Clara knows she is not like her big brother. He was a watchman, just like their father before him, and she was only a young adventurer.

For years she had taken care of their father and her little sister. When she could she would practice swordplay under her father’s advice. Until he died, just like her mother, who had already been taken ten years earlier, he was taken away from them by an illness. At sixteen years old she was considered a young adult and was the only one left to care daily for her twelve years old sister, as her brother was either sleeping in the watch dormitory or at his wife’s family house. Fortunately, her father had at least left them with enough money to sustain them for a few years, even without the help of their brother.

For the following years, she did small jobs to make their savings last longer. At the age of fifteen her little sister started to work too. She had found a job in a seamstress’ workshop. One year later Clara’s little sister announced her engagement with a young tailor specialized on leather in a close building.

Clara was happy for her sister, but also a bit jealous. When men came to her, they were more interested in the opportunity of having their way with a taller woman than a romantic relationship. Leading her to despise men’s lust, while her sister and brother had already started their own families.

Anyway, she was released from her family obligations. If it wasn’t forbidden for a woman to do so, she would have enrolled in the watch. Instead she joined one of the few local adventurer guilds that allowed women to register and started working as an adventurer.

She was nineteen, a bit late to start an adventuring career, but not that rare either. No, the problem was that even if it was allowed, it was frowned upon for a woman to be an adventurer. The fact that she was taller than most of the men wasn’t helping either and she was a better fighter than the other beginner adventurers too.

For three years she only went on small missions close to her home by herself, earning just enough to live without using too much of her father’s savings, until she finally managed to find a team willing to take her in.

She went on adventures with this group for a year and it was a happy time for her. She was gaining respect among other adventurers and her family members were doing good.

But one day, her group took on a request that was underestimating the threat. Her group was composed of ten adventures and well balanced. They were originally supposed to just take care of a small bandit group. To ensure the success of the request they even teamed up with another group of adventurers.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough. When they attacked the bandits, they were unlucky enough to do it just half an hour before another group of bandits arrived. As twenty-one adventurers against sixteen bandits became twenty-one against thirty-four, they lost.

This is how her life of slavery began.

Now she is living in an almost empty town in the depths of a Dungeon. At first, she was lost, not knowing what to do as the Dungeon is not acting like normal dungeons. It is more acting like a noble owning the land and letting the commoners take care of everything, just taking his - or in this case its - levy from time to time. And for this Dungeon the levy was mana and it was able to collect it without even bothering people.

She is not sure what to think about its Citizenship proposition. Is it really what it seems to be? Some kind of nobility under the Dungeon? Those are the questions usually on her mind. She could go into the maze and start her adventurer life anew, taking her mind away from those questions, but the monsters in here are boring and can't even properly distract her, they are not even real monsters.

Fortunately, or maybe not so much, something happened last night. A man disappeared. It is the kind of work a watchman does, but there is no watch here. So she seized her chance and took it upon herself to solve this case. Maybe she can even institute a watch here, one which would not discriminate between men and women. But for that, she would need to resolve the case and talk with the Dungeon.

And for now, it doesn’t go as well as she planned. While she did manage to find out who is missing, she only has several earwitnesses - if that is even a thing - and one eyewitness, Laura, that claims to be the victim, that the missing person was an assailant and the Dungeon just saved her.

What is the most unsettling, is that when she asks the young woman anything - Clara still has a really hard time believing the other woman when she tells her she’s already twenty-seven - it is Laura that seems to be leading the interrogation. It is like this throughout the whole afternoon, each and every time Clara tries to talk to Laura, she ends up telling more about herself than learning about the other woman. That is infuriating, but she reigns her emotions in. She is the one that is initiating a watch, she should not be the one telling stuff about herself, she should be the one asking the questions!

At the end of the day, relief comes in the form of the group of adventurers coming back from the maze. As expected, Bertrand is not amongst them and none of them has seen him since the last day. Finally, she has the opportunity to talk to Franziska.

When the female Dwarf comes out of the maze, Clara walks up to her not caring of the other adventurers’ looks. It is obvious they think she will be rebuffed.

“Um. Miss Franziska, can I talk to you?” She asks a bit intimidated by the Dwarf.

“Yes, you can.” Is the answer that surprises the other adventurers.

“I would like to question you about something that happened last night.”

“No, I personally didn’t hear anything. The Dungeon had bothered me all afternoon, wanting me to explain the situation. To put it short, Laura told you the truth about the events. The Dungeon saved her ‘cause she wants to become a Citizen, and it seems that it sees something special in her. Don’t ask me what the Dungeon sees in her, it didn’t tell me and I don’t care. And as of Bertrand, he is alive, but he broke the first of the Dungeon’s laws, so he will suffer a ‘fate worse than death’. Don’t ask me what it is either. Now I’m going to take a bath, I need it.” After this small torrent of words left her mouth, Franziska leaves the perimeter and quickly walks in the direction of the bathhouse.

“B… but… but…” Clara has answers to her primary question, but the way she obtained them is even worse than with Laura. She feels stupid. And the pat on her shoulders and nice words from the rest of Franziska’s group do nothing to lessen this feeling. When she takes a look at Laura, she sees her looking at Franziska’s back with eyes wide open and a stupid grin on her blushed face, when she approaches the woman she hears her whispering to herself.

“The Dungeon says I’m special. I’m special to him. He really cares about me...”

Clara shakes her head. This girl has nothing more interesting to say. Suddenly it hits her, she still had something to ask Franziska.

“W… wait! I still have something I want to discuss with you!”

Clara rushes after the adventurer group and starts to walk alongside the Dwarf.

“So, can I talk to you about the Dungeon?”

“You can. Maybe I’ll answer, maybe not.” Says the Dwarf with a strange smile on her face.

“I won’t complain about Bertrand’s disappearance and I think no one will really miss him either. But do you really believe what the Dungeon told you?”

“Mhmm.” Makes the nodding Dwarf.

“Don’t you think it could be a lie?”

“Course it could, but why?”

“Why? I don’t know, maybe Bertrand is right and the Dungeon got rid of him.”

Franziska abruptly stops, while Clara takes two more step, before she notices, and turns to look at the Dwarf.

“Look, you’re a nice girl and I can see you just want to do what is correct. But the world is not just. And I’m not stupid, I can see that you want something else. You want to know if you can trust the Dungeon. Well, I think that as long as you follow its three big rules you’re good. I’m doing you a favor here, talking to you for the Dungeon. But if you want to have a real talk with it, you’ll have to be a Citizen or ask another one. When there will be another one, of course. Now, tell me what you want.”

Once again, Clara is surprised by the long lecture the usually quiet Dwarf is giving her. The members of her adventuring group are just as surprised as her. As Franziska resumes walking, Clara gulps and goes back to the conversation.

“I was wondering what the Dungeon will do to ensure the safety of the non-Citizen. Will it institutes a watch or something?”

“Honestly? For now, it wants a maximum of non-Citizens to become Citizens. But in the long run, it doesn’t give a fuck about them.”

“What?! Does that means it will do nothing against criminals and bandits? I thought it hated pirates.”

“‘Till they break its three laws, it doesn’t care.”

“But if people were to put up something to fend for themselves, would it stop it?”

“Ok, girl. You want to do that? To make a watch and be a guard? And all that shit? Be my guest. The Dungeon’s telling me it’s ok with that. It will even make an official building for you, with desks, interrogation rooms, cells and all that sort of stuff. But only if you become a Citizen.” Says the Dwarf as she enters the bathhouse.

“Really?”

“Yes, really.”

“You sure it said that?”

“Yes, but I think you’ll have to work on your interrogation skills. From what I heard and saw, it is nothing to write home about.”

“W… what…” Clara tries to reply but is interrupted by Franziska entering the Citizen only area and slamming the door in her face.

Clara doesn’t really know what to think. Her dream could become a reality, she could be part of the watch. Well not the same watch as her father and brother, but a watch nonetheless. And she could even be the captain of this watch, but only if she becomes a Citizen.

But, just like the Dwarf said, she needs to improve her skills as a watchwoman. She can’t let other people take control of the conversation when she works on a case. Especially not Laura, the way this woman can turn a conversation around is frightening Clara.

“Aaaaargh!” The tall and blond woman shouts in exasperation.

“Didn’t really go as planned, huh?”

Clara turns and sees one of the two brothers, she can’t tell which one it is. Maybe the older one?

“You saw that?”

“Yeah, I saw all of it. Don’t take what the little lady told you too personally, she’s acting like that with everyone. In fact, I even think she likes you.”

“Really? Didn’t look like that way to me.”

“Nah, she doesn’t usually talk that much. As for me, I’m all for a watch in this town. You have my support for that.” Says the man with a smile.

“Thanks.”

“My advice is to not put too much pressure on your shoulders or else you’ll go crazy.”

“Ok…”

“And now I need to go wash myself, I stink of sweat and rat’s blood. Good luck.”

-

“You could have been nicer to her.” I say to Franziska.

“And you could let me enjoy my bath in peace.”

“Come on, don’t be this cold.”

“I’m tired of being your only representative. When will you finally have another Citizen?”

“It should be soon, I think either Laura or Grundy will soon become one. Laura is working really hard to do so, she sits all day long in the meditation room and even meditates in her bed before falling asleep. While Grundy is slower, he started long before Laura. And that Clara should be able to do it quickly, if she ever decides to try.”

“Good. Also, tell me. What about Bertrand? What are you doing to him?”

“For the moment, nothing. But in the future, I will do things to him that you really don’t want to know about.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I will use him for my experiments. Maybe he’ll die, maybe not.”

“Fine. Now, go elsewhere and stop peeping on me.”

“You’re frustrating, you know that?”

She does not answer me, but I can feel she’s enjoying that.

As for me, I think I would rather have a watch in my Domain. That would make it safer, meaning that more people would agree to live in my town. And I would not have to bother myself with taking care of street security, I have other things to do, after all.

Things like taking care of Bertrand...