The Family's Attention

At the Felistin Family's estate on Number Three Floating City, a family member had finally secured permission to meet the family head after passing through layer upon layer of approvals.

She walked down a long, narrow corridor lined with portraits of the Felistin Family's past heads. When she reached the room at the end, she noticed a gap where another portrait could have hung. For now, it was blank.

Did they summon a mage from the Construct School to extend this corridor every time a new family head took office?

She speculated to herself. Otherwise, how could it be such a coincidence that only the current head's portrait was missing, and the corridor had exactly one space left?

She glanced at the surrounding portraits again, then dared not delay any longer. She knocked three times, waited a moment, and only then pushed the door open.

The lighting inside was rather dim. As though determined to preserve the family's longstanding arrangements, the family head had deliberately kept only two flame lamps along the side of the room, each covered by a translucent, pale-yellow shade.

A narrow slit in each shade allowed the black smoke from the flames to escape.

Even such a clever design seemed entirely unnecessary to her. The corridor outside already used the bright yellow lamps newly developed by the Alchemy School. Once purchased, they could stay lit for ten years, and their brightness did not even begin to fade until the fifth. Such lamps were far superior to flame lamps.

But she was not the current head of the Felistin Family, so naturally, she had no say in how his office should be furnished.

She lowered her head slightly and dipped in something resembling a ceremonial bow before raising her head again, without speaking first.

The branch family