That Position Holds No Interest for Me
The warning left Bellad staring with his eyes wide. “...What?”
Kyle met his gaze and spoke plainly. “I have no interest in that sort of thing.”
“What…!” Bellad’s voice burst out before he could stop it. “...Don’t spout such nonsense.”
The head of House Berwen. No explanation was needed. To stand in that seat was to become a giant of this world, a position from which one could bend its very currents at will. It was the ultimate prize every person envied and craved yet could never reach. That was what it meant to be the patriarch of Berwen.
And yet this man claimed to have no interest in it?
“I don’t know what scheme you’re cooking up, but you expect me to believe that?” Bellad had watched Kyle’s every move for years. He knew the truth. Kyle had once hungered for the patriarch’s seat. If he hadn’t, there would have been no reason for him to spiral so badly once the succession struggle was effectively over. Kyle must have wanted it more than anything. Losing it would have been devastating enough to drive him mad. Bellad had been certain of that fact. And he still was.
“Well, maybe that was true once,” Kyle said. “But not anymore.”
“What do you…” Bellad began to argue, only to fall silent the moment he looked into Kyle’s eyes. They were utterly still. No tremor, no flicker of emotion, an abyss whose depths could not be measured.
“......”
The instant their eyes met, Bellad found himself unable to continue. It felt as though the man before him was speaking from the heart. Then Kyle’s voice drifted into his ears.
“Patriarch? Just take it.”
“……!!”
The words sent ripples through Bellad’s mind. Those eyes, that voice—they truly seemed to mean it. As if the seat of Berwen’s patriarch was something trivial, beneath notice. It was impossible. Impossible by any ordinary standard, and even more so from Bellad’s perspective.
When he was young, back when he could barely grip a sword, his mother had told him stories about his father. That he was a remarkable man. That one day he would come for them. At the time Bellad had simply nodded along, but his mother’s words came true. One day she took his hand and led him into the Berwen estate. Only then did he learn the truth: his father was the patriarch of Berwen.
Without fully grasping how monumental that was, Bellad had been thrust into the succession race. In the beginning he hadn’t cared about the position at all. He had been too young to understand why becoming patriarch mattered or what made it desirable. Still, he chose to aim for it. The reason was simple—his mother wanted it. That had been his first motivation.
Yet as time passed, her goal became his own. He had come to feel Berwen’s greatness in his very bones. He had also come to understand his own precarious place within it. Though his father had brought him and his mother into the family, that alone did not guarantee a smooth future. To gain true freedom, to fully enjoy the rights of House Berwen, he realized he had to claim the patriarch’s seat.
From that moment on, his desire became genuine. Fortunately, he possessed outstanding talent while his rival Kyle had none. The succession struggle ended anticlimactically, and Bellad secured the position of next patriarch. That had been years ago.
He had obtained it more easily than expected, yet that did not mean he felt no attachment. On the contrary, Bellad took immense pride in his station. A lofty seat from which one could stand above all men and bend everything to one’s will—how could anyone lack pride in such a position?
And now this man claimed to have no interest in it?
“...That can’t be true,” Bellad denied reflexively. “What scheme are you hiding?”
He had to be plotting something. He was trying to lower Bellad’s guard, then use some underhanded trick to steal back the successor position. Yes, that had to be it.
But Kyle only looked at him with eyes dripping with irritation. “Haa.”
“This is pointless. You won’t listen no matter what I say.” Kyle shook his head as if thoroughly fed up. “If you want, I’ll even write a contract. Stating that I relinquish all claim to the patriarch’s seat.”
“What…!!”
Bellad was stunned. A contract. The power of a properly worded agreement was absolute. With the right clauses, it could bind Kyle so he could never covet the position again. And Kyle was offering to do exactly that of his own free will.
‘Does he truly… have no interest in the patriarch’s seat…?’
As shock washed over Bellad, Kyle continued. “How many times do I have to repeat myself? I have zero interest in that seat.”
“......”
Only then did Bellad accept it. Kyle was speaking the truth. He genuinely did not care about becoming patriarch.
“Whether you become head of the family or not is none of my concern. Do whatever you like. However—”
The casual tone vanished. Kyle’s entire presence shifted in an instant.
“……!!”
‘What…!!’ Bellad recoiled at the sudden change. Momentum could shift with emotion or intent, of course. But the aura Kyle radiated now was on another level. It was razor-sharp, laced with killing intent so cold it made the air itself feel like blades against the skin.
Anyone of sufficient strength could project a sharp aura. But this went far beyond that. Simply facing it felt like a knife was already pressed to one’s throat. One wrong movement and it seemed the blade would slice through flesh at once. The murderous pressure was so intense that Bellad’s body began trembling beyond his control. Cold sweat poured down his spine like rain.
This was… ‘I cannot win.’ The conclusion came from pure instinct. Their levels were simply too far apart. No matter what he did, no matter how desperately he struggled, he would never reach this man. The moment he tried anything foolish, his neck would be torn open. That conviction hammered into his mind without end.
This was no human aura. It was closer to a beast’s—savage, ferocious, and utterly merciless.
Trapped in that killing intent, where even time seemed to slow to a crawl, Kyle finally spoke.
“Elion. Do not touch him.”
Despite radiating an inhuman bloodlust, Kyle’s voice remained perfectly calm. “If you do, I will destroy everything you possess—your family, your power, all of it—without mercy.”
“......”
Bellad could not speak. Under normal circumstances he would have dismissed the threat, laughed at it, or crushed the one who dared utter it. No one should have been able to speak to him, the next patriarch of Berwen, in such a way. Not even the emperor could casually threaten to destroy House Berwen. The very idea was absurd.
Yet somehow, Kyle’s words did not sound like a bluff at all.
“I assume you understood. I’ll be taking my leave now.”
Kyle rose to his feet. The killing intent that had bound Bellad vanished as suddenly as it had appeared. Even so, Bellad remained sprawled on the ground, unable to stand. Kyle left without another glance, but Bellad could only stare at the empty space he had occupied, eyes still trembling.
“...Hmm.”
On the way back after delivering the warning, I reflected on what had happened. ‘Looks like it wasn’t him.’
I hadn’t simply beaten him and issued a threat. Throughout the confrontation I had watched Bellad’s reactions closely. After all, he was one of the prime suspects connected to the traces left in this body—the traces that had likely played a major role in the original Kyle’s death.
I had been searching for any sign of hidden guilt or avoidance, anything that might give him away. But there was nothing. His shock and agitation had been genuine. He hadn’t carried himself like someone concealing a dark secret. I sensed none of the usual gloom or evasion.
Then… ‘It must be the other one.’ The remaining prime suspect. Perhaps that was where the true culprit lay.
‘I’ll need to investigate further.’ Whether I liked it or not, I had a duty to the owner of this body whose life I had inherited.
…That aside.
“...Ugh.”
I let out a low groan as pain radiated through every muscle. Suppressing Bellad had required me to use quite a lot of mana rather forcefully. There had been no other choice. His skill level was far from ordinary; holding back would have been pointless.
Setting everything else aside, the gap between us in physical ability and mana reserves was enormous. So I had chosen to overwhelm him decisively. The longer the fight dragged on, the worse my position would become. Of course I would have won even with a slower, more efficient approach, but that wouldn’t have demonstrated the overwhelming difference in our strength. Thus it had been an unavoidable decision.
Loosening my aching body with a few stretches, I returned quietly to the dormitory.
Perhaps because he had been so focused on the fight with Bellad and pushed himself too far, Kyle never noticed. That someone had been quietly watching them the entire time.