Foreign Face

I had finally found some work. It was from a noble guard.

A person dressed in light armor was carrying a sword on his waist. He was a young man who was in a hurry. 

He came to the outer part of the slum and yelled out. 

"I need a lot of workers. You have to be strong or have deft hands," he yelled. 

This grabbed the attention of everyone who was in the area.

While most people from the slums had gone somewhere to work, there were still some people who didn't find any. 

I was one of the latter. 

It was good that I had deft hands from the years of painting and sketching. I didn't think I was going to find work today but I held onto hope. 

I was glad that I had found this chance. 

I joined a group of 37 other people and headed over to where the warehouses were. 

I was familiar with this place as my last job was around here. 

I helped sort things in a warehouse. The pay wasn't great but it kept the 3 of us fed. 

They recently went out of business, leaving me without a job. I struggled for a couple of days doing odd jobs. 

It wasn't enough for us. I was really hoping I could find a permanent job soon. 

"You, you, you, and you. You 4 are group 5. Go to that aisle and bring over all of these red berries. 

The 2 men carry the baskets. The women can separate the berries and put them inside." 

A young lady with blonde hair and emerald eyes gave us directions. She was in a maid outfit. A type of clothes I only saw at maid cafes or shows. 

"Don't damage any of the herbs. You can't afford it. Do well and the pay will be good." 

The young maid seemed to be 18-19, the same as me. Unlike me, she looked so clean, her voice authoritative. 

Only after coming here did Isee I people with naturally blonde hair. They weren't common in my country. And that obvious, beautiful European appearance was something that I had to get used to. 

Only those foreign actresses could compare. 

I did as the girl told me to do. I went to the aisle marked 3 and started to separate the barriers from the branches they were. The berries were bright red while the branch was light brown. 

It reminded me of cherries. 

I was accompanied by a middle-aged woman with brown hair and eyes. Both of us were paying attention to our work.

We couldn't afford to be distracted. These cherry-like fruits probably cost more than any money I've ever made. 

"We'll take these." After we finished filling a large crate with just berries, one of the men would carry them away. 

Even though each berry was small, they each weighed as much as a box of cherries. They were oddly dense. The weight was hard to get used to when we first started picking them. 

But I got used to it. It would just take some extra effort, nothing more. 

"Good job. Now go on to that aisle. Do the same for these plants." the maid told us. 

I learned her name is Emily from the other woman on my team. 

Emily showed us a new plant. This time, we had to pick apart silver leaves from a thick green stem. 

These silver leaves had the texture and weight of metal to them. I got used to separating them quickly. The middle-aged woman was slower than me but she got the hang of it with some guidance from me.

We did similar things to different plants many more times. As we were filling the crates, I was counting them in my head. 

We alone had done 23 crates worth of herbs. There were 8 other teams that probably did similar to us.

That meant just under 200, 1 meter cubed, crates were done in a day. The crates were also nowhere to be seen. 

Apparently, they were going to send them to take care of the adults whose blood was taken. 

If it was past me, I would be horrified at what happened yesterday. Right now, serving is all that matters. 

I was just glad that I wasn't one of the people who were sacrificed. Then again, I don't think I have the blood to spare. I am as skinny as a twig. 

I no longer had the well-proportioned physique form before. 

Either way, I was glad to be alive. 

"Here's your pay." The maid handed us 20 copper coins each.

This was enough for the dinner. The 3 of us could eat and there would still be some money left for tomorrow's breakfast. 

"All of you can come back tomorrow morning," she said right before we all left. 

This was great news! It meant that we could have a decent meal again. This relieved all the fatigue I had built out for the day. 

I started to pace towards the commercial district. The sun had almost set. I had to get food before the food stalls closed. 

These food stalls were the only place where we could get decent meals for cheap. They weren't tasty but were enough nutrition to let us get by. 

They only stayed open from sunrise to sunset. I had to get there fast. 

...

...

...

'Young miss, that lady with the dull silver hair, did you notice?" Emily asked me as we both stared at the girl in rags who was running. 

She had dull silver hair with dirt and grime all over it. Her clothes were ragged as everyone else. She was as skinny as the rest of the young women who were brought from the slums. 

She looked like a normal slum dweller except for a certain few traits. 

"I did. Her eyes, hair, and face are not from this region." I replied. 

The young girl had bright red eyes, something rare in the empire and kingdoms around it. So far, the only person I have seen with bright red is Celes. 

Even the mayor doesn't have such a bright red. His is a more tame red with hints of orange.

"If we clean up that hair of hers, It would definitely shine like real silver." Emily added. 

She was right. The dirtiness might have hidden her amazing hair from normal people but we could tell. 

That hair had been treated with care since young, It wasn't going to lose its smoothness that easily. Just a little care and it would become dazzling once again. 

"The main concern is her face, right?" I asked. Her smooth facial features and skin indicated the use of expensive and rare skin products since her youth. 

Even though it had become paler and lost its color, it didn't lose its suppleness. We noble ladies who focused deeply on our appearance took notice of these things. 

She also had a baby face that is rarely seen making her seem much younger than her age. Her face shape was also more oval than most people. 

It made her seem as if she came from a certain region in the east. 

 "Should we investigate her? She seems to have been raised too nobly to be in such a state." Emily suggested. 

"Go ahead. Try to find out where in the eastern regions she might be from." I told Emily to find the girl's origin. 

With how foreign yet somewhat noble her appearance was, I needed to know who she was. She might come in handy for what I was planning to do soon. 

...

For the rest of the week, we went around our numerous warehouses.

We had the same group of slum dwellers, with some new additions arriving in the morning every day. 

They would organize and transport the herbs to the center of the city. That was where potion makers and doctors from different families and businesses worked together. 

They made different solutions that were fed to those who had their blood taken. 

Nutrition potions, blood replenishment potions, and healing potions were constantly produced and fed to them. It kept them alive. Many regained their consciousness in a week.

They were able to get home and start working within another week of rest. 

The city that had ceased functioning for over 2 weeks, due to a lack of adults, had gotten back on track. 

The digging of information on the silver-haired girl had also arrived. I had not seen her for the last 3 days as we had run out of useful herbs to donate. 

"So, what's her situation." I asked one of Ryan's masked soldiers. 

They were the ones who as always, carried out any information requests I had. They are better at espionage than they are at fighting. 

"Her name is Hana. She has 2 siblings. A younger brother that looks to be 7 to 9 years old. A younger sister that is around 4 to 5 years old. They appeared in the slums about a year ago. 

The 3 of them live on the outskirts of the slums in a single room home." The masked person read off a report in her hands. 

The voice clearly belonged to a woman. 

She looked at me and I nodded for her to continue. This information was normal. 

"She used to work in a warehouse before the owner went out of business. According to her past employer, she is a kind girl who doesn't speak much. 

He also said that she is good at numbers and can read even read very well." 

That was strange. 

"If she could do math and read, why didn't she get a better job? She could easily get a good job in the city. They are always lacking people with good math skills." I asked, puzzled. 

"She doesn't have identification papers. Not even immigration ones. This means she is an unregistered resident, A proper business can't hire employees without proper identification." the masked girl explained. 

"Every person in the slums should have identification. This is something that cities like Spfenia, which are close to the capital, enforce. Even people in the slums have been documented. 

She and her siblings are a weird case. It was like they were dropped in Sofenia from thin air." 

What the marked soldier revealed made me frown. Even cultists had real identities in society. It was how people lived and made money. It was a basic feature of even people who lived in remote cities and towns. 

With her foreign facial features and well taken care of skin and hair, she wanted someone who belonged here. 

"So the question is, how did she and her siblings end up here?" I mumbled to myself. 

I was stumped. With how tight security is in the city, it was impossible for the 3 to sneak in. Even the cultists we found had lived or moved here with legitimate identities. 

The only other way was costly teleportation magic but a person who is living so poor wouldn't have that in the first place. 

This situation was full of contradictions, ones I couldn't easily wrap my head around. 

Whatever, I was going to tell Ryan about the technique tomorrow. I would mention this dilemma to him.

He always seems to have solutions to weird situations like this. 

...

When I did tell him about it, he showed me a face that I had never seen before.