Lost Sister

The guard stopped walking and looked back at Marie, mild annoyance on his face as he asked: "What's the matter, kid?"

Marie put on an aggrieved expression with tears in her eyes while fidgeting uneasily.

"I'm sorry for bothering you, Sir. It's just..., I'm looking for my sister, I lost her when we were traveling along the riverside. I found some tracks leading into the town, so I've been looking for her the whole day. Have you seen her?"

The guard frowned, what an annoyance, he was just about to go to the inn too. He wanted to shake his head and send the boy away, looking forward to comfortably ending his day drunk at an inn.

But before he could actually hush the boy on his way, the other seemed to sense his intentions, hastily adding.

"She also has red hair, is around the same height as me," he hesitated for a moment before shamefully continuing, "... and she is also pretty blessed in the chest area."

The guard watched as the boy turned as red as a tomato, but the description finally struck a chord. A small smile appeared on his face as he thought back to his encounter earlier this afternoon.

"In that case, I think I saw her. She entered the town with a group of men, but I don't know where they went afterward."

The more the youth listened to these words the more disappointed his face became, finally he nodded.

"Thank you for the information, at least I know that she is in town now. Goodbye..."

The youth turned with an aggrieved expression on his face, about to leave.

Seeing his crestfallen appearance, a bit of guilt rose in the guard's heart, unable to bear it the guard shouted at the boy's back.

"There are two places where your sister could have ended up, either the Lord's Estate or the red light district! But the Lord's Estate cannot be disturbed at this time of day..."

The boy turned around to thank the guard with a bit more enthusiasm and a spark of hope in his eyes. He bowed swiftly before hurrying away.

The guard scratched his head once, sighed, and continued on his way. This counted as a good deed for today, right? Maybe his luck would be better when he gambled today.

Marie, on the other hand, was weaving through the crowd of sweaty beastmen, while occasionally asking for directions, in a very good mood. If she didn't have to keep up her act, she would have whistled a tune.

The System which had fallen silent from the moment Marie launched her frightening acting skills, finally couldn't stay still anymore.

'...Why are we searching for a fantasy 'sister' now?'

The System asked in her mind. It had clearly sensed its host's good mood, but it didn't really understand why Marie felt so happy.

Have you ever heard the word alibi? I'm working on creating an iron-safe one right now.

'...oh.'

That seemed very reasonable actually, the System concluded. Still, why did she have to create one so closely related to her real identity?!

Even going up to directly ask about herself.

The System grumbled secretly.

During the time the System felt vexed about the kind of host it was assigned, Marie had reached the red light district.

The title red light district was not for show, the were a lot of red lanterns hanging on either side of the street. And that was pretty much it, other than these luring red lanterns, the red light district really wasn't pleasing to the eyes, or the nose. No matter where you looked lay garbage or even two people in a tight embrace. A few scantily dressed female beastmen stood around several lit entrances, advertising their services, their unwillingness clear on their faces.

But the smell..., the smell was something else, Marie almost vomited on the spot, it took her all she had to swallow the bile in her throat back down.

She entirely focused on calming her breath and getting her gagging reflex into control, masking this as a teenager lacking courage, before she stepped reluctantly into the red light district.

The smell got worse the deeper she went inside, but Marie was slowly adjusting to it through several shallow breaths.

As she walked around, she looked for a potential victim. Her plan was to pick out an easy-to-deceive rich beastman and help (scam) him. But just then, Marie caught sight of yet another tightly entangled couple.

Something about them stood out to her, so she observed a bit closer. Finally, she saw the female beastman's face and stopped dead in her tracks, stunned.

The System also noticed its host's unusual behavior and inquired in a very concerned tone.

'What happened? Why are you just standing there, host?'

It had also carefully scanned the beastmen couple but it didn't find anything strange about them.

Marie simply ignored the System, she started walking in the direction of the beastmen, her steps becoming faster and faster. The angry and suffering face of the female beastmen, tugged her heartstrings, causing a sour feeling to rise in her nose.

Standing directly above the couple, Marie only heard her blood rushing through her ears. Burning rage blinded her as she watched the disgusting beastman, it made her act without thinking. She took out a powder from her make-up bundle, and hit the beastmen so he would turn to look at her, before throwing a handful of powder directly into his eyes.

The beastmen cried out withdrawing his hands from the female beastman he had been holding onto.

Marie took this opportunity to grab the female beastman and pull her out from beneath him. As soon as the female beastman had gotten on her feet, Marie tucked her hand to run away. The beastman still howling in pain behind them.

Dragging the female beastman along, they passed through the crowd. They ran for a long time until Marie couldn't run anymore and she found an unoccupied, small alley that was dark enough for them to stay mostly hidden.

She was panting heavily, retching because of the disgusting smell from time to time, but this didn't stop her from looking at the female beastman's face.

A confused expression had appeared on the other's cold face at some point but there were also some very well-concealed hints of worry.

This face overlapped with the one in her memory, causing Marie to wordlessly stare at the female beastman.

Tears gathered in her eyes, but they wouldn't fall, countless words lay on the tip of her tongue but her throat was tied shut. She could only continue staring.

The longer the silence prevailed the colder the female beastman's expression became, but she still perfunctory asked.

"Are you alright?"

These words awakened Marie from her stupor, she realized that she had acted too recklessly, even the System had been screaming inside her mind the entire time.

Now that she was no longer caught up in her memories, Marie also saw that the female beastman's appearance wasn't exactly like the one she was familiar with. But it was so extremely similar..., she couldn't stop herself from asking, even if it was a very dumb decision and the sober part of her mind was pleading her to stop.

There was no way it could be her. She is gone. Stop holding on to this idiotic hope and use your brain!

But the lingering affection and regret inside her heart urged her on.

Small theater:

Guard: One good deed a day to improve karma.

Lord Agnis whose estate was set on fire by a certain person:...