Enigma of Sin

Kayn didn't forget to grab and stash the proof he needed for the society before the body vanished, which was the man's head. Placing it in a few sacks in order to prevent leakage, he let it sit in the Villa's dungeon room as he called it.

He made his way out of the room and called Charlotte once more to discuss how they should go about infiltrating the black market and its auction.

"Hmm this might be a bit tricky Kayn. We can have a few others of the group I'm working with join you to take down the place entirely, but going in from the front might cause them to sacrifice the hostages and escape. You could also go in alone as you have been and try to stealthily remove the prisoners." Charlotte started off immediately after she picked up the call.

"While I would prefer the stealthy kill everyone route, I believe this might take a gentler approach in order to save everyone we are trying to save." Kayn replied.

"Oh? Do you have an idea in mind that can mitigate risks and ensure success?" Charlotte asked as she was genuinely curious as to what he might have come up with.

"While I'm not completely sure it will work out, it is a safer route for the prisoners in my opinion. Why not participate in the auction? I can dress up fancily and cover up my face with something different than usual as I'm sure the other patrons do.

"Then when the auction happens, I'll just purchase everything they have. When I go to pay and receive my wins, I will also ask about any other prisoners for sale and purchase those as well." Kayn spoke, but Charlotte immediately asked her own question.

"And what about all the money you're giving to those that are the reason for the ordeal in the first place? Our goal is to shut them down, not cause more demand by fattening their pockets, even if we are able to save a few." Charlotte was slightly disappointed with his idea.

"You didn't let me finish. I was going to ask you to have your group surround the place from the shadows during the auction to make sure no one can escape, and when I safely exit the perimeter with the prisoners, you infiltrate. I will use a marking spell that is difficult to notice on all of the big shots I see in order to ensure that they are either captured or executed. Once everything is done, I get my money back from them, easy right?"

"That almost does sound too easy, you do know that the merchandise you will be purchasing will not be cheap right? How much money do you have on you? And are you okay with potentially losing that money should the mission fail?" Charlotte asked several questions in return. As easy and simple as this plan sounded, there's no way something wouldn't go wrong.

"I've got plenty of money. In fact, I could even play the part of the prodigal son of some rich family and buy out the entire auction, at least I think so. Actually, I might do that if there is anything else that catches my interest.

"Might as well take advantage of the situation. The only thing I would need to solve before the auction is finding new clothing and a new hood or mask." Kayn replied, as now he was becoming excited at the thought of finding potentially interesting objects that wouldn't normally be seen out in the open.

"You do realize that a lot of the items sold are obtained by unsavory means, right?" Charlotte asked while rolling her eyes, even if Kayn couldn't see her.

"Of course I do. If I happen to run across a previous owner, I'll give it back if they can prove it. But I'm guessing none of the people who would care about the items being sold are alive to see them again. So why not put them into my hands where they will be used for good?"

Kayn was shameless when it came to new interesting things. He didn't know where he picked up this trait, but he also didn't care.

"Fine, do what you want. Just don't get caught. As far as a mask or something along that nature, I think I have something I can give you. We will rendezvous with everyone near the site of the black market in a nearby safe house we have. It's still early morning, but in order to be prepared, have all of your ducks in a row and a nice suit by at least the third marker after the dial reset. See you then."

Charlotte then told Kayn the location before hanging up to prepare everything herself, including gathering their groups best infiltration team. They should be able to get things done quick and quiet if everything goes to plan, but just in case she needed people who could also be quick and dirty, before escaping.

While some in the group were higher up in the aristocracy, they couldn't risk alerting their traitorous counterparts, so everything was being done under a veil of secrecy. If it was discovered that they were the ones who wreaked havoc on the black-market auction house, their operation would come to the light and moles would surely try to infiltrate and mislead the investigations.

With the plans in place, Kayn also set off to get his preparations done. He wanted to get a nice suit from a place he was hopeful no one attending the auction would recognize him from, the stores in the academy.

He swiftly made it back to the academy in only a few hours. He visited his home and cleaned up before taking Lara with him to go shopping in order to get her some outside time. He felt bad for her because he was keeping her cooped up with the avatar, but at least she had a lot to do in the Villa, and the avatar was basically the best nanny she could ask for.

Kayn went around to a few shops before he ended up buying a fancy black 3-piece suit that would go great with a hood or mask. Wearing a hood with a suit might be seen as odd, but surely anonymity was a major concern of the patrons of this kind of auction.

He returned to his home, and stashed the suit into the spatial sash, the only part of the Garments he was currently wearing. He didn't know if he would have time to access the Villa, so he took what he needed in the sash, including a massive amount of platinum and gold coins.

…

Kayn arrived at the meeting point about an hour before the required time. He was wearing a hoodie type clothing currently so he had his hood pulled up just in case already.

When he entered the building he was surprised as before he even noticed it, there was a blade under his chin, though he was able to react a little and lifted his head so that the blade wouldn't nick him as the wielder intended.

'How did I not even notice until the last second?! I definitely have my Mana Sense active!' Kayn screamed in his head because if this person wanted to kill him, he would no longer be living and he wouldn't have known what happened either.

"Not bad for young 4th stager. Where'd you find this kid Charlotte?" The person who was only now materializing in front of Kayn removed her blade from his neck and turned around to speak to the beautiful woman that Kayn did recognize.

Charlotte scoffed, "Not bad? Yelena, he completely avoided your dagger from touching him in the fraction of a moment he noticed the threat to his life. When's the last time a 4th stage, let alone a 5th stage managed to do the same against you. He's more than qualified, just like I said."

The woman with hair as black as night and dark brown eyes smirked as she looked back towards Kayn and held out her hand. "Yelena, 6th stage magic warrior. I'm going to be leading our little infiltration group after you get the prisoners out."

"Uh, Kayn, 4th stage. Nice to meet you." Kayn replied with a little trepidation as the woman in front of him was the type he was actually scared of, domineering but playful at the same time. Kayn knew her type though because as a battle junkie himself, it was easy to spot another.

"Just Kayn the 4th stager? No specialty or anything? What do you do?" Yelena asked as she acted like he had disrespected her.

Instead of Kayn answering though, it was Charlotte, "Yelena stop it. I already told you not to pry information from the kid. He's qualified for what he's doing for our team, that's all you need to know."

Yelena threw her hands up in the air in surrender. "Fine, fine! I was just curious that's all, Miss Leader." With that she walked away and plopped down face first onto a couch.

It seems like Charlotte hadn't told the group what he was doing or how he was getting his leads. She must have only told them that he was trusted and was working to get leads for them. Not what he could or was doing.

"Kayn, come have a seat while we wait for the rest of the group arrive. You can ignore Yelena, she may not seem the serious type, but once the mission begins, you won't find a better person to trust your back to. Actually, come here for a second before you sit."

Kayn walked over to Charlotte and she handed him two different items, both causing his eyes to widen in shock. 

"First the hood is for you to keep as a reward for your hard work so far, you can check it out while you're getting ready later." Charlotte spoke and then paused before looking at the second item.

"That," Charlotte pointed to a ring she had given him, "is only being lent to you for the duration of this mission. It will help to bring home the point of your wealth, convincing the company without you having to say much. Much more than a spatial bag or otherwise." She spoke as she eyed the sash around his waist.

"I expect you to give back the dimensional ring as soon as the mission is over. And I swear to the heavens if you lose that, I will murder you or make you get it back, even if it means your death. Got it?"

Kayn quickly nodded his head. This ring now just became his most important and highest priority item. He definitely could not and would not lose it. In fact, Kayn came up with an idea to reduce his risk even more while still allowing him access to it. It might be disgusting, but it was going to work.

Kayn made sure that Yelena couldn't see him or what he was doing before he sliced open a small cut in his underarm with a wind blade spell and shoved the ring inside of it after binding it to him. He then used a few internal healing spells to make it look like nothing happened.

"Safe and secure, unless I lose my arm of course." Kayn smiled as he showed Charlotte his arm. In all honesty, he had done something similar with Kinzie's control beacon as that was secured where his core used to be. The perfect spot for a small round orb.

Charlotte's eyelids twitched a little at what Kayn had just done, but quickly brushed it off, hoping he wasn't some sort of weird masochist.

Soon, the rest of the group arrived and Kayn had changed into his new suit and fancy hood. He looked the part of a perfectly mysterious rich spendthrift. He had two rings on his fingers already, so they would easily be mistaken as a dimensional ring when he started pulling stuff out of midair.

He was dressed the part, had all of the money he needed in the ring Charlotte gave him, and had everything extra stored inside the Villa, "I'm perfectly prepared." Kayn whispered to himself before joining the table where the group was gathered.