I just fell under that general umbrella.
The same process was also done for adoptions, marriage, changes of identity, and simply correcting clerical errors.
Well, my case was treated as a kind of clerical error.
Of course, my old name was still being psychically broadcast to everyone who looked my way.
Recalling Kazzim and Zaitenmodi, it wasn't a noisy broadcast.
There was no sensory data conveying the information. No voice, no images, not even the illusion of such things.
It was like an alien thought. It didn't even force you to notice it, although its sudden presence was hard to miss, sort of like how the word for an apple might come to mind if you happen to see one.
If you've ever simply known something in a dream, it was a bit like that. Only, since it wasn't a dream, its nature was markedly more apparent. That is, it was self-evidently not my own thought, nor simply my imagination.
It was far too distinct to mistake as such a thing.
So when I say it was being broadcast, thankfully it wasn't as though there were fanfares wherever I went.
It was just that everyone could know my name without having to ask.
So calling it a clerical error seemed a bit odd to me, but that's what they filed it as.
"You know," Van spoke up while I was looking over my new card. "I kinda just figured Kid was your actual name. It's not that unusual."
"It's not?"
The card still listed Kid, this time in a small spot that my last ID didn't have, labeled as an alias.
'Well, I guess it is one of my aliases.'
"Not really," Van mused. "You named Lilac after a flower, so... it seemed like literal names were just normal in the Lost."
"She probably has her own real name too."
"I guess that's true."
"Wouldn't Scan have told you?" I wondered, but Van shook his head.
"Her name was unknown. To be honest, names are a bit harder to read than most things, so it's not uncommon... especially given her circumstances. I only have Scan IV, but if she forgot and nobody else knows it, then even the Demon King probably couldn't have seen it... ah, but now it just says Lilac."
"It does? When did that happen?"
"Sometime not too long after the boss of her home dungeon named her."
'Oh.'
Naturally, that meant me. I'd somehow overwritten her name.
"So... I actually do have authority...?"
Although as soon as I asked that, I realized that I'd also somehow overwritten my own name, so it seemed more reasonable to assume that anyone could do it, in the right circumstances anyway.
But Van still answered, "You do. It might not seem like much now, but you are still learning. You wouldn't expect a kid to go from basic addition right into calculus. Er... calculus is... a pretty advanced math. Is Savi tutoring you?"
"I'm the one tutoring her. I told you that I'm immortal."
Meanwhile, Lilac just quietly clung to me.
It almost seemed mean to bring her here, since there were so many people in the city, but if she stayed holed up forever, she'd never get used to them.
Of course, I didn't force her to do anything. She was the one who agreed to come with us from the start.
Though I wasn't sure she understood where we were going, so it did feel a bit like I'd tricked her, but I still thought it was probably for her own good anyway.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Hopefully it wasn't too much for her.
If it was, the meal later might also be too much... but she did okay back at the party. I had even managed to convince her to beat a few people in some board games.
So I thought it would be okay.
***
Of course, I didn't really like big celebrations either.
The fewer people, the better.
However, they had thrown a big party to celebrate our safe return. Though I hadn't asked or wanted them to, I didn't want a strange debt like that to linger.
Though since this was also to celebrate me having Skills...
'Ugh. Well, the real point is to get my name changed, anyway.'
The buffet they picked wasn't exactly small, but between everyone who could make it, we pretty much filled out a whole wing of the place. They even put a few of the tables together so everyone could sit together.
It was a curious experience. I'm sure I've been to similar places in my past lives, but they just brought us food without even asking what we wanted, and anyone who wanted it could grab it for their own plate.
They did ask if any of us had any food allergies before it all started, as well as what kind of drinks we wanted, but that was the only input we had.
Even our drink choices were kept abstract. Water, juice, carbonated, or alcohol.
"Huh... since our host is too young to drink, alcohol seems a bit..."
"I don't really mind. I'm not too young, it just wouldn't affect me much."
"You're ten, though. I know you're immortal or whatever, but Scan still says you're ten."
"It doesn't matter, since it wouldn't affect me anyway."
"Wait... have you drank alcohol before...? How did you get it? In the Lost?"
"Sort of. It was a long time ago..."
Anyway, I picked juice. Despite me saying I wouldn't mind anyway, not many of them chose alcohol.
The lack of choices at least made things easier for Lilac, who was still learning imperial.
Well... it did once I managed to convince her that she really could just grab food on her own. Until then, I had to help fill her plate for her.
But she did eventually start doing that, so I think bringing her was a success in the end.
"So, Kid, didn't you have something to share?"
'Well, that confirmed just changing a name on a card isn't enough, I guess.'
"Yeah. Kid was never my real name. It just decided it was, since everyone called me kid."
"Oh- woops! Sorry!"
I guess he was apologetic since he'd just called me Kid, but it's not like he could have known before I told him.
"What is your real name, then?"
"Um... well, I guess I'd had a few... but the one my family gave me, so very long ago... was Na?s."
It wasn't like my name had any particular meaning in this world. In fact, it didn't have any meaning in the Lost either.
So there was no real meaning for them to grasp.
"Hey Kid," Van spoke up. "That's not quite how dungeon bosses do it. Try being a bit more declarative."
"Declarative?"
"Yeah," another guy spoke up. I think his name was Cinio. "That's one of your names, right? But is that your name?"
"Yeah. My name is Na?s."
Everyone sitting at the table, aside from Savi and Lilac, was either an A ranker or promising enough that the A rankers in question fully believed they eventually would be.
Well, my own status was a bit unusual, since I was both an S ranker and a D ranker, but that was besides the point.
They were all a pretty relaxed bunch, giving off a collective aura of confidence that made the room feel like it was probably the safest place in the whole Empire.
So the air definitely changed when all of them shifted in different ways.
Their attention had already been on me, but for a brief moment, it felt fixed there.
"Huh? Did something happen?"
***
【Na?s, Boss of the Lost.】
There was no announcement.
If they weren't all seasoned pros, they might have not even noticed right away.
But there was definitely a change the moment the girl spoke.
"My name is Na?s."
They were all A rankers, so dealing with unusual Skills, monsters, and dungeons was basically their job. Nobody could guess what the next mission would involve.
So it wasn't fair to say that it was particularly unusual.
They knew there were things that could deceive them. Ways to make Scan report lies, or worse.
In other words, these psychic messages couldn't be trusted completely.
However, they also knew the small girl whose identification had just changed probably didn't have any such abilities. If she did, she was remarkably good at hiding them.
It could have just been a coincidence.
Perhaps anyone so truthfully declaring their name like that could make it change as she had.
But they were still all pretty sure they just witnessed a boss wield her power.
It wasn't very flashy, but there was still something quietly impressive about that.
It made more than a few of them all think something along the lines of...
'She really is a boss.'
***
RedOwl: Huh... Kid is... Nais?
RedOwl: I'm not sure if I can type it properly.
Hero194: Type what properly?
Popcorn5: What's Nais?
RedOwl: Her name changed.
RedOwl: But it's not an imperial name.
RedOwl: Nais? Na-is? Naees?
OutsiderFan71: I'll get you the right spelling.
Popcorn5: How're you going to do that?
Hero194: Wait, her name changed?
Hero194: Can that happen?
Indigo997: Yeah. It's not that rare.
Indigo997: It's probably just more noticeable because she's a dungeon boss.
Indigo997: But there was that one adventurer whose name swapped back and forth between their legal name and the nickname everyone called them.
Hero194: Should we ask her which one she prefers?
RedOwl: Just ask a guild officer if you're curious. Don't bother the dungeon boss in her natural habitat.
Hero194: What is she, an animal in a zoo...?
***
Doing the celebration as a lunch rather than dinner was a remarkably clever idea.
It meant that at least a few of the guild members I'd invited had places to be, and it gave the whole thing a rather short time limit compared to the events they usually invited me to.
Perhaps that line of thinking was a bit self-centered, but I was still happy to get back home while it was still light out.
Also, apparently my plan worked.
Well... specifically, Van and Cinio's advice worked.
'Do dungeon bosses really have the power to name people or something?'
Well, even if I could do that, unless Lilac wanted to change her name someday, it didn't seem like something I'd get to practice much.
'Maybe they'll stop treating me like a kid now.'
Or at least less of one...