But that brings us back to the tone of the first volume. Given another chance, I wouldn't write this story, but since I've already written it, I can't force it to be cheerful. Where things need to weigh on you, they have to weigh on you; otherwise, neither the thrills nor the sorrow land, and the whole thing falls apart.
All right, then, Parrot Bites Its Tongue, since you've identified the problem, how do you plan to fix it?
Sorry, I can't.
What needs to be written still has to be written, and whoever needs to die still has to die.
Of course, as I said earlier, I don't take pleasure in stabbing readers in the heart, so I can at least make a statement.
First, as with all webnovels, our important characters are very important. They absolutely won't die casually; they're all characters for the very late stages of the story (which doesn't mean they'll die once we get there (but doesn't mean they definitely won't, either)).
Second, ordinary supporting characters and bit players don't necessarily have to die, either. I'll flesh out the characters who die, and I'll also flesh out the characters who go on living happily.
Some readers have asked, "I've gone through two hundred thousand characters with a magnifying glass, and I still haven't seen anyone go on living happily."
Well, that has to do with this volume's tone.
In every volume, I'll work hard to flesh out the characters, but in a heavy, brutal volume, most of them will meet less-than-happy ends, while in a lighthearted, cheerful volume, most of them will have a lighthearted, cheerful time. It depends on the story the whole volume is meant to tell.
Anyway, writing such an oppressive story for the first volume wasn't a particularly smart decision.