-Why are you doing this to me agaiiiin!
The skull wailed.
-What is it? Why again? What is it! Come on, won't you say something?
If he'd had a body, wouldn't he have been twisting all over?
-Master, Master, Master, Master!
Absolutely beside himself.
-Please just say something. I'm getting dizzy over here.
Dizzy, without even a body.......
The reason for his state?
It was because I hadn't said a single word the whole time I rode the train from Luber City to here, Ballonz County.
The Mana Train had covered roughly a thousand kilometers.
The journey took four days.
Meaning I hadn't said a single word to the guy for four days.
Why?
He still wasn't fully trained.
A skull-head, a shut-in Archmage, my personal encyclopedia, and he dared to have no respect for his Master.
So he needed re-education.
Through the only leverage I had over him: a communication ban.
That was why he was in this state.
I could do this as many times as necessary.
I'm a very persistent person.
My destination was the outskirts of Ballonz County.
-Masteeeeer!
He was in full meltdown mode.
Surely he'd learned his lesson by now?
Come to think of it, he'd started watching his language carefully two days ago.
So, shall I see whether he's come to his senses?
'You skull-head. What? You called your Master a bastard? A bastaaard?'
-Please just say somethi... Whoa! You're finally talking!
'Not answering?'
-S-so, what was that? Bastard? I said that?
'Are you saying you didn't?'
He went quiet for a beat.
Probably sifting through his memory.
The thing was, back when I charged at that knight, he'd very clearly said it.
Wait, hold on, you bastard, he'd said.
And then.
-Ack! N-no, that was!
'You did, didn't you?'
-O-over something that small....
'What? Small? Smaaall?'
Words that slip out unconsciously reveal a person's true feelings.
In other words, up until that moment, deep down, he still hadn't truly accepted me as his Master.
In fact, once I'd gone silent, he'd peppered his speech with casual insults on and off.
That had only stopped two days ago.
-No, it was just a momentary slip...
'Don't feel like talking, I take it?'
-N-no! No, Master! I'll never slip up again!
'Next time it happens, it'll be a full month.'
I'm persistent, and I hold a grudge for a very long time.
-Understood!
His voice was taut with tension.
That should have done it.
If he slipped again, I'd just re-educate him then.
For now, I'd call it here.
-So where are you going now?
'Why?'
-Weren't you heading for the Renhardt domain? Isn't this the wrong way for the border gate?
'You really are a shut-in Archmage, no matter how I look at it.'
-Why are you suddenly bringing that up again?!
Judging by how touchy he got, he really was the shut-in type.
'You know all the theory but none of the reality, you idiot.'
-Reality?
'You want me to waltz into the Renhardt domain as a Legitimate Heir of House Facial?'
-Oh?
The three great houses commonly known as the Triarch.
Renhardt, Facial, and House Aquren did not regard each other as enemies.
If anything, they shared a loose alliance.
At least for now, before the two houses went to war.
So entering Renhardt territory in Kalian Facial's body wouldn't technically be a problem.
But going through official channels would alert House Renhardt that I'd arrived.
Surveillance would follow, naturally.
And meeting 'Aizel Renhardt' under those circumstances?
Impossible.
So I'd go in secret.
-Do you happen to know a hidden route from the Empire into Renhardt territory?
'Wouldn't I know?'
-How?
'Did you forget who I actually am?'
-Oh!
How did this thing ever reach the Seventh Circle?
I was originally Aizel Renhardt.
Ballonz County, which bordered the Renhardt domain, was practically my front yard.
***
"Haah!"
Aizel Renhardt propped his chin on the desk and heaved a deep sigh.
No, the one who sighed was not Aizel Renhardt.
It was Kalian Facial, the soul inhabiting that body.
'This....... what on earth.......'
The sighing had been going on for ten days now.
Ten days since Kalian had entered Aizel's body.
At first, he'd wondered if he was dreaming.
Given how extreme the situation was, he couldn't help it.
Kalian Facial had been living at House Facial's 'Summer Castle.'
Then, absurdly, he'd been kidnapped. Tortured.
And then.
'I died.'
He had.
During the waterboarding, his breathing had stopped, and he'd died.
Or so he'd thought.
But when he opened his eyes, he was in a completely unfamiliar place.
And his body had changed.
Faced with the impossible, he'd spent two days lying in bed doing nothing.
Then he'd learned the truth.
'M-me? No, I mean, my body is a Renhardt? Aizel Renhardt?'
Waking up in someone else's body was absurd enough on its own.
And a Renhardt, of all things.
One of the Three Great Houses of the continent.
A family on par with his own House Facial.
And on top of that.
'A mage, of all things!'
Kalian had been raised as a knight since childhood.
But this body had no Internal Energy, only mana. It was enough to drive him mad.
And he could only tremble with fear.
What if it came out that a stranger's soul was inside the Patriarch's son?
The family would never let that stand.
'I'll definitely be killed.'
So he'd holed up to survive.
In a space called Aizel Renhardt's personal study and training room.
Whether it was a rule the real Aizel had established, no one ever entered this space.
So he'd spend his waking hours shut inside the study, and at night, retreat to the bedroom to sleep.
Ten days of trembling in fear.
'What should I do?'
Kalian, settled inside Aizel's body, spent yet another day not knowing what to do, cycling between worry and sighs.
"Haah!"
Aizel was on his seventy-third sigh of the day when.
He froze mid-motion without realizing it.
'What's that sound?'
An unfamiliar noise struck his eardrums.
Click, click, click.
A creeping dread sent goosebumps racing across his skin.
"Wh-who's......."
He snatched at the staff propped against one side of the room.
Clatter, clatter.
The sound continued.
It was coming from the bookcase against one wall.
"Hooo, hooomph!"
Sucking in rapid breaths, he crept toward the bookcase.
He gripped the staff tight, ready to unleash Facial-style swordsmanship at any moment.
When he'd closed to within fifty centimeters, the sound stopped.
"Hah, hah!"
Aizel stood frozen, still terrified, staring at the bookcase.
"Haah......."
And just as he confirmed there was nothing there and exhaled in relief.
CREEEEAK!
The entire bookcase suddenly swung aside.
"Guh!"
Aizel gasped and held his breath involuntarily.
Beyond the displaced bookcase, something emerged.
A person.
'A hidden passage?'
Reflexively thinking that, Aizel checked the person's face.
And.
He saw himself standing there.
No, his original self. His former body. Kalian Facial was standing there.
"Kyaaaa......."
A scream tore from his lips on its own.
But he couldn't even finish it.
SMACK!
A resounding crack rang out, and everything went black.
"Wow, that feels awful."
Kalian, who had knocked Aizel out with a blow to the back of the head, scowled deeply.
Hitting an existence with the exact same face as your own—even if the bodies were different, from the soul's perspective—left a profoundly unpleasant aftertaste.
The first thing I did was lock the study door.
It was unlikely anyone would open it without permission, but that scream might have been overheard.
I threw the bolt for good measure.
Then I turned to the unconscious Aizel....... no, Kalian? Aizel? Kalian? Haah, what am I supposed to call this?
This was more complicated than I'd expected.
How to put it?
A deep reflection on the ontological definition of a human, or the criteria for judging identity...... my ass.
I'd just go by the body.
That made the most sense.
Right now, I was living as Kalian Facial.
Everyone I met from now on would call me Kalian Facial.
Then I was simply Kalian Facial.
I didn't even know the cause, let alone a way back to my original body, so agonizing over my identity like that was pointless.
If anything, wasn't it an intellectual game, a vanity for when you had too much time and nothing to do?
So I was Kalian now, and that was Aizel.
I dragged the collapsed Aizel over.......
Hm, deciding was one thing; getting used to it would take time.
Treating another version of myself as a separate person was deeply disorienting.
Anyway.
I sat Aizel in a chair and gagged him first.
Then, just in case, I bound his arms to the chair as well.
-What are you going to do now?
Velkarion asked.
'First, I need to reel this one in properly.'
-Reel him in? For what? Why?
'Why did I come all the way to Renhardt territory in Kalian Facial's body?'
-To check what happened to your body, Master.
'And I've confirmed that, right?'
-Yes, you have.
I'd known the moment I laid eyes on him.
Judging by those timid, unconfident eyes, it was definitely not me at this age.
Which meant the soul inside Aizel Renhardt's body was, without question, Kalian Facial.
So what came next?
'I need to achieve the purpose I came to the past for.'
Preventing the annihilation of my family.
And ultimately, finding and destroying the force that had wiped out all three great houses.
The skull bastard knew my objectives well.
-But.......
'Hm?'
-How? In your current state?
I gestured toward Aizel, slumped unconscious in the chair.
'That's why I need to reel this one in. Turn him into Slave Number Two, nice and obedient.'
-Slave Number...... Two? Wait, Number One?
'Who else would it be?'
-Wow, shit!
Regardless of whose soul occupied my body, I was Kalian Facial now.
A Facial meddling in Renhardt affairs made no sense.
And such meddling wouldn't work in the first place.
So I had to manage the person wearing Aizel Renhardt's body.
This situation wasn't what I'd wanted, but it had its advantages.
Leave Renhardt to Aizel, while I leveraged House Facial's power as Kalian.
Taking down that unknown faction would require the combined strength of all three great houses anyway.
The only problem was.......
I found myself staring absently at the unconscious Aizel.
First impressions weren't great.
Timid and cowardly.
Strange.
The Three Great Houses wielded influence and power that even the Empire dared not cross.
Someone born into such a family, of the Patriarch's own blood, being like that?
People came in all types, so it was possible, but still.......
That was something to investigate later through this body's memories.
For now, time to wake this one up.
I fetched water from one side of the study and dumped it straight over his head.
SPLAAASH!
"Pfbh, pffbt!"
The gagged Aizel sputtered and made strange noises.
I grabbed Aizel's shoulders roughly and shook him.
"Hic, HIIIEEE!"
Aizel's eyes flew open in terror, his head thrashing wildly.
That was when the skull-head butted in.
-Huh? Looks like he's about to do it again.
'Do what?'
-That thing.
'What thing?'
-Eeeeeek....... Pfft, khkkhk!
Huh, this skull bastard?
His intent was transparent.
He wanted to mock how someone wearing my face had screamed like a little girl.
-Khkhk, eee, eeeeek.......
'You and I are going to have a talk later.'
-Eep!
He snapped out of it and let out a startled yelp, but I ignored it.
-I-I was wro.......
'One more peep and it's a month of silence.'
-.......
What was I going to do with him? He kept pushing his luck at every opening.
I'd have to play my hidden trump card soon enough.
But that could wait.
I placed my hands on Aizel's shoulders.