Enigma of Sin

"Kayn!" Kinzie yelled his name as soon as she recognized his presence and bolted straight at him, embracing him in a tight hug. He could only respond with one arm as his other was still occupied with Lara. However, the little cutie wrapped herself around Kinzie's leg, giving her a hug as well since she was quite familiar with this adult.

"Awww, look at this little cutie patootie!" Kinzie released Kayn as she reached down to pick up Lara and snuggle their cheeks together as that had become their routine whenever Lara grabbed her leg. Lara giggled with joy and Kayn could only chuckle on the side as Kinzie's bubbliness always seemed to rub off on Lara.

Kinzie turned towards Kayn while still holding onto Lara and spoke, "Why didn't you let me know you were coming or that you had arrived? I wasn't expecting you for at least another day or two."

Kayn sheepishly scratched his head, "I finished my work early, so I grabbed a carriage this morning. As for calling you, I tried, but you didn't pick up the few times I tried."

Kinzie averted her eyes at the subtle accusation and started to whistle, pretending she didn't know anything. "Anyway, it's already almost dinner time, why don't you and Lara head upstairs for now while Grandpa and I help the assistants close up the shop."

Kinzie then left to return to the display area after giving Lara over to Kayn. Kayn followed her out the door and started making his way to the stairs when he heard Rowen speak from behind him, "Make yourself at home, it'll take us just a bit to wrap things up down here."

Rowen then as well disappeared into the crowded shop, helping the assistants with any guests that were left or starting the nightly cleaning.

After Kayn made it upstairs, he decided that he would surprise Kinzie and Rowen with some of the delicacies he remembered from Earth. To get the ingredients though, he had to enter the Villa and raid his own pantries for a little while before he came back out, put the Villa away, and found Rowen's kitchen.

By the time the two who actually owned the place started making their way up the stairs to the second floor, they could already smell various aromas that caused their taste buds to salivate in expectation.

Kinzie had eaten Kayn's food several times before, but Rowen had only gotten to hear about it from her and lament that he wasn't able to taste something so supposedly delicious. However, it looked like his time had arrived!

When they arrived at the kitchen, they were witness to Kayn tossing food around in the air using a pot while wearing a kitchen apron. The table was already full of different savory smelling foods including noodle dishes and a bird similar to chickens that was pan fried in a large bowl with several different sauce choices in smaller bowls to the side. What Kayn was finishing up was this world's version of rice, served in an egg fried rice fashion.

For appetizers there were several plates lined all around and Kayn explained each dish before they dug in. He had made egg rolls, crab rangoon, kimchi, and a soy bean paste soup with mushrooms.

He decided to go with a more Eastern Earth theme for this meal and none of the dishes had things similar here, at least where he had visited so far.

It was far too much food for just the three of them and small child, but Kinzie had seen Kayn eat before, and he always finished everything put in front of him like his stomach had no limits.

After digging in, both Rowen and Kinzie marveled at the new flavors that they were experiencing today. Some were better than others in their opinion, but the food was slowly disappearing. For example, Kinzie wasn't a huge fan of the kimchi, but Rowen devoured it as if it was going to disappear from his plate if he didn't finish it first.

Watching these two enjoy his food, Kayn made a mental note to prepare some more kimchi and store it away for Rowen to eat as a snack when he wished. Once all of the plates were clean and everyone had had their fill, the two elves leaned back in satisfaction while holding onto their bulging stomachs while Lara was already falling asleep in her high chair.

Kayn chuckled at the scene in front of him as it really was nice to have family around you. He stood up and waved his arms as he began using cantrip spells to clean and store the dishes in their proper locations. Within a few seconds, the kitchen was cleaned of any mess and it was as if no one had cooked anything in the first place.

"Do you guys have a spare room, or shall I go find a nearby hotel? I believe it's time to get little Lara ready for bed." Kayn asked as he picked Lara up and shoved the high chair he brought with him back into the spatial pouch.

"There's a spare room you can use," Kinzie quickly answered. "It's on the third floor, all the way down the hall on the right. The left door is Grandpa's room and the first door on the right is my room. I would show you to it, but I honestly don't think I should move right now."

Rowen nodded in agreement as he too felt like he could be rolled around if he was laying on the ground. Kayn could only nod his head and smile at their shenanigans, but he didn't mind and made his way to the room he was told about.

As he would be sleeping in the room this time and not the Villa, he moved Lara's sleeping accommodations from the Villa before changing her into pajamas and tucking her in.

Once she was fast asleep while cuddling with a stuffed dragon he had purchased, he quietly left the room to return to the 2nd floor where Kinzie and Rowen were waiting for him on some couches near the kitchen area.

Without any words being spoken, the two stood up and walked to meet Kayn halfway. "How about a tour of the shop downstairs while we digest our food a bit more. Then this old man will leave you two youngsters alone for a bit before you go to sleep though…in separate rooms of course."

Kayn only put his hands up in surrender while Kinzie turned bright red with embarrassment as even if she didn't want to do anything intimate with Kayn yet, she still wanted to sleep with him in the same bed and cuddle as she heard that was very enjoyable from girls she had met on campus.

'I will get my cuddles during this break!' Kinzie's eyes lit with determination as she quickly came up with a plan.

Meanwhile, none the wiser about Kinzie's thoughts, Kayn followed Rowen to the main level and his tour of the shop began.

Inside the main shop area were several display cases created from shatterproof glass which could withstand up to a 7th tier spell. Inside the display cases were items that were graded at tier 3.

There were also tier 1 and 2 items spread around on various tables that customers could pick up and test as they pleased. The couple tier 4 items that Rowen had were in a special vault in the back and he had no tier 5 items.

Kayn was also impressed that Rowen even had a few spatial bags on display. They were classified as tier 3 items and their storage capacity was about as good as his old backpack. Kayn knew a special method was used to create these and they also needed to be enchanted using rare stone cores.

He would have to ask Rowen if he traded for these bags or created them himself later. If he did indeed create them, and if Kayn could learn about the process, he might be able to make progress in his own studies of the void and space elements.

Kayn read through some of the item descriptions as well as glanced at their prices. Some of the items on display might even be useful to him, but if decided he wanted them, he would pay full price of course.

Rowen then allowed Kayn to see his pride and joy. Two items that he had created, that with his 3rd stage core, should not have been possible. Tier 4, or epic grade items as Kayn called them, normally required someone with the ability to harness mana from an A or S-rank rune beast core stone, and a 3rd stage mage like Rowen would typically get overwhelmed.

It was a pair of bracers that he crafted recently using the core stone of an A-rank Stone Mountain Behemoth Ape. He talked quickly about them as he was excited, but there was one thing Kayn learned from this, he had somehow missed the core of the big ape he almost risked his life to kill.

He could have sworn that it was turned into nothingness just like the rest of the body as he wasn't able to find it anywhere, but he must have overlooked it in his exhausted state.

Apparently during the sweeping search of the area by the elven military recovery team, they had found the core. All of the cores were then sold off to the neighboring empires in order to generate revenue for the kingdom.

Rowen himself picked up the core stone at an auction a little over 5 months ago. He had only completed this pair of bracers in the last week. They were a defensive item and the enchantment would allow for one to use the Stone Mountain Behemoth Ape's skin hardening spell, making them impervious to most spells below 8th tier and weapons below the 4th tier.

The individual would even be able to move around without any reduction in movement speed while it was active. The only caveat was that it required a large amount of mana to maintain the spell for long periods of time.

Rowen had half a mind to give them to Kinzie when he finished them, but at her level, she would probably only be able to keep the protection up for a moment or two before draining herself of all of her mana. That same mana that she would use to activate the spell would be better used to escape the situation in Rowen's opinion.

It was honestly a really great item, but Kayn didn't have use for it as he could do the same by infusing earth mana into his flesh, though he would lose some of his movement ability. However, this could be mitigated by just infusing the spot he was about to be hit just before it happened.

Also, this didn't take into consideration the fact that Kayn's body without any modifications was already almost on par with that Gorilla's, one of the many upsides that he had received from his mother's bloodline.

After Rowen finished praising his own works, he finally left Kinzie and Kayn alone. The two talked for a while and made plans for the following days before kissing each other goodnight and entering their own rooms to sleep.