Becoming a Monster

Chapter 582: Chapter 581: Breaking Their Nature

Genghis hesitantly turned his attention toward the former chieftain.

The two were locked in a staredown; both were as nervous as the other.

The moment the Oni shifted his attention toward the former chieftain, both of them had arrived at the same conclusion.

Among goblins, there was only one way for a new chieftain to truly inherit the tribe.

A trial by combat.

It was a tradition every goblin had grown up knowing long before they were old enough to hunt.

Whenever another goblin believed itself worthy of leading, it challenged the current chieftain before the rest of the tribe.

The stronger goblin claimed the tribe.

The weaker one surrendered its life.

That was how every chieftain before them had inherited the tribe, and neither Genghis nor the former chieftain had any reason to believe the Oni expected anything different.

If anything, it only made sense. The Oni had already stripped the former chieftain of every ounce of authority it once possessed.

He had publicly declared it unworthy of leadership.

He had then elevated Genghis before the eyes of the entire tribe, and even granted him a name, further establishing his role.

Only one thing remained unfinished.

The former chieftain had to die. Only then could Genghis truly become the tribe’s next leader.

The former chieftain subtly lowered its center of gravity. Its body still trembled uncontrollably.

It already knew it couldn’t win.

Now that Genghis received the Oni’s power, the outcome of the battle had already been decided.

But as the former chieftain noticed Genghis’ indecisiveness, it slowly believed that maybe there was a chance.

Genghis wasn’t aware of the former’s thoughts. He was trying to come to terms with what he believed was about to happen.

The thought of killing one of his own still refused to sit well with him.

Even after everything the former chieftain had done, taking another goblin’s life with his own hands felt wrong.

Just as Genghis braced himself for the inevitable…

The Oni spoke once more.

“You are their leader now.”

“A failure like this one, who dared call itself a leader while abandoning those it was responsible for, deserves to die.”

“But I’ll leave that decision to you.”

“You may allow it to live…”

“…or you may end its life.”

The tension that had been building throughout his body immediately began to melt away.

He had already begun preparing himself to kill one of his own.

Instead…

The Oni had placed that decision entirely within his hands.

Genghis found himself staring toward the former chieftain once more.

The answer had already existed within his heart long before the Oni asked the question.

When Genghis thought back upon everything that had happened today, it became impossible for him to place all of the blame upon that one goblin alone.

The former chieftain may have failed the tribe, but everyone else had failed each other.

The strongest abandoned the defenseless without hesitation, while the weakest shoved one another aside in hopes of escaping first.

If the former chieftain deserved to die for its failures…

Then, by that same reasoning, every goblin standing behind it deserved the very same fate.

It was only after becoming what he was now that Genghis finally understood what had truly failed.

His thoughts had never felt clearer than they did now; because of that, the truth behind his species became impossible to ignore.

No matter which goblin had stood at its head before today, Genghis believed the outcome would’ve remained exactly the same.

When faced with a creature like the Oni, any goblin would’ve hidden in terror.

To bully those weaker than themselves while fearing those stronger had never been the flaw of one chieftain.

It had always been the nature of goblins.

Yet, Genghis no longer believed that their nature had to remain unchanged.

If it truly couldn’t be changed, then everything the Oni had entrusted to him would be meaningless. He would only be bound to fail.

He slowly drew in a breath, preparing to give the Oni the answer that it had believed to be the right one.

Before a single word could leave his mouth, Genghis realized that the Oni hadn’t finished speaking.

“You might believe sparing it is the right choice. But a leader doesn’t have the luxury of looking only at the choice itself.”

“Every decision carries consequences.”

“When I say you may let it live, I also mean that it will become your responsibility. If you choose to save it, anything it does from this moment onward reflects upon you.”

“If it undermines your authority, or leads the rest to undermine mine.”

“If it one day tries to take back the position it lost… Those won’t simply be its failures.”

“They’ll become yours.”

“Can you say with certainty that it won’t betray you the moment doing so benefits it?”

“Can you guarantee that your mercy today won’t become the reason your tribe suffers tomorrow?”

“If you can’t, then are you really willing to still choose to let it live?”

Genghis found himself unable to answer.

Only moments ago, he believed the answer had already settled within his heart.

Yet now he realized that the Oni hadn’t simply asked whether the former chieftain should live.

The Oni had asked whether Genghis was willing to accept every consequence that might follow if it did.

Suddenly, the answer no longer felt nearly as obvious.

Unlike Genghis, the former chieftain didn’t need time to think.

If their positions had been reversed, it already knew what its answer would’ve been.

There wasn’t a single reason to allow a former chieftain to continue living beneath its rule.

Of course, it wanted its position back.

If another opportunity ever presented itself, it would challenge Genghis without hesitation.

More than that, if serving the Oni truly meant obtaining power as Genghis had just received, then it would do everything within its power to prove that it deserved to lead more than he did.

Sabotage?

That word almost felt too gentle for the thoughts racing through its mind.

Compared to everything it had already imagined doing, sabotage barely scratched the surface.

Because of that, the former chieftain became even more certain that Genghis would choose to kill it.

There simply wasn’t another decision that made sense.

It quietly lowered its head. Its hand slowly reached toward the weapon resting at its side.

From the Oni’s words, even if it managed to kill Genghis, the Oni wouldn’t acknowledge it. It may just as easily be killed by the Oni the moment it manages to succeed.

But it would do so anyway.

Coward, failure, those words continue to strike at its core. If it was going to die, it would wash away those labels before it did.

Its fingers had only just begun wrapping around the handle when Genghis finally spoke.

“I’ll still choose to let him live.”

The former chieftain froze. For several long moments, it genuinely believed it had misheard.

The Oni had just explained every possible consequence of allowing it to live.

Slowly, the former chieftain raised its head once more.

Its eyes met Genghis’s. The caution and uncertainty that had filled Genghis’s gaze only moments earlier had completely disappeared.

In their place was a kindness that it never expected to see from a goblin.

It didn’t like it.

It’s not that it saw Genghis as weak. If anything, those kind eyes made it truly doubt itself, more than the Oni’s piercing words.

It made it feel bitter… the thought that it was truly a horrible leader was finally setting in.

Maybe this was why the Oni chose him?

To be able to forgive and trust your fellow kin, one that should’ve been seen as its enemy no less, is something that no goblin here could do.

Its fingers slowly loosened around the weapon resting against its hip before its arm eventually fell back to its side.

There was no longer any fight left within it.

—

Genghis, however, didn’t notice the change yet. He wasn’t willing to take his eyes off Noah.

He had made his decision. Whether that decision was right or wrong no longer belonged to him.

What mattered now was how the Oni judged it.

But neither he nor the other goblins realized that Noah had never cared which decision Genghis made.

Everything leading up to the decision mattered to him. If he was going to take in such wild, uneducated monsters, he needed to have a sense of control. And that’s what he was building all along.

If Genghis chose to kill the goblin. The others wouldn’t hesitate to still follow him in the end. He had given them reasons beyond a doubt why allowing the former chieftain to live would become a burden to the tribe.

At the same time, they would witness the strength of their new chieftain, inspiring in them a drive to work hard to gain the same benefits they saw him obtain.

That outcome would’ve worked. Yet Genghis’s decision to spare the former chieftain carried something far more valuable.

Noah had already decided the tribe needed a fresh start. But a reset just didn’t have to mean their numbers; but also their mindset.

It would show them that goblins didn’t have to remain the savages they had always been.

More importantly, it would show them that under this new leader, they no longer had to believe that every goblin around them was another rival.

If they could trust Genghis to judge them fairly, to lead them unselfishly…

Eventually, they would begin trusting him more than they trusted themselves.