Chapter 44: Sowing Reputation
Seeing hundreds of villagers gathered outside his cabin with wooden bowls, baskets, and tattered sacks, Kellar knew he had to manage the distribution if he wanted the meat to stretch for everyone.
"Form a single line!" shouted Kellar, raising his voice above the chatter. "If we keep order, every household goes home with food today."
The crowd obeyed jostling until they formed a long queue winding down the snowy path. With Mila by his side, Kellar began handing out the rations. To be as fair as possible given the overwhelming crowd, he set the limit at one kilo of fresh meat per family.
With every portion he handed out, notifications for his prestige quest flashed in the corner of his vision, stacking points without pause.
Still, not everyone was satisfied. A man from the lower district looked down at the cut in his bowl, then cast a greedy glance toward the stash of meat resting behind Kellar.
"Just one kilo?" complained the man scowling. "You’re keeping over a hundred kilos for yourself! You should give us more, don’t be stingy."
Before Kellar could even blink or open his mouth, two men standing behind the guy in line grabbed him by the coat, yanked him backward, and slammed him onto the snow.
"Shut your mouth, you ungrateful leech!" yelled one of the villagers, driving a knee into the man’s ribs. "Kellar wasn’t obligated to give us a single scrap!"
"Get out of here before we beat you out of line!" added a woman from the crowd, spitting toward him.
Bruised and humiliated, the man scrambled to his feet and ran off into the snow with nothing to show for it. The villagers themselves, blinded by gratitude and devotion, were protecting the image of their savior and keeping order without Kellar having to lift a finger.
The man who had been kicked out of line stumbled into the main hall of the clan, his face bloody and his lip split wide open. He collapsed onto his knees in front of the clan leader, who looked down at him with cold contempt from his seat.
"Well?" said the clan leader, resting his elbows on his knees. "Did you manage to turn the people against him?"
"Leader... I tried..." stammered the guy, spitting a streak of blood onto the wooden floor. "I told him he was stingy for keeping over a hundred kilos for himself... but... but the people turned on me instead. They beat me up and threw me out of line before I could say anything else."
Before he could finish speaking, the clan leader stood up and delivered a brutal kick straight to the man’s face, sending him rolling across the floor.
"Useless trash!" shouted the leader, stomping hard on his chest as the man groaned in pain. "You had one job, and you managed to make him look like a hero to the entire village!"
A few steps back, Tor watched the scene in shock. For the first time in his life, he was seeing his grandfather helpless. The manipulative tactics the old man had used for years to crush anyone threatening his power simply didn’t work against Kellar anymore. Tor felt a knot in his stomach; Kellar’s influence was growing so fast that not even his grandfather could stop it.
Meanwhile, back at the cabin, the meat distribution continued at a steady pace.
Among the crowd, several mature women and widows from the lower district looked at Kellar with gleaming eyes as they received their portions of meat, adjusting their hair and smiling with shameless flirting.
"Ah, Kellar, dear... you are so generous," said a middle-aged woman stroking his arm. "If you need any help tonight cleaning up or keeping warm in your cabin, just let me know... I can thank you in many ways."
"Get out of the way, you old cow trying to eat young green grass!" yelled another woman from further back in line, shoving her aside without hesitation. "You shameless brat! If you want the young hunter’s seed, pay enough for it or get the hell out!"
The crowd burst into laughter and cheers as the woman, flushed bright red with embarrassment, hurried away with her kilo of meat. Kellar could only shake his head with an amused smirk.
As he saw the line finally coming to an end, Kellar collapsed backward onto the snow-covered ground, letting out a long sigh of exhaustion. Butchering the boar hadn’t been that hard, but making over seven hundred individual one-kilo cuts was pure agony.
However, as he looked around, he noticed a few families still standing near the end of the path, staring desperately at the empty tray. The demand had been overwhelming, and the initial supply hadn’t been enough for everyone.
Without hesitating, Kellar pushed himself up, walked over to his personal stash, and began pulling more meat from his own household supplies. He kept cutting and handing out portions until he was left with only ten kilos for himself and his family.
That final act of selfless sacrifice sparked an explosive wave of pure devotion among the people. At that exact moment, a surge of blue light flooded his vision as System notifications began flashing:
[Prestige Points Earned: +350!]
[Prestige Points Earned: +480!]
[Clan Prestige: 1000/1000 — Quest Completed!]
[Rewards Granted:]
[- 2 Tech Points]
[- +5 Strength]
[- +5 Dexterity]
A sudden rush of warmth coursed through Kellar’s muscles as his attributes surged all at once. With ten kilos of meat left, two new tech points in hand, and the total backing of the village people.
As Kellar stared at the final notification floating in the air, he felt a pair of arms wrap around his shoulders from behind. Mila hugged him tenderly, resting her cheek against his.
"You are the most wonderful person in the world," said Mila, her voice thick with genuine emotion.
Kellar didn’t know it at the time, but Aunt Maya, his mother-in-law Meli, and Mila were all moved. They had seen so many men change the moment they gained a little bit of power or food, turning selfish and cruel like the rest of the tribe. Yet Kellar didn’t; he continued to look out for others without hesitation. Seeing his noble heart in such a ruthless world captured the hearts of all three women, binding his small family together even more than they thought possible.