"Young Master Ebson! This is bad! The patient you sent over is suffering massive hemorrhaging during childbirth right now, and our blood bank doesn't have enough blood!" A nurse ran out of the operating room in panic, both hands covered in blood.
Hearing this, Bill, who had been anxiously waiting outside, instantly exploded in rage and shouted violently,
"What!? Damn it! Where the hell did that bastard Norman go!? Damn bastard! Pexi is in this state and he still has the mood to do experiments!? Bastard!"
After cursing Norman out, Bill rushed over to the nurse and anxiously said,
"Quick! Test whether my blood is compatible with my sister's! Hurry!"
But unfortunately, Bill's blood type was different from Pexi's.
At that moment, Ebson, who had been quietly sitting nearby the whole time, stood up and softly said, "Use mine. I'm type B."
Two large bottles of blood were drawn from him.
Unfortunately...
The doctor, covered head to toe in blood, walked out of the operating room and bowed apologetically with deep regret.
"I'm sorry, Young Master Ebson. We did our best."
Thud!
Bill's sturdy body collapsed straight onto the floor.
Time passed quickly.
A few days later, Bill and Ebson attended the funeral of Norman and Pexi together.
That's right—only afterward did Bill learn that Norman had gotten into a... car accident on the way to the hospital.
Only a handful of noble families in Marley owned automobiles.
Having simultaneously lost his sister, his brother-in-law, and his unborn nephew, Bill felt as though the world before his eyes had gone completely dark.
At the funeral, Norman's mother and younger brother were utterly heartbroken.
Especially Norman's mother, who cried herself unconscious several times while constantly blaming herself, regretting that she should never have stopped Norman.
While everyone was drowning in grief, nobody noticed the emotionless face and icy gaze of Ebson.
A few more days passed.
The doctor who had bowed outside the operating room back then was now trembling as he hid near the Louis family estate, holding a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes.
His eyes were bloodshot, and his entire appearance was sloppy and miserable.
Finally, the doctor found an opportunity and intercepted Ebson while he was out alone.
"Young Master Ebson! I know it was you! I already did what you told me to do, so why are you still forcing me!? That corpse was something you sent to the hospital to frame me, wasn't it!?" the doctor asked through gritted teeth.
Ebson, meanwhile, curiously examined the child in the doctor's arms before sneering.
"So that's how it is. Looks like you didn't finish the job back then after all. This child... didn't die?"
The doctor viciously spat on the ground.
"That's right! Young Master, you told me to kill both mother and child! I'm just an ordinary doctor—how could I possibly dare refuse? But I still had to leave myself a backup plan. That woman, even while dying, was still reaching out, still wanting to see this child. I didn't show any mercy at all. I directly slit her blood vessels!"
Ebson shrugged.
"Fine. You win. Name your price."
"One million! One million Marleyan currency! Give me the money, and you take this child away and deal with it! Otherwise, I'll immediately turn myself in to the judiciary court!" the doctor threatened.
Ebson nodded and agreed without hesitation.
"Fine. Tomorrow at this time, I'll bring the money."
The next day, a headless homeless corpse appeared at the mouth of the alley.
Meanwhile, on the balcony of the villa's second floor, Ebson held the child in his arms, his expression somewhat complicated.
A baby only a few days old naturally wasn't very cute. Its little face was still wrinkled.
Ebson reached out and pried open the infant's eyelids, revealing a pair of eyes identical to the ones in his own sockets.
His heart violently trembled.
Ignoring the baby's loud crying in his arms, he quickly closed the swaddling blanket again.
Right now, all he had to do was loosen his grip slightly, and this fragile child would fall from the second floor and die instantly.
But for some reason, Ebson simply couldn't let go.
After remaining silent for a long time, Ebson summoned the Louis family's new Chief Steward.
Bill, dressed in a brand-new suit and smoking a cigarette, walked expressionlessly into the room and took the infant into his arms.
.......
The scene before his eyes shattered like glass in an instant, transforming into countless fragments.
Yago stood there blankly in a daze while Great Ancestor quietly stood behind him, carrying a small bucket of water.
So this was the past.
This was the truth.
Artificial Titans...
It was his father's promise to his mother—to change the fate of the Eldians.
And his father... was actually a transmigrator from another world?
No wonder.
No wonder Yago had always been puzzled about why those so-called "transmigration" memories in his mind had become increasingly blurry.
Because they were never his memories to begin with.
They were all memory fragments belonging to his father, Norman Russell.
Norman Russell was the true transmigrator!
Yago silently turned around and saw Great Ancestor behind him.
Great Ancestor also quietly looked at this descendant who stubbornly insisted on learning the truth.
As for Eren, who had entered the Paths space together with Yago earlier, he had already disappeared without a trace.
The boiling lake of blood that had once been nearby had also completely vanished.
Around them now was only an endless white desert and the pillar of light stretching from heaven to earth in the distance.
There were only two figures here now—Yago and Great Ancestor.
The two stared at each other for a while before Yago finally spoke in a dry voice.
"Founder... did you already know all of this?"
Great Ancestor nodded.
Yago asked again, "Then... do you believe it? That this world is... a manga? That all of us are merely people inside a drawing?"
Hearing Yago's words, Great Ancestor tilted her head and smiled slightly.
She raised the small bucket in her hand as if gesturing toward it, and an ethereal voice echoed beside Yago's ears.
"Your bodies are made of sand too."
"Wait! Founder, if what my father said is true, then Artificial Titans are created by copying the coordinates of other Intelligent Titans. Then why... why would you allow this kind of behavior? I understand Ebson's goal now! His target was the Founder—no, not just the Founder... his true target was the Hallucigenia!?"
Yago suddenly realized something and stared at Great Ancestor with widened eyes.
Within the towering white pillar of light in the distance, the crimson strands of blood became increasingly conspicuous.
At that moment, it was unclear whether Great Ancestor simply didn't want to answer.
She merely turned around with her little bucket of water and prepared to leave.
But the instant she turned around, Yago's pupils contracted violently.
A hideous giant parasite was clinging to Great Ancestor's back.
The monster coiled around her waist, and countless elongated legs pierced into her body like sharp needles, extending from the spine on her back all the way to the nape of her neck.
Thin streams of blood seeped out from the puncture wounds.
The moment he saw the parasite, Yago's breathing stopped.
It felt as though some unimaginably terrifying existence had locked onto him.
But that sensation vanished in an instant.
The parasite on Great Ancestor's back also disappeared without a trace, as though everything Yago had just seen had merely been an illusion.
"It's time to go, descendant. Follow the guidance of fate. You will know what must be done."
The ethereal voice echoed once more.
Then an intense repulsive force and crushing pressure emerged around Yago's body.
The next second—
Yago suddenly opened his eyes.
What entered his vision was Eren's curious face right in front of him.
"Smack!"
"AHH!!"
With a miserable scream, Eren clutched his face and staggered backward.
A bright red handprint clearly appeared on his handsome face.