I just want to quietly draw manga Chapter 335

At Echo Shroud

Morishita sat at his desk reviewing the submissions mangaka had sent in. For the last quarterly meeting, he and the others had been given a task from editor-in-chief Amane to find a new work that could attract a female audience.

They had sacrificed that segment when Muzishiro ended Natsume and started Jojo. It had been a great move at the time, and the magazine’s rank had climbed because of it, but it also reduced their female readership. Now, with as Airi: Dream World ending within a year, they needed something that could fill that space again. If they wanted to increase the number of readers, they had to target the female market audience; otherwise, it might even see a drop in sales, as Dream World was the third most popular work and had been running for a few years with a strong fanbase.

Morishita had been searching for over two months, but nothing he found seemed strong enough. He did find one promising work, but he already knew how it would go. It might start serialization, then get cut down at the next quarterly meeting, so he didn’t have high hopes for it.

Adding to that, his current mangaka, Toseigi, had been struggling with health issues. The series could go on hiatus anytime. That meant more pressure on him to find a replacement, and fast. He liked scouting new works, but doing it under pressure every month reminded him of when he had started as a rookie editor, something he didn’t want to relive. So, he needed to find one this month — something that could be presented at the upcoming quarterly meeting without getting rejected. Otherwise, he’d have to wait until the next meeting, and who knew how Toseigi would be doing by then.

As he was reviewing submitted work, he received an email requesting an appointment. Usually, the standard protocol was that if the mangaka was new, they first submitted their work, and after it passed the review, the meeting would be held. If it was a mangaka who had successfully published before, then based on how well it had done, they would go straight to the editor. He typed the name online to check if the author had published any manga before and also to see whether there were any scandals or problems. That was his standard habit.

He typed in the name: Kotone. The results appeared. Violet Evergarden — creator, winner of Best Visual of the Year at the Liora Awards.

Seeing someone famous requesting an appointment surprised him. After a brief search, he saw that she had also been Mizushiro's assistant during Rurouni Kenshin. That part caught his attention. An assistant under Mizushiro carried a certain weight in Echo Shroud. Now that Echo Shroud had reached No. 3, it carried even more weight around his name. With that, he decided without hesitation to arrange a meeting with her.

The next morning

Kotone had gotten up early. For the past three weeks, she had been making changes to the story after a lot of thinking and finally decided to go with Haruki’s idea.

Now came the next step.

She had booked appointments with three publishing houses: Echo Shroud, Graveleaf, and Parlour Publishing. The top two in the industry mostly handled shonen, so even if they accepted romance, it needed to be through the lens of action and long-format serialization. They wouldn’t publish it.

Hollow Anthem was a good option, but it didn’t match the tone of Clannad’s story. Hollow Anthem leaned toward darker genres as a publishing house.

And Red Lantern had been another option, but she ruled it out immediately. While she didn’t have a direct conflict with them, they had a conflict with Sora, and with Haruki backing her up in that conflict, she had gotten involved too. So, she hadn’t considered it. She didn’t want to relive that experience. That was reason enough to stay away.

That left three choices.

Echo Shroud made the most sense. Haruki’s manga was already serialized there. The other two didn’t have much in terms of sales or engagement going on, so naturally she leaned toward Echo Shroud. Still, she had booked appointments with all three publishing houses.

Today was the meeting with Echo Shroud.

After getting ready, Kotone packed the draft into her bag and left for Echo Shroud Publishing.

As she arrived outside the publishing house, she looked up before stepping into the building.

The receptionist guided her through the hallway before she reached Morishita’s desk.

Kotone arrived at Morishita's desk, bowing slightly.

“Mr. Morishita ,” she said, bowing lightly. “Kotone.”

Morishita stood and returned the bow, then gestured toward the meeting room.

Inside, she sat across from him and carefully placed her manuscript on the table.

“Thank you for coming,” Morishita said, opening the folder. He began reading through the first few chapters to get a feel for the tone and pacing. His first thought was that the artwork was beautiful. As he read the chapter, the story was drama with personal growth and some romance. After reading the first part, he began to skim the rest.

Kotone sat quietly, observing his reaction. Every now and then, he asked small questions about a character or setting, and she would reply.

Then he started to read the second part. After the last couple of pages, which were mostly written in words, his speed started to slow down. After finishing, he put the draft down and took a long exhale.