Is Man's superiority not evident?

“Albaric… Albar ‘the ruler’, huh?” I muttered to myself, my eyes dampening.

Ah. My dear brother who rests in peace… Finally the people will sing in praise the name that should have been yours…

Yesteryear appears as yesterday. The day when the human wayfinders attacked our town—the tribe’s capital back then, Alisdat—when our father died in battle after we slew the bunch of invaders with utmost prowess. You and I were captured, and enslaved, but I managed to wreak havoc amongst our captors, and you made your escape in the night. My days amongst the humans were… formative, one could say, for they were nothing less than memorable.

***

Thirty-five years ago.

Confined to a cell alongside my fellow tribesmen, we were presented as merchandise in the open market of Muille—the capital city of the Kingdom of Lugustia. Usually, slave trade was strictly banned inside the settlement. Slaves were seen as crude and it was thus preferred by society and government alike for the poor souls to be sold just outside of the town.

However, one week a year, the city halts its collecting of tariffs, ceases regulation, and allows everyone to trade whatever good for whatever price they want. In this single week, the city prospered and floundered as merchants poured in and sold their goods at a much lower price than usual, due to the lack of tariffs and oversight. Businessmen made bank, and consumers thrived with the low prices. Everything from dirt to jewelry was sold, and even slave trade on the open market was permitted during this week.

It was in this week, a month after the massacre at Alisdat, that I was sold off to a Lugustian politician. I glowered at him as he handed over a small bag of coins into the slaver’s hand. He spoke in a tongue I was unfamiliar with, though it sounded similar to the speech of my initial captors. Later on, after I had become fluent in the Lugustian language, did I understand what he said:

“How fortuitous it is for one to lay hands on a Highgoblin—you, who is so scarce among your own kind, will serve me well in my undertaking.”

The man was Valieu jea Ponce d’Eumeax, count of Renonge, and esteemed lord in the country’s Estates-General. Only having read about goblin ascendancy, he was awestruck the moment he witnessed an earnest Highgoblin in the flesh, and thus he purchased me on a curious whim.

Having no need for another manservant, I found himself sold into bondage beneath the roof of a human lord who, unlike most of his kind, did not seek a goblin for toil or spectacle, but rather as an experiment. Valieu, knowing all well that Highgoblins are the result of a Crawgoblin developing higher cognitive abilities, was interested in seeing how my intellectual capabilities could fare him. I was instructed the Lugustian tongue and afforded a human education. Arithmetic, history, natural sciences, alchemy, reading, writing; I was taught all in the name of catching up to a nobleman’s standards so that I may provide value to my master.

At first, my heart smoldered with contempt towards him and his race. They had wiped out the capital of the Ausmulii, as if we were but grains of sand sticking to the heel of a boot. My father, my townsmen. Gone. I could do nothing to resist, lest I be met with a force I could not reckon with. Holding true to my honor name, I bided my time patiently for an opening to escape.

That opening came one day after a few weeks had passed. The atmosphere in the capital city of Lugustia had tensed up significantly, for everyone was on edge, including my master and his household. One night, the city came to be dominated by a sense of dread. The people of the manor lowered their guards as fear kept them from getting sufficient rest, and so I took the opportunity to slip away unnoticed. Through the backstreets of the city, I dashed, eventually reaching the outer walls of the citadel.

“To the wall! Move, move! Make haste!”

“Lord-Captain! The enemy is setting camp on the hillside a mere arrow shot away!

“What?! We must get the crossbowmen on the walls at once. Contact lord t’Aleur of the interior!”

Shouting. Orders beings barked. Soldiers everywhere. It was as if the tension in this outer part of town had boiled over well before the rest of the city. I did not understand what was happening, even if I could understand little of the things said by the armored retinues. The gate that would lead to my freedom was barred shut, surrounded by armed guards, so I made my way up the wall instead. With my Kragnin, I could surely leap into a body of water, or find another way to land safely.

I scaled up the walls, and gawked at the sight before me. An army of massive size, one that rivalled the population of Alisdat prior to its destruction, lay siege to the city. The sight of an onager terrified me like no other as my timbers shivered and my throat dried up. Of course, in such a predicament, I could hardly escape. The invading army as well as the city guard would have a keen eye on the surroundings at all times. For someone to slip through unscathed, he would require vitality greater than my own. A Gnobble, yes—with his darker skin and stronger constitution could manage, but alas, I was but a Highgoblin.

However, there was something else that prevented me from escaping. It was awe.

Trudging back through the city, I scrutinized every detail of it with newfound consideration. These humans have stone roads that allow for swift and effortless transportation. They have dwellings in ordered rows, each constructed from a mix of brick and timber. I see water channeled through gutters, filth carried away rather than festering where it falls. Merchants record their dealings on parchment, so that memory need not bear the whole burden of trust. Even their guards, clad in iron and drilled to move as one, seem less like men and more like a wall that continually marches, instilling security in the hearts of men.

Where once I saw only murderers, now I behold a people who have tamed chaos with craft, who organize not through a single hall, but through an arrangement of institutions each tailored to its purpose, fashioned by clever hands. Guilds for the economy, courthouses for the law, amphitheaters for the culture.

They have high walls that keep both animal and adversary at bay. They would not be wiped out with ease, unlike Alisdat. How then could I not stand in admiration of these who have forged such sophistication?

Lord Valieu met me by the door of the manor.

“Forgive me, master. Never shall I defy your wishes again,” I begged with my head held low.

He stared at with his lips curled in a subtle smile, amusement beaming from his air. “It seems you Highgoblins are indeed of higher acumen than your Goblin cousins.”

He welcomed me in, and treated me to a meal of such exquisite taste, the likes of which none of my ancestors had ever partaken in. From henceforth, I looked up at humanity not as foe nor friend, but as a forerunner in whose steps goblinkind must tread.