Chapter 125: The Effect of Reputation

The hall did not go quiet all at once. It went quiet in a wave that started at the nearest tables and ran to the back wall, talk cutting off mid-word, cups set down without being drunk from. Banners along the beams barely moved. Many people glanced toward the doors. As Theo walked forward, the eyes stayed on him, and it was difficult to shrug them off. They sat on his shoulders the way a wet coat sat.

He passed the board on the far wall without looking up at the fresh white letters. The man with the stepladder had come down. The boy with the pot was gone. The wet edges of the paint still caught the noon light.

He reached the counter and paused. The wood there was worn shiny where a thousand elbows had lived.

He leaned in.

"Is it me, or am I being watched."

The attendant’s eyes were on a book. The ledger’s corner was dark with old thumbprints. The moment he spoke, it hijacked her attention. Her head snapped up and she was there for a couple of moments, blinking at him, the quill still in her fingers.

"Not you too..."

Theo muttered it. And she heard.

She shook her head quickly, washing away whatever had held her.

"Unnamed! So the rumors were true!"

Theo raised a brow.

"Rumors, what rumors?"

His pulse had already climbed into his throat, and he was already turning over a hundred different things that could have gone wrong.

The one that sat first was the oldest.

’Did someone discover that I am Sky’s Husband and link it to my wives... oh crap, have I ruined it?’

"You defeated Donzo in a battle!"

"Oh..."

Theo sounded almost disappointed.

"Oh?"

The attendant looked like her eyes might pop out. The quill left a small black mark on the page where it had waited.

"How come an unnamed like you defeats Donzo. That guy has been a pest around here for the past few years, and it’s even worse because there are people who let him do as he likes because it benefits them. While what you have done is of great deed, young Climber, if you like yourself, you should run away to the next floor!"

She paused halfway and shook her head.

"Ah, wait, running to another floor is simply running into their hands! That won’t do. Just quit the Tower right now!!"

She shouted it. The concern in it was so thick it had to start bothering him at some point. For the most part he was only asking who these people were. The hall behind him had not quite started talking again. Someone scraped a bench and thought better of it.

’Is that the reason everyone is looking at me like I’m some abomination?’

Theo spoke to the attendant evenly.

"I’ll appreciate if you can calmly speak about this. First of all, does Donzo seem to have any trouble or grudge with me defeating him, I can just set him straight again, maybe I was generous on the last time beating, second of all, do you people know that he has been oppressing people and killing them in the dungeon and you’re acting like I did something I shouldn’t do."

The attendant slapped her table and leaned forward.

"Because you did!!"

The slap of her palm against the counter carried across half the hall. The murmurs around their vicinity died. Many eyes were now on Theo and the attendant. A cup somewhere to the left stopped halfway to a mouth.

She cleared her throat, color in her face, and sat back on her chair. The chair complained.

Then she put one hand over her mouth and whispered.

"Please leave the hall for a while, it’s advisable that you leave the tower too. At least lay low, until things have blown over."

Theo stood there, very, very dumbfounded.

And the attendant refused to attend to him. She looked back at the book. The page had not changed. The rest of them did the same, all because he had defeated Donzo. He had fought. He had protected himself. The hall would rather the fool had walked off.

His jaw set. He wanted to speak. As Theo, there was no more he could say.

He was not an extraordinarily strong person. He was average at best. That was who he was, standing at this counter with a name that did not open doors.

He sighed, and stepped away from the counter, and left the hall. Gazes stayed on his shoulders all the way to the doors, monitoring him, making sure he actually stepped out. No one followed. No one needed to. The square light hit him harder for the quiet behind. Heat off the stones. A pigeon clattered down from the Hall’s lintel and then up again, offended.

He did not go back toward the estate. Not yet. The Hall’s doors stayed open behind him and the noise inside found a lower gear, not the one it had worn before he came in. He kept to the shady edge of the square and let the crowd close over the place he had been.

He had a lot to think about on the way back. The streets were ordinary. Carts with their brakes set. A dog asleep in a doorway with its paws in the shade. A woman shaking a rug from an upper window, dust coming down in a brief dirty weather of its own. None of it had heard the slap.

’It seems I understand the reason why the girls couldn’t fight themselves out of the situation. So, Donzo had backing! And a strong one at that, even the entire Dungeon Management Hall is wary of them. Are those the powers that be of this floor?’

There was no way to tell. The road under his boots was the same packed dirt it had been at noon.

’Perhaps I should ask the King about it?’

He thought about that for a moment and shook his head.

’No, I don’t think I want this blowing out of proportion the way it did with the machine and Thall, all I had intended to do was ask for help. Perhaps this is something I can take care of myself. But since I can’t freely be myself due to not wanting my face around these troubles.’

His gaze, as he walked along the street, drifted left and caught on a stall that might as well have been the solution.

The market here was thinner than the square, a run of canvas and poles along the shady side. Someone was frying something in a pan two stalls down. Oil popped. A board of masks hung under a faded awning. Wood, painted leather, one cheap tin face going green at the rim. Next to that a fox with one ear chipped, and a knockoff plague-doctor in cracked wax. In the middle of them sat a crow mask, black, the beak a little too long, the eyeholes cut clean. A fly walked the beak and left again.

Theo smiled slyly and moved toward the stall on his left.

"How much is this?"

He pointed to the crow mask. The woman behind the stall looked at him for a moment, her eyes assessing him, then she responded. She had ink under one nail and a bit of twine around her wrist.

"Ten gold."

Theo raised a brow.

"I see you’re not willing to sell something this afternoon. Do you call prices according to the person standing in front of you."

She waved at him dismissively. The twine flicked.

"Please take your talks to somewhere else, if you can’t buy it for ten gold, at least save yourself some spit."

Theo was frozen in place. A cart went by behind him with a wheel that needed grease.

’What is with the attitude...’

[Due to being unnamed and low reputation, Towerians are naturally unlikeable towards you]

’Eh? That? But I’m Sky’s Husband.’

He stood there for a few moments, then he decided to try something.

Like a young master, he puffed out his chest and gave the woman a look of utter condescension.

"I am the Sky’s Husband, are you going to treat me like this?!"

The woman’s eyes went wide. The twine around her wrist went still.

[High Reputation has been applied]

[Towerians Likability has increased tremendously]

"Ohh Ohhhh Ooohhh!! Forgive me Champion, I did not recognize the mountain in front of me! Please, you can take it for free. You are the Champion of the old ones, you should not spend money on such meager things."

Theo stood astounded at the stark difference in the attitude of the lady. The mask was already in her hands, held out, and ten gold had left the conversation. The black paint on the beak was uneven up close.

A young man with dark hair and sleepy eyes was passing the market stall when he heard someone boast of being the Sky’s Husband. He had a paper parcel under one arm and had not meant to stop.

He shrugged dismissively.

’Is someone trying to scam these NPCs pretending to be the new rookie. Do these guys ever know shame?’

He walked away, disgusted by the actions of this person. The parcel crinkled once, and then the crowd took him.