“All right, Bruno... Give me a moment.”
“Is there something I may assist with?” he offered.
“No, it’s fine. I’m just going to check with Amelia.”
“Hmm? With Ame—er, Ms. Amelia...?” He furrowed his brows, confusion written all over his face.
Honestly, I was confused as to why he was so confused. “We need to ask for her permission if we want to do things with her performance.”
“I believe you need not... Ahem. Your generous consideration is truly inspiring, Your Majesty.”
“It’s just the right thing to do, though...”
I smiled awkwardly. He praised me for doing the obvious...
Admittedly, I wasn’t short on praise from all the people and monsters around me, particularly for my magic. Sometimes I felt bashful, but other times I accepted it in stride. After all, I understood that magic was a miraculous power, and it wasn’t easy to wield it the way I did.
But asking Amelia for permission was no feat—it was just the obvious thing to do. Being praised for it left me embarrassed and puzzled.
Ultimately, I decided to forget all about it as I went out to meet Amelia.
Amelia had been a little startled by my sudden visit, but she welcomed me with open arms. The two of us now sat in the reception hall’s parlor room, furnished and decorated with a perfect balance of luxury and comfort.
I wasted no time cutting to the chase. “I want to sell your photographs and voice.”
Amelia blinked. “My...photographs?”
“Ah, that’s right... Sorry, I forgot to explain.” I cleared my throat. “Do you remember the spell Liamnet?”
“Liamnet... If I recall correctly, it’s a spell for sending letters, yes?”
“Yes, but it’s not just for that.”
Amelia looked a little surprised. “Really?”
The Liamnet was deeply ingrained in life here in the magic city, so I’d made sure Amelia could use it—though it seemed she’d been making do without it even after living here for a while. Well, she has lived her entire life without it.
“Allow me to demonstrate.” I used the Liamnet to display a photograph in the air between us. This had been taken by one of the elven maids and shared with the entire city, so I should be free to use it here.
“Is that...a portrait of you, Your Majesty? It’s very well-made...”
“This is a photograph—a drawing made with light,” I told her. “You can roughly think of it as a spell that saves the scenery at a specific moment.”
“Wow... I’ve never heard of such a spell.”
“We also have moving photographs.” Seeing her curious gaze, I went ahead and displayed a different picture—one of me sleeping in my room.
“Hnnn... Full power... Gooo...”
Gosh, my sleeptalk is so embarrassing...
“Wh-What is this...?”
“It’s me in my sleep,” I answered. “After I made this spell, I realized that I never knew what kind of sleeper I was, so I decided to test it out on myself.”
“Oh, I see...” Amelia giggled. “I suppose you would never normally know how it is by yourself.”
“Exactly.”
Our gazes met, and we both burst into laughter.
What a strange feeling. I admired Amelia, so much so that my nerves always got the best of me whenever I was in front of her. But now, here I was, having such a silly conversation with her.
“I never knew magic could do all this. I’m impressed, Your Majesty.”
“Yeah... I made this myself, so it makes sense that nobody has ever heard about it outside this country.”
“You made it yourself? Goodness... That’s even more impressive.”
“Er... Y-Yes.”
Embarrassment washed over me. Being praised for my magic always made me both bashful and proud, but all the more if that praise was coming from someone I admired. Still, I was happy. I’d always thought that magic was amazing, and it made me twice as happy that Amelia agreed.
But I couldn’t just drown in this giddy feeling right now. I had to steer this conversation back on track.
“S-So anyway,” I continued, “I would like to sell this.”
“Ahh, right...” Amelia nodded slowly, recalling the main point of this discussion.
“I want to store your performance into a magic item so that anybody can listen to it from anywhere in the world.”
Instantly, Amelia’s eyes blew wide. She fell speechless.
Uh-oh. Was this a bad idea after all? But I really wanted to share Amelia’s amazing voice with people around the world. It was still too early to back off—there was still room to convince her.
“Of course, you’ll—”
Suddenly, Amelia bolted from her seat and looked down at me.
My mouth clamped shut. Oh no! Did I make her mad?
But before I could blurt out an apology, Amelia bowed her head—so deeply, and so sincerely, that I was left at a loss for words.
✦ ✦ ✦
“A-A-A-Amelia?!”
The sight of Amelia bowing her head so deeply threw me into a panic. This wasn’t the first time she’d done this, but the last time—when I’d saved her parents—at least warranted it to an extent. Now, though? What reason could she have to bow to me again? If anything, I was the one asking her a favor.
“Er, well... For now, p-please raise your head...” I said to Amelia as my head spun.
She slowly straightened her posture, her clear gaze locked onto mine.
“Uh... Amelia?”
“I usually perform for people of influence,” she began. “They would call for me, and I would sing for them like a caged bird. I have always wanted to sing for more people, but I had neither the means nor the permission to do so.”
“Permission...? Whose?”
“My clients... The people of influence. They wanted to maintain my worth.”
I cocked my head. “What does that mean...?”
So people of influence paid her lots of money and called her to their mansions to perform especially for them—that checked out. That had been the exact scenario I’d overheard her singing from.
But I didn’t really understand what Amelia meant by “permission.” Why would she need their permission to do what she wanted? I tried asking Lardon in my mind.
“I don’t know for certain...” I could hear a smile in her voice. “But this is sounding like quite the amusing development.”
After all our time together, I could tell from just her tone that she was actually exasperated—so exasperated that she was actually amused, just in a cynical way.
I’ve got a bad feeling about this. I quietly waited for Amelia to continue.
After a short and hesitant pause, she said, “According to them, my value will drop if I just sing anywhere and everywhere.”
I blinked. “Pardon...?”
Singing freely...decreased her value? What was that supposed to mean? My mind struggled to comprehend, so I tried thinking of it in terms of magic. Well, casting magic costs mana, and having little mana means weaker magic, so maybe...
“Is that because singing everywhere would expend your stamina—er, your vocal cords more?”
Amelia quietly shook her head. Apparently, I was off the mark.
“Then what...?”
“The more accessible I am, the lower my value... That is, my value as a songstress solely for the wealthy.”
“Er...” Sadly, her explanation wasn’t really helping me understand.
“Ha ha ha ha ha!” Suddenly, Lardon burst into laughter, but I could tell it was because she’d heard something absurd. Something ridiculous.
“Honestly, I don’t quite understand,” I admitted and watched Amelia wilt a little. “But, Amelia, it sounds like you’re not happy with that. Am I wrong?”
Amelia’s breath hitched, the sadness creeping in on her expression washed out by shock. The sight of her bowing her head to me was burned into the back of my eyelids. Why would she have gone that far, had she not been so discontent with the status quo?
Amelia met my gaze, but after a while, her eyes turned downcast. Her voice was weak. “No... I am not happy with it,” she admitted, confirming my suspicions.
“Then it stops here.”
“What?” Amelia whipped her head up to me in shock. “R-Really?”
“Only if you want, of course.”
“L-Lord Liam, do you...” Amelia gulped. “Do you not want to, er...monopolize me?”
“Not at all,” I answered easily.
Amelia stared at me, agape.
Her reaction perplexed me. She asked me if I wanted to monopolize her, and I didn’t, so I answered no—that was all there was to it. What was so shocking?
“Pffft...” I could hear Lardon stifling her laughter.
Was my answer strange...?
“Fret not,” she said before I could ask. “Your answer amuses me, yes. But for the girl, that was the right thing to say.”
If you say so... In any case, I was really out of my element here. Nothing seemed to be making sense to me, so I decided to push the conversation forward. “What should I do? No—what do you want to happen, Amelia?”
“What I want to happen...”
“Yes. Tell me anything. As long as it’s possible with magic—”
I clamped my mouth shut. Magic was a wonderful and miraculous power. All this time, I had placed full and unwavering trust in it, but before my greatest idol my confidence wavered for a second.
But no longer. My next words came out with ease, firm and sure.
“—then I will grant your every wish.”
Was I being a bit too over-the-top? Amelia stared at me, eyes wide and jaw dropped, too shocked to even speak.