Enigma of Sin

The next day Kinzie woke up early in order to get ready and make breakfast for everyone, only to find Kayn, Lara, and Rowen already seated at the kitchen table eating breakfast. She was a little disappointed that she didn't wake up in time, but having heard from Kayn about the personal sleep schedule he keeps, it made sense.

The three of them were eating in silence with Lara making the occasional playful sound or asking for more of something.

Kinzie herself just sat in her normal spot and started to dish herself some breakfast onto the empty plate that was placed where she usually sat. After she took the first few bites, she decided that now was the best time to enact her plan.

"So Grandpa, Kayn and I were thinking about traveling around the middle and inner ring for a few days and exploring the different districts. There are a few shops I want to show him as well, like Tina's shop in order to introduce the two. We wouldn't be traveling back and forth though, so you'll have to run the shop as you normally do when I'm at the academy."

Rowen only shrugged and said that was fine and just to be safe. She wasn't here most of the time anyway as she was at the academy, his shop would function just like any other day without her.

Now, Kinzie decided to drop the bomb on the two men at the table, "Kayn, I was wondering if you would be okay leaving Lara with Grandpa? He's super good with kids and I'm sure she would be spoiled by him. And before you say that you could just keep her in the Villa, know that she needs some social time too, this will be good for the both of them."

While Rowen didn't know what the Villa was that Kinzie spoke of, he wasn't opposed to the idea of taking care of the cute little Lara for a few days. She seemed very well behaved from what he had seen thus far, plus he missed having a tiny grandchild to play tricks on. He even had some enchanted toys he created to sell that she could play with.

Kayn's reluctance was clearly visible on his face as he looked first at Lara who couldn't care less about her surroundings and was happily eating. Then he glanced at Kinzie's hopeful face that screamed she wanted alone time with him. Lastly, he glanced at Rowen, which gave him the biggest surprise since he was giving Kayn puppy eyes even more so than Kinzie was.

"Sigh, only if Gramps is okay with it." Kayn stated with a defeated sigh, he trusted Rowen and he also knew that the guy had hired guards that watched the shop from the outside 24 hours a day, so there was really nothing to worry about in that sense.

Kinzie was surprised at how Kayn addressed her grandpa, but shook it off and quickly looked at Rowen who had already switched from puppy eyes to a serious pondering face to make Kinzie sweat a little. "That should be fine, in fact I'll have her calling me Grandpa before you two are even back, hehe!"

Kinzie's jaw dropped as Rowen's true thoughts were revealed. 'Maybe this is going to be better for him than the two of us.'

Kinzie then excused herself to go pack some extra clothing and necessities for their little exploration trip around the capital while Kayn stayed back and gave Rowen instructions on how to care for Lara.

Rowen was a little annoyed since he had raised several children before, but he could tell that Kayn was acting like a first-time parent and was very overprotective of his sister. Kayn then left with Lara to return to his room so that he could prepare her things for Rowen.

Once he organized her extra clothing, soaps, snacks, and toys into his old bag, he also brought her bed out into the hallway in front of Rowen's room so that he could move it in there later.

Kayn returned to Rowen much sooner than Kinzie did and handed him Lara's care bag before sitting down on one of the couches to play with Lara a little. He hadn't really been away from her much since the moment she was born.

They were always within the same house or she was residing in the Villa. This would be the first time that she was truly out of his ever-watching senses, and he would be lying if he said he wasn't nervous about it.

Just in case, he gave Rowen one of a pair of new communication crystals and asked him to call at least once a day to update him on how Lara was doing and to also here her giggle or something. He truly was being overprotective and he knew it, but he couldn't help it.

They had been through too much and he had promised his mother that he would protect her no matter what, so this was a big leap of faith for him.

After a bit of waiting, Kinzie came hopping down the stairs with her hair done up in a playful style while wearing a flowery day dress. She looked quite cute as she skipped over to Kayn and grabbed his arm.

"Ready to go?" Kinzie asked even though she knew Kayn didn't really need to prepare anything in the first place.

"Yep," Kayn chuckled as he patted the spatial pouch that was actually empty aside from a few coins and his different identifications minus the Black Hand Society token. Everything he needed was in the Villa, and he didn't require too much room to bring that out and fetch whatever he needed.

Kayn gave one last hug to Lara, telling her to be a good girl for Grandpa Rowen. He also made a scene out of telling her to tattle if Rowen wasn't treating her well.

"Bah, get out of here you little brat! Before I change my mind and ban Kinzie from ever seeing you again! Hmph!" Rowen stuck his nose up while acting like he was offended, which made Lara giggle.

Seeing that as her cue, Kinzie dragged Kayn out to the street and continued walking with her arm looped through his.

"Would you like me to take your bag from you?" Kayn asked as it certainly looked a little awkward with her having a rucksack on her back and Kayn walking around with nothing.

"If you don't mind." Kinzie became a little shyer as she removed her arm to take the backpack off and hand it over to Kayn. It's not like it was heavy, but she saw his action as a gesture of him caring.

Kayn slung the backpack over his shoulders as placing a spatial bag inside of another generally didn't work, so he didn't risk it with his spatial pouch, to him it was weightless anyway.

Their first destination was within the shopping and trade district, Tina's shop. Kinzie really wanted Kayn to meet the person who had made his crazy idea into reality. She had actually brought the bow along with her in her bag as she needed some maintenance done and people weren't supposed to carry weapons openly.

If the weapon was hanging off of a bag, or just too large to fit into a bag, those were the only cases that carrying it was acceptable, but the weapon or bag had to be strapped onto their back securely, not in their hand.

Kayn and Kinzie chatted about this and that while they walked arm in arm, both just enjoying each other's presence. Kinzie could tell that Kayn was still worrying a little bit about Lara, so she did her best to ease his fears as she knew this was a big step for him.

It was almost lunch time when they finally arrived at Tina's shop, only for them to enter and witness a tiny pink haired woman yelling profanities as she threw a few broken bows into a pile behind the counter.

"Tina! What happened?" Kinzie asked in worry loud enough for the small angry woman to barely hear her over the rampage she was having.

"Get out! I'm closed for the day!" Tina screamed, but when she looked back at who actually spoke, she sighed realizing it was one of her best customers.

"I'm sorry Kinzie, I just had a group of thugs come in and break a bunch of my wares because they thought they were an eyesore. I have a suspicion that they were hired by the bowyer on the other side of the street as I've been having more business thanks to you. He's just a jealous prick that should make better bows so that he can compete. Hmph!"

Kayn had to hold in a snicker as he thought the tiny angry woman was actually quite comical looking when she snorted in derision. Steadying his thoughts, he said what was actually on his mind. "Would you like me to go collect the payment for your wares while you work on Kinzie's bow?"

"Kinzie, who is this pretty boy? Does he think he looks cool by acting tough? They have several 1st and 2nd stage core warriors and even a 3rd stage in their group, so you should probably tell him to back off before he gets himself hurt." Tina glared angrily at the guy who was too handsome for his own good.

"Ah! Sorry Tina, this is Kayn. He's the one who drew the design of the bow for me all those years back. Also, if it's just that level of trash, Kayn could take them out by sneezing."

She then turned to Kayn, "Go have some fun, they couldn't have gotten far, just don't kill them okay? The authorities won't get involved if it's just a few broken bones."

Kayn raised his brows but then gave a wicked smile before handing Kinzie's bag back to her and hurrying out of the shop.