We’re finally here, at the Despair God’s Tomb! It took a few weeks of flying, and in that time, Durandal hasn’t shown his face at all! He’s sulking because I killed him and interrogated Vera. I may or may not have teased him a little. Just a little. Mm, is it teasing if I don’t know the details about his past just yet? But I’ll find out soon once I make this Despair God’s Tomb disappear! Well, I have to make the Death God’s Tomb disappear as well. Luckily, it seems like Vera was right. The Despair God’s Tomb is made of bones, and it should be totally easy for me to absorb. This time, I’ll carve a focus engraving to avoid the painful headache that comes with intelligence. I’m smart enough already. I can read!

Mm? The Despair God’s Tomb is just as big as the Slaughter God’s. Maybe it’s a little bigger. I can’t tell. Even though I’m on a flying boat and way up in the sky, I still can’t see the top of the tomb. I couldn’t see the top of the Slaughter God’s Tomb either. Is there a crown up there? How am I going to wear two crowns? Maybe I’ll have Mrs. Feathers melt them together. Then there’d only be one crown! Ah? That’d be disrespectful to the two? Nonsense! It’s impossible to disrespect the dead since they’re dead. They won’t even know if I do, and if they don’t know, then did I really disrespect them? Of course not!

But why are there so many people? And they look so … organized. There’s so many blood-red ships flying together above the tomb; it’s a little intimidating. And on top of those ships, all the people are wearing the same robes. Mm. They must be from the same sect. “Barkeep! Those ships over there all belong to the same sect, right?”

The barkeep, who was standing behind me, came next to me and looked out the window. “That’s the emblem of the Slaughter Seeking Sect. Could it be that they’re here to declare war on the Despair Seeking Sect? They came out in full force.”

Mm. I’m not really a fan of wars. People shouldn’t kill each other so wantonly. Mhm. “Why would they declare war?”

“I only have a theory,” the barkeep said. “They might be trying to take over the Despair God’s Tomb since the Slaughter God’s Tomb disappeared. If the Despair Seeking Sect manages to obtain the Despair God’s inheritance, there’s a possibility for them to produce an immortal. And if they produce an immortal, then the balance between the sects will be broken, and the Despair Seeking Sect will subjugate the Slaughter Seeking Sect.”

Since the Slaughter God’s Tomb disappeared…. Wasn’t I the one that made it disappear? Does that mean this is my fault? Mm, no, that can’t be it. It’s not my fault the lying Slaughter God tried to bully me! Besides, I can’t be blamed for other people’s actions. So what if I may or may not have broke the balance between two sects? Which I didn’t. But even if I did, if something else broke the balance, the two would’ve gone to war anyway! Right. This situation isn’t my fault, but since I’m such a good person, I’ll fix the balance between the two sects by absorbing the Despair God’s Tomb and taking its inheritance as well. Yep, that’s what a good person would do.

Hmm…. But why does it feel like the word despair is so familiar…. Like I’ve inherited something with despair before…. What is it? Ah! The Despairing Blade! How did it work again…? I wave my sword like this and…. “Despairing Blade!” Oh! The sky’s overcast. Mm, that’s what happened the first time I used it. Looks like I still remember how! Ah? “The Slaughter Seeking Sect’s boats are charging towards those gray boats over there!”

The barkeep grabbed me instead of answering! “Boss! Am I a failure?” Tears streamed down his face. “Everything I do, I fail at it! I’m so bad at everything! I thought I could be a genius alchemist, but I can’t even advance down that path…. Maybe I should just die. My whole family would be happier that way. The heavens played a cruel prank on me, letting me taste the feeling of success, just to take it all away. Boss, when I die, don’t mourn for me; my life isn’t worth grieving over.”

…Right. I forgot the Despairing Blade affects everyone except for me. Oh! Softie avoided it once too. How did she wake people up? With buckets of cold water, right? Let’s see, do I have…, yep!

Splash!

“Hurk!” The barkeep released me and fell backwards. “B-Boss? What, what happened?”

Uh…. If he doesn’t know I did it, and if I pretend I didn’t do it, then I didn’t do it! “I don’t know. Anyways, that’s not important.” I grabbed the barkeep’s collar—because it seemed like he was going to keep asking questions—and stuck his head out the window. “Who do those gray ships belong to? The Despair Seeking Sect, right?”

“Yes, that’s right,” the barkeep said. I knew it! Even I can figure things out via context clues with this bone of intelligence! The fact that there’s a big glyph for despair, which looks like a crying cat, on the boats’ sails helped a lot too. “It seems like the Slaughter Seeking Sect really was here to declare war against the Despair Seeking Sect. And the Despair Seeking Sect used a powerful technique just now to induce despair in a large number of people. To think that it even reached over here…, the rogue cultivators on the ground must be suffering greatly.”

Mm? There’s an unorganized group of people at the base of the Despair God’s Tomb. Unlike the two sects that occupy the skies, the people below aren’t uniform at all, wearing a mishmash of different colors. But they do have one thing in common with each other: they’re all crying! And they’re getting closer! Why are they getting closer? “Uh…? Is it just me, or is the boat falling?”

“Ah! Someone just jumped off the boat!” the barkeep shouted. “That was the driver! Everyone on the boat underneath a certain rank must be in despair as well!” The barkeep frowned. “Even a few of the Slaughter Seeking Sect’s boats are falling. But if that’s the case…, why are the Despair Seeking Sect’s boats falling too?”

Mm…. Is this my fault? They were going to start a war anyway, right? Mhm, yep, they were. I’m innocent.