By the time we got back to the dungeon portal, it was already pretty late.

  Along the way, I begrudgingly shot down many more balloons to try and repay them for the meal. It seemed to make them happy, though I didn't understand why.

  Surely they could find a better operator than me.

  It had been years, so I wasn't sure if my home went untouched since I left it, but there was only one way to find out.

  If my food had been raided, I thought I could simply run out to get more from the convenience store... though that made me a bit uncomfortable.

  If everything was gone, wouldn't he recognize me?

  Well, it had been years, so maybe he wouldn't realize that I hadn't grown...

  I doubted it though.

  ***

  The gate to the dungeon was closed for once.

  It even had a sign that said "Closed" on it.

  Theoretically, anyone could just climb the fence, but the kiosk was manned as usual, so that probably wasn't an option.

  "I'm allowed in?" I asked as Van simply opened the gate.

  It wasn't even locked.

  "Of course. It's your home, isn't it? Just show them your ID card if they ask. If there are ever any problems, just get in touch with the Azure Dragons, and we'll handle it."

  "How long will it be closed for?" I wondered.

  "That's sort of up to you. If you want to keep it closed, the government will try to negotiate with you, but you could also use that to make demands for letting us continue using your dungeon."

  I did not want to provoke a whole empire.

  "No, you can open it again whenever, it's okay."

  "Huh, well that's fine too. We'll fight for you to get some benefits."

  'Ah... a diplomatic entity...'

  I'd become a pawn.

  ***

  Before they let me go, Van had a couple more things for me after we went through the portal.

  "I'll let you go home for now, unless you want me to escort you there, but tomorrow at noon, I'd like if you could meet me here. The government will eventually want to review your living conditions, so I'll want to know what we're working with... especially since you said you don't have any parents taking care of you."

  I flinched, because even I wasn't sure how my living conditions were.

  But if I admitted that, he'd probably take me to a hotel instead of letting me find out.

  I could just not show up, but then he'd start looking for me, and for all I knew, there was a tracking Skill that could simply find me wherever I went.

  Even if my body was more durable, there was no way I could outrun adults. Not when my home was surrounded by mountains and extremely aggressive wildlife.

  I'd have a chance if I could control my Beginner checkpoint, but I couldn't. It stayed at the entry portal, even when I went to Terra.

  "Sure," I hesitantly agreed. "Tomorrow... at noon..."

  "Great. See you then, kiddo."

  Once they left through the portal again, I slowly marched along north toward my cave.

  Surprisingly, everything was pretty much how I left it.

  Some of the food went bad, stuff that was perishable, so my food stockpiles had diminished. In theory, I could always search for those mushrooms, but I had enough canned stuff to last for now.

  I threw everything that went bad out for the animals to eat, watching curiously. They just ate it up though, heedless of the fact it was no longer edible.

  Then I cleaned myself up.

  I had to be careful, not just because I was a small girl bathing in the wilderness, although there shouldn't be anyone in the Lost right now anyway... but also because I didn't want to pointlessly contaminate the water too much.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  That wasn't anything new, of course. I did actually generally groom myself. Living in a dark cave just made it extremely inconvenient.

  If you thought I was running around like a feral child before then, you're mistaken.

  It had been an extremely long day though, so after that, I went to bed.

  ***

  I woke up to my watch beeping. It still worked, even years later!

  I'd set its alarm a few hours before noon, so I could get ready.

  After eating breakfast and washing my face, I got dressed and hiked back to the portal, where Van was waiting for me, along with the one guy whose name I didn't catch.

  The one who made me shoot down balloons on his device.

  "Hey, kiddo," Van greeted me as I arrived. "So, we decided last night, but Suon and I'll be your official liaisons. You can go to any guild member, but I'm basically in charge, and Suon'll handle the day-to-day stuff."

  'Day-to-day stuff?'

  How terrifying...

  "Sure..." I managed.

  "Also, we got you a guild phone. You're more like an honorary member, so don't worry too much about following guild regulations, just try not to do anything too illegal if you can."

  I wasn't sure why I'd want to do anything illegal, but then, since I could barely read, it was true that I had no idea what was legal here and what wasn't.

  He gave me a device, just like the one I'd shot balloons on.

  However, it had no place to put mana shards.

  "How do you... power it?"

  "Oh, right. You're out here, huh. Probably no outlets... we'll get you something."

  "N-no, I can buy it myself... how much... how much is this one?"

  I wasn't totally ignorant.

  After seeing Cierri use one to map the forest, I was intrigued.

  The fact that the cheapest models were 50,000 made me reconsider it though. After all, I could buy a whole notebook for less than a single hundred note. I didn't need such a fancy device.

  But it seemed like they weren't giving me a choice about taking one...

  "Huh? Don't worry about it. It's a guild perk. Huh, you sure like paying for stuff. Guess you're used to it."

  "I don't like owing people anything..."

  "I see... well, you don't owe us a thing so far. Lunch and dinner, consider that payment for us basically kidnapping you for a little while. The phone, that's just so we can keep in touch. Keeping in touch with you is literally our job. As far as I can tell, you've squirmed out of anything even resembling a debt so far."

  'Oh. It's just so they can keep track of me easier.'

  I gradually understood what they've given me.

  The guy, I guess Suon was his name, showed me everything it could do during the hike back.

  ***

  "You really live this far from the portal?"

  I nodded. "I didn't want people to find me."

  "I see. Makes sense."

  Feeling as if I was forced to, I showed Van and Suon my home. The cave and the nearby stream.

  "This is where I get water, and this is where I sleep... I just got back from a long trip, but usually I have my woodworking tools here and my cooking stuff there."

  "A long trip... to become the dungeon's boss?"

  "Yes."

  I didn't feel like elaborating.

  Fortunately, the two didn't intrude for very long.

  Although I hadn't asked them, they even said, "We'll make sure to warn people not to go to either mountain range without getting your permission. We'll word it so that it sounds like the forest is the only area you're letting people train in. If anyone tries anything, just give us a call."

  'Are they trying to make me indebted to them to control me later?'

  When they left, I got started maintaining my own weapons. The wax had probably long dried up since I last used it, so I needed to restring my crossbow all over again, and apply some fresh mineral oil to protect the wood too.

  ***

  "So, what do you think?" Van asked his junior.

  "About the girl or about her home?"

  "Both."

  "Well... the girl's feels a bit like a wild animal in some ways, or maybe a cat. The closer you get, the more uncomfortable she is. She's awfully polite for a feral child though. I've seen outsider kids who raised themselves, not alone but in small groups after losing their parents, and... they didn't hesitate to show their distrust."

  "Yeah. She's unusually smart, but I guess that's common for dungeon bosses, even if it's strange to think of a child that way," Van generally agreed with the assessment.

  "As for her home," Suon considered. "It's not too bad. I mean, she's camping out in the woods. Short of building her a house, there's not much we could do for her, and I don't think she'd want us to."

  "That's true. It'd be easier if one of us could just adopt her."

  "I do think it was a mistake having us in charge of her though. We're a couple of guys, and she's a young girl. She should have a feminine role model in her life."

  "Yeah. Unfortunately..."

  He didn't say it out loud, for fear it'd get back to the few women who were in the guild, but... anyone who managed to join the Azure Dragons was not exactly a picture of femininity.

  Bigger guilds would have a much wider variety of employees, but they ran a tight and efficient ship.

  "Maybe we can find someone," Van eventually said with a sigh.

  "Does she really walk this far every day? A two hour... no, it'd be a four hour walk, everyday."

  "I don't think she usually goes to the portal. I'm guessing she only does when she needs to buy something."

  "And we made her walk it last night..."

  'So we did,' Van thought glumly.

  ***

  Perhaps I should have bought a phone sooner.

  At least, that's what I thought at first.

  Well, it ran out of power on the first day, because I started using it to look things up. Apparently, it had access to various encyclopedias, somehow.

  And so, I went back to and through the portal to try finding something that could recharge it.

  The gate was still closed, but they let me through without a word.

  They did wave at me though, so I awkwardly waved back.

  After that, I walked to the store that used to have other phones for sale... but when I got there, it was gone.

  Not the whole building.

  It had become, from what I could tell, a hair salon.

  My mission continued though, figuring I might as well look around to see what else had changed.

  That old convenience store was still there, which was fortunate, because I'd gathered bottles as I went without even thinking about what I'd do with them if it hadn't been.

  While handing them over, although it was a long shot, I decided to just ask, "Do you have anything that can charge this... with, um... mana crystals?"

  I showed him the phone.

  "I have chargers, but... mana crystals... you'll want the camping store down the road. Do you need directions?"

  "Oh, no thank you, um... thanks!"

  I awkwardly fled after getting paid for the bottles.

  Fortunately, the camping store he mentioned was the very same that I'd bought most of my other more useful possessions, like my tent and my pocket knife.

  Lo and behold, with some help from someone who I hoped worked there, I found a charger that accepted mana crystals.

  And so, I went back triumphantly to the cave with my newfound treasure so I could try it out with my stash of mana.

  Only to find that it took about a dozen crystals to recharge it once.

  'Ah... what a waste...'