The wheat harvest season in northern Ukraine arrives later than in the south; by late June, the fields had only just begun to turn golden.
Maxim Noskov returned from a final round of negotiations over a fertilizer plant acquisition in Odessa on Friday. For the last two days, he had been busy touring farms across Rivne Oblast, inspecting crops that were nearly ready for harvest. Though he was now officially an independent, having not joined the reformed Communist Party of Ukraine, Maxim, a devout old-school Soviet loyalist, still held firmly to certain principles.
As a citizen of this country, he believed he should contribute something meaningful to his people.
Even as many around him descended into the madness of ideological collapse, Maxim remained steadfast. He wasn't naive, though; otherwise, he wouldn't have accepted support from a certain American billionaire.
It was nearly dusk when Maxim finally left the fields with some staff and local agricultural officials. Instead of returning to the city, he detoured to a nearby farm machinery center.
The center housed 50 brand-new combine harvesters, lined up like soldiers ready for duty. These had been purchased using a second agricultural loan from the Netherlands. Though these machines were a mere drop in the bucket for Rivne Oblast's harvest needs, they provided a glimmer of progress. Even running 24/7, they would cover only a small portion of the crop, leaving the majority for manual labor.
To achieve full mechanization in just this one oblast, they'd need at least a thousand harvesters.
But it was a start.
Everything had to be built step by step.
Seeing the harvesters reminded Maxim of an incident last year. He had used the initial Dutch loan to buy tractors for the spring planting season, only to have the factory director abscond with the funds, fleeing the country with his family.
The stolen amount—260 million hryvnias, or $870,000—wasn't a massive fortune, but neither was it insignificant. The stress had grayed Maxim's hair overnight, even forcing him to ask for help from his daughter, which meant, essentially, asking the young man behind her for help.
The money was recovered quickly.
But with it came news that the director, who was reportedly hiding in Germany, had met a violent end on the streets of Rivne along with his entire family. The case never appeared in the media, yet the story spread widely, as if meant to send a message. Nobody knew what became of the family's bodies, and local police didn't investigate. The matter simply faded away.
Maxim felt something was wrong.
But he found himself powerless to act, and since that incident, he hadn't faced any further issues. People even seemed slightly fearful when dealing with him.
After personally inspecting the harvesters at the farm machinery center, Maxim finally returned to the city.
It was already past eight in the evening when he got home. His family had been waiting for him. Only then did he remember that today was his wife's birthday. She had reminded him in the morning that their daughter would be joining them for dinner. Seeing his daughter's sour expression as she looked at him, Maxim felt the urge to scold her. His children had never dared look at him like that before, but the feeling soon passed.
He couldn't control them.
His wife, however, gently reminded him to wash up, adding that their daughter had brought some seafood.
After a quick wash, Maxim joined his family at the dining table, where they sat down to a spread of delicious dishes. Seated around the table were Maxim and his wife, their eldest son Andrei, who was working toward a PhD at Kyiv University, and his girlfriend Anna; their married eldest daughter Tatyana, her husband, and their newborn son; their second daughter, Angelika; and, finally, their youngest, Yekaterina.
Another person, a woman with a clear military bearing, was introduced as Lina, Yekaterina's bodyguard.
A pang of irritation surfaced within him.
Why did his daughter need a bodyguard? So many people managed without one. That young man was simply spoiling these girls—what a waste.
The words were on the tip of his tongue, but since the bodyguard was present, he held back.
He couldn't control it.
His wife, Elena, gently shifted the conversation to his day's work, showing him the amber bracelet Yekaterina had gifted her for her birthday.
Rivne Oblast was Ukraine's main source of amber, though the deposits had been mostly ignored in the past. Locals had even used large amber chunks as fire starters. However, in the last year, demand had surged. Maxim had heard that the new interest was linked to the business of a family connected to his daughter, specifically Vladimir Kolkoshko's sons, who had secured exclusive mining rights to Rivne's amber reserves.
Kolkoshko was the deputy director of the regional investment bureau and was rumored to be a candidate for governor in a few years—a position allegedly backed by Simon.
A person in such a role shouldn't be indulging his sons in this way.
Amber should be a state-owned resource, not privatized for personal gain. Yet Kolkoshko's sons had gone further, organizing an armed militia to prevent locals from mining amber on their own.
It was outright lawlessness.
But what could he do?
The more Maxim thought about it, the deeper his sense of helplessness grew. How could a country in this state possibly have a future? He'd once considered a political career, thinking he could accomplish more that way. But as it was, he couldn't even manage the fertilizer plant he oversaw. While it was small initially, the fertilizer production arm of the Westeros system had grown, and though he remained nominally in charge, he had delegated sales and financial operations to others.
He glanced over at his son, Andrei.
He'd once hoped Andrei would follow in his footsteps. But the two had drifted apart last year when Andrei, who had just completed his master's degree in chemistry at Kyiv University, expressed a desire to study in the United States. Maxim had blocked the plan, knowing his son would likely never return.
The fallout was predictable.
Even Yekaterina, who supported her brother's ambition, had joined in protesting against him.
Everyone wanted to leave. Did nobody care about their own country anymore? This was their homeland, after all.
He couldn't control it.
With Maxim's low spirits, the birthday dinner was quiet and subdued. Maxim's authority in the family was immense, and aside from his youngest daughter, the rest of the family felt somewhat cowed by his stern demeanor.
Yekaterina, unwilling to endure her father's gloomy presence, left after dinner. She bid farewell to her mother, brother, and sisters, ignoring their obvious wish for her to stay longer. She left the family home in the west of the city with Lina.
The home was located in a residential complex initially built by the Westeros system to house the families of UFMS soldiers. Due to Yekaterina's connection, the Noskov family had been allocated a separate house in the area.
While it had seemed like an upgrade back then, it now felt inadequate. Compared to other families of similar status, their house was relatively modest. The family could have moved to a better neighborhood, but Maxim's insistence on simplicity kept them where they were.
Last year, when Yekaterina's older sister Tatyana got married, they had almost gone without a new home until Yekaterina and her mother quietly contributed.
Maxim's salary barely covered basic family expenses; he donated the rest to help impoverished children in rural areas. When Tatyana had asked for help finding her husband a decent job at the fertilizer plant, he had scolded her. It was only through Yekaterina's intervention that her brother-in-law found a position in a media company run by Natalia's uncle.
In many ways, Yekaterina was the real pillar of the Noskov family. As her sister Angelika put it, their father seemed to live more for others than for his own family.
After returning to her villa in the south of the city, Yekaterina enjoyed a hot bath and changed into a comfortable dress. She joined Evgenia and Natalia, who were watching TV in the living room.
Eva, noticing her, asked, "Did your mom like the amber bracelet?"
"Of course. Mom asked me to thank you," Yekaterina replied, reaching for an apple and nibbling on it.
Seeing this, Natalia teased, "Didn't you get enough to eat at home?"
"Not really," Yekaterina said, sidestepping the real reason. "Seeing my dad all gloomy made me lose my appetite."
"Why's that?"
"Because I'm afraid if I eat too much, he'll lecture me about all the people going hungry. Better to stick to being only 70% full."
Evgenia smiled faintly at Natalia's laughter, though she added sympathetically, "To be fair, your dad is a good person."
Yekaterina took another bite of her apple. "I know, but why can't he be a bit kinder to his own family?"
Natalia, intrigued, asked, "He's not good to you?"
Realizing Natalia's meaning, Yekaterina shook her head quickly. "No, no, he's just very strict with us."
The girls' conversation soon drifted to gossip, and Evgenia remarked, "I heard that guy broke his leg."
"Ha, that's nothing. If he keeps causing trouble, he might just end up in an unmarked grave."
Evgenia nodded, then mentioned, "I heard that Galina's mother and sister were lucky; they got a beating and then moved into the spa estate. Galina's mother even became the housekeeper there." When
she noticed her friends' odd looks, she asked, "Did I say something wrong?"
Yekaterina and Natalia shook their heads, but their expressions were undeniably strange.
Evgenia's cheeks flushed as she caught on. "Your minds are so dirty!"
Yekaterina retorted, "How would you know we were thinking that way if you didn't have a dirty mind too?"
Natalia chuckled, "Anyway, Simon really does like Yulia and Ivana. If he didn't, he probably wouldn't have gone so easy on their families. And then there's Ludmila. Ugh, I'd love to put her in her place."
Evgenia's cheeks flushed deeper, and she quickly changed the subject. "Let's drop it! So, my brother's going to the northern amber mines tomorrow. Are you coming along?"
"Tomorrow's Monday. Don't you have schoolwork?"
"We're not like those young girls at the spa estate. We've learned a lot. Plus, Simon said we could go out anytime we wanted."
The others exchanged glances, then Yekaterina said, "We should check with Eva first."
"Of course. She won't mind."
Yekaterina finished her apple, stretched out on the couch, and said, "Eva doesn't really keep an eye on us these days."
"Probably because the spa estate is full of younger girls now. We're more grown up," Evgenia replied with a grin. "And we've got bodyguards now, so Eva still cares."
"But Ludmila is such a pain."
"She's in Italy now. Maybe we should visit and watch her starve."
Natalia scoffed, "It's not fashion week. We wouldn't see anything interesting."
"What I really want is to visit the U.S.," Natalia said, sounding wistful.
The other girls fell silent for a moment, before Yekaterina replied, "I miss Simon too. What do you think he's doing right now?"
"Probably surrounded by beautiful women. Too bad we're not there."
"Yeah."
"Simon is such a flirt."
"Well, if he weren't, we wouldn't be here."
"True."
Chatting well into the night, they eventually all piled into the main bedroom for a late-night conversation.
They slept in late the next day.
After a light breakfast and some exercise, they finally set out, heading first to the spa estate in the northern part of Rivne Oblast.
This was partly a check-in and partly an excuse to chat with Eva about their trip to the amber mines.
Despite their excitement, Eva wasn't comfortable letting them go off alone, even though her brothers managed the mines, so she decided to accompany them.
As they drove north, the contrast was stark. The Rivne area had become more prosperous, but beyond it lay a land of desolation.
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