Enigma of Sin

Kayn glanced at all of the battles happening around the arena. There were five battles currently ongoing, and each battle had opponents with different fighting styles. Some used the sword, some used large two-handed weapons, others wielded a staff or wand with a gem to enhance their spells, and finally Kayn's eyes stopped on the final person.

Green hair tied up into a pony tail, shorter pointed ears, green eyes, the perfect athletic build, and lastly a unique bow that he recognized at a glance as the one he had theorized a few years ago.

She was currently firing dull arrows and mixing in wind spells to both enhance her arrows speed and her own. She looked like a green fairy dancing across the battlefield while leading her opponent by the nose.

Kayn immediately recognized that it was Kinzie he was watching. She had a more mature air around her than before, but it was definitely her. Her battle-style had improved by leaps and bounds since the last time he had adventured with her. Not to mention, even with the sweat running down her face he couldn't help but gulp at the natural beauty she radiated.

As Kayn was further away from her battle, he had even enhanced his vision with his old Eagle Eye spell to view her in better detail to see if he could spot any other changes she had gone through.

He was being a poor teacher at the moment as the group that was currently working on a laceration included Annabelle, so he didn't really bother watching them as she had quickly taken charge of the rest.

He continued to watch Kinzie's battle as he marveled at her graceful figure and the way she could switch back and forth between melee fighting and shooting off arrows. Needless to say, he didn't think she would have any problems with broken bows again in the future.

Meanwhile, Kinzie was fully concentrated on her opponent, but couldn't help but feel that someone was staring a hole into the back of her head. It had been a few minutes now since the feeling started, and it was starting to distract her from her fight.

She was just about to knock her opponent out of the fight, but her irritation got the best of her and decided to avert her gaze to where she could feel the stare coming from.

"Huh!?" Kinzie faltered momentarily as her line of sight connected with Kayn's. She ended up tripping over her own feet and had to perform a pseudo-roll to try and dodge the large mace that flew at her during her blunder.

Unfortunately, she wasn't able to dodge fully as she took a heavy blow to the side of her rib cage, sending her flying for a few meters before she was able to steady herself back onto her feet.

Her anger finally erupted as she launched her strongest and fastest arrow at her opponent, not with the intent to kill him, but it would definitely break the bones of his arms underneath its impact point if he tried to block it.

Kinzie was frustrated at herself for being distracted and taking a hit, but also the fact that someone had been staring at her, and this person just so happened to be someone she thought either forgot about her or had died. 

However, he was just standing there staring at her perfectly fine, making her angry that he had probably just destroyed the crystal because he didn't want to talk with her anymore.

Kinzie's opponent was also a 2nd stage Prime student that wielded the fire element. He used his spells to boost his hits as well as inflict fire damage onto them. Unfortunately for him, his defensive power wasn't nearly what his offensive power was, especially against ranged wind elemental users.

He widened his eyes at the arrow that was just launched and boosted his swinging power the best that he could to try and intercept the arrow to knock it off course in order to not take a direct hit. Despite his best efforts and connecting the head of his large mace with the arrow and knocking it off its trajectory, he still felt the full impact through his hands and arms.

He immediately surrendered as he could feel that at least one of his wrists was broken and he could tell that he wouldn't stand a chance anymore, even if he could wield his mace still.

He and Kinzie both gave a small bow to each other as the professor who was the judge of the match declared Kinzie the winner.

Kinzie and her opponent both started to make their way to the area where the first-year healers were stationed. While broken bones might be out of their expertise right now, there was a professor and a 4th year Prime student on standby that would be able to heal them.

The male student made his way towards Maria as he knew who she was and even had a mild crush on her, but Kinzie's direction was towards the unknown professor.

Her face was contorted in pain and anger, and even her steps were heavier as she stomped in Kayn's direction. Kayn could only show her an apologetic smile as she approached him.

He knew she was probably mad that he had suddenly cut off contact with her without any warning, but there was nothing he could have done about that.

At least at the time, the situation didn't allow for him to think everything through fully, so he didn't grab the communication crystals he had for Kinzie or the one Elder Loren had given him. Even the one he used to talk with his family was forgotten and left behind to be destroyed.

As Kinzie approached closer and closer, and just as she was about to open her mouth to give him a piece of her mind, Kayn beat her to the punch. "That was an excellent fight, though best not to get distracted while in combat. Also, you have a very interestingly designed bow, where did you get it?" Kayn gave her a gentle smile as he too approached her.

Kinzie glared at Kayn, but understood that he was acting like this was their first meeting for a reason. "A woman who specializes in crafting non-traditional bows here in the capital made it for me. Though, it was designed by someone I used to think of as my best friend."

Kayn could sense the venom laced in her words and the disappointment she had in him. He did his best not to let his emotions show on his face though as he was quite hurt by her words.

He turned to his class and spoke, "I'll take care of this student as she probably has injuries outside of the abilities of 1st stage healers. The same goes for the other student, Maria, please take care of him. If you require my assistance, I will be with you in a little bit."

Kayn took Kinzie to a more private area for students that required clothing removal to heal their wounds. "I'm sorry for suddenly disappearing on you Kinzie. If you would like, I would like to invite you to my home tonight for dinner. I'll cook for us and explain everything that has happened. Please hear me out."

Kinzie eyed Kayn with a glare as she could see that he seemed troubled by something, but all she said was one word, "Fine."

"Great! I'll meet you near the portal to the residence area tonight when the academy's bell tower dial is pointing at the 6th hour. Now, give me a moment and I'll heal you right up."

Kayn decided it would be best not to linger here for too long as a 4th stage healer like himself should be able to fix minor breaks in bones quite quickly. Kinzie lifted the back of her shirt so Kayn had access to her back as she knew how he liked to operate.

Kayn smiled as he saw this and he placed his hand in the middle of her back before using Void Eye to see everything going on inside of her. To his surprise, she had a punctured lung due to one of her ribs breaking in half and stabbing into it also leading to internal bleeding.

Kayn's brows raised as Kinzie definitely wasn't acting like she was in extreme pain or suffering labored breathing, but Kayn knew that the injuries she had should suggest otherwise.

He quickly began healing her using a combination of different elements, and Kinzie could only grit her teeth to withstand the pain. For her, these few minutes of healing were far more painful than the actual injury itself. Not to mention the heat and itchiness from the areas that were healing.

Kayn could see that she was now showing signs of pain and decided he might as well flood her body with the light element to try and help her relax a bit. It worked like a charm as her strained face immediately eased a little.

While he was here with her, he also got rid of any scar tissue she had developed over the last few years, which was actually quite a bit, proving to Kayn just how hard she had worked to get to the point she was at.

Even though Kayn had suffered mentally and put in his own hard work, he honestly didn't think he had struggled as much physically as Kinzie had, aside from almost dying by his own hands or the gorilla's.

Once Kayn removed his hand from her back, Kinzie felt refreshed, like she had just taken a nice long bath and had a massage at the spa the academy ran. She could only marvel once again at how talented Kayn was at healing, which only made her recall his combat abilities. She couldn't help but imagine just how monstrous he had become now.

Only after being able to think with a somewhat clear mind did she even consider the fact that it was a requirement for all professors that specialized in mana applications to have a minimum of a 4th stage core, or at the very least be extremely talented at the peak of the 3rd stage. She couldn't believe that Kayn had already reached such a level at his age.

Fortunately, she knew he would answer all of her questions later, so instead of drilling him now, she instead stood up and turned towards him. "Thank you for your healing expertise, Professor, I feel much better now. Until next time."

Kayn watched as Kinzie walked out of the private tent and he followed her outside as well. Kayn felt a pull on his heart to talk with her right away, but he knew that now wasn't the time. So, even as he watched her walk away towards her own professor to discuss her spar, he went back to his students to resume instructing them until the battles were over.

…

Morning quickly breezed by as did lunch and the rest of the afternoon battles. Kayn went through the motions of instructing and watching over his students as they dealt with injuries, and any that they couldn't handle either he or Maria would take care of.

Though, there were a couple of injuries that were quite serious, there were none that were life threatening as the professor that was watching over the match would step in at the last second.

When Kayn was finally able to dismiss his class, he hurried home to freshen up a bit and also start preparing dinner. He was planning to personally cook everything tonight as he was going to have a special guest.

Kayn couldn't quite put his finger on why, but he was feeling a little nervous about having Kinzie over for dinner, as while the topic would be serious for the most part, it was also a happy reunion.

'Wait…is this a date? No way! Not with what we will be talking about. Get that nonsense out of your head Kayn.' Kayn berated himself as he couldn't help but realize that he might have held feelings for Kinzie all this time.

He set the table and ensured all of the food that was being heated would have some mana regulating the temperature as he dressed in a nice pair of clothing that he had purchased at one of the shops here. It wasn't necessary to always wear his professor uniform, nor did he exactly want people to see him as one when he was picking up Kinzie to bring back to his house.

He even dressed Lara in a cute white and yellow flower dress before leaving his home to head to the portal in the residence area.

When he arrived, he saw that Kinzie was already there, looking a little anxious. She had put on a casual dress and had a headband adorning her hair that fell down loosely and stopped just below her shoulders. She had a small purse with her though as she needed to carry her identification everywhere.

Kinzie noticed Kayn approaching and relief washed through her momentarily. That was until her attention was drawn to the small girl that he was holding who looked remarkably similar to him and even had his snow-white hair, the only difference was the golden-purple eyes she had.