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Chapter 21
[Host: Lucien D. Blackthorn]
[Remaining life: 7 days]
[Health value: 5/100 (can maintain extra consciousness for 2 hours per day)]
[Reminder: The first volume of the manga work "Attack on Titan" has been created and published successfully, and the reward is pending settlement.]
---
Today was Wednesday.
Lucien D. Blackthorn had been bedridden for days. After so long in the hospital, he could barely remember what day of the week it was.
Early that morning, he was stirred awake by bustling noises. When he opened his eyes, he saw a group of medical staff gathered around, preparing machines and checking his vitals.
"The patient's blood pressure is stable, myocardial enzyme values are within normal range, coagulation function is normal..."
"Proceed with the injection."
"Yes!"
The diluted medicine began to flow slowly through a catheter into Lucien's body.
This was the hope his parents had desperately clung to—a new gene-targeted therapy said to act like a "biological missile," designed to seek out and destroy cancer cells while sparing healthy tissues.
Lucien didn't know if this experimental drug could bend the rules of the system and give him more time to live.
Shortly after the injection, he began to feel drowsy and fell back into unconsciousness.
---
After school, Eriri Spencer Sawamura and her fellow art club members took the train to Shibuya to shop for painting supplies.
Brushes, canvas paper, specialty inks, and paints were on their list, but Eriri's mind wasn't on the trip at all.
That morning, she'd received a message from Sayuri Sawamura: Lucien had been administered the new drug, and now it was just a matter of whether it would work.
If it didn't, there would be nothing left but to prepare for his passing.
The thought left her shaken. She had looked forward to this trip, but now she couldn't enjoy any of it.
She kept making mistakes. At a stationery store, when asked to pay ¥10,000 for a set of easels, she mistakenly handed over only ¥1,000. She picked up the wrong shade of paint, selected the wrong brush type—her heart simply wasn't in it.
Eriri wanted to run to the hospital, but she knew it wouldn't help. All she could do was wait and pray.
She tried to reason with herself. Lucien was just a classmate. But deep down, she realized her emotions had grown beyond mere sympathy or friendship.
"What's happening to me?"
The feeling was vague, undefined, but unmistakably real.
---
Back home, Eriri collapsed onto her bed.
She pulled out her phone, opened the social media platform, and logged into Lucien's account. Then she read through the first volume of "Attack on Titan" once again.
She wanted to understand what drove him to create such a harrowing world, such a haunting story.
"He must yearn for freedom," she murmured. "Just like Eren in the story. Powerless, desperate, but still dreaming of the world beyond the walls..."
In truth, Lucien hadn't written the story as a metaphor or a message. He had created it to survive, to earn time.
But Eriri didn't know that. To her, this was a cry from the soul.
"He must have suffered so much... Living with a terminal illness, alone, facing death..."
Unnoticed, tears streamed down her cheeks. She bit her lip to keep from sobbing.
When she finally calmed down, Eriri wiped her face and stood up. She went to her desk and resumed work on a fanart illustration of Chito Isuzu—a promised bonus for her fans.
After finishing the piece, she scanned and uploaded it to her artist account under the pen name Eri Kashiwagi.
As expected, her tweet was met with an explosion of comments.
But Eriri wasn't in the mood to read any of them. Just as she was about to log out, a new private message notification caught her eye.
Her account settings only allowed messages from users she followed—and those were mostly industry professionals.
Curious, she tapped the message.
When she saw the sender's username, she nearly jumped out of her chair.
"Funao Yuuto, Editor-in-Chief of Manga Jump?"
He was a well-known figure in the manga world, on par with Kyuki Ryunosuke. The two had even co-founded a magazine in the past before parting ways over creative differences.
While Kyuki was notorious for being arrogant and dismissive toward creators, Funao Yuuto had earned a reputation for humility and integrity.
To think that someone like him followed her account...
Eriri's hands trembled slightly as she opened the message:
[Hello, Ms. Kashiwagi Eri, I am the editor-in-chief of Manga Jump, Funao Yuuto.]
The message had been sent just a minute earlier. He must have noticed her account was active.
She quickly replied:
[Hello, Editor-in-Chief Funao. I'm honored to receive your message. This is Kashiwagi Eri.]
The response came almost immediately:
[Excuse me, Ms. Kashiwagi. Do you know the manga artist Whale, the creator of "Attack on Titan"? Our editorial team at Manga Jump would like to get in touch with him about a potential publishing contract. I attempted to contact his account directly, but he has not responded.]
Eriri stared at the screen, stunned.
Manga Jump—the most prestigious manga magazine in the country—was reaching out to Whale.
Lucien.
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