Carly Stratmann (Chapter)

Carly Stratmann (カーリー・ストラットマン) is the 1st chapter of the 1st volume and the 1st chapter overall of Lost Girls manga, written and illustrated by Ryōsuke Fuji.

Overview
On the day before the Survey Corps' 57th expedition beyond the walls, Hitch Dreyse gives Annie Leonhart the task of finding a missing person, Carly Stratmann, the daughter of a wealthy merchant in Stohess District. She visits the Stratmann family mansion to ask Carly's father, Eliot Gutenberg Stratmann, about the circumstances that may be related to her disappearance. After little success, she researches the Stratmann family records for further information. She ponders over the relationship between Carly and her father, comparing it to her own relationship with her father back home. At last, she discovers a connection between Carly and a tavern in Stohess District, the Pit Redoz. She heads to the tavern to seek out answers.

Summary
On the morning before the Survey Corps' 57th expedition beyond the walls, Annie Leonhart awakens in Stohess District within the Military Police Brigade barracks. Thinking back on the battle in Trost District and the aftermath, she wonders how many lives she will need to take in order to capture Eren Yeager. She steels herself, believing that nothing must stop her from completing her mission.

Annie suits herself in a Military Police uniform while Hitch Dreyse is getting ready for a day of recreation on the town. Hitch notes Annie's lack of wardrobe variety, suggesting she should change something up to attract guys' attention. Annie asks Hitch to report her as sick the next day so that she can complete her private errand. Thinking to herself, Annie notes that if she succeeds, she will not need to return to Stohess, but if she fails she will have to make an excuse for her absence. While Annie considers her options, Hitch hands her a sketch of a young woman who was reported missing, Carly Stratmann. Hitch admits that she does not want to deal with the matter and believes Annie taking care of it would return the favor for Hitch reporting her sick. Hitch asks who the man is that Annie is meeting on her "errand", to which Annie bluntly tells her that he is a 15-meter Titan. Hitch considers this to be little more than a bad joke.

In the cafeteria, Annie wonders whether it would be worth the effort to tackle the missing person's case in a single day. Seeing Marlowe in his usual professional state speaking with the lax higher-ups, Annie decides that it would be best for her to play the soldier game for one more day.

Annie takes a carriage to the mansion of the Stratmann family to speak with Eliot Gutenberg Stratmann, president of Marleen Company and Carly's father. She is brought into the mansion by Eliot's butler, leading her to Eliot Stratmann himself. Annie states that she wishes to find out more about Carly's disappearance, to which Eliot seems unsurprised that his daughter is still missing, even after ten days. He asks if the Military Police is incompetent, and Annie agrees with him. Eliot claims that she is lying, saying that they are negligent for not conducting a search at all. Annie agrees, but Eliot claims again that she is lying, since a truly negligent system would not bother to send her over in the first place. Impressed with the man's intuition, Annie informs him that she is the first person to follow up on the report after it had gone through two other policemen. Eliot asks her how long she has been in the Military Police, and is bitterly amused when Annie informs him that she has been in the MPs for only a month. Eliot tells Annie that he believes her to be trustworthy, and asks her to find his daughter.

Eliot explains that two days before she went missing, Carly did not show up for dinner with him, a tradition in their household regardless of their busy schedules. Annie asks many questions concerning Carly, but Eliot responds to each saying that he knows little about his own daughter. Their dinners together every day are held on the condition that neither would interfere with each others' business. Eliot tells Annie that their family returned to Stohess District three years after Carly had graduated from Heinrich University with a major in chemistry. Annie asks if Carly could have come across an enemy of Marleen Company, but Eliot dismisses the idea, saying that he had not received any kidnapping ransom. Eliot is unsure if Carly could have left out of spite, since they have cooperated in living together since her mother's death.

The conversation is cut short with a loud knocking at Stratmann's door. As Eliot sends his butler to answer the door, Annie notices a man leaving the estate and jumping he fence outside. The butler returns with a letter left by the visitor. Eliot looks it over with a stern look before putting the paper away in his pocket. He asks Annie why she joined the Military Police, to which Annie says that it was for a peaceful life in the Interior. Annie leaves with no more questions and no real clues.

In the Military Police Brigade documentation rooms, Annie asks for information about the Stratmann family and the Marleen Company. She learns that the Marleen Company mainly traded with merchants from Wall Maria until Shiganshina District fell in the year 845. After the fall, Marleen Company went into a large downsizing, reduced to only a carriage service. Annie is skeptical of how Eliot Stratmann can remain so financially stable with only a transport service. Furthermore, she is also curious of why Carly Stratmann is unemployed despite having graduated from Heinrich University with a major in chemistry. Annie wonders about the relationship between Eliot and Carly, finding it strange how neither is involved in each others' life. She thinks back to her relationship with her own father, who subjected her to restless training from morning to night with no room for disobedience. Annie returns her thoughts to the Stratmanns, realizing that Carly must be entirely reliant on Eliot's money despite Eliot speaking about her as if she was independent of his finances.

Annie asks for any interrogation records relating to the Stratmann family, and she discovers that Carly was interrogated once after being found in a drunken state at a bar in Stohess, the Pit Redoz. She heads to the Pit Redoz without any delay.