Goblin King: My Innate Skill Is OP

"Are you truly a goblin?"

My brow furrowed at once, the muscles pulling tight across my forehead. I stared at her, trying to decide whether she was mocking me or if her words carried some deeper suspicion.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked, my voice quieter than I intended, but edged with a sharpness that betrayed how unsettled I felt.

Her lips curved faintly, not into a smile exactly, but into something that carried a trace of wry amusement, as though she knew she'd struck a nerve and was gauging how I'd respond. She repeated herself, but twisted the blade in a way that made the air between us suddenly heavier.

"Are you truly human?"

This time my brow knitted even tighter, the confusion clawing deeper into me.

The way she asked it — calm, deliberate, and with no hint of jest — didn't sound like a careless remark or some wild guess.

No, it carried the weight of certainty.

I rose slowly to my feet, unable to sit still under the weight of her question, my eyes fixed on Flogga as if I could dig the truth straight out of her calm, unyielding expression.

She didn't flinch, didn't so much as twitch. Her face remained composed, almost serene, while mine betrayed me completely — muscles tightening, lips parting and pressing together again, a mess of confusion spilling across my features as my thoughts ran wild in a dozen directions at once.

"What do you mean, am I truly a goblin?" I demanded, my voice sharper than I intended. I searched her eyes for even the faintest sign of mockery, of playfulness, anything that would make this easier to dismiss.

But she only tilted her head, her tone frighteningly casual as she replied, "What do you mean, Chief? Aren't you human?"

My eyes widened, the breath catching hard in my chest.

And then, like a knife twisting, an old thought resurfaced — one I'd buried the moment it had crept into my mind. The day I discovered the other Chosens were human like me, the possibility had struck me then: if I could be human in a goblin's body, what was to say the others in my clan weren't the same? They laughed in ways too familiar, argued with tones that reminded me of people I once knew, carried themselves with habits that felt far too human for creatures of the forest.

But I had dismissed it earlier, brushed it aside as nothing more than a passing thought born from fatigue and the strangeness of my new reality.

Now… now that suspicion was clawing its way back to the surface, no longer something I could easily ignore. The weight of it pressed down on me until I could no longer keep silent. I steadied my breathing, forcing my voice to come out slow and deliberate, each word heavy with intent.

"Flogga… are you human too?"

For the first time since I'd known her, something slipped through the cracks of her composure. Her brow twitched, the smallest betrayal of emotion, but I caught it instantly — because I was staring at her with an intensity that bordered on desperation, watching for the faintest flicker that might confirm what my gut was already screaming.

No way… The thought rippled through my head like a whisper I didn't want to hear but couldn't silence.

She said nothing at first. The silence stretched, thick and uncomfortable, and my fingers curled tight against my sides. A part of me wanted to shake the answer out of her, to shout, to demand the truth before the weight of uncertainty broke me. But I bit it back, grinding down on that urge and forcing myself to wait.

And then she sighed — not the kind of sigh that came from weariness or frustration, but one that carried the weight of something she had been holding back for far too long.

"I suspected as much," she murmured.

The words hit me like a jolt, and I stepped forward before I could stop myself.

"What do you mean?" I asked, the question spilling out almost instantly, sharper than I intended.

She didn't flinch.

Her response came calm, steady, with none of the hesitation I had been expecting.

"Yes," she said softly, "you are right."

My mind lurched.

Right? About what?

And then she revealed it, clear and unshaken.

"I am human… just like you are."

The words tore through me, stopping everything inside me at once.

My body froze where I stood, my chest rising but refusing to fall, air caught somewhere between my lungs and my throat.

For a moment, it felt as though even the cave itself had gone silent, holding its breath with me.

No way…

The thought thundered in my head, louder than anything I could force past my lips.

"I am a human… was human, Chief. A long time ago."

The words cracked something inside me.

My mouth fell open, but no sound came out at first.

"I… how… what—"

I stammered, the words tripping over each other until they collapsed into nothing.

My mind grasped at fragments of thought, but none of them held steady long enough to form into a sentence. I didn't even know how to react. My chest felt tight, my pulse erratic, as though my body was lagging behind the reality that had just been laid bare.

"What about the rest?"

I finally managed to let out.

"Are they human as well?"

In fact…were all goblins human?

At this point, I didn't couldn't say otherwise.

She shook her head, the motion stiff in her thin neck, yet calm and certain, and that quiet weight alone grounded me.

"No. Not at all. Only a select few."

My thoughts scattered, searching desperately for footing, for an example that might prove or disprove what she had just said.

"Zarah?" I asked suddenly, the name slipping out unbidden. I didn't even know why I chose her — maybe because she had always felt so different.

Flogga's answer cut clean through my spiraling.

"No. Zarah is not.

I am the only one in this clan who was human."