"The new branch head?"
"Yes, you already know that the current family head is Alex's grandmother, right?"
Alex and the others nodded their heads. Indeed, after Alex's father's death, it should have been Alex who became the head of their family branch. However, since he was weak, other family members, especially his uncles and his father's brothers, refused to accept him as the head.
You see, Alex's grandfather had three wives. The first, who was Alex's grandmother, Grace Eswald, had two children: Alex's father, Theodore Eswald, and Alex's aunt, Emily Eswald.
The second wife of his grandfather also had two children, Richard and Robert Eswald. Finally, the third wife had only one daughter, Eleanor Eswald, who was the youngest.
But as in many households, there were issues, and in their family, the issue was that Alex's grandmother and his grandfather's second wife did not get along, leading to a rivalry between them that continued down to their children.
The rivalry was especially intense between Alex's father, the eldest, and his uncle Robert, the second child. This rivalry reached its climax when Alex's father was designated as the next patriarch of the Eswald family. However, because Theodore was more powerful, talented, and intelligent than Robert, Robert could do nothing but accept that Alex's father would become the head.
However, after the death of Alex's father and when their branch was removed from the position of the main branch, and a new head needed to be chosen, Robert firmly opposed Alex becoming the head, stating, "It's unacceptable for such a weak and good-for-nothing person to become the family head."
Though brutal, demeaning, and infuriating, he was not entirely wrong. So, Alex was rejected as the head of the branch.
Afterward, Robert presented himself as a candidate for the position of family head. But how would Grace allow the son of her rival to take the position that, in her view, should go to her grandson.
So, she proposed that the future family head be determined through combat, and since she was stronger than everyone, she defeated them all and became the head of the branch.
Since then, she has been the family head.
Ava looked at Alex and his family before announcing, "Well, we need to choose a new family head because the election of the future patriarch will be in the form of a competition, and the winner will become the heir. However, there is an age limit, with a minimum age of 50 and a maximum age of 100. This means that Grace and the rest of us are automatically disqualified. So, the only ones who can participate in this competition are the members of Alex's generation."
After this revelation, the room fell into solemn silence again before Ava broke it by saying:
"That's why the others won't come today or tomorrow but next week. Everyone is preparing for the mini-competition that will take place in a week to determine who will be the head of our family branch and its representative." Ava stopped speaking for a moment to let this information sink in before continuing:
"I'm here to inform you of this news, and Amy is here to inform you of her participation."
"Huh... you're going to participate in this competition?" Alex asked Amy.
"Yes, I plan to participate."
"What will the competition be about?"
"It will be a fighting competition."
'A week, huh? That should be doable,'thought Alex before turning to his mother and saying:
"I will participate as well."
Silence.
That was the only thing audible after Alex's announcement.
Lilia, beside him, looked at him and asked, "Are you going to participate in what too, dear?"
With a big, blissful smile, Alex replied, "What else do you think? I'm going to participate in the competition to become the head of our branch."
Once again, there was a second of silence before Ava asked, "Little empe- no, Alex, are you sure about what you're saying?"
"Absolutely."
"How do you plan to compete against the others? Just so you know, all participants are at level 4. How do you intend to fight them, given—" Ava abruptly stopped in the middle of her sentence and started to observe Alex oddly.
Again, there was silence, but this time it felt strange. Then Ava asked, astonished and confused, "How?"
"Huh?" was surprised to see her pause in the middle of her sentence and then ask a question. But Ava didn't seem to care about the others' astonishment and asked again:
"How is it possible that you are at level 1?"