The Mad Tycoon of Rome

——Chapter 2: Crassus, the richest man in Rome——

When Jae-hoon opened his eyes again, his head was strangely blank.

'I must have closed my eyes in the library, but where am I?.'

'Did I faint and was taken to the health room or hospital?'

However, when he looked around, the scenery was too strange to call it a health room or a hospital.

'Is it a drama set? Or am I still in a dream?'

The bed he was lying on looked luxurious and splendid, but its softness was not as good as the cheap mattresses at home.

There were no fluorescent lights on the ceiling, so it was dark, and the walls of the room were painted with beautiful landscapes. 

Jae-hoon wasn't very good at painting, but he could definitely tell that it was a mural that gave off an old-fashioned feeling.

'These days, you cannot find a house like this unless it is a set for a drama or movie.'

'How did I get here?'

After realizing that he was in a place he couldn't even imagine, his head suddenly became clear.

He hurriedly jumped up from the bed and looked down at himself.

“What? Why am I wearing something like this?”

He was wearing an odd one-piece dress with short sleeves that reached his knees and a belt with a bizarre decoration.

Since it was all-in-one, of course, He wasn't even wearing pants, so he felt really weird. And it wasn't just the clothes that were weird, but his body shape also felt different.

As if his height had decreased, and his vision lowered. Reflexively, he try to take out his cell phone to make a call, but his belongings were nowhere to be seen.

Unable to understand the current situation, Jae-hoon walked around the room looking for a mirror.

“Young master, are you awake?”

"Young master?"

The words spoken by a woman who entered with the veil were not in Korean. Even so, he understood the meaning of the words so naturally. Moreover, he could also speak fluently in a language he had never heard before.

"Hey, hey... I think I've come to the wrong place. I didn't sneak in, but I think someone brought me here..."

The woman wearing a long robe-like outfit tilted her head, smiled vaguely, and said to him.

"It looks like you drank too much yesterday. Even when the elders said not to drink too much wine. If you don't listen to the Elders, you might not be able to go to the bar anymore."

"Elders? A bar? No, before that, where the hell is this place? It's not like I'm out of Gyeonggi-do, right?"

[TL - Gyeonggi-do is a province in South Korea.]

"Don't you remember? Yesterday Quintino brought you on his back because you drank until you lost consciousness. The elders were angry that drinking until you lost consciousness, would bring down the dignity of a nobleman."

The woman's words, which he did not understand at all, started to give him goosebumps.

'What is the reason she calls me Young master?'

He wanted to ask if she was mistaken him for the wrong person, but looking at her expression, it didn't seem like that.

"Hey... I have the assignment to submit by tomorrow, so I have to go now. I have to go and do some work..."

"Young master Marcus has work to do?"

The woman widened her eyes as if she did not understand, so she asked again.

"Did you drink too much yesterday... It looks like you haven't woken up yet. I'll talk to the Elders."

The woman turned and tried to leave the bedroom. But Jae-hoon hurriedly called her back and asked her questions.

"Hey, hey! Where is this place and why am I wearing something like this? Where have all the things I had gone?"

"Yes? Of course, this is the mansion of the Crassus family on Palatine Hill, and you are the young master, Marcus."

Saying that the woman approached with a worried face and examined Jae-hoon's complexion.

“Are you feeling unwell or did you have a nightmare?”

"No...that's not why..."

"Hey, young master? Why are you treating me so carefully?"

Jae-hoon felt like his head was about to burst. The two small, clean hands, he could see were obviously different from the hands he remembered. For a moment, an absurd possibility ran through his mind.

"Hey, bring me the mirror..."

“Yes, I will bring it.”

The woman who left the room returned within seconds with a small bronze mirror. Jae-hoon was at a loss for words when he saw the shape of a bronze mirror that could only be seen in a museum.

he looked at his face in the mirror with trembling hands and was so shocked that he couldn't even scream.

A Latino boy with black hair but a completely different appearance from Asians was reflected in the mirror.

'Is this me?'

The woman spoke to Jae-hoon, who was glaring at himself in the mirror with his eyes wide open.

"It looks like yesterday's fatigue hasn't healed. Shall I tell the elders that today's class will be difficult to take?"

"Wait. What's your name..."

"I'm Kore, young master, you even forgot my name. It looks like you're really not feeling well. I'll call a doctor."

"No, don't call a doctor... ugh!"

As he stared at his face in the mirror, a sudden headache came over him. Jae-hoon collapsed with his hands wrapped around his head, Kore, whose face was white in worry, hurriedly went outside and called for people.

Some people came into the room and started trying to talk to him, but he didn't hear them at all.

Instead, there was a flood of knowledge about landscapes, names of people, and things he had never seen before, that was coming to his mind. Jae-hoon was able to remember who he was here.

'Marcus Licinius Crassus.'

He was the eldest son of Rome's richest man, Marcus Licinius Crassus. And he was, Marcus Licinius Crassus II.

The present Crassus family was the most prestigious aristocratic family that had produced consuls in the past and was a leader of the Optimates, who owned the greatest wealth in Rome.

'I don't know what the hell it is, but I Jae-Hoon had become the eldest son of this wealthy family.'

Jae-hoon, who suddenly recalled too much information, lost consciousness for a moment. And when he opened his eyes again, it was dark around him.

"Young master! Are you okay?"

When Jae-hoon opened his eyes, Kore, who was watching him anxiously, jumped up from her chair.

"I'll bring the elder. Please wait a moment."

Kore left the room on the run and returned a few minutes later with a stern-looking middle-aged man.

Even though Jae-hoon had never seen him before, he could immediately recall who he was.

He was Marcus Licinius Crassus.

He was the patriarch of the Crassus family and the father of Marcus, who Jae-hoon has become now.

"Tsk tsk, what a good scene to view. The eldest son of the Crassus family is drunk with wine from a young age and goes out of his way behaving like a fool."

"That, that's..."

Jae-hoon knew it was not him who did any of that, but he clearly had memories of Marcus drinking alcohol, so he couldn't make excuses.

Crassus glared at the confused man, clicked his tongue, and turned away.

"I give you my name in hopes of you becoming like myself, so how could a guy like this come out? Publius has no choice but to continue the family's prosperity."

Publius was the younger brother of Marcus and the second son of the Crassus family. Marcus had fallen out of favor with his father to the extent that his father openly talked about entrusting the family to his second son.

Crassus went back to his room without saying anything else.

After seeing Jae-hoon once, Kore followed Crassus out of the room.

Left alone in a dark room, Jae-hoon calmly reviewed the current situation while lying on the bed.

He was Marcus Licinius Crassus II. This was an undeniable truth and reality. It was confusing but it was the truth now, but the problem was that he became the 12-year-old famous prodigal son who rots his father's name.

Marcus caused various disturbances on the back of his family's wealth and prestige, and his notoriety was already famous in the city of Rome. Someone might wonder what a 12-year-old kid could do, but Marcus was a pretty bad person.

While avoiding getting caught by the law, he thoroughly harassed those who were even slightly obtrusive.

The targets he harassed were mainly slaves from other houses or fallen commoners, so his father didn't care at first either.

In any case, in this day and age, slaves were just objects. No one would take issue with the fact that he had harassed a lower class. However, as the severity got worse, his father Crassus could no longer be tolerated. So he forbade Marcus to mobilize slaves to commit violence without cause. Then Marcus took a turn toward eating and drinking in a showy way.

Originally, the Romans drank a lot of wine, but it was common to drink with lots of water.

Those who otherwise drank high-alcohol wine and got drunk were treated as poor or bad drinkers.

It was almost a routine for Marcus to get drunk in the morning, and hang out with the sons of bad nobles, and because of this, his father's trust was bound to fall to the ground.

 'It's a true example of a typical mindless aristocratic scion. I can't believe I have to live as a guy like this.'

His life changed overnight, but Jae-hoon unexpectedly calmly adapted to the current situation. When he was in Korea anyway, he was a dirt spoon who had to live in poverty paying off loans for the rest of his life.

So it was hundreds of times better to live as a son of an ancient aristocratic family, where he didn't have to worry about money for the rest of his life.

The family would be inherited by the younger brother, but Jae-hoon had no desire to continue the family anyway.

It was enough to just live a pleasant aristocratic life buried in the shadows of a cool father and younger brother by just living a moderately stupid life.

'Speaking of Crassus, he was a great magnate who formed a triumvirate with the famous Caesar and Pompey to rule Rome, right? Good, good. Now, the life of a dirt spoon is goodbye forever.'

The life of an ancient person might be a bit uncomfortable, but he could endure it for the life of a gold spoon that he so longed for.

If he changed too suddenly, others would only get suspicious, so he thought he would have to turn to follow Crassus's words little by little.

Just as his heart was about to swell to the fullest at the blueprint of such a hopeful future, a piece of historical knowledge that Jae-hoon knew passed through his mind.

'Wait a moment! Didn't Crassus die after pursuing an unreasonable expedition to catch up with Caesar and Pompey's reputation?'

The memory was not wrong.

Crassus, who undertook an expedition to Parthia, a great country in the East, died after suffering a humiliating defeat.

The problem was that the second son, Publius, who was raising his reputation in the battle, also died.

The plan, which was to ride on the backs of his father and younger brother and suck only honey comfortably, ran into a crisis even before it started.

Jaehun's expression distorted like a crumbled piece of toilet paper.