“Okay, boy...I don’t really feel like jawing at you all day, so here’s what you really need to know. First off, since you’re new here, and basically at the bottom of the totem pole, if anyone asks you to do something, or sends you on an errand. Well, that’s just the way of things. Unless it's something against the rules, of course. Then you don’t do it and you tell either me or one of the masters of the house,” said Old Achilles, the Head of the Marrow clan’s household staff.

“Y-, Yes, sir,” I said. Trying to look calm and mature despite only being eleven and barely looking nine.

“Besides doing as you're told, you’ll be expected to help with the cleaning of the outdoor area and the trash collection indoors. Understand me, boy,” said Old Achilles.

“Yes, sir,” I said. Nodding like a chick eating seed.

“Good...Good. Well, I guess that’s all I’ve got to say. I expect you’ll figure out the rest in the coming days,” said the old man. Wandering off without a single backward look, and no actual information regarding where I was supposed to sleep, and when dinner would be served.

*************************************************************************************************************

My name is Jilbert Sebastian. I am...probably...not entirely human, but that doesn’t really matter. In our world, there were very few who were entirely anything. Human or otherwise. Our world was a chaotic place, and with the invasion of the fae-folk, and the awakening of the old ones, it had only grown more so. This too...was a thing of little importance...probably.

I used to be the second born of a village baker. I had a father, a mother, an older sister, and a young sister. Then the werewolves struck our village and killed everyone. I was one of the few survivors. One of the few that the werewolves and the dire wolves that trailed them failed to follow. This too was ultimately...not that big a thing. I mean. It was big for me. Of course, it was. I’d just lost my entire family. All my neighbors. All my friends.

Yet, in the grand scheme of things, my story was just one sad tale amongst many. There were countless wars, plagues, and monster attacks taking place at any time in this world. Ours was a world that could be said to be eternally on the verge of ending. Villages and small towns were ephemeral things here, barely lasting longer than a couple of generations. Cities and nations were just things that went away after a while.

Ironically, it was shortly “after” the deaths of everyone I knew and loved, that I discovered my “core-treasure”. All the people in our world were the kin of spirits. Thus all people had a power, or item, or creature that they could summon from within themselves. My core-treasure was something called the “idle-clicker system”. System-type core-treasures were rare but far from unheard of. Even a boy from the middle of nowhere like me had heard of them.

System-type core-treasures were famous for the fact that while the system itself possessed no power, they could rapidly increase the strength of the possessor and potentially even grant users a bunch of other treasures. There were a great many legends and tragedies involving system-holders. Back then, all I saw was the likelihood of my being able to save my family, had I discovered my power sooner.

Now though...Now that I was older and had possessed my idle-clicker system longer, I could see that it might not have made that much of a difference. I’d also learned a little more about being a system-holder. Enough for me to know that the one thing I should absolutely never tell anyone, was the fact that I was a system-holder. We either became great, or we ended up quite miserable, getting either enslaved, or slain, while we were still weak and vulnerable.

Shortly, after losing...everything. I just sort of wandered around a while. I did a little begging. I did what little work I could. I drifted from town to town, and city to city. Then eventually, I ended up snagging a job with the Marrow family. “That” was the thing that mattered here. That was the moment my fate was permanently altered. Just like the spinning of a roulette wheel is insignificant compared to the actual stopping of the arrow. I might have become many things in the hypothetical, but it was my induction into the Marrow clan’s household staff that decided the path that I would eventually take.