No matter how poor Shiro was, he had never taken advantage of anyone, regardless of how beneficial it would be to him.
However, a second after Shiro drank water, a system message appeared.
*Ding*
[ Unknown Substance Detected In Water ]
[ Analysing and beginning separation ]
[...]
*Ding*
[ Substance separated]
[ Substance identified]
[ Substance: Low-Grade Sleeping Powder ]
[ Effect: Effective immediately, puts the consumer into sleep, impossible to wake up unless heavy stimulus is given]
[ Sleep period: 1 Hour (irrespective of the mass of the consumer)]
Shiro glanced at the mug, not knowing how to react in this situation.
Why would the little girl feed him sleeping powder? The little girl was petite and her clear eyes showed no hints of malice, why would she give him this?
'I should pretend to be asleep…', Shiro thought to himself as he pretended to yawn.
"Hmm, I'm a bit sleepy. Is it okay if I take a nap?", Shiro asked the little girl as he handed the mug to her.
"Sure, brother! You must have been very tired today…", the little girl replied with a toothy grin as she took the mug from Shiro's hands.
"You can rest all you want. When you wake up, sister will give you some food…", the little girl said in a wavy voice while looking at her elder sister, who seemed about 16.
Shiro smiled as he closed his eyes.
A few minutes after he closed his eyes, he could hear a small sob from the little girl.
"Sister, is this the right thing to do?", the little girl asked her older sister.
Then, small footsteps ensued. Shiro felt another person's presence in front of him. He presumed that it was the little girl's older sister.
The older sister kneeled in front of the little girl as she placed her hands on the little girl's shoulders.
"We have no other choice…", the older one said soothingly.
"But I feel really bad for doing it to this.", the little girl said as she frowned.
"We don't have money."
"Even if we worked hard, we never earn anything…"
"Last time, we tricked that person, and he didn't even find out. Thanks to that, at least one day went by without us having to starve…"
"Didn't we decide that we will do the same thing from now on?"
"Why are you crying for someone else?"
"For our survival, all we can do is trick people and loot them.", the older sister said as she clenched her fist.
"Also, let me show you something…"
The older sister stood up and walked away after saying that. Within a few seconds, she came back with a large piece of paper in her hands.
"See, this boy is on the wanted list…", the older sister said as she pointed at the paper.
"This boy would provide us with some money to get by."
The little girl's eyes looked down sorrowfully.
"Doesn't that mean we'll be sending him right to his death? Sister, this brother is a good person."
Shiro didn't move an inch ever since he pretended to fall asleep. However, it didn't mean that he was not listening to the conversation between both the girls who were standing in front of him.
"Good person? Listen, Tanya, you have met and talked with him for just 2 to 3 minutes and you think he is a good person?"
"No one with a wanted poster and a bounty can be good…", she said, opposing her little sister's words.
"Listen, we don't have time to think about other people's wellbeing. Have you forgotten about our own family's condition?", the older sister asked.
"No, sister. I did not forget."
Shiro grew interested in the conversation as both the girls reminisced about the past.
Apparently, their father used to be the best father in the world.
However, all of that changed one day when he came back home, drunk.
At first, they thought it was a one-time thing. That their father would no longer come home drunk, but return to his old self.
Nonetheless, it was not the way they had expected. Their father not only became an alcoholic, but he also started gambling and losing a lot of money. It wasn't mere hundreds, it was thousands!
He always came home furious every day due to the loss of money.
Their mother was the person who received the most consequence for their father's sudden change in behavior.
She was once a healthy lady who was always smiling regardless of the weather.
Ever since their father became a drunkard, she was abused repeatedly every day to release his anger from losing money while gambling.
Eventually, she fell ill and her body became weak.
Their once cheerful mother drowned in depression and never smiled again since the first day she was abused.
Their mother needed a lot of medicine every month in order to keep surviving.
With the addition of their father's gambling habit, both the girls had to keep finding ways to earn money.
"We have been selling those low-grade sleeping powders for a long time now, but even that is not enough…", the older sister explained.
"We could sell the small farmyard, sister…", the little girl said.
"Have you forgotten? No one would want to buy the yard. All of them think it's unsuitable for growth."
"But the sleeping powder we made is from the grass that grows there!", the little girl protested.
"Why would they buy the sleeping powder but not the land which grows the grass?"
The older sister shrugged.
"It's because no one wants to waste their time to farm those grasses when they could just buy it from us…."
The little girl sighed.
"If only father didn't change, we wouldn't be in such a miserable state now.", the older sister said as she looked at her father, who was lying beside the bed while holding a green glass bottle of alcohol.
Shiro was surprised by the newfound knowledge. It seemed like the sleeping powder they placed in his water was handmade by them too.