Enigma of Sin

Spending the rest of the night returning to his home branch in the middle ring, Kayn made it just before the sun peaked its head over the walls. He made double time tonight as he really wanted to go on his break and just relax for a little while.

He got a pleasant surprise after turning in the contracts in the form of a promotion from F to E-rank. The cat man explained that he was quick and efficient during his missions and didn't make much of a mess. The higher-ups were even impressed he managed to infiltrate a prison without being seen at all.

The receptionist lightly giggled thinking of the nickname the prisoners came up with for whatever happened, though, he decided to keep it to himself as he didn't expect for the name to catch on any more than it had.

Kayn left the branch office in a pleasant mood carrying his new brass society token which stated his completed missions as 8. He would finally be able to take tier 1 contracts, meaning that all of the targets were at least 1st stage core mages.

Maybe, just maybe he would be able to begin making progress towards his real goal now, but upon glancing at the tier 1 contract board, he was only disappointed. The contracts there were mostly the same type of complaints, but with larger rewards and higher difficulty.

Kayn brushed these thoughts off of his mind for now. Those were next week's problems, for now he was going to make his way back to the academy to pick up the things he left behind, and answer any outstanding messages that he may have missed.

With the sun up high in the morning sky, it was far more difficult for Kayn to sneak back into the academy. It was just difficult though, not impossible. Once he was over the walls, he changed into regular clothing and used the portal system as he could still activate it with his mana, even if he didn't have his professor's badge.

Once he was back inside his house, he grabbed Lara from the Villa where she was still sleeping and bathed both her and himself before making a grand breakfast to celebrate his successful first week as an assassin. It wasn't all glory and dealing out justice as he hoped, but he was working his way through the slop to get where he was trying to go.

After he finished dressing himself and Lara and placed his usual storage pouch on his waist, he checked his messages on his way out. Director Vix wanted him to place a copy of his lesson plans for the second semester 1st year healing class on her desk sometime before the semester started, no later than three days before the start.

Kayn hadn't worked on those at all, but if he just followed Lydia's original teachings, he would be able to pull some lesson plans out of his ass really quick. With the tedious work already sorted out, he moved on to the next message.

The second and only other message he had was from Headmaster Alman who called to say that Kayn was being allowed to stay in his residence for the foreseeable future as his class passing percentage was higher than any other entry level introduction to healing class in the past.

Kayn already had the place for the rest of the year, but now he wouldn't have to move at all! This was great news as it offered more protection for himself and Lara if he ever got into trouble again.

He then left a message for Director Vix stating that he was out of his week of seclusion and now planned to spend at least the next week or two exploring the middle ring and seeing what Palatine had to offer.

Kayn walked to the academy's entrance with Lara waddling next to him holding his hand. She was actually pretty good at walking already, but she enjoyed wobbling back and forth while holding onto Kayn's hand as she knew he wouldn't let her fall over.

Once they were outside, he grabbed a carriage to take them to the middle ring's trade district where Rowen and Kinzie should be staying. He tried to call her communication crystal during the ride, but she didn't pick up. Kayn could only laugh to himself as she was definitely still sleeping, her sleeping habits reverted back to usual when she didn't have any commitments for the day.

Seeing that Lara had fallen asleep on his lap, he too shut his eyes to get some rest. It had been many days since he had a good sleep and this few hour-long carriage ride was the perfect opportunity to take a nap.

His Mana Sense was always active on the surroundings anyway, so he would be alerted if something out of the ordinary occurred. Though he didn't pay attention to much other than things that seemed out of the ordinary.

…

Several hours later, Kayn was awoken by a knock on the carriage door, it was the driver alerting him that they reached their destination.

By this point, it was somewhere in mid-afternoon, and the trade district was bustling with people walking in and out of shops. There were also several carriages carrying both people and goods racing past on the carriage side of the road.

Kayn stepped outside the carriage with Lara and set her on the ground to walk by herself since they were right in front of their destination. Kayn looked at the three-story building in front of him with the large words "Enchanter's Emporium" painted in large lettering.

Kayn walked inside and the bell rung, an assistant of the shop quickly looked in his direction, "Please feel free to look around the shop, we will be with you as soon as possible."

However, before she could revert her attention back to the current guest Kayn replied to her, "Actually, is the old man in today? Tell him a scamming brat is looking for him." Kayn gave a mysterious smile.

The assistant as well as the other guests looked at him with weird looks on their faces. Never before had a customer disrespected Enchanter Rowen in his own shop. Fortunately, the workers who heard Kayn didn't have to deal with the situation themselves as the one in question was on his way down the stairs already and had heard Kayn's voice. 

While the voice was lower and more mature sounding, it was still the one that belonged to that annoying brat who both saved his life and scammed him within a few days' time.

"Describing yourself as a scamming brat, quite apt if I do say so myself. Come, follow me to the back room, we can talk there." Rowen spoke as he waved Kayn to a back room.

He hadn't heard much about Kayn's story from Kinzie yet since she didn't think it was her place to reveal his secrets. Rowen couldn't help but wonder about the little girl holding Kayn's hand that looked so very similar to him.

Kayn and Lara arrived into the back room to see Rowen half leaning on a workbench looking his way. Before Kayn could say anything and as if right on cue, Lara decided to make the misunderstanding happen as if it was fun for her, "Papa, old man is staring at me."

"You two-timing little scamming piece of ...…" Kayn could only plug Lara's ears at this point as the words that Rowen was mumbling were not words which he wanted her to pick up this early on in her life.

"Elder Rowen, it's my sister. My sister! She just hasn't learned better yet as she grew up without our mother or father around, okay? I'm sure Kinzie told you that I would explain things when I met up with her for our little exploration of the city right?"

"That aside, you've become quite strong in the time we haven't seen each other. Your growth is outrageous, you've already passed me. I'm sure you're here for Kinzie, but she just woke up not long ago and if I let you go to her before she has the chance to straighten herself up, I might not wake up the next day, if you know what I mean."

Kayn had seen Kinzie freshly woken up plenty of times during their adventuring trips, so he could only laugh at her actions. "Okay Elder Rowen, in that case, how about I give you the rundown of my situation and how I got here in the meantime?" Kayn suggested.

"Just call me Grandpa Rowen, or something like that. You're in a relationship with Kinzie anyway are you not? Sooner or later, we will be family." Rowen winked, he truly could flip his attitude like a switch. In fact, this old man might be more mischievous than Kayn's father used to be when he was alive.

In order to one up the old elf trying to make him feel uncomfortable, Kayn responded with "Okay Gramps."

Before Rowen could say anything though, Kayn proceeded to give him a summarized version of the events that had happened, leaving out bits and pieces, such as his race. Most of his explanation revolved around the killing of his family and his escape due to his mother's sacrifice.

Then he proceeded to talk about meeting a nice farming couple up in the Great Forest and staying with them for a little while before journeying to Palatine and becoming a professor of healing through the White Hand Society.

Rowen sat and listened quietly the entire time with a serious look on his face. This kid in front of him had been through a lot, more than even his Kinzie had, but he was still somehow managing and creating a promising life for not only himself, but his sister as well. He was quite impressed with Kayn's tenacity and ability to endure hardships. 

Maybe having someone like this by Kinzie's side would be good for her. Even though he was worried about the possibility that Kayn would eventually be tracked down, at the rate Kayn was growing, Rowen assumed he wouldn't have any troubles defending his family.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that kid. Thank you for trusting me enough to tell me this as well. Is there anything I can do to help you out? It seems like you have things under control pretty well, but if there is something I can do, don't hesitate to ask." Rowen spoke with both a sorrowful and encouraging tone.

"We'll be family soon, so trusting you should be natural, you said so yourself." Kayn gave a smirk to Rowen indicating that his mood was still as cheeky as ever. "And thank you. As for anything you can help with, I've honestly been wanting to know more about your profession. I know that the best items are both inscribed and enchanted, but I don't know what all goes into the process and I would love to learn what I can from you."

"Oh! That's no problem! Kinzie has no talent for my craft, but maybe you will! I would be happy if someone in the family could pass on my legacy. Let's start with-"

But before Rowen could even begin teaching Kayn, a young woman with flowing green hair and bright green eyes barged in through the door, "Hey Grandpa, what are you doing? We have cust-"

This time Kinzie's own words were cut off due to seeing the pair people in the room with her grandfather, their snow-white hair standing out as a clear give away to their identities.