Enigma of Sin

Once Kayn finished up with Charlotte, it was time for him to sneak back out of the academy and the inner ring, returning to the branch office of the Black Hand Society to pick up some new tier 1 contracts.

They would be more difficult, but the rewards should be better. Plus, until Kayn reached tier 4 or 5 contracts, they wouldn't be more difficult for him, just more time consuming.

With everything prepared, Kayn slipped out of the academy grounds and over the wall separating the inner and middle ring. He entered the branch office a few hours later and walked straight to the board with tier 1 contracts.

Once again, he decided to browse from the bottom corners up as the bottom contained the contracts that the others generally wouldn't take due to difficulty or meager rewards. There were a couple of contracts that caught his eye, but nothing having to do with slaves or capturing people.

However, as his eyes read more contracts up the board, at the very top there was a single contract that drew his attention immediately.

The secondary request was the kill a mercenary that had a 1st stage core. The request noted that this mercenary kidnapped the client's child and sold them to a slave ring. They wanted proof of death to be the man's head, but the main contract was actually to find and save the child!

This was exactly what Kayn had been looking for! He didn't expect to find anything regarding slavers this low down the contract tier list, but he was thankful nonetheless. He decided that he would put his full focus towards this contract for the remainder of his break rather than trying to rush through it, so he didn't take any others.

He tore the parchment down off the wall and walked over to the receptionist who, as always, was taking a cat nap.

"I would like any additional information that the society has collected for this contract please." Kayn stated his desires as the receptionist slowly blinked his eyes open.

"Oh hey, its Jester, did you know you received a new nickname recently? Puppet Master! Hahaha! The Jester is also a master of puppets haha! On the other hand, just know we denied the High Rollers mercenary group from requesting a contract with us since you're one of our own.

"Though working a protection detail for a shop as an assassin is a bit odd. Anyway, just wanted to warn you that they may try and hire someone else to kill you, we aren't the only assassin group in Palatine after all."

"I was contracted with the shop owner before I joined, so it's just a job. Regardless, what about the information I requested?" Kayn spoke nonchalantly as if being targeted by some group of people was no big deal to him.

"Yes, yes, one moment." The receptionist disappeared for a couple of moments and returned with a stack of papers. "Here's everything we gathered about the incident as well as the target, client, and client's child. Good luck and remember that if you fulfill all of the contract requirements and not just killing the target, you'll get paid more, especially if you save the kid."

Once Kayn received the papers, the cat man already had his head on the desk, quickly falling back into a light slumber. Kayn couldn't quite tell what, but this guy just irritated him. Maybe it was his voice or maybe it was his mannerisms that very much resembled an actual cat, or perhaps a combination of both. Not to mention he always made a big deal about the name Jester, and now it seemed that he had acquired another nickname, Puppet Master.

Kayn couldn't help but sigh and lower his head as he left the branch. Why did he have to get stuck with so many dumb nicknames that he didn't want? Why couldn't he get something cool or even give the name he originally wanted for the Black Hand Society?

…

Looking through the information, the client is the owner of a small restaurant in the outer ring that does fairly well, so he's decently wealthy. His son was kidnapped from their home and the nanny killed while both he and his wife were at work.

The one who committed the kidnapping apparently wasn't smart enough to cover their face, so a composite sketch was made from the testimonies of several witnesses who saw the perpetrator leaving the scene with the 7-year-old boy in arm.

Authorities noted that the assailant actually had a bounty on his head for being a known child trafficker. Apparently, this wasn't the first time he had kidnapped a child, but this was the first time he did it from someone so high profile, at least as far as the outer ring was concerned.

He was a known wind mage that specialized in enhancing his speed and movements with wind spells and he was estimated to only have a peak stage 1 core.

The information didn't have much for a current location, but did list a few potential areas to check out, including a small hideout that was located just outside of the city. Kayn decided to visit the scene of the incident first and see if he could gather anything that would lead to or help him locate the target.

Surprisingly, the contract was more mercenary based than assassin based as the main request was the retrieval of the child, killing was secondary. Kayn was a bit surprised that the Black Hand Society took the contract in the first place, but seeing as the reward was several gold coins and the society got a cut of it, he understood.

Unfortunately for Kayn, the incident was a day ago already, even if the contract was just posted. When he arrived at the home there wasn't anything to find, not even a trace of the man's leftover mana signature.

Kayn was no expert in tracking mana signatures, but he was able to distinguish one person's signature from another, even if they were of equal strength and element. With his hopes dashed from this angle, he decided to comb through all of the areas that the information provided to him.

Even if killing the target was the secondary goal of the contract, Kayn figured that finding the man first and torturing the location of the child out of him would be the best option. If he had to go in guns blazing to retrieve the child afterwards, he assumed no one would care how many he killed if they were slave traders that dealt in children.

…

An entire day passed without any progress. Kayn hadn't slept the entire time as he didn't need the sleep, but he was getting frustrated that he had run around so much with nothing to show for it. He now understood why the authorities had so much trouble finding the guy, he was slippery like an eel. He would perform a job and somehow vanish shortly after.

Kayn came to two conclusions, either the man was using some kind of disguise to alter his outward appearance, or he somehow left the city. In all honesty, both were possible, but one was more difficult than the other.

If the target got outside of the city with the child in tow, he must have used some secret path to get around the guards at the entrances. Going over the wall just wouldn't be possible for a 1st stage mage, even Kayn would probably find it difficult to go over the main walls with how large they were on top of the number of guards stationed there.

This meant that there had to be a tunnel system which was being used by criminals that somehow the guards hadn't found out about, or there were a few corrupt ones keeping the information hidden. Kayn was leaning towards the latter option though, money often put blinders on people who otherwise were good people.

Rather than look for the tunnel system, Kayn decided it was best to search the last location he was given first, which was a small hideout located outside of the city. Supposedly there was a tavern hidden in the woods outside of the city that was frequented by people on the run or those who dealt in shady businesses.

The guards knew about the place, but unless there was solid evidence against it or the owner, they generally avoided going there. Not to mention, the tavern owner was supposedly a 3rd or 4th stage mage that specialized in close quarters combat using fire and earth magic.

The guards wouldn't poke a bear like that unless they had a good reason to, and they would need to request the help of someone of equal or more strength from the middle or inner rings to help. The captains were the only stronger people in the outer ring and they couldn't leave their posts.

Kayn left Palatine through the front gate as himself rather than trying to sneak out. He had no reason to risk getting caught when he could enter and exit as he pleased. Especially since he was able to skip any lines or checkpoints with his qualifications as both a professor of the famed Astaro Academy and a member of the White Hand Society.

The tavern was more difficult to find than Kayn expected, even with the directions on how to get to it. If he veered even a step off of the path that was listed on the information sheet, he would have to start from the beginning.

Apparently, the owner had hired some kind of formation master that placed down a very complex illusion formation to deter people from finding the place unless they had insider information.

Kayn was intrigued by the formation and wanted to try and study it as he walked along the path, but even his Mana Sense wasn't able to find anything. There must have been a concealment formation on top of the wide area illusion formation, otherwise hiding something as massive as the illusion formation from his senses shouldn't be possible.

He changed back into his Jester appearance before he finished walking along the path and just as he did, a small clearing appeared. In the middle of this clearing was a medium sized wooden building that echoed noises of a bunch of people drinking and talking inside.

Kayn spread his Mana Sense so that he could examine those inside of the building, and to his surprise, there were a few 4th stage core individuals amidst the bunch.

This instantly caused Kayn to become a bit more serious, but he still wasn't nervous. He opened the door to the tavern and stepped inside. Instantly the rowdy atmosphere quieted down while everyone took a look at the unfamiliar newcomer.