The Under Peasant, Ch. 1

I came home, once again, to a house that had been emptied of all its valuables.

    “Those heroes!” I growled out. Ever since the Overlord had taken over the lands to the north, the king created a law allowing people calling themselves “heroes” to waltz in to anyone’s house, take whatever they want, and leave without any compensation. Supposedly it was to give these “heroes” the money and equipment they needed to protect the land from the Overlord, but in practice, it just meant that we now had a new word for “thief” around these parts, and even worse, it was now completely legal!

    “This is the last time! I refuse to let any more heroes take any more of my stuff!” I pulled a small object out of my bag. The seller claimed it would allow me to summon small monsters to protect my house, and I figured it was at least worth a shot.

After speaking the words the seller gave me, there was a bright flash of light, and when it faded, a rat the size of a dog sat in the middle of my kitchen.

    “Um, protect my gold?” I pointed at the last hidden safe in my house, and the rat looked up at me, then scampered over and sat down in front of it. Now the only thing left to do was wait for another “hero” to come by and see how the little guy fared.

I didn’t have to wait long. Soon enough, a boy, about sixteen years of age, showed up on my front step. He walked in without even knocking, so I knew he was another hero. I decided to take a little walk, since I figured there would be carnage either way, and I didn’t want to see the bloodshed, so I figured it was best not to be on the scene when it all went down.

I came back about ten minutes later, and walked in to find the rat sitting there, with what I swear was a grin on its face. The hero was gone, and my safe was unopened, so either the rat somehow killed him and disposed of the evidence, or scared him enough that he had run away.

Either way, I knew I had found my answer, and I grinned back at the little guy.