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# Chapter 3: The Pathetic Young Master of a Chaebol Family
Several days passed.
For me, it was quite a long time.
There was no cellphone, no computer.
There wasn't even a TV.
Thanks to that, the only thing I could do was ask a woman named Amy, who seemed to be in charge of taking care of me, to bring me books and identification documents so that I could read them.
“I really did end up in the Stout family.”
Yesterday.
That is, in the February 11, 1988 edition of the newspaper, there was a special article about a charity party that was scheduled to be held at the Stout family's mansion.
Hundreds of influential people who held power in America, both in politics and business, were expected to visit the Stout family's mansion, mingle with one another, and donate enormous sums to charity.
I had been reading the article without giving it much thought when I saw a familiar photograph.
It showed an old-fashioned and magnificent mansion that looked like something straight out of a movie set in British aristocratic society.
After admiring the mansion for a moment, I walked over to the window and looked at the garden stretching out in front of the building.
Then I compared the photograph in the newspaper with the garden visible outside my window and swallowed hard.
After comparing the two, I had no choice but to become certain.
I really had become a member of the Stout family, the family that appeared alongside the Eberhart family as a frequent subject of conspiracy theories and was said to practically control America.
I had no idea how I had ended up inside this body, but there was one thing I knew for certain.
The diamond spoon this body had been born with now belonged to me.
Human beings, no matter what they become, inevitably spend most of their lives exhausting themselves to make a living.
They work hard to obtain a career, work hard to make money through that career, and then work hard to successfully invest and maintain the money they've earned.
But if you are born holding a diamond spoon like me, there is no need to work hard.
It's practically as though every quest related to making a living had already been completed from the moment I was born.
Now all I had to worry about was how I wanted to enjoy my life using the diamond spoon that had become mine and the money that would eventually be inherited by me.
What a happy, wonderful life this was.
“…Then why do I feel so depressed?”
It was great that I had been given the chance to live an incredible life.
It was also great that I no longer had to work hard to earn money, and the thought that I could simply enjoy myself without having to struggle until the day I died was certainly comforting.
But my heart felt empty.
“I miss Mom and Dad.”
My family.
My parents.
I tossed the Marvel comic book I'd been reading aside and let out a deep, deep sigh.
What would the two of them say if they knew I was here?
My mother would probably tell me to live well now that things had turned out this way.
She would tell me that there was nothing I could do about what had already happened, so I should focus only on what lay ahead.
Although she had been deeply interested in shamanism, when it came to reality, she was an incredibly practical person, almost to the point of being ruthlessly realistic.
And my father…
He would probably bring up something he'd told me before.
‘Son. Do you know what happened on September 11, 2001?’
It was the day before I was born.
September 11, 2001.
It was also the day the September 11 attacks occurred in America.
‘A lot of people died that day. I heard that someone from the Stout family died too. His name was Lloyd Stout, I think?’
It must have been when I was writing a report about the September 11 attacks.
My father had heard me talking about my assignment and said that to me…
Wait a second.
“Lloyd Stout?”
That's…
That's me, isn't it?
The body I'd taken over.
The little boy's name was Lloyd Stout.
“I shouldn't go anywhere near the World Trade Center.”
I suddenly felt uneasy.
I shouldn't go anywhere near that place, and especially around September 2001, I shouldn't even get on an airplane. I should just stay somewhere quiet and safe.
I'd already died once in a plane accident. There was no way I was going to die because of another airplane.
Thinking that, I picked up the Marvel comic book again.
The fact that I'd been born with a diamond spoon was one thing, but for now, because the doctor had ordered me to get plenty of rest, I had no choice but to stay cooped up in my room and recover.
I was flipping through the pages while watching Doctor Strange, who was quite different from the version I'd seen in the movies, and Iron Man having adventures in space when I heard footsteps outside.
Was it already time for a meal?
I waited for the door to open and looked toward it for a moment.
What appeared in my field of vision wasn't Amy pushing in a cart loaded with food.
Instead, it was a little boy with an extremely angry expression, followed by another servant who looked somewhat troubled.
“Lloyd. I was grounded because I got scolded by Father, while you were sitting here comfortably reading comic books?”
Was he seriously starting off by getting angry at me out of nowhere?
What was this?
As I wondered about it, the boy strode toward me.
He seemed to be around the same age as this body.
About eight? Or maybe nine?
He really looked like a young master who had been raised with great care.
He had shiny brown hair and extremely pale skin. He was dressed in formal shorts that barely reached halfway down his thighs, while his upper body was fully outfitted with a vest, jacket, shirt, and tie.
Did he walk around dressed like that even at home?
Wasn't that uncomfortable?
As I stared at him in disbelief, the boy reached out.
His finger accurately tapped me on the forehead.
My head was pushed backward.
What the hell?
What was this guy's problem?
I stared at him in disbelief, but the boy let out a hollow laugh as though I were ridiculous. Then he pushed my forehead backward again and continued speaking.
“I'm telling you that I, Steven, got scolded by Father because of a guy like you, Lloyd. Aren't you going to get up already?”
“Do I have to get up?”
Smack!
The moment his hand moved, I felt a burning sensation on my left cheek, and my head snapped to the side.
Did he just slap me?
I slowly turned my head while rubbing my still-burning left cheek.
I was dumbfounded, but at the same time, anger was rising inside me.
The boy was looking down at me with contempt.
“You fell while sliding down the stair railing by yourself, and I got scolded because of you. I was called before Father and severely reprimanded. Why the hell should I have to go through something like that?”
“Young Master. Young Master Lloyd was running away from you young masters when he…”
“Is that important right now?”
“I-I'm sorry.”
The servant had tried to intervene cautiously, but he apologized and lowered his head at the boy's sharp voice.
The boy continued glaring down at me.
“You're still acting like that? Do you need to get hit on the other cheek before you come to your senses?”
This was really starting to piss me off.
It was ridiculous to get angry at a little kid like this, but I was a little kid myself right now, so I supposed it didn't matter.
I climbed down from the sofa and stood in front of him.
He was about half a head taller than me. This time, he looked at me with a mocking expression and said,
“Apologize. I got scolded because of you. Do it properly, and mean it.”
Was this kid seriously insane?
According to the servant, this body seemed to have been injured while trying to escape from that guy. As a result, the original Lloyd Stout had died, and I had entered his body.
Despite that, this kid showed not even the slightest hint of remorse. Instead, he was demanding that I apologize to him and throwing a tantrum.
“You little…”
He even raised his hand again and tried to slap me across the face.
This time, I casually leaned backward and avoided his hand.
The boy gave a short, incredulous laugh before reaching for my collar.
This time, I didn't dodge.
I let him grab me.
The moment he seized my collar, the boy clenched his other hand into a fist and punched me in the face with all his strength.
I felt a slight pain as my head snapped to the side again.
At the same time, I felt something hot running down from my nose.
I'd been slapped once, and now my nose was bleeding too.
At this point, if I beat this kid up, wouldn't that count as self-defense?
The boy released my collar and stepped backward.
Then he casually wiped my blood from his hand onto the servant's clothes before speaking.
“I told you I got scolded because of you. Aren't you going to apologize?”
He was still shameless and completely brazen.
Behind him, the servant looked troubled, clearly unsure of what to do.
“Are you being stubborn because you want to get hit some more?”
The servant was a man.
Probably in his early forties.
He had a bit of a belly and didn't particularly look like he was athletic.
“Fine. If you need to get hit some more before you come to your senses, then I'll just hit you some more.”
My body was that of an ordinary little kid.
Although the other boy was a little taller than me, he was still a child too.
But I'd learned quite a few things.
Taekwondo in elementary school, judo in middle school, and boxing in high school.
“Then I'll personally give you some loving discipline…”
The boy kept muttering as he threw a punch.
I caught it with both hands and simultaneously turned my body and pulled with all my strength.
“Uh, uhh!”
By the time the boy's startled voice rang out, his body had already been thrown over and was falling toward the floor, landing on his back.
Thud!
The boy hit the floor, and the startled servant let out an “Ugh!”
Just as I'd planned, I used my knee to press down hard against the boy's chest and swung my fist.
“Young Master!”
After I had landed about two full-power punches against the fallen boy's face, the servant hurried over, picked me up, and pulled me away from him.
Only a few seconds earlier, the boy had been looking down at me with a confident expression, as though there wasn't a single thing in the world he feared.
Now he was staring up at me with a dazed expression.
---
As far as I was concerned, beating that kid up had clearly been self-defense.
He had hit me twice first, and he'd already harmed this body before that.
It was possible that this incident might cause the amount of wealth I would inherit from the Stout family to decrease, but I didn't care.
The amount would still be more than enough for an ordinary person to live on comfortably for their entire life without working.
Besides, I had knowledge of the future.
If I needed money, all I had to do was invest in the golden geese scattered throughout the world that were capable of laying golden eggs.
So after the servant took the boy out of my room, I spent the day enjoying lunch and dinner in complete peace while reading comic books.
Then, as fatigue gradually began to wash over me, I climbed onto my bed, thinking it was time to sleep.
“Young Master. The senator has summoned you.”
Amy entered the room and said this.