Despair and Hope

## Guide

**Despair and Hope** ｢絶望と希望, *Zetsubō to kibō*｣ is the fifty-ninth chapter of the manga adaptation of *That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime*.

## Synopsis

Rimuru returns to Tempest on Ranga as he was unable to teleport after his battle with Hinata. He immediately notices that there's an anti-magic barrier and determines that its strength is weaker than Hinata's. The barrier was placed from within.

After examining the barrier, he heads into town to apprehend the one who placed it from within. Heading into town, he sees Benimaru attacking Grucius as Grucius attempts to protect Mjurran. It turns out there was a massacre in the town and Mjurran was the one who casted the barrier within. Mjurran provokes Rimuru into killing her, but Rimuru resists and arrests her. Rimuru begins to question if this was his fault as his third rule for the monster country was to not harm humans.

In response to the sudden situation, Rimuru calls a meeting in order to learn about what occurred in his absence and Myourmiles, who witnessed everything, volunteers to act as a non-biased human witness in the meeting. Rimuru learns about how a party of three humans provoked a confrontation, how Shuna, Gobta, and Hakuro joined the fight, how two barriers popped up (one is anti-magic, other is anti-monster), and how a hundred knights from the kingdom of Farmas appeared and used the situation to antagonize Tempest and justify an invasion.

They claimed that an invasion would occur in one week. Many humans who witnessed the event volunteered to help out but Rimuru refused them, not wanting any more casualties. After seeing the humans off, Rimuru visits the injured and heals Hakuro and Gobuta with gluttony. Suddenly, Rimuru realizes that someone is missing. He turns to Benimaru and asks where Shion is. Benimaru tells Rimuru to follow him and remains silent. He leads Rimuru to Shion's corpse. Upon seeing the corpse, Rimuru stops.

Benimaru begins to explain how Shion died protecting a child and how others attempted to save her but she ultimately died. Rimuru's aura begins spilling out violently and he asks to be alone. Everyone leaves the area. Great Sage notifies Rimuru that his overwhelming aura is causing a strain on the weaker monsters. In response, Rimuru duplicates the anti-demon mask.

He begins questioning the situation:

1. How it came to this?
2. Could he have avoided it?
3. Was it a mistake to try to cooperate with humans?
4. Was this his fault?

Great Sage was unable to answer any of the questions and Rimuru questions his humanity. Intense emotions were swirling inside of him yet his mind was calm and not a single tear shed. At this time, Elen's party appeared outside Tempest in response to rumors of the situation. They are informed that Rimuru requested to be left alone but they insist on meeting him.

They are ultimately let through. Meanwhile, Rimuru had attempted to revive Shion and the others. Upon realizing he couldn't do so and that he would never see them again, the anti-demon mask cracked, making it look like there was a tear streaming down his face. He decided that he would use gluttony on them and let them rest in peace inside of him like Shizue before Elen's party arrived and stopped him. Elen told Rimuru that there was a fairy tale about revival from the dead and while the chance of it working was virtually none, Rimuru took anything he could get.

## Characters

* Rimuru Tempest
* Benimaru
* Shion
* Souei
* Hakurou
* Ranga
* Grucius
* Mjurran

## Trivia

* The volume release of the chapter has a few pages redrawn to include cameos of Phos, Stella, and Nemu from the spin-off Trinity in Tempest.