Unlike Van or Suon, I didn't get a response back from Zaitenmodi right away.

  He had mentioned that our messages would pass many hands and be seen by many eyes, so I speculated that his dungeon did not have direct access to Terra's communication network.

  I had to wonder just how difficult it was to set up a line of communication like this. It had taken him a few weeks to send his first message, after all.

  'Or perhaps it just took a few weeks to reach me?'

  Regardless, I had different issues to worry about.

  "You don't want a checkup too, kiddo?" Van asked in a disappointed tone.

  "No."

  We were taking Lilac to another doctor, one who specialized in neurological examinations and other psychological diagnoses.

  "It's not necessary," I told him.

  "Alright. We won't force you, then."

  Despite my having explained it to Lilac, she still seemed really nervous.

  Well, even if it wasn't for the same reason, I could still relate to her feelings. I was pretty anxious about going to some facility and letting strangers study her.

  Even though whatever insight they manage to glean might be valuable, it was risky to get.

  If they tried anything, I wasn't sure that I could protect her.

  Of course, if the imperial government tried anything, I doubted I could even protect myself, but I could probably at least get away from criminals or other rogue actors.

  So I was still more nervous about her safety than my own.

  Fortunately, nothing like that actually happened.

  Instead, the doctors used a myriad of strange machines on her.

  They also had someone use a translation spell to ask her various questions.

  Instead of a scroll, they used a device that was hooked up to the wall. The doctor activated the effect by inserting a key and then placing her hand on it, which caused it to light up a bit.

  After that, although I understood imperial well enough to follow along, the meaning of everything she said entered my mind as well.

  Kind of like looking at a portal, or when someone in the Lost gains a Skill and everyone else there just knows they did.

  Anyway, they asked her a myriad of questions. As far as I could tell, it seemed to be a set of standardized questions, rather than an actual interview, since very little Lilac responded with seemed to steer the direction of their questioning.

  She seemed quite nervous, so I did what I could to help calm her down.

  Whatever the purpose of their questionnaire was, it was beyond me.

  ***

  "Can you understand me?"

  The doctor asked Lilac, the question making the young girl flinch.

  "(Y-yes,)" she answered nervously. She couldn't understand why she knew what the woman was saying.

  She found herself drawing closer to Kid.

  Though she felt guilty for doing so, the other red-eyed girl didn't show any objection, simply allowing her to stay close.

  "I have a few questions for you. Is that okay?"

  "(I-it's okay,)" she confirmed.

  Saying otherwise didn't even occur to her.

  "Can you tell me what your favorite food is?"

  "(A-anything's okay...)"

  "What about your favorite game to play? Can you tell me that?"

  "(Umm... I-I don't know...)"

  "That's okay. What do you like to do when you're bored?"

  "(Wh-when I don't have anything to do... I should clean...)"

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  The questions went along like that, each one making Lilac feel more and more anxious.

  The doctor was about to suggest a break when Kid remarkably spoke up first.

  "I think you've asked enough questions for now. She needs a break."

  "You're right, I'm sorry."

  If Van had any doubts about Kid taking care of Lilac, and he certainly had a few, those small interactions made him reconsider things just a bit.

  "Are you sure you don't want to pick things up later?"

  "This place is far from home, and it's not easy for her to come here," Kid answered the doctor on Lilac's behalf.

  "I see..."

  It took a while for them to complete the psychoanalysis, despite it just being an initial survey.

  ***

  "So, we've confirmed that she has all the neurological signs of being a child. That is to say, there's no indication she's reached adolescence. This is all assuming her development falls within standard ranges, but everything seemed to indicate that it should."

  I was impressed that the doctors were able to give results so quickly.

  'I wonder what took that other doctor so long?'

  The doctor continued, "Her psychological profile suggests learned helplessness and extreme conflict avoidance, though I'm sure that's not news to you. There's no cure for that, there's not even a guarantee of recovery."

  I wanted to remind the doctor that there's no guarantee of anything, but I kept quiet. Doctors in economically prosperous cultures often say many pointless things to protect themselves from bureaucracy.

  Finally, the doctor gave us a few prescriptions.

  "She needs long-term stability and safety. Punishments should be logical and predictable, if not avoided altogether. Also, she needs to be given opportunities to make her own choices, and encouraged to do so."

  "Is this all based on her, um... unique nature, or is this just a Terran diagnosis?" Van asked.

  "Ah. Everything I said is true either way, but... if she is really long-lived, it's possible the source of her trauma occurred over a very long time as well. They say that however long the trauma developed serves as a good estimate for how long the healing process can take."

  "What they say isn't true," the doctor continued. "Brief but severe trauma can take a very long time to heal, and sometimes healing isn't getting over something, but just learning to live with it. Other times, people recover quite quickly from events that you'd expect to take years to recover from."

  With all that bureaucratic stuff out of the way, the doctor finally got to the point. "However, if she spent, say, centuries in the conditions you've described, it may be beyond any living single Terran to help her. We wouldn't live long enough to provide her enough stability to counter her lived experiences, at least in that scenario. She may come to view her life now as little more than a fleeting dream."

  "In other words, she'll have to live with another member of her people," Van said.

  "That's correct. At least, that's my advice at this stage. We could give better advice if you're able to bring her back here on a regular basis for monitoring, and even better still if you can sign her up for counseling."

  ***

  Since I was earning some money teaching Savi, and we were out and about anyway, I decided to take Lilac shopping before we returned.

  Both Lilac and Van looked extremely awkward the whole time.

  Lilac was awkward because I saddled her with a whole bunch of harmless decisions.

  "(Do you prefer this color or this color?)"

  "(U-um...)" She hesitated, studying me as if trying to divine the correct answer from my expression.

  Unfortunately for her, though I was a girl, I'd seen and forgotten so many cultures that fashion was pretty much dead to me. As long as it covered most of my body and wasn't difficult to move in, I was happy.

  But it was fine if she didn't have an opinion either. The goal was getting her to be more comfortable with expressing herself.

  Finally, she chose, "(Th-that one...!)"

  She seemed to like physical contact, at least if it was with me, so I patted her on the head or shoulder each time she made a decision, whatever it happened to be. I even gave her a hug once.

  As for Van being uncomfortable, I assumed it was a guy thing.

  I still pestered him about it though.

  "You don't have to stay with us if you don't want to. We can walk back."

  "Huh? No, no, it's fine. I'm not going to make you walk back."

  "If you're sure."

  We bought a few dresses and a bunch of other stuff. I basically spent my whole first paycheck on Lilac, but since she was the reason I got paid in the first place, it wasn't a difficult expense to make.

  Though since we were very patient with her the whole day, we did get back to the portal at night.

  'Maybe we should have went shopping another time...'

  It was still another two hour walk.

  "I'll carry her," Van offered.

  Lilac looked pretty tired.

  "(Van wants to carry you. Are you okay with that? He won't hurt you.)"

  "(I-I'm okay... um... I mean... h-he doesn't have to...)"

  "(He doesn't have to, but he wants to anyway. You can say no, if you don't want him to.)"

  "(I-I...)"

  Suffice to say, it was a difficult decision for the poor girl.

  He ended up carrying her back to the cave once she got tired enough. She held out for a bit, but two hours was a long walk for a kid who was up past her bedtime.

  I was tired too, but I slept early because it was healthy, not because I couldn't stay awake.

  When we got back, I offered to let him stay the night since it was late, but he declined. "It'd be very inappropriate."

  I wasn't sure why, since we did have two tents now, but I didn't press him on it. He knew Terran culture better than I did.

  ***

  "She's immortal too?" Savi asked.

  I'd just loosely explained Lilac's situation to her.

  "Yeah. You might not be the right parent for her."

  "I see. I think it's hasty to decide that right after finding out, since there could still be further complications... but I think I get your concerns. Although... who could be?"

  I thought about it for a bit.

  "Aside from me... there are a few others. People say Zaitenmodi is."

  "Zaiten... who?"

  "The Demon King of Naraka."

  "Urgh... of course you're on a first name basis with the literal Demon King... but why would someone like that ever want to adopt a little girl? Never mind that he sounds like he'd be a terrifying father."

  I shrugged. "Dunno."

  We were doing more agriculture work as we spoke.

  Pretty soon, I had samples of each crop I'd hoped to plant, a few of each just to gather more data.

  Lilac was there helping us too.

  "You should take a break and play with Lilac," I suggested to Savi. "She doesn't know how."

  "That's pretty depressing, but I was a child prodigy, so I don't really know how either. I understand why she wouldn't... but shouldn't you know how? Don't tell me you don't know either..."

  I was technically a kid, and I did know a myriad of different games, but...

  'Wouldn't it just be going through the motions if I do it?'

  "I guess I can try," I finally concluded.