"Then they have to kill each other? What's the point of living like that? No wonder everyone says kobolds are stupid. They really are stupid." Sim simply could not understand the kobolds' way of thinking. Instead, he thought they were idiots for living so humiliatingly. If it were barbarians, they would rather starve to death than endure such humiliation.
This left Solam and Maris scratching their heads again, but they had not expected Sim to understand such things anyway. Barbarians were famously proud; they would rather die than lose their dignity. But for most people, surviving was what mattered most. Things like dignity and glory could come afterward.
That was even more true for creatures like kobolds. To them, survival mattered more than anything else. Though some of them had to be sacrificed each time, such sacrifices were entirely worthwhile for the sake of the species as a whole. The kobolds themselves might never have consciously thought about it, but their instincts drove them to act that way.
"Who cares whether they're stupid? You just need to know they aren't being controlled." Maris could not be bothered explaining it all to him. Sim would not understand anyway.
"Is that important?" Sim somehow lowered the bar for stupidity yet again. It was not that he was truly dumb; he was simply too lazy to think.
"If those bugs can control that many kobolds, then what the hell are we even fighting for? We obviously can't beat them. Going there would just be suicide. If they can control so many kobolds, do you really think they can't control the few of us? Can't you use your brain a little?" Maris snapped at Sim.
"Oh, now I get it when you put it that way. Why did you have to make it so