Ding dong!
A magical chime rang through the house. To the owner, Amelia, the sound was quite a change from the door knocker she was accustomed to, as was having an entire place to herself.
“Coming!” She rushed to the front with light steps and opened the door. Outside was a giant carrying a box on his shoulder.
“Apologies for the wait, Lady Amelia. I’ve brought your groceries for the week.”
“Thank you! C-Come on in.” Amelia hurriedly stepped aside.
The giant had to duck his head just to cross the doorway—naturally, as they were much larger than humans despite their similar forms. He was also incredibly burly. Amelia couldn’t help but tense up.
The giant set down the box in the kitchen, then swiftly returned. “I shall take my leave now.”
“Th-Thank you very much.”
Amelia saw him off, then once the door was shut, she breathed a sigh. “I need to get used to this...” she muttered with a grimace. Her whispers echoed emptily through the halls of this large, spacious house.
Magic City Liam was populated almost entirely by monsters. Contrary to common perception, however, the streets were lively and filled with vigor. Most might assume that Amelia would stand out as a human, but that would be yet another mistaken assumption—none of the monsters saw her any differently as she strolled through the streets.
“Lady Amelia, when’s your next concert?”
“We tried asking Lord Liam, but he said that it’s all up to you!”
“I wanna hear you sing again!”
Far from it, they were all incredibly fond of her. From the beautiful elves to the most frightening monsters, everyone approached her with bright and friendly smiles.
“O-Okay...” Amelia strained her lips into a smile, desperately hiding her befuddlement as she responded to their greetings.
They were all so amicable that she couldn’t help but wonder: Were they actually just humans in costume? But that couldn’t be.
“Whoa, would ya look at that!” marveled a monster as he looked up at a translucent panel floating in the air.
Naturally, the others gathered curiously around him. “What is it?”
“Take a look at the latest topic,” he said.
“Latest topic, latest topic... Oh! It’s Sli and Lime!”
“Their bounties went up, see?”
“Three hundred coins, S-rank targets... Wow!”
A crowd began to gather as the air was filled with chatter. On the panel were two adorable slimes bouncing and jiggling about. Without the supplementary text, nobody would have suspected them to be such high-paying bounty targets.
Only in a nation of monsters could a rise in bounty be cause for celebration. It should have made sense to Amelia by now, yet still, it boggled her mind.
“Everyone is so bright and cheery...”
“Is it so strange?”
Amelia turned toward the gentle voice beside her and found that she recognized its owner. It was Jodie, one of the few humans in this city.
“Ms. Jodie...”
Jodie’s smile was as gentle as her voice. “Still struggling to adjust?”
“Huh? N-No, not at all...”
“It’s not so strange, is it? Especially once you know why they are all so happy about it.” Jodie giggled as she watched Amelia tilt her head in confusion. “It stems from the one thing that brings all these monsters together: Everyone loves Liam.”
“Ah...” Amelia slowly nodded. She’d had much to think about throughout her time here, and among them was the realization that everybody in this city loved Liam. It hadn’t come up explicitly at any point in conversation, but nobody would deny it anyway.
“Everybody loves Liam, and at the same time, he is just a bundle of joy and positivity. Naturally, they all grew to emulate him.” Jodie’s smile deepened as she looked Amelia in the eye. “You can relate, can’t you?”
“Yes, I... Huh?” Amelia blinked, then gasped. Instantly, she realized what Jodie meant by her question. She had seen right through Amelia’s feelings for Liam. “W-W-W-W-Wait—” she stuttered, as flustered as a maiden in love.
Before she could even come up with what to say, Jodie smiled and said, “There are all sorts of love, no?”
“Huh...?”
“Take Gai, for example.”
“Gai... What?!” At the mention of the giant, Amelia’s thoughts steered toward an unbelievable direction—
“Or like Sli and Lime.”
“Ah... Ahhh.”
Just like that, her rampaging thoughts were swiftly extinguished. She finally understood what Jodie meant.
“See? There are all sorts of love, aren’t there?”
“Yes...”
“But the most important thing of all,” Jodie continued, “is that whatever the form, nobody will ever condemn your love for Liam. So don’t worry, okay?”
Amelia hung her head. “Okay...” She realized that she had just been comforted. This woman felt like a patient and caring mother.
“In any case, you have a rough road ahead of you,” Jodie mused.
“Huh? Wh-Why?”
“Nobody will condemn you, but your rival is Lord Dyphon.”
Amelia grimaced. Her rival—her love rival—was Dyphon. Even if she was free to pursue her feelings for Liam, an immense wall loomed before her. However, a maiden in love was not to be underestimated. A powerful rival was no reason for Amelia to back down.
“I will give it my all,” she declared with burning resolve.
Jodie giggled. “I’m cheering you on.”
This was no more than a small conversation in one corner of Magic City Liam. Most people would know this place for its incredible magic, but not many outside its borders were privy to the citizens’ one point of commonality: their broad and all-encompassing love for Liam.