Enigma of Sin

Kinzie couldn't help but stare at Lara in shock as she couldn't imagine the reason that he vanished would be that he had a kid with someone! Just as she was about to ask about the small girl, she was beat to the punch.

"Papa, hungry!" Lara shouted out loud as she had smelled all the wonderful food, but then she was taken outside instead of eating!

Kinzie's jaw dropped, "P-P-Papa?" As if her brain shut down, she silently closed her mouth, turned around, and began to walk away.

"Wait! Kinzie please wait! I can explain everything! Just place a little trust in me, at least until we can talk in private!" Kayn couldn't help but chase after her. Of course! Lara had to call him "papa" now and cause an even worse misunderstanding between himself and Kinzie!

Kinzie abruptly turned around, and knowing what she was about to say was highly irrational, she couldn't help but say it. "How do I know you're even who I think you are!?" she screamed out louder than she intended.

Kayn sighed as he released the perpetual masking of his eyes to reveal the signature black rings that surrounded his pupils. "Does this earn me at least a little bit of your time?"

Kinzie narrowed her eyes at him, but nodded nonetheless. Kayn sighed in relief as he asked her to follow him. They walked side by side as Kayn brought Kinzie back to the gated housing area. Kinzie was a bit astonished that a new professor was allowed to live here, but thinking back to the incident on the first day of the semester, everything started falling into place.

"It was you that killed an assassin on the first day then, wasn't it?" Kinzie asked even though she already knew the answer.

"You heard about that huh? I'll tell you about that too then, but there are more important topics to discuss, not to mention delicious food to eat." Kayn spoke as he smiled and opened the door to his home, allowing Kinzie to smell the wonderful aromas that were spreading throughout.

Kinzie couldn't help but salivate a little and push her nose forward to smell the different scents. She was able to eat some pretty good food being a Prime student, but this smelled almost heavenly. Kinzie remembered Kayn's cooking out in the field, and while it wasn't bad, it never smelled as good as this did.

Kayn finally smiled and chuckled when he noticed Kinzie trying to eat the food from smell alone, but he only closed the door before leading her to the dining area and seating her at the table. He then placed Lara in a high chair, that he had personally made, situated next to his own seat.

"One moment, I'll grab the food." Kayn then entered into the kitchen and began removing food from the oven and stove top before bringing it back to the table and setting in out in between them.

He had made some recipes he learned from his mother and some recipes he remembered from Earth with equivalent ingredients that existed here.

He scooped a bit of mashed potatoes, of which he found the potatoes inside of the Villa's storage, and some mac and cheese onto Lara's plate before handing her a children's spork. He then sat down at his own spot and gestured for Kinzie to dig in.

With the variety of different foods in front of her, Kinzie couldn't help but reach out and start to dish herself some of everything with Kayn doing the same.

"First off, let me clear the misunderstanding from earlier. This is Lara, she's my sister, not my daughter. She will eventually learn I'm not 'papa', but for now I'm leaving it alone as it also provides better cover for me."

Kayn watched as Kinzie's movements had paused when he started speaking. Even though she wasn't looking at him, he could definitely sense relief emanating from her.

"Let's eat first before I tell my story if that's okay. I'd rather not ruin our appetites when I put in so much work to cook all of this." Kayn smiled before continuing, "Maybe tell me what you've been up to since we lost contact. It seems like you've worked hard and I'd like to hear all about it."

Kinzie was okay with his idea, even if she was curious about his explanations, she could judge after she heard it…and ate some delicious looking and smelling food. She then started her tale from her and her grandfather's travels to arriving at the city, to finding a craftsman to make her bow, and then entering the academy and catching up before becoming a Prime student.

Kayn was honestly awed at how hard she had worked in order to become stronger and more skilled. When Kayn asked why she worked so hard, Kinzie gave Kayn and embarrassed smile, "I wanted to catch up to you…so that if I ever met you again, we could be on equal footing. But it seems that I'm fated to always be behind you. If I manage to climb a hill, you climb a mountain in that same time."

Kayn also became a bit embarrassed at her telling him this as he definitely didn't expect her to work so hard because of him. Seeing the atmosphere had turned a little strange and they had both finished their meals a while back, he stood up and prepared dessert.

Placing a triangular slice of something with Talganoth's equivalent of strawberry and strawberry syrup on top in front of Kinzie, her expression turned curious once more as she had never seen anything like this before.

Taking a small bite, her eyes lit up in glee before she quickly ate the rest of it in a flash. Kayn chuckled at how quick she ate it, and when Kinzie noticed him laughing at her, she straightened up before asking, "What was that dessert?"

"Cheesecake with strawberry toppings." Kayn replied and even though Kinzie had never heard of it before, she still nodded.

Kayn looked over at Lara and noticed that she was about to fall into a food coma, so he cleaned her up before lifting her into his embrace. "One moment, I'm going to put Lara to bed."

Kayn then left for his bedroom where he changed Lara as she wasn't potty trained yet and put her pajamas on. After tucking her in he returned to the kitchen and cleaned up all of the dishes with a wave of his hand, using a multitude of elements to lift the dishes, clean them, and place them back into their proper storage areas.

"How about we sit somewhere more comfortable, I'm afraid my last couple of years haven't been very pleasant." Kayn then led Kinzie to the couches where they sat across from each other. Kinzie's expression immediately turned serious as she was finally going to hear Kayn's explanation, not to mention he seemed to turn quite somber.

Kayn then began his tale. He started with a bit of his family's background as well as that of Lydia's as they were important to the end result. Hearing about his father being the famed Harbinger of Lightning and his healing and magical master being a Royal Healer of the Carnet Empire, Kinzie couldn't help but be surprised as Kayn hadn't talked about his personal life much.

Afterwords, Kayn explained how Lydia had disappeared and his father began using resources available to look for her, before discovering that she had been killed. Kayn had to pause a minute before continuing as he took a deep breath in order to get through the next part without becoming overly emotional.

Then his account continued in detail, starting from when his mother received his father's call. Kayn began to tear up as he recounted his sister's and father's heads being tossed onto the floor like garbage, and his voice stuttered when he talked about his mother being slain in front of his eyes.

Before he could continue, Kinzie was already in front of him, pressing his head into her chest as he could feel her tears falling onto his head. Kayn found it odd that he felt safe in her embrace, but he didn't resist staying there either as he calmed himself down before pulling away.

Rather than sitting across from him once again, Kinzie sat directly next to him, staying silent while staring at him intently. He continued by talking about how back then he couldn't control his emotions at times and his anger would take over, like how she had seen him before when he rescued her from the bandits.

He didn't remember much, but knew he had lost it at that moment and a massive explosion had occurred, destroying everything, including the communication crystal that connected with hers that he forgot to place in his bag.

Kayn's expression finally eased a little as he talked about meeting Est and Horace and how wonderful and accommodating they were as well as the influence little Titus had on Lara on how she thought of Kayn.

He didn't bother to tell Kinzie about his Demonic Dragon Heart as he still wanted to keep that a secret from the world, but he did talk about the beast tide and how he ended up fighting it off, including the A-rank Stone Mountain Behemoth Ape.

Kinzie couldn't help her stupefied expression at this point, he had become even more monstrous than she thought.

Kayn talked about his travels from the farm as well as meeting Yvaris Earthborn before he continued on and arrived at Palatine all the way until he became a professor. He then explained how and why he was targeted. Finishing with a question, he asked "Now that you know I didn't stop contacting you because I wanted to, but because I couldn't, will you forgive me?"

Kinzie once again tightly embraced Kayn from his side, which he gladly reciprocated. "Of course I will! I'm also sorry for assuming the worst of you. I just got so caught up in my frustration when I saw you.

"I know what it's like to lose your family, not in such a gruesome way, but I still lost my parents. Plus, now we can see each other whenever we want to! I'll definitely have to call Grandpa tonight and tell him the good news that you're alive!"

Kayn smiled as the atmosphere had turned a bit more uplifting as he stopped hugging Kinzie and stood up from his seat. "Ah, there was one thing I forgot to mention that is sort of important to how I escaped and why Elder Earthborn was so nice to me. I'm half dragon."

Kinzie thought that all of the surprises for the night were over, but she couldn't help her jaw dropping again as she stuttered a response. "You-You're a what now?"

"I'm half dragon." Kayn stated the same thing again, only this time he removed his upper clothing, causing Kinzie to blush a little as his body appeared to be sculpted by a deity. She had seen several of her classmates, and even a professor that liked to walk around without a shirt on, but none of them could compare to the flawless design that was Kayn's body.

However, she was pulled out of her maiden stupor when two black wings suddenly sprouted out from Kayn's back before folding behind him. Kinzie immediately shot up and approached Kayn's wings, "Can I?" she asked as Kayn smiled since he was pleased by her response.

Kayn intentionally hid this part for last as he wanted to ease the atmosphere a little with this revelation. He knew she would be interested. Knowing or even seeing a dragon, even a half-dragon, was extremely rare in this day and age.

Kayn only nodded to her before he could feel her running her hands all over his wings from where they connected to his back, to the webbing, and all around the various connections. It was an odd sensation for Kayn as he had never let anyone touch his wings like this, but he didn't dislike it if he was honest. Probably because it was Kinzie.

Once it seemed like she had her fill with exploring his wings, Kinzie once again stood in front of Kayn. "So, if you're half-dragon, what's the other half? I had assumed you were part elf or demon because of your ears, but now I'm doubting even that."

"You're actually correct on both accounts. My father's bloodline was from a High Elf and a 3rd generation progenitor demon, making him the 4th and me the 5th generation."

"So basically, your bloodline is overpowered just like everything else about you, got it. That explains a bit why you're so powerful." Kinzie bobbed her head up and down as she rubbed her chin, seemingly talking to herself.

By this time, it was very late into the night. Students had a curfew that they couldn't walk around the academy past, so Kayn offered Kinzie the guest room stating that as a professor, he couldn't knowingly let her walk back to her place.

He figured if he was escorting her, that might look even worse as they shouldn't know each other well enough to be walking together in the middle of the night to the other faculty's eyes.

With Kayn's logical explanation, Kinzie easily agreed. She had spent nights in the same tent as Kayn, so she wasn't worried about anything happening, especially since he offered her a spare room. She also knew that the amenities that these houses had was supposed to be leagues above what she had, so she secretly wanted to use the bath and shower that she had heard were quite luxurious.

Kayn had already placed everything a guest would need into the room already including different sets of pajamas, towels, and fancy soaps, so he wasn't worried she would find something lacking.

In fact, he was happy that the purchases he made on a whim a few months back were actually paying dividends as he didn't expect that he would ever have a guest staying with him, but wanted them just in case.

Saying goodnight to each other, they each entered their own rooms and fell asleep after getting ready for bed in their own ways, which included a nice long and warm bath with bath salts and bubbles for Kinzie.