The System was supposed to be omniscient. An entity that oversaw all and brought judgment upon its users. So when Astor discovered that his caretakers were actually mistreating him his whole life, he wondered where the System was. Then it came to him: his caretakers were Systemless. By rejecting a System Access, or losing it, you could literally bypass the system. And that’s how they avoided penalties.

  Upon understanding that, Astor being thrown on the street became logical. They couldn’t afford someone with a System spying on their activities, as it could possibly prompt a quest against them, so they had to get rid of him.

  He didn’t know what to make of that information, but he was sure of one thing: he had to get rid of the caretakers and rescue the kids who didn’t know any better. But he also knew that another problem had to be taken care of too: the Helpers.

  To get rid of the caretakers was easy; they were after money and greed was their prime motivator. Astor spent enough time with them to guess that much. But as for the Helpers? What were they after?

  Astor pondered on those thoughts as he cleaned up the church for the last time. He became quite good at it and was proud of that.

  Cayn came. “Good job, I must admit, you are miles better than me at cleaning.” He gently smiled. “It is quite frustrating. I did not know about my competitiveness until now.”

  “Sorry?”

  “Oh no, do not be sorry, I am just proud of you I guess.”

  Astor had no clue where Cayn was getting at. “Do you need me for something?”

  “I was just wondering if you were done, we are going to leave in an hour.”

  Right, they will go to the Fourth Land soon. Cayn left and Astor started reminiscing about his stay here.

  The church was cozier than he thought, even after the mess that the epidemic was, he almost felt at home. He spent time with his friends, getting to know them better. Xorac, Cayn’s uncle, turned out to be quite lazy, so the trio had to keep up the place all by themselves. It took a long time before Cayn convinced him to hire some aides.

  Also, Astor discovered that Cayn resided here before he went on a Journey. Cayn must’ve gone under training to learn how to make his chains, even after some training himself, Astor still wasn’t good at it. A family trait maybe?

  During her stay, Bel kept pestering Hyakinth, the [Appraiser], and she planned to keep doing that as he was also going to the Fourth Land. It was one of the reasons they were leaving. She wanted the class that bad.

  As for Astor, he spent most of his time learning as much as he could, spending time practicing during the day and reading at night. In order to stay in the party, he needed to be essential. Because no matter what, he didn’t want to be abandoned by them. Never.

  Before leaving, Astor still had to say goodbye to both Xorac and Dietrich. They were at the [Necromancer]’s shop as usual.

  Astor stepped in the shop.

  “Good morning!” Dietrich said, with his two ghouls bowing.

  Xorac followed, “Good morning Astor, if you’re looking for Cayn and Bel, they’re at Hyakinth’s place.”

  “Why are you assuming he is here for them and not me? Is it because I’m ?”

  Xorac laughed.

  Necromancer, death, morbidity, morbid. Astor understood the joke but had no idea why it was supposed to be funny. So he didn't laugh. Cayn would have probably given him a pity laugh, while Bel was more random.

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “I wanted to say goodbye before leaving,” Astor said, expressionless.

  “Oh it’s not the time yet, is it?” Xorac glanced at Dietrich.

  “Nope,” Dietrich replied.

  “You don’t have to tell us that now, we’re gonna see you all off later.”

  Astor didn’t know the customs, he just wanted to be polite but it seems like he messed up somehow. “Ok.” He left the store as he went in, like nothing happened.

  He didn’t know what kind of feeling he was having right now. Shame? Embarrassment? Indifference? Either way, he should go back to his friends.

  Bel stood in front of the [Appraisers]’s store, she’d usually help the clientele but Hyakinth had to move out today so she was just… What was she doing?

  “Blue-eyes, I think I ate something bad,” she said, holding her stomach, laid on the ground.

  “[Switch: Priest],” Astor said. “[Cure].” He focused on her stomach’s white cells, as it’s what Cayn would do. “What did you eat?”

  “I just ate breakfast like you guys—” she stopped talking for a second, was it that painful? “What did we eat again?”

  “Boiled egg.” Astor thought for a second, but knowing her, the answer became obvious. “Did you bake the egg before eating it?”

  She stared at him. He stared back at her.

  “Soldier Astor… Why didn’t you tell me?! I thought they were cooked already!”

  “I boiled them in front of you, I thought it was evident.”

  “Well, it wasn’t! Also I can’t use [Element] and make the water float and boil all at the same time like you!”

  “Sorry.”

  “No it’s fine, at least it explains why the egg was cold and the inside not fully orange.”

  Astor stared at her. She stared right back at him.

  “It’s ok to be stupid,” Astor said to console her.

  “Those words hurt a lot coming from you…”

  He might’ve messed up again, the plan was to cheer her up not pull her down.

  “What is the idiot doing?” Cayn asked, looking at her the way he always looked at her.

  “See Astor, when it’s coming from the dumbass, it doesn’t hurt half as much, if not at all!”

  “Unintelligible, do not take advice from her Astor. Her influence is noxious for you.”

  “I don’t know what noxious means but it sounds insulting, excuse yourself!”

  “No.”

  Bel and Cayn’s dynamic changed quite a lot those last weeks. Prolonged cohabitation pulled their opposite personalities to some extreme. And for some reason, whenever Astor was around them, they wouldn’t hold back at all when bickering. Which is weird, for Astor spied them once and discovered that they didn’t shout at each other that much when he wasn’t around.

  Was he a problem?

  Hyakinth came out of the shop, “What are you guys doing?”

  Astor and Bel were on the ground while Cayn was bent over them. Did it look weird? It must have looked weird if Hyakinth pointed it out.

  Bel got back up and fixed her posture. Astor and Cayn did the same.

  “Nothing,” she said.

  Bel was on a campaign to look good in front of Hyakinth, in order to get more “thank you”, so as to get a higher probability of getting [Appraiser]. While her goal was to get all classes to be better, Astor’s goal was different: he wanted to master all of his skills, so that he could use them without speaking: hoping to be more essential.

  Locking his shop, Hyakinth gave the hint to them that it was almost time to go.

  Cayn got curious. “Why do you lock your shop? There is nothing inside,” he asked.

  The question was pertinent as stealing was rare under the System. Unlike at the orphanage, where everything could be stolen from Astor.

  “I’m not locking it. I’m activating a talisman that protects the shop from being damaged.”

  “For real?” Bel punched the door like a brute, a barrier appeared at the area of the impact.

  Cayn sighed. “That is why you still don’t have the [Appraiser] class, Bel.”

  “My bad.”

  “I don’t understand,” Astor pointed at the keyhole.

  “My key has a mana core.” He showed it. “So basically it just puts the core to make contact with the talisman and the skill activates. There is more to it but that’s what I understood.”

  “Is that one of those things from the Invention festival?” Bel asked.

  “Yes.”

  Cayn asked, “What skill was it?” Referring to the protection earlier.

  “No idea,” Hyakinth answered.

  Astor knew, “It’s [Arcane].”

  “The weird [Mage] skill no one knows how to use properly?” Bel said.

  “Yeah,” Astor replied.

  “Anyways! We have to go kiddos.”

  They went to the port where Dietrich and Xorac waited. This time, Astor did a proper goodbye, or so he hoped.

  Xorac was hugging Cayn very tightly, as if he didn’t want him to go. Astor thought that it must be nice to have a family.

  Hyakinth hurried them to hop on their booked boat as it was about to go. They got on it. Xorac was giving advice to Cayn all the way up to the boat, almost going with them if Dietrich didn’t stop him.

  “Don’t worry uncle, I will be fine,” Cayn said, dodging a last hug from Xorac. “Stop, I have to go.”

  “Alright,” Xorac laughed and went back down with Dietrich.

  Was it normal for an uncle to be so worried? Astor had no clue.

  Comments, ratings and reviewsare still welcomed by the way.