Moral?, what is that, can it be eaten ?

Chapter 5

Moon looked towards Katu, the young goblin girl who had already gotten up when the goblin woman and goblin chief were talking, with the goblin woman doing most of the talking, as in cursing, then slowly shifted his gaze towards the mother goblin slowly and steadily, almost mechanically. Although from a third-person perspective, it just looked like the orb shifted a bit.

"Umm... Oops?" he said, his voice echoing through the cave since there was no other voice inside the cave.

And the sight that he saw surprised him; instead of the expected anger, fury. He only saw a small bit of remorse in her eyes when she looked at the dead goblin chief. After a few seconds of looking at the goblin chief, she moved her gaze toward him, fell on her knee, and bowed before him. Her head touched the ground.

"I am extremely sorry for the unsightly display, Lord Moon; I did not expect something like this to happen."

If Moon had a mouth, then it would have fallen to the ground like the old cartoon series he used to watch as a kid in his previous life.

"Why? Aren't you sad that I killed your husband?" he asked.

The goblin woman slowly raised her head until she was sitting upright but still on her knees. She then slowly shook her head left and right.

"I think you misunderstood, Lord Moon. In goblin culture and society, there is no such thing as a husband or wife. Nor is there any deep relation between oneself and the rest of the tribe. Whenever it was between father and son, or mother and daughter."

Moon stood quietly, his mind processing everything, the fact that in goblin society and culture, there is no such thing as familial love and affection if what she said was true, while in his subconscious mind, he silently lowered the level of the goblin heritage and society as a whole by a few points, with it now hovering just slightly above a wild savage animal rank.

"My daughter and I are an exception among goblins."

Moon's subconsciousness slightly, just slightly, increased the goblin's heritage and culture rank.

"So, if you and your daughter are exceptional and have familial love, why aren't you angry at me? I killed your husband," he asked. Then he turned towards the young goblin girl. "Your father."

The goblin woman just bitterly smiled in response to him.

"He stopped being my husband when he broke the oath that he made to me seven years ago by fathering three other bastard children."

Moon took a sharp breath, his mind in shock as he tried to understand what he had heard.

"Damn, I shouldn't have asked that question," he thought silently in his mind while thinking in the back of his head, Three bastard children? Not one, not two, but three?

Only for his mind to be interrupted by what she said next, while shaking her head, she said slowly.

"He wasn't always like this. Back then, when I, after getting kicked out of the Magic Tower of Master Kyte, was wandering alone and scared. He found me, helped me, fed me, and taught me things that I did not know. In return, I protected and defended him. Together we have gone through quite a lot. But with time he changed; he became more and more lazy, and the ambition that was once blazed, like fire, became just a spark."

"Umm..." Moon muttered; one part of his mind wanted to make her stop recounting her life and how it happened, while another part wanted to just sit there, listen to her love opera, and munch on popcorn. Granted, he couldn't eat it, but the desire was still there.

Two sides started to fight against each other, and in about ten seconds, the reserved, polite one won against the opera-lover side. So he shifted his gaze towards the young goblin girl, Katu. He then quietly made the part facing Katu a bit brighter a few times, akin to a flashlight, which he hoped that she would understand as him wanting her to stop her mother.

Why not do it directly? Because the goblin woman looked like she was having a hallucination of her own life, with her eyes distant and gone. Heck, she was even waving her arms around herself every time something shocking happened, and it partly intimidated him and partly made him unsure. If he were to make an example of what he was feeling, it would be like waking up early in the morning, then going shopping, and while shopping, seeing two lovers breaking up. In short, extremely awkward and feeling like it is not your place to intrude upon.

Katu looked at Moon, confusion adorning her features. Trying to make sense of what Sir Moon meant. But a second later, she made her own conclusion.

"MOM!"

The older goblin jolted at her daughter's intense call, causing her to stop recounting her life story and turn around.

"What?"

"Tell Sir Moon that I also don't have any hatred or anger towards him," the younger goblin girl, Katu, said.

"Oh, I forgot that you still can't converse with him; here, take this." She said as she pulled out an amulet from her back trunk and gave it to her.

"Ummm... Okay…" Katu said as she grabbed the amulet, clutching it in her hand, and turned towards Moon. "Sir Moon, I also don't have any hatred or anger against you."

Meanwhile, Moon thought silently in his mind. She did not exactly understand my intention, but in the end, it worked.

Then Moon addressed the Goblin woman and Katu.

"Should we bury him?"

And he received a nod of agreement from both of them.

After that, they put the body on a bedsheet; the goblin woman called four goblins in from outside and made them carry the cover in which the body lay. They walked out of the tribe, around a kilometer, until they stopped, and then the goblin woman ordered the four goblins to dig a hole and bury him. Simple and barbaric to the point it made Moon question why they were even bothering to bury the body in the first place. Even a small part of Moon felt that if he did not question them, they would probably just throw the body outside without care.

Whether it was the goblin who saw them carrying their tribe chief's body nonchalantly or the mother-daughter pair who only had a hint of remorse in their eyes. When they were burying him, it made Moon question if he was the weird one here. But he shook the thought a second later.

"Different world, different species, different culture," he murmured in his mouth while floating back towards the Goblin woman's home to continue what they left off.

Five days later...

"So, this symbol is the divider, and this is the XOR logic gate of this diagram, huh." Moon sat inside the goblin woman's cave, reading an old totem-like book. Sunlight streamed through the entrance, transforming the usually humid and cool cave into a dry and warm space. Not that Moon felt any of it.

"But what is this? [Let the instinct of the past ones guide one's actions]. This part doesn't make any sense." Moon sighed, trying to decipher the previous paragraphs and symbols, but it was to no avail. "I can understand the basic human magic part, but the traditional Goblin tribe shaman part? I don't understand any of it," he murmured under his breath.

A few days ago, after conversing with the goblin woman, Moon decided to stay with the tribe for a short while. He wanted to familiarize himself with them and gather information he had missed or forgotten to ask. "Not like I have something urgent to do," he thought while attempting to put some formulas he had learned into practice.

For obvious reasons, it didn't work. Holy energy and mana were two entirely different types of energy—different in characteristics, quality, and reaction. However, studying them provided him with a fresh perspective and new possibilities he hadn't considered before. Over the past few days, he had created a few techniques: [Flashbang], [TNT], and [Flash Boost].

As their names suggested, [Flashbang] blinded enemies, [TNT] concentrated holy energy into a powerful detonation, and [Flash Boost] propelled him in a straight direction using a one-way explosion while simultaneously manifesting a protective shield beside his body. However, these techniques were far from perfected. Some only worked once every ten attempts, while [Flash Boost] had succeeded only twice.

"Sir Moon, here is your requested book." A voice called from behind him, breaking his train of thought.

"Thank you," Moon said, taking the book and glancing at Katu. Her hair, previously left loose, was now styled into twin ponytails, enhancing her already cute features. Her petite frame, combined with the new hairstyle, made her resemble his younger sister from his past life—short, extremely petite, and adorable. The resemblance amused him slightly.

Noticing that she wasn't leaving as she had previously, he asked, "Did you need something?"

"Sir Moon, the new chief of the tribe is being selected today, and a huge festival will follow. Do you wish to participate as a guest of honor?"

The word "festival" piqued Moon's interest. He was curious about how the new chief would be selected and what differences the festival might hold compared to human traditions. "Yes, I'd like to participate," he responded, closing the book before floating toward the main clearing where the event was to take place.

His assumption was correct—the entire tribe had gathered. In the center, a group of male goblins stood, glaring at each other menacingly, while the rest of the tribe sat on the ground, eating meat and drinking water. To the south, a table with three chairs had been set up. One was already occupied by the goblin shaman, who waved at him with a light smile.

Obliged to acknowledge her, he floated toward the table. "So, they fight to determine the chief?"

The goblin woman nodded. "Yes. Outsiders often call it barbaric and primitive, but it works for us. Have a seat."

Moon accepted the offer, but instead of sitting, he hovered above the chair. A ridiculous gesture? Perhaps. But the intention remained, so he didn't mind.

As soon as he took his place, the goblin shaman stood and announced the rules before initiating the tournament. Eight male goblins participated, all sharing the common features of their race: large, run-down noses, sunken yellow eyes, and thin lips that barely concealed sharp teeth.

Moon found the matches predictable—barbaric and anticlimactic. The biggest goblin was immediately ganged up on, followed by the second biggest, until an above-average-sized goblin emerged victorious.

"HAHAHAHA! I AM THE CHIEF!" the newly crowned goblin shrieked, his voice akin to a banshee's wail.

Thanks to the amulet given to him by the shaman, Moon understood every word. And yet, he immediately regretted attending. "I shouldn't have come here," he thought, already searching for an excuse to slip away and return to his cave.