Chapter 149 - 33: Mortgage (Second Update)
Holy Calendar, Year 10754, November, Lion King City.
Sunlight slanted through the windowsill, illuminating the mountain of manuscript papers piled high.
The wastebasket was already full, and the small room had crumpled paper scattered across the floor. The whole scene looked like a garbage dump.
The author of *"A Knight’s Guide to Success"* was slumped over the desk, fast asleep, drooling slightly, with a sheet of manuscript paper clutched in his hand. Beside him was an empty plate with a few crumbs of bread left.
"Mmm... when will I finally hit it big..." the author murmured in his sleep, groggily scratching the mosquito bite swelling on his face.
A gust of wind slipped in through a crack in the window, stirring the papers at the top of the pile. The paper fluttered lightly twice before the unbalanced stack collapsed with a thundering crash, burying the sleeping author beneath.
"Who? WHO? Who’s trying to rob my manuscript?!" Startled awake, the author scrambled up from the floor, wide-eyed, still clutching the single sheet of paper in his hand.
After finally catching his breath, he looked down at the paper in his hand, set it down, and then, suddenly realizing something, snatched it up again.
"Holy crap! I finished it! I actually finished it! Hahaha!"
In a flurry of motion, he changed his clothes, hastily gathered the scattered pages, downed the last crumbs of bread from the empty plate, took a sip of water, wiped his mouth, and cheerfully headed out the door with a thick stack of manuscripts in hand.
The streets were in complete disarray—worse than a few months ago. It was already November, the air turning chilly, yet the number of homeless, starving, and poorly clothed people on the streets seemed to have increased. Makeshift barricades of scrap wood appeared haphazardly everywhere. The author had no idea who built them, who placed them, or what purpose they served.