Weak Hero: The Legend of the Eunjang Adventurer's Guild

Chapter One; Page One

Chapter One

A magician's staff is his most important asset.
_______________________________

Eugene Gale never once thought of himself as special, not even when the crazy-looking grey bearded prophet revealed to his family that he -out of all seven of his siblings- would grow up to become the ‘most heroic figure to ever walk the earth’. 

He was six when that happened, and still to this day, he wasn’t convinced in the slightest. Sure, he was a little bit special. That is, if you count having an extremely underdeveloped ability to communicate with animals as special.

It’s been fourteen years since he was born, which meant that it’s been fourteen years since he developed this magical ability. And sadly enough, his ability is still just as effective as it was when he was five. His ‘destiny’ or whatever has already gone to dirt because of his inability to do anything besides listening in on squirrel gossip.

Surprisingly, the squirrels outside of his window had tons of juicy news to entertain him with whenever he stays locked into his room (which is most of the time). They would go back and forth about the best spots to find nuts, and most importantly, crazy things that’d go down at the Eunjang plaza- the central hub of the Kingdom of Eunjang.

All kinds of crazy things would happen there- Mostly the product of violent citizens who think that they’re entitled to do whatever they want; like take a piss in the royal fountain, or knock over a soap stand for the sake of making a stupid innuendo. Yes, the squirrels know what an innuendo is. 

But since Eunjang wasn’t the most high-end or fashionable place in the country, things were bound to go A-wire.

Given that the royal family couldn’t even legally rule in the first place, and instead, a corrupted council of money-hungry diplomats ran the kingdom; passing some stupid law that allowed them to leech off of Eunjang nobility (such as his own family.) So much so, that his family was currently planning to move from the Kingdom of Eunjang to God knows where. 

He was thinking about it, zoning out, while he was lying on his bed- Until his younger sister busted through his gigantic oak doors and he was forcibly removed from his thought train. 

“BIG BROTHER, EUGENE.” She screamed, effectively shattering both his glasses and his eardrums. Figuratively of course.

“SOMEONE’S HERE TO SEE YOU-”

For a six-year old that wasn’t even half his height, she was loud. So loud, that his older brother Edward, who roomed all the way at the bottom of their grand staircase, yelled back at her from the bottom of the stairs to ‘Shut up Eleanor’.

And though loud and unmercifully energetic, Eleanor was also a sensitive soul. So Edward’s comment only caused her to burst into tears, screaming and kicking louder and harder than before. And since this is all happening in Eugene’s room, his parents would most likey automatically assume he was the culprit, and would send him outside to trim the hedges with the gardener. 

Again.

“Shhhh, Shhh, Eleanor-”

He tried patting her amidst all her kicking, which only resulted in soon-to-be bruises littering his already sore arms.

Eugene partly blamed Edward for this, if he wasn’t such an edgelord and didn’t tell Eleanor to shut up, then perhaps Eleanor wouldn’t be throwing a tantrum right now.

But he quickly had to discard those thoughts when he became hyper-aware of the sound of heels clicking down the hallway outside his open doors, which meant only one of two things- It was either that his oldest sibling, Esther was making her way to her room (which was just across from his), or that his mother heard Eleanor’s screams and is now closing in on his room to protect her baby.

Either or, the outcome wouldn’t change. He’d still be thrown into the garden with old man Jeffery to help him trim the hedges around their gigantic estate.

As the steps got closer, Eugene instinctively braced himself for the wrath of his mother and squeezed his eyes shut. But when the clicking noise stopped- Instead of hearing his mother’s furious voice or Esther’s mocking tone, another, unfamiliar voice spoke to him.

“May I enter your quarters.”