There wasn't anyone in the town hall besides Lupia, who was sitting at her desk. I wondered why it had been so busy the first time I came. I raised a hand in greeting to the uniformed wolfkin, the other holding the door open for Tear.

“You seem to live here,” I joked as we approached her desk.

“I do,” she sighed with more feeling than I was expecting my statement to elicit, “I'm simultaneously the mayor, land agent, local Baroness, branch head of the adventurers’ guild, and secretary and scribe for what feels like everybody. At least Steven took over as head of the guards last month, it was very awkward to have guards rush in and report in the middle of important meetings.”

“You sure have it hard, huh,” I said, pulling another chair from my world storage and putting it next to the one already there.

“Hmm? You have an item box? That's not very usual,” Lupia commented.

“Yeah well it's very useful,” I replied, both Tear and I taking a seat as Lupia waved us to.

“You certainly seem to have it filled with all sorts of random things,” Tear commented from the side.

We made some small talk for a few minutes, then Lupia asked “So, what do you want to do?”

I sat back, suddenly intently bothered by my lack of purpose, even though I had only been in this world for five days, four nights. That was really short now I thought about it. I had no idea what my long term goals were, but it wouldn’t be bad to just take it easy until I found something I wanted to pursue... ”I'm not sure,” I replied, “explore the world, I guess.”

“Er, no, I meant from this meeting,” she said with a slightly wry smile.

“Oh, hah! Silly me,” I laughed. Tear sighed loudly.

“Lyte, sometimes you're a hopeless idiot,” she said exasperatedly.

“Nope, I just think wide thoughts,” I said and ruffled her hair firmly, causing her to squirm under my hand.

“I get it, I get it, so stop that!”

I chuckled and released her.

“So?” Lupia asked, a smile playing round her lips.

“Ah, right, we're here to register this little minx as a citizen of this town. I would prefer to have her registered under my place, but I'm not sure; is that possible?”

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“Your place being-?” inquired Lupia.

“You know, the bit of land I claimed out on the edge of the Beast Forest.”

“Oh yes, I remember. I still think you're mad for wanting to settle out there.”

I did my best to look innocent as Tear stared hard at me.

“I can register, er, sorry, what's your name?” Lupia asked Tear and I smacked my forehead. “Why do I keep forgetting to introduce people?” I groaned internally.

“I'm Tear, nice to meet you,” Tear said with warm cordiality. I gave her a dirty look.

“What?” she said.

“How come you're so polite to her and not to me?” I complained.

“She thinks you're mad, I think you're a fool, we think the same, why shouldn't we get on?” Tear said. Lupia stifled a giggle.

“Don't encourage her,” I scolded Lupia, who managed to turn her laugh into a cough.

“Back to what I was saying,” she continued after a brief pause where she composed herself, “I can register Tear as a citizen of this town with your uh, 'address', fairly easily. Though, due to my job, jobs, I do have to ask why you're registering here, though I can mark it down as ‘not announced’ if you really don’t want to tell me.”

Tear squirmed in her chair, evidently embarrassed, so I seized the chance. “She tried to stab me in Durell due to a misunderstanding, and got exiled to the Beast Woods rather than enslaved thanks to your sister, which reminds me, I owe you a favour. As for citizenship here, Law is a bit more flexible as we're technically outside of the kingdom.”

“You tried to stab him based 'misunderstanding'?” Lupia asked Tear incredulously.

Tear looked mortified and buried her head in her hands.

“Yup, she thought I was someone else just because I wear a piece of cloth over my face,” I answered for her, enjoying her reaction greatly.

“Please stop,” moaned Tear, and I decided to ease up on tormenting the girl, though not stop completely. I didn’t think I had sadistic tendencies but it was just so funny watching her squirm.

“Well, we do have some similar cases in this town already, though none quite like that,” Lupia said, struggling to keep a straight face. “So, yes, I can register you as a citizen. Can you read and write?”

“Yes!” replied Tear proudly, as Lupia dug out a pair of forms from a drawer in the cabinet next to the table and passed it over the table.

“Then just fill this out, and I'll do this.” She bent her head and started writing quickly with her quill.

Tear also started writing, but slowly and hesitantly. I surreptitiously looked over her shoulder to make sure she was filling it out correctly.

Lupia finished quickly and looked up. “Oh yeah, Lyte, you should transfer your citizenship to The Outpost too.”

I shook my head. “Don't have one.”

She stared at me. “Of this country, or...?”

“I don't have citizenship of anywhere.”

“Lyte, you do know that's a serious problem right? If you're not a citizen anywhere, you don't really have legal rights. You could potentially be legally enslaved by any rank of noble!”

“I think they'd find that difficult, but all comers are welcome to try,” I said, smirking and summoning my spear, Daybreak, and my sword, Star Wrath, then just as quickly returning them to my hotbar.

“Well,” Lupia said hesitantly, “if you're sure.”

“Nobody would want him as a slave,” Tear cut in, “he's too much of an idiot. Anyway, I'm done.” She handed the form across to Lupia, who checked it over, stamped it with red ink, signed over the stamp, and smiled.

“There we go, now you're officially a citizen of The Outpost of —- in the Beast Woods,” she said. “I've placed your address on the land Lyte owns, even though it's in a crazy location.”

“You'll just have to warn postmen,” I said with a chuckle.