38 Deciding Their Fate

["I am Faruth, the Chieftain of this great village! You all stand before me, not as prisoners, not as slaves, but as free people! Freed by us! The vile Lizardmen scum have been wiped from their settlement, as I am sure you know by now. We have declared war against them, against their kind. We shall not rest until every last one is dead!"] {Faruth}

As he finished the first part of his speech, cheers broke out from the crowd below, even the 6 at the back looked to be somewhat cheerful in comparison to how they were before. The only ones that remained silent were the important figures from the village, Hoki, Droki, Grimanth etcetera, but they still bore a knowing smile across each of their faces.

Faruth realised that what he was saying was extreme. Declaring war against a whole race was almost an impossibility at the scale he was at now, he would have to wait until he was much stronger to do something like that. Maybe it was because his animalistic side had taken over completely after spending a month or so with his new body, but he didn't consider the morality in declaring war against an entire race of creatures. His mentality had changed, for better or for worse.

He swore that he would not lose anyone important to him again, since they have arrived at his village, he considered them his subjects. He was tolerant and kind to those around him, to those that looked up to him, but he wouldn't shoe the slightest hint of mercy to those that opposed him.

As the cheers began to grow out of control, Faruth started his speech once again, slowly silencing the voices that listened in anticipation.

["Since you have been freed by me, you should all belong to me by right! But I am a kind beast, I will give you a choice. You can either stay here, and prosper under my rule, or leave into the forest and starve, spending the rest of your life scrounging for scraps and praying for your own safety!"] {Faruth}

Finishing his speech, Faruth let out a malicious grin, one that displayed his rows of razor sharp teeth in full. Truthfully, it was more of a sneer than a grin. The people in the crowd had a different reaction to before. Though the way that he had phrased it made him sound like an evil tyrant, he was still giving him a choice after all, none of those in the crowd could say that their previous Chieftains would even acknowledge them as people, never mind give them a choice in decisions.

Instead of cheers, the crowd was filled solely with murmurs. However, most members of the crowd now looked at Faruth with warmth, including the members at the back. They would be foolish if they tried to leave such a kind Chieftain for their own pride. Saying that, not every one was as smart as the rest. But it was all still in Faruth's calculations.

["Prosper under your rule?! I would rather die than serve a Gnoll!"] {???}

This caused the members at the front to turn around a stare at the culprit, likely with intense anger. Though the culprit gulped audibly, he still continued. As Faruth expected, it was one of the Goblins that had been dragged along at the back of the freed Gnolls. Though his anger was likely understandable, Faruth wouldn't allow anyone to ruin his plans, instead, he saw this as an opportunity.

["What are you going to do, kill me? You're just like the rest of your race, cowardly, lying scum!"] {???}

At this point he probably got carried away and forgot that there was a group of 23 of the very people he was verbally attacking standing just in front of him. But Faruth wore the same toothy sneer and responded to the Goblin.

["Oh... Is that so? And you, what is your name?"] {Faruth}

["Gobudama... Why does it matter to you, Gnoll?"] {Gobudama}

["I see, Gobudama eh. Well, 'Gobudama', you are free to leave, or rather, fuck off."] {Faruth}

To this, the Goblin looked surprised, but quickly changed his expression back to the condescending grin it was before.

["Ha, you don't need to tell me twice! Come on boys, lets go!"] {Gobudama}

Out of the 6 remaining Goblins, 2 chose to follow Gobudama, leaving only 4 out of the original 7. This caused the Goblin to shout at the remainders, though they paid it no heed.

As the Goblins walked out of the village, Faruth falsely sighed and continued on with his speech.

["You just can't please everyone eh? No matter, I am sure that the rest of you know what you are doing. As those under my rule, I promise that you will not go hungry, so long as you work for your meals. I expect everyone to do their part, whether that is hunting, fighting, gathering or building, No one will be allowed to slack off while the others do their part for them! Now, I am sure that you are all beyond exhausted after everything that you have been through, which you have my utmost sympathy for! Please, remain out here with those from my village originally and you will be let into the cave in just a short while. In the meantime, feel free to relax and regain your stamina. I know we beastmen can fix ourselves up properly in no time. You will need it for the things that I have planned for you tomorrow."] {Faruth}

Again, the end of his final speech was met with cheers as he walked back into the cave, his close aides following shortly behind.

["Chief, that was a pretty amazing speech just then!"] {Marth}

["Thank you Marth, I appreciate it. Now, where is Wulfarth, I have something that I need to discuss with him?"] {Faruth}

As Wulfarth walked towards him, he led him into the back room with the stone slab and began to relay his plan to the beastman. Wulfarth's face bore an evil grin as he agreed to Faruth's plan and after a short while of discussing, led Alice out of the village secretly.