The two men from Homeland Security looked like they were ready to pull their guns at any moment. Luke would argue with them some more if he was alone, he was pretty sure his armor was bulletproof at this point. But Vanessa’s upper body was totally exposed and Jinx was on her lap.

  It looked like he was going to have to give up his armor, even though it was clear that this was a ploy by the billionaire Atticus to get access to Luke’s mech designs. He couldn’t just deny the request of a federal agency, even if they were corrupt.

  Unless he could?

  Homeland Security was in charge of America’s internal federal security. They weren’t in charge of portal travel, that was covered by a variety of other agencies. Luke was pretty sure he actually didn’t have to obey her orders. He even knew how to find out if he was right or not.

  He turned to the marines stationed at the back of the portal room, manning the heavy machine guns there. “If she ordered you to shoot me, would you have to obey?”

  The four marines looked surprised to be brought into the conversation. They turned to their commanding officer who said, “No, sir. They don’t have any authority here. Norfolk Complex counts as an embassy and we only accept orders from our own command chain while we are on base.”

  He nodded in thanks and turned back to the angry woman. “Ms. Weiss, I believe he’s correct. Homeland Security has no power here. I’ve already assisted you in your investigation and you have enough information for a report. Please excuse me.”

  “Mr. Moore! You can’t walk away from me! I am with the government! I can have you arrested!”

  Luke proved her wrong by picking up Vanessa again and walking around the trio. Sandwich limped along behind them, doing his best to look dignified.

  Ms. Weiss followed them for a bit, shouting at them to stop, but Luke’s guess was right. They didn’t have the authority to stop them. She was all bluster.

  Once they were out of earshot, Sandwich said, “Holy hell, Luke. You got some balls on you. How did you know that would work?”

  Luke shrugged. “You know as much as I do. If the marines don’t have to obey her, I guess we don’t either.”

  Vanessa gave him a look. “It was a good guess, but risky. Why did they want to take your armor anyway?”

  “I’m pretty sure this is all Atticus Adelson. I pissed him off by not letting him look at my mechs. Ever since then he’s been trying different things to steal the designs. Maybe he wants to build his own mechs for the military, or maybe he wants to compete with us in the monster killing business. Either way, I have had it up to here with this asshole.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “I ... don’t know exactly. There isn’t much I can do about it here on Earth. I don’t have any political power and our business can’t really compete with his billions. On Kalibutan I have a few more options. You saw how I blocked the scientists this morning. I could order all of his companies to do an audit on Kalibutan next. I’m not sure if I want to escalate things that quickly yet. And of course, all of this jockeying and maneuvering only matters if I am going to go through with risking my life. Otherwise it’s a waste of time.”

  “Risk your life, how?” Vanessa asked.

  “You already know. The Malamon. Lord Edobar has asked me to compete. He actually thinks I have to, because of an oath I didn’t swear. He plans on throwing me into the final competition and rewarding me if I succeed. If I don’t compete, he’s sure to bar me from this portal and then this fight with Atticus is moot.”

  “We need to find out more about this Malamon, that way you can decide if it’s something you want to risk.”

  Luke nodded. “I was planning on asking Cormac about it the day that I got banned from the estate village. Maybe I should send him a letter to meet me in the forest.”

  Vanessa nodded and snapped her fingers. “What we really need to do is try and convince Kruro to leave. She said she won’t betray her lord, but what if that’s part of the oath? It makes her loyal so she doesn’t want to break it. We need to figure out how to break her oath so we can smuggle her out. I want to find out myself anyway. I don’t like having the oath from SPEAR hanging over my head.”

  Luke nodded emphatically. “Me too. I hate that thing. You are right, now is the time to focus on getting rid of our oaths. All of them.”

  ???

  “Thanks for coming out here to talk,” Luke said and stepped out from behind a tree. “I was worried that you wouldn’t read the letter in time for me to meet you out here.”

  Cormac rolled his hand. “Why the subterfuge? I feel like you are about to tell me the princess needs smuggling out of the city to avoid the baker's thugs.”

  Luke assumed that was a reference to a Kalibutan story. “Nothing like that. I had to meet you out here because Lord Edobar asked me to stay away from the villages for a few days.”

  Cormac grunted and looked around the forest near the estate village. Bumblebee and Sandwich were there too, but out of earshot. The orc said, “Is this about the greater healing potion you took? Were you banished?”

  Luke winced when he remembered he still needed to pay for the greater healing potion he used to save Vanessa’s life. “I wasn’t banished, Lord Edobar just wants me to stay out of sight for a few days so people forget about me. Apparently, he wants it to be a surprise when I fight in the Malamon.”

  Cormac’s eyes widened. “That would be a surprise. I have heard nothing of your involvement.”

  “Sounds like the lord’s plan is working. I need you to tell me more about the Malamon, how it works exactly.” Luke tapped on his power armor. “Maybe some small detail will help me design power armor to give me an advantage.”

  Cormac gave him jazz hands. “A prudent question. The second phase of the Malamon will be quick, a single day instead of the two weeks the first phase took. The morning is devoted to staff competitions. Our farmers race against their farmers to scythe fields. Weavers create cloth, builders build a hut, blacksmiths make a knife and inscribers cover it in runes. It’s basically a test to see if the challengers are worthy of working for Lord Edobar if they win. They will most likely pass this test. The competition really begins in the afternoon.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “There is a general melee where seven of their best warriors fight seven of ours. This is likely where you come in. All weapons and armor are allowed, but I am sure the challengers will be surprised to see you there. To win in this melee you must incapacitate all of their warriors while keeping at least three of your own mobile.

  “From what my sources tell me, the Malamon won’t end like that. Our warriors are evenly matched and you are unlikely to tip the balance. The final event is one on one combat using only a ritual weapon and no armor. We will need to rely on our champion, Eseidu Doni, the instructor for the Shrine of Might. Their champion, Okiri Notayo, is formidable, but the gods will smile on us and we will emerge victorious.

  “After they lose, everyone from their side that participated will be sacrificed to the gods. Well, everyone but the warriors. We won’t allow this tradition to leave us without the ability to beat back the monsters. Only their champion will die of the warriors."

  Luke was relieved to hear that. Even if their side lost, he wouldn’t be killed. He would be heartbroken if Cormac and Kruro died. Now he felt better about competing in the Malamon and saving their lives. Which also meant that it was worth it to fight that asshole billionaire, Atticus.

  “Thank you for that. I have two more quick things to discuss.” Luke handed over a list of the companies Atticus owned that were doing business through the portal. “I am having issues with someone from Earth that owns these companies. I want him to worry. Will you pass along a message through the traders that they are considering raising prices and lowering what they are willing to pay? Ideally so the message gets passed through merchants on the same day.”

  Cormac slashed his hands down. “I don’t know how much power you think I have, but I cannot order three villages worth of merchants to change their prices. Maybe ours, maybe. But there is no way I could convince the other two estates.”

  “No, I don’t want to actually mess with their commerce, I just want them to pass along that message. They are considering changing pricing. That’s it. I know Lord Edobar will back me up on this if you ask him.”

  “That... is more doable. Yes, I can do this for you, particularly since you will be fighting to save mine and my daughters’ lives.”

  “One last question. I want to ask you about something that may even be illegal in Kalibutan. Not immoral though. Are you willing to promise not to tell anyone about my question?”

  Cormac straightened his outfit. He was wearing the typical uniform for Lord Edobar’s court staff instead of his normal white leather armor. He said, “As long as I agree with you that you are not planning something immoral, I won’t tell a soul.”

  Luke hesitated. Then he remembered why he felt safe confiding in Cormac. Luke was lying for him every day while his core repaired itself. Until that day, Cormac risked losing his livelihood by angering Luke. He said, “Well, I guess I’ll just have to trust you. I want to know how to go about breaking oaths.”

  “That doesn’t sound like a moral question.”

  “Doesn’t it? Oaths are something the powerful use to control the weak. That’s a form of unjust coercion at best and slavery at worst.” Luke said, “Besides. I thought you didn’t like oaths. You were supposed to make every monster hunter swear one, but you haven’t done that once since I got here. We haven’t talked about it, maybe so you could pretend you forgot. But I know you couldn’t forget this many times. You know they aren’t moral and are just pretending to forget so you don’t have to shackle people with unjust chains. Tell me I’m wrong.”

  “You aren’t wrong. You aren’t right either. It’s more complicated than that. Preparing parchment for oaths is expensive. But if I tell you more about my actions, I risk breaking the oaths that I have sworn.”

  Luke’s mind immediately jumped to the revelation that Lord Edobar was poorer than he should be. Maybe Cormac was skimping on oaths to save money, but he was ordered not to tell anyone about it.

  Cormac stepped closer and lowered his voice. “Besides, why do you of all people care about breaking oaths?”

  “Lord Edobar isn’t the only person in power trying to exert control of the weak,” Luke said. He could feel his oath to SPEAR tightening around his chest, warning him not to say more.

  Cormac looked introspective for a bit before he said, “There are different types of oaths, some strong, some weak. If you are bound with a weak oath, you can break it without consequence. I’ve heard there is a covert way to break the oath by fraying it with dedicated mana manipulation. You go right up to the edge of the oath’s wording and saw at it with your internal mana. I don’t know if that’s true or not because I’ve never tried. The oath I am bound with is much stronger than that. If I attempted to fight against my oath, I would lose levels and if I successfully broke it, the backlash could kill me.”

  Luke’s heart beat with joy when he heard that there was a way to break his oath to SPEAR without them knowing. But learning about the oaths that Kruro and Cormac had sworn made his heart drop. “That sounds worse than slavery. Why would you ever agree to an oath that might kill you if you make the wrong move?”

  Cormac scoffed. “Thus speak the privileged when they discover that the disadvantaged exist. The slavery of an oath is simply replacement for the slavery of poverty.”

  Luke took a step back at the orc’s sudden anger.

  Cormac made a placating motion with his hands and said, “Sorry, sorry. That isn’t fair to you. You are not of our culture, you do not bear our sins. The fact of the matter is that life in the grand cities is difficult and limited for people of my caste. Most consider the freedom out here on the edge of civilization to be worth the shackles of an oath. In fact, many are willing to fight to the death for such a privilege, as you know from the Malamon.”

  Luke had heard it a few times before, but this time it really hit him how tough life in the cities was. Cormac had no motivation to break his oath because there wasn’t a better option for him. Not on Kalibutan, anyway. “If you had the chance to break your oath and come to Earth, would you take it?”

  Cormac sighed. “I’ve been to Earth, remember. It’s how I found you and brought you here. I’ve also spent some time on your world as a sightseer. There are some aspects that are tempting, the freedom and entertainment. But my family is here, I enjoy my work here, and our forests are comfortable. Besides, your world is mana starved. I feel so dry every time I range widely on Earth.”

  Luke nodded, then remembered and gave him jazz hands. The Seneschal may be bound by his oath, but that didn’t mean his life was terrible. The orc had chosen this life, and the naga he was trying to save had paid her way into her position. Maybe he should ask Kruro what she wanted before he tried to rescue her.

  That conversation would have to wait until Lord Edobar allowed him to return to the village. For now, Luke had gotten what he came for and it was time to let Bumblebee kill some monsters so he could level up.

  “Alright, I guess I won’t push. Just know that my offer still stands. Will I see you tomorrow morning when I divert the titan?”

  “No, I will stay in the tower. I told the court that I have full faith in your abilities to divert the titan. Seer Theobaldine will observe your progress through his skills and alert us if the titan grows too close. I hope I don’t need to remind you that the subterfuge about my cracked core will be found out if that happens.”

  “Right, if we fail, you’re up next. Lord Edobar has the power to kill titans, but that’s a faux pas for some reason.”

  “The dividing line between aristocracy and royalty is their ability to avoid using their power. To have it and not use it is the highest expression of power in the nobility.”

  “If you say so. I’ll see you later, whenever Lord Edobar calls me in from the cold, I guess.”

  They parted ways and Luke rejoined Bumblebee and Sandwich. While they were waiting, Luke had sent his drone around to scout out familiar monsters, ones that wouldn’t almost kill them like yesterday. Luke didn’t think he was rattled, but he was very grateful that Vanessa was safe on Earth doing the training today.

  “Alright, boys. Let’s go kill some monsters.”