’

He didn’t know that cigarettes would spread so quickly, but Kim Ki-woo knew that someday cigarettes would become popular as in the original history.

Drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes are somehow touching human’s instinctive senses.

But what if they ban it?

Especially when it has become quite popular like now?

‘Smokers will rebel. It’s obvious.’

In fact, there were quite a few smokers among the directors.

Maybe that’s why?

The directors who smoked looked displeased with discussing the smoking ban law itself.

In fact, one of them, the security director, raised an objection.

“Last time, you wanted to ban alcohol altogether, and now you want to ban tobacco? Do you always try to make laws to prohibit anything that displeases you, Chief of Police?”

“Of course, we should ban the things that are harmful! I still think we should ban alcohol. Do you know how many accidents are caused by alcohol?”

“Oh, come on. Why are you bringing up the prohibition law again? That was already rejected.”

The Chief of Industry intervened as the conversation was drifting towards the prohibition law.

Kim Kiwoo smiled bitterly as he watched this.

‘Prohibition and anti-smoking laws. What a terrible combination that would have disastrous consequences.’

He understood the Chief of Health’s intentions, but this was something that should never be done.

He knew well the case of America before the arrival, which had caused great chaos by enforcing the prohibition law.

If alcohol or tobacco were banned, they would gradually flow into the underworld, and the size of that world would only grow.

Kim Kiwoo had no intention of tolerating such behavior.

The opinions of various chiefs continued to pour out after that.

Kim Kiwoo listened to them all and then presented his own opinion.

“I sympathize with the harm of tobacco and the suffering of non-smokers to some extent. However, it is not a good solution to force people to stop smoking in a situation where there are already many smokers. Therefore, I want to treat tobacco in the same way as alcohol.”

It was a similar conclusion to when the prohibition law was brought up.

He had been constantly propagating the negative effects of alcohol through newspapers and raising the liquor tax.

This reduced the drinking rate and improved the national finances.

By now, one of the main sources of national income was liquor tax.

If the price of alcohol was raised, the drinking rate would naturally decrease, but people who wanted to drink would still pay for it anyway.

And this was also the same for tobacco.

If the price of tobacco was raised and the danger of tobacco was constantly warned, the smoking rate would drop, but people who wanted to smoke would still smoke.

Tobacco would also become one of the main sources of national income.

‘By the way, he’s really something.’

Kim Kiwoo admired Yellow Footprints in his mind.

He had jumped out of Lightning Group, which competed for the top position in the empire, and created his own group, achieving such a huge success in no time.

He had already noticed him when he succeeded in many businesses within Lightning Group, but he didn’t expect him to become a giant group leader so quickly.

‘It’s good to have a talented merchant in the empire.’

Of course, if that merchant did something morally wrong, it would be a different story, but at least Yellow Footprints hadn’t done that yet, so it didn’t matter much.

Kim Kiwoo believed that these people would make the economy of the empire more prosperous.

***

Kim Kiwoo headed to the fitness center to see Blue Earth, the fourth prince, whom he hadn’t seen for a long time.

“Huff! Huff!”

Huff! Huff!

As soon as he arrived at the fitness center, he heard the rough breathing of men vibrating.

Kim Kiwoo smiled contentedly as he saw Blue Earth working hard among them.

“You’re doing well.”

“Father. You’re here.”

“Haha. Don’t mind this old man and keep going.”

“Yes, father.”

Blue Earth bowed respectfully and resumed his exercise.

‘Heh. He can already lift such heavy barbells.’

Even considering his age that was close to adulthood after passing puberty, Blue Earth’s body grew steadily day by day.

He ate well and exercised properly, so he had already surpassed Kim Kiwoo in height.

Kim Kiwoo felt nostalgic seeing this.

When Kim Kiwoo saw Blue Earth training too hard, he made exercise equipment and fitness center necessary for weight training and taught Blue Earth and his guards about weight training from time to time.

But before long, they absorbed all of Kim Kiwoo’s knowledge about weight training.

The results were evident in their bodies.

Even among them, the most outstanding guard could even win a bodybuilding contest in modern times before arrival.

The escort warriors were the elite of the empire, so they all had excellent basic hardware.

While he was thinking about this and that, Blue Earth finished his weight training on the blue planet.

“Don’t overdo it. Too much is worse than too little. It’s not good to train so hard that you harm your health.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, Father.”

“Good. Now that you’ve finished your workout, let’s have a cup of tea with this old man. Go take a shower.”

“Yes.”

Blue Earth took a quick shower and went to Kim Kiwoo.

Kim Kiwoo sipped his cocoa and got to the point.

“So, how are you running the fitness center these days?”

“I’m doing my best to live up to Father’s reputation.”

“Haha. That’s very good.”

Kim Kiwoo’s actions were all issues.

Of course, the rumor about the weight training he spread to train Blue Earth and the escort warriors spread like wildfire.

Especially, the warriors were curious about Kim Kiwoo’s weight training method and wanted to learn it themselves.

Kim Kiwoo also had enough intention to popularize weight training.

So he entrusted the work to the escort warriors and Blue Earth who had learned and mastered his knowledge.

First, he built a fitness center in the capital and accepted trainees.

‘The competition rate was amazing back then.’

Building a body is the dream of men.

It was no different in this era.

Moreover, it was a training method devised by Kim Kiwoo himself, so there was a consensus on how great it would be.

Thanks to that, he started a fitness business for the trainees who came in after filtering and filtering.

And now, after those trainees graduated, fitness centers were created in various regions.

“Do you plan to continue managing the fitness centers in the future?”

“Yes. I want to make it possible for anyone in the empire to learn this excellent training method that Father taught me.”

Kim Kiwoo smiled with satisfaction as he looked at the fourth one who spoke confidently.

‘They’ve all grown up already.’

They had grown up before he knew it and were engaged in their respective jobs.

Especially, Blue Earth was a guy who had never refused hardships since he was young to become the head of the military in the future.

Of course, being an emperor, he was bound to rise to high positions more easily than anyone else.

But Blue Earth did his best to build up his career to be proud of himself and Kim Kiwoo, and to countless warriors of the empire.

“If that’s what you want, then do so. I promise you as your father. If you achieve outstanding results in your position, I’ll send you to the military department that you wanted.”

“I’ll definitely do that!”

Blue Earth’s eyes sparkled as he finished speaking.