Living Out an Otome Game in Monster City

One afternoon, a girl was brought back to the manor by her jellyfish husband.

"Child, are you afraid of how I look? You've been staring at me ever since we left."

His azure eyes turned toward the girl following close behind him.

By his measure of the long years he had lived, she was only a very young child.

"I'm looking at your tentacles. They're beautiful, more beautiful than every rose on Earth."

She raised her head and praised him sincerely.

"I'm sorry, child. My tentacles aren't rose-colored."

He apologized, drawing back beneath his wide judge's robe the tentacles he couldn't control as they reached toward the girl's cheek, ankle, and moist, soft lips.

"Of course. No jellyfish are rose-colored," Jiang Pei murmured to herself.

But Jiang Pei knew that when human warmth covered them, they would gradually take on the rosy hue of a nebula.

Avitus also knew that she was touching a projection on his body: his younger brother's projection.

*

As a born-and-bred Earthling, Jiang Pei would have a hard time surviving in the harsh monster city-state.

But life was great if she could cling to someone powerful.

Endless delicacies, endless air conditioning and heating, and no more going hungry or freezing.

Unfortunately, the first person she clung to died young. He gave her his heart and then lost his life. The second was much too serious, stiff, and boring.

Every day, she diligently raised his favorability, working at it until she lost all sense of time and grit her teeth with frustration, determined to win over that old stick-in-the-mud.

All she got was the same bug-like message, over and over: Sorry, we can't be that close.

Jiang Pei was so furious she fainted.

At last, one night, she tackled a certain judge onto a pile of official documents.

To her surprise,

The person she thought would be so embarrassed he'd fly into a rage instead turned rosy all over.

His tentacles sprawled everywhere, seeming to resist even as they welcomed her touch.

*

Avitus was always worried that living among monsters would have a bad influence on this human child.

They were so stupid and savage, and only knew how to plunder.

So he prayed devoutly to God, asking that the monsters in the city-state be a little more polite and not hurt his little human.

God said:

Are you insane?!

Aren't those crude, idiotic things all your doing?

*

Romance with a nonhuman

More than one

*

[Original worldbuilding]

[Beginner's original worldbuilding = death]

[So much rambling backstory that I can't bear to cut = death]

[Here lies Zang Guagua]

[In memoriam]

Theme: Always believe that the best ending is within reach