Chapter 732: 732

There was a long, fragile silence.

Then someone from the crowd shouted, frustration breaking through their grief.

"If you knew who had angered you," the voice demanded, shaking with emotion, "then why was there so much unnecessary bloodshed? Why were so many innocent lives taken?"

The question tore through the chamber.

The werewolf godling’s jaw tightened. His hand curled into a fist, claws biting into his palm.

"If you had asked me this before everything happened," he said slowly, his voice heavy, "I would not have been able to give you an answer."

He lifted his gaze "I could not have put into words what I now understand."

He gestured faintly toward Erik.

"All of your questions," he continued, "and all of the answers we godlings have arrived at since then, point to one truth."

His voice dropped.

"The human king, Erik, is not merely a man. He is a king. More importantly, he is a leader among humans."

The weight of that title pressed down upon the court.

"If we had struck him down," the werewolf went on, "if we had confronted him directly, as so many believe we should have, what then?"

He did not wait for an answer.

"I will not pretend otherwise. His strength is real. He would have taken some of my kin with him before his death."

A murmur rippled through the stands.

"But what would come after that?" he asked quietly.

He turned to the crowd.

"How would our actions be perceived by humanity if we demonstrated that we could choose to strike down your leader at any moment, by our own will?"

"Once that line is crossed," he concluded, "no explanation, no truth, and no restraint would ever be believed again."

The werewolf godling let the silence stretch, allowing the weight of his words to settle fully before continuing.

"A leader does not exist alone," he said. "Every step they take is carried on the backs of those who follow them."

He gestured toward Erik, not accusing him, nor absolving him of his action.

"When a leader errs, it is never just the leader who pays the price. Their people bleed for them. Their children inherit the consequences. Their mistakes echo long after their body is gone."

Another apeling godling stepped forward, her voice calm "To strike down a king or leader means a lot," she said. "It is a declaration."

A murmur rippled through the chamber.

"If we had killed him," the werewolf continued, "humans would not have asked why. They would not have asked how many died, thye would have asked how many godlings stood behind the act? and how many were ready to do it again."

His eyes swept the crowd.

"And your answer after that would have been war."

The word hung in the air, cold and undeniable.

"What should have been simple," another godling added, "the punishment of one who offended another, would have become a banner raised by both sides."

"Your armies would have marched," the werewolf said. "Your faith would have been weaponized. Your children would have been taught that godlings are executioners who strike kings in the night."

"And ours," said the mermaid quietly, "would have been taught that humans will never accept accountability unless it is forced upon them."

The female harpy godling finally rose again, her wings unfurling just enough to command the room.

"This," she said, "is the burden of leadership."

She turned toward the crowd.

"When a common man commits a wrong, the harm ends with him. When a leader commits a wrong, the harm multiplies."

Her gaze shifted to Erik.

"Even when the leader is wrong," she continued, "their position makes retaliation indistinguishable from aggression."

"We chose this path," the werewolf said. "Not because we lacked the strength to act, but because we understood the cost."

"Had we struck down your king, this hall would not be standing today."

"This is why we did what we did," the werewolf godling said. "Hatred for humans was never the reason behind our actions."

He turned his gaze fully upon Erik.

"In your case, King Erik, it was simply the course that made the most sense."

A ripple of unease moved through the chamber.

"Everyone in this court knows what your actions have brought upon your own land," he continued. "A cursed kingdom, quarantined by every neighboring realm. A place abandoned by trade, diplomacy, and hope."

"Your lands roam with cursed beings now," he said flatly, "creatures that were once your people."

A sharp breath escaped someone in the crowd.

He shifted his attention to the victims, his eyes distant, impersonal.

"Even if we had never intervened," he said, "it was only a matter of time before you would have joined them."

The words struck like frost.

"Before your names were forgotten. Before your bodies changed. Before your suffering became another statistic within Erik’s borders."

He paused.

"But before that moment," he continued, "your value to him was immense."

The werewolf gestured faintly toward the stands.

"To Erik, the existence of ordinary humans within his kingdom is not trivial. Every untainted soul is a resource. A symbol. A proof that his rule has not yet failed completely."

His eyes hardened.

"Each living, un-cursed human was a candle still burning, a lifeline keeping his kingdom from being declared truly dead."

The chamber was utterly silent now.

"That is why the loss of those innocent lives mattered," he said. "Not because we delight in their death, but because we understood what it would do to him."

He looked back at Erik.

"We knew it would hurt you."

The word hurt felt insufficient.

"We knew it would push you toward despair. Toward desperation. Toward mistakes."

The coldness in his voice sent a shudder through the court.

For in that moment, everyone understood. These beings people who weighed their mortal lives as leverage. Who understood suffering as pressure. Who held countless lives in their hands and chose, deliberately, how tightly to close their fingers.

The werewolf godling drew a slow breath, as though steadying himself.

"My words are not meant only for this court," he said, his voice carrying across the place clear. "Nor are they meant only for those seated here today."

He lifted his gaze, letting it pass over the nobles, the lawyers, the victims, and finally the crowd beyond.

"I hope my words leave this hall. I hope they spread to your cities, your temples, and your homes."

A pause.

"Humans must learn to hold their leaders accountable."

The words were spoken without heat, yet they struck harder than any shout.

"Because when a leader acts, it is never their life placed upon the line."

He gestured toward the victims.

"It is yours. It is your parents’. It is your children’s."

A murmur of unease rippled through the chamber.

"Your kings and nobles will speak of honor, necessity, and destiny," he continued. "But when their choices draw the gaze of divinity, it is not their blood that is spilled, it is yours."

His eyes narrowed slightly.

"This court stands as yet another example of that truth. Of a leader’s foolishness. Of humanity’s willingness to let those in power play with divinity, as though gods and godlings alike exist to dance to their tune."

Silence pressed down, heavy and suffocating.

"That," he said, "is something you must hold each other accountable for."

The werewolf godling straightened, his presence expanding across the place, filling it with wild breath that tingled the spine.

"As for us," he said at last, "we will stand before the Goddess and accept whatever judgment she deems fitting."

His voice did not waver.

"It pains us that unnecessary lives were taken."

A breath.

"But understand this clearly."

He looked once more across the chamber, his gaze unflinching.

"We do not regret our actions."

The air seemed to tighten around him.

"For regret implies doubt."

And with that, he fell silent standing beside his fellow godlings, immovable and imposing, as the court waited for the Goddess herself to pass judgment.

For a long moment, no one spoke.

Among the common humans in the stands, reactions fractured. Some sat frozen, faces pale, hands clenched in their laps as the truth clawed its way into their thoughts. Others trembled with rage at the audacity, some had a slow, dawning realization that they had never truly been the ones making decisions about their own fate.

Parents pulled children closer. Old men stared at their hands as if seeing the cost of obedience written into their lines. A few wept silently for the understanding that their suffering had been currency long before it becomes a tragedy.

There were those who hated the godlings still.

But that hatred no longer felt clean.

It tangled with fear, shame, and a quiet, unbearable doubt.

The nobles reacted differently.

Whispers hissed between silk-clad figures, sharp and urgent. Some masked their unease behind practiced disdain, lips curled in scorn at the audacity of beings who aren’t humans lecturing humanity. Others had gone very still, eyes narrowed in calculation.