Chapter Two: A Troubled Visitor

It was some time after our move when Flèche—now the king of Lèvres—came to visit us.

I was in the middle of swinging my broom around in the garden under the sun. It shone much brighter here than it had in Tête, and the mere act of stepping out of the mansion to its welcoming rays had put me in high spirits. The weather today was pleasantly mild; not so cold that I would need to bundle up, but not hot enough for me to have to adjust the temperature with my magic.

As I stood there, broom in hand, Flèche suddenly popped into existence in front of me. Char was currently working in his office, so he wasn’t around. Though the Mercures were no longer nobles of the Tête Kingdom and weren’t swamped with work—no more wasting time writing tons of useless reports for the crown—Flèche had made Char an earl of Lèvres. Granted, his territory was limited to the island we occupied, and it was only applicable for as long as we lived here, but he didn’t have to serve in court or anything of the sort. However, just like in Tête, he had to take care of the occasional magic mission: killing monsters and the like. And, sadly, that came with some paperwork.

It went without saying that Flèche never acted as haughty as the Tête Kingdom’s royal family or nobles, nor did he send the Mercures on reckless missions. Besides, the Motar Faith—the root cause of the discrimination against mages—wasn’t around anymore.

Flèche had proclaimed that he would do everything in his power to transform Lèvres into a nation that was kind to mages and treated them fairly. Nevertheless, the Motar Faith’s doctrine was still strongly entrenched in the minds of many who opposed his decision.

The Faith and its fictitious god, Motar, had been around for five hundred years and had spread over the