"Vivian returned to her home world, so we had to split up." The lie of the breakup came easier to him than the lie of the relationship ever had. It wasn't nearly so cheesy.

"Oh, I'm sure you were heartbroken." Maggie pursed her lips as she studied Riley. "Who is your new lady friend? She's quite pretty."

"This is Riley." Hector noticed other people around the neighborhood watching them with rapt attention. His desire to offer some charity was rapidly turning into something other than what he'd intended. "Greg, I was able to bring an army back to save my world because I reached Bay Beach. I'm going to pay for firewood with this gold bar. If you don't take it from my hand, I'll hide it around your house when I leave."

Greg capitulated without words, simply changing his posture from 'obstinate' to 'neutral'.

Meanwhile, Maggie ushered them into her house. "Come in for refreshments. I hope you can stay until evening. Mandy is at practice for the school play. You'd break her heart if you stopped by and didn't see her, Hector."

"Sure, I can stop back after getting some firewood. Maybe we could say hello to Randy, too."

Maggie rolled her eyes. "Your number one fan, that one. Don't think I've seen him once that he hasn't brought you up."

"Would be wrong to leave Randy out of this, Mags." Greg passed out bottles of lager with a logo Hector recognized from his time living in the beach house. "Cheers, mates."

Throughout everything, Riley had gone with the flow as people spoke over each other. Now, with everyone else taking a sip of their beverage, she had her moment. "Hector fought monsters here? And who is Vivian?"

Hector rushed to answer before the married couple could provide any inaccurate information. "I came to this world seeking help for my own. Greg helped me get to where some Arahants under the command of the Sage of Conflagration were helping out. Back then I didn't have any body enhancement, so my contributions to the monster slaying weren't much."

"You fought monsters without body enhancement?" Riley blinked. "That means I'm stronger now than you were then. That's crazy, Hector!"

"It was fine. I was good at blocking with my aura."

Maggie snapped her fingers. "Oh! What about your sworn brother Rodrick?"

His smile slipped. "I haven't seen any of the Arahants in a long time."

"You poor thing. At least you have a beautiful woman at your side. She's doing you a world of good, too. I swear you look twenty years younger than the first time I saw you."

Riley didn't seem to know what to think about the assumptions being made. "My body statistic is at one point three now."

Hector glanced to her. "Just wait until we get you better resources. Esther had the idea of filling water bottles. I'm not going to sell water, but I could get some for you and Darius."

Uninterested in the cross chatter, Maggie pushed on with her agenda. "How long have you two been together?"

"I could be fighting monsters now," Riley said. "I'm stronger than when you started."

"You very recently told me you don't want to be a warrior."

Greg clinked bottles all around, bringing silence. "Drink up, mates."

When they'd obediently finished their beers, Greg turned to business. "How much firewood?"

"One truckload should do it."

"How big of a truck are we talking?"

Years of experience in a warehouse let him do a quick and rough volume estimate. "A ten foot box truck should do it."

"Ten foot? Your magic bubble can hold that much?"

"I can make it larger than what you saw," Hector assured the other man.

Knocking on the door startled Maggie, who rushed to look out the window. "Reporters!" Before Hector could express any hesitation, the woman of the house yanked open her front door and emerged to begin explaining how their Xian friends stopped by a for a visit.

Riley was chewing her lip in a way that looked painful. "I don't want to be on cameras, Hector."

"My Arahant friends fascinated the locals. Greg, any chance you could hide Riley while I talk to the press?" Greg proved immediately sympathetic. He invited Riley to sit in their television room and watch some clips of Hector's last visit.

Hector went to meet the reporters, forcing a fake smile. A photogenic middle-aged woman began peppering him with questions. Was he there because another monster invasion was due? What had he been up to since they last saw him? Where were the Arahants? Could they meet the young lady who arrived with him?

The attention drove home just how little he wanted fame. Hector imagined these people would listen with utter fascination if he decided to describe his last bowel movement in excruciating detail. It was an insane degree of hero worship. He didn't deserve their adoration. Nor did their attitude serve their own interests. It was borderline pathological.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

More reporters arrived, asking similar questions. Hector decided to take control of the narrative by giving a statement on his activities. He explained how he had friends on another world who needed firewood for the winter and decided to use that chore to check in on people here. The knowledge that he casually moved between worlds for chores had the opposite effect of what he intended. They were in awe of his ability and wanted to know the details of his life elsewhere.

Two things happened in quick succession to cut the media frenzy short. First, government agents arrived. Second, Mandy arrived home from school. Whereas the reporters were initially argumentative about their right to conduct interviews, they backed down when faced with an anxious young girl who had to cross their ranks to her own front door. So confused was Mandy by the whole situation that she didn't even recognize Hector until the door closed behind them.

Then Mandy truly panicked. The first time they'd met, Hector had simply been a random man who was friends with her biological father. Since then, she'd decided that Hector was some sort of mythological figure after he joined up with the Arahants at Bay Beach. Any question he asked to draw her out caused her to respond in such a quiet voice that no one had any clue what her answer had been. She appeared distinctly uncomfortable with his attention.

The government agents eventually convinced Greg that they would be allowed inside the house, so Hector had other business to occupy his attention. He went through another question and answer session. This time the questions weren't fluff. Hector received the impression that the government was quite concerned that foreign visitors might become a regular event. They'd passed an act that exempted extraterrestrials from civilian laws and now, without mind-influencing Arahants around to manipulate them, were strongly reconsidering that move.

Those agents wound up taking the gold bar from Greg with the promise that they would provide its cash value in return. They asked Hector to check in with the government if he ever returned to their world, which put him in an awkward position.

"Respectfully, sir, I won't guarantee anything."

"You think you can do whatever you like on our world?"

Hector frowned. These people needed to understand a hard truth. "Sir, I don't think you quite appreciate the gulf in power between us. You have no means of coercing my compliance."

The agent frowned. "You seem fond of this family. Remember that if you –"

Force cables snaked around the necks of four separate government men and lifted them just enough that they had to go onto their toes. As they desperately pawed at the invisible garrotes, eyes wide, Hector stepped closer. "I aim to be a moral person, gentlemen. This family did well by me in the past, so I've repaid them generously. Threats to them won't change my behavior. But if you act on those threats and I find out… that would be very bad for you. As in your nation loses all of its leaders on the same day and I hand pick their replacements."

He released the agents and they gasped for air, beet red faces slowly returning to normal. None of them looked towards Hector before they left, wiping snot and tears from their faces. Respect, he decided, sometimes meant taking people seriously when they promised evil. Also, he would respect the truth.

And that truth was very simple. On an unempowered world like this, without even the benefit of the Dream Engine, Hector's only restraints were the bounds imposed by his own sense of morality. If he wanted to, Hector could wipe out the entire armed forces of this world by himself. These government people had to understand that outsiders weren't to be trifled with. They certainly didn't have to capitulate the moment someone strong arrived, but they couldn't expect to go around making threats against what might as well be gods in comparison to themselves.

The rest of the family were all in the television room watching the damn seat switching interview. Hector almost wished he could go back to threatening nefarious government agents. Almost anything was better than witnessing their group interview. Yet what was he to do?

Hector survived the replay of his humiliation. Then he put on a happy face when young Mandy finally worked up the nerve to ask him a question. Did he love Vivian?

There wasn't a good answer to that one. He couldn't remain honest and avoid shattering Mandy's illusions. And, while he'd love to disavow the stupid public relations stunt, the narrative meant something more meaningful to a young girl. The Arahant visit was a real life fairy tale to her. It promised that heroes were real, that monsters could be defeated, and that love conquered all.

Hector thought those lessons were valuable, even if they were more aspirational than actual. Certainly believing in good as a concept was a promising first step to producing its fruits. "Vivian was very special to me," he lied. "But Arahants always have to go back to the world of Maya."

"Aren't Xian allowed there?"

"Well, a lot of people worry about Xian. We're very powerful warriors."

Blatant skepticism met his words. "Conflagration and Rodrick were more powerful."

Greg cleared his throat. "Yeah, no offense, mate. You weren't the most impressive."

Hector recalled those days fighting the squid monsters. And then the monster surge where Rodrick lost his life while Hector received recognition. "Greg, there is no comparing what I was back then to what I am today. I didn't exaggerate when I told you that Xian are the greatest warriors in the multiverse."

Riley added her support. "Hector was level four with no body enhancement. He shouldn't have been fighting monsters at all back then. He is very powerful now."

And no one believed them. Hector saw the doubt clearly written on the faces of the polite family hosting them. A childish impulse urged him to prove his strength. Hector squashed it ruthlessly. He wasn't staying here. He didn't need their recognition.

So instead, Hector turned back to the subject of firewood. After expressing his desire to avoid more media attention, Greg drove Hector and Riley in his car to a nearby campground where they were able to purchase seasoned wood.

Hector summoned his sphere and they tossed logs inside. At first Greg and Riley and the man working the campground store helped. Soon the others realized they only got in Hector's way. Not only did his peak level five enhancement make Hector nearly inexhaustible at such a simple task, he had a bit of frustration to work out of his system.

When the sphere was mostly full, Hector used his cables to shove some of the logs up towards the top, creating a small space for him and Riley to squeeze into. He bid Greg farewell and closed his sphere. "Well… that was not the fun trip I expected," he said.

Riley was in agreement with him. "I think I would rather work than do that again."

The pleasant outing had failed. Yet Hector decided not to let their trip go to waste. The world of reality television stars might have been a dud, but surely a Tian farm would do better. After all, they already had the firewood for the trade.

The time between worlds was much less this trip. Not only was he more familiar with his destination, true worlds were also louder within the primordial. Riley flinched as soon as his sphere opened, the rush of ambient cosmic energy taking her by surprise.

They hopped out and he dismissed his sphere.

"Surprise! Tian itself. What do you think?"

As Riley was staring about in wonder, the door to the farmhouse opened. A familiar figure emerged, causing sweat to instantly drench Hector. Before he could say a word, cables of force sprang into existence to restrain the two of them.

"I will bet you didn't expect to ever see me again," Master Dorian said.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.