Enigma of Sin

The next morning after the two awoke, Kinzie had to leave early so that she could get ready to attend her lessons. Kayn himself had the day off, but he had been neglecting his professor duties for a while now, so he decided to focus on fine tuning his lesson plans. He was also going to contact Maria and get her private lesson times established.

The only difference to his appearance today was the addition of another ring on his right hand. He had placed his family's ring on his right ring finger and couldn't help but feel at ease whenever he looked at it. When Kayn examined it with Analyze, the results were about what he expected and also gave him more information about the item itself.

[Loop of the Void (Ancient): A ring connected to the void dimension crafted from the mana core of the very first Obsidian Void Dragon Emperor of Talgonoth. Storage space increases as the wearer's affinity to the void element increases. Functions as a dimensional ring would, but is only limited by the wearer rather than having a fixed space. Access to all items stored in the void is also dependent on the wearer's affinity.]

In truth, the ring would only show its true colors for those of the Obsidian Void Dragon race. Kayn now understood why his parents had originally said that the space of the ring was rather small. It wasn't that it didn't have much for space, it was that his father couldn't access the space. 

It was near infinite! Kayn was quite excited that as long as he continued getting stronger with the void element, he could store more and more things. This also made him curious if there were still hidden areas which he didn't have access to. What kind of treasures were now currently in his possession? It was quite the prospect to think about.

The other important statement that his Analyze ability gave him that could easily go overlooked was that it stated it was made from the first emperor on Talgonoth, not the first Obsidian Void Dragon. That meant that his race wasn't originally from here or the Void Light realm connected to the world.

The morning hours passed by quickly as Kayn performed all of the tasks that he had set for himself initially. It was only when the afternoon came that he received an unexpected visitor at his front door.

"Hello Kayn, how're you doing?" Charlotte asked as she had a concerned expression on her face. However, when she looked at Kayn's expression and demeanor, it was like the person she had seen a couple days prior was completely gone, replaced by a calm and gentle soul.

"Charlotte, hello. Come inside, please." Kayn spoke as he waved her into the house, shutting the door behind her. "I'm doing okay. Still processing, but I'm coming to terms with everything that happened."

"And the woman?" Charlotte asked as she hadn't forgotten about the person that they captured who was then handed over to Kayn.

"A black-market specialist for the Emperor more or less." Kayn shrugged his shoulders as he continued leading Charlotte to the living room before offering to make some tea. He had purchased some expensive tea leaves during his travels with Kinzie, so he was quite excited to finally try them.

A short while later he returned with two steaming cups of tea, one of which was handed over to Charlotte who sipped at it with a satisfied expression on her face. "This is good, where did you get it?"

"Some secluded specialized tea shop in the middle ring. I only found it by chance when I took a shortcut through an alleyway." Kayn replied as he himself took a sip.

"Kayn, I have to ask. It couldn't have been easy to get that information from her, just how far did you go?" A concerned look returned to Charlotte's face. Someone his age and nature shouldn't be torturing people. She knew that deep down he only desired to be a kind and gentle soul that only wanted to help people, but circumstances were forcing him to become otherwise.

"I only did what has been done before by their own experts. I may have added my own twist, but it's not like I tortured her soul or anything. Not that I even know how to do that or if it's possible." Kayn responded calmly, he may have overreacted when he ripped her skin off, but at least he killed her swiftly once things were done rather than letting her suffer more.

'Note to self, study soul attacks.' Kayn pondered as he truly wondered if it was possible.

"And the evidence? Did you get rid of it all adequately?"

"Hmmm, I don't know if I would say adequate is the correct term. Appropriately though, yes." Kayn grinned as he thought of the Emperor of Carnet becoming enraged when one of his playthings appeared on his doorstep in a neatly wrapped package.

"…Kayn…what did you do?"

"I sent her home, that's all. Nothing points back to me or us, don't worry. I even covered up any mana signatures that were lingering on her wounds. I promise, they won't find us. I've gotten pretty good at mimicking other's mana signatures over the last half year, so they'll get quite the surprise if they try and match it to someone in their database."

Kayn giggled to himself as he thought about the person's mana signature that he had copied. He didn't know how accurate it was as he wasn't very knowledgeable about mana signatures at the time he met this person, but it should be close enough to send the message he wanted.

Charlotte could only sigh and eye him suspiciously. At this point, there wasn't much she could do, even if she wasn't a big fan of this side of Kayn.

"Moving on, do you plan to continue your activity with the Black Hand Society during the semester, or just take a break for a while? If you plan to take a bit of a breather, I would like to stay here with you in order to further study you as per our deal."

Kayn thought to himself for a few moments before responding, "I will probably take about a month to focus on Lara, Kinzie, and my students. You're free to stay here if you'd like, the guest room is always open to you."

Kayn was reminded of their deal just then, and he thought about the astronomical amount of money she had turned down. "You know, if you'd like I can pay you money to even out our deal."

Charlotte gave Kayn a funny look as she had no clue that he had gained a dimensional ring during the auction, she only knew of his father's core and that he had purchased a few other things. If he had money, why did he offer her items and his core research instead?

"Hmmm, I actually value your research quite close to what I value the armor set at, monetarily anyway. It may just seem like a necessity in your eyes or your natural evolution, but what you've done is quite logic breaking. However, as it is more likely than not that you'll be the only person to be able to use this process, I'm probably taking a few diamond coins as a loss from the cost of having them made in the first place."

"How many is a few?" Kayn asked out of curiosity. Charlotte found it amusing that he was considering trying to pay her, but it would probably take him decades if not centuries to even get a single diamond coin.

Sure, he could pay an equal amount of emerald, but that wouldn't equate to the diamond coins she originally spent. While she hated putting a value on the sentimental value of the pieces, Kayn's research and the few items he traded were approximate in her eyes for someone of his means.

"Three."

Kayn thought for just a moment before tossing three brightly glimmering diamond coins her way. "I hate owing debts. Now we're even, right?"

Charlotte became stunned when she caught the items that Kayn threw at her. She sat back blankly staring at the three coins in her palm, not sure what to make of them. "How?"

Kayn then wiggled his right hand in the air for her to take a look at. "My father's core wasn't the only thing I gained from that auction. You might recognize this."

Charlotte stared at the new ring that was adorning Kayn's finger. It indeed looked familiar, but the last time she had seen it was ages ago and she couldn't exactly recall where she did see it.

It took a few minutes, but her eyes widened fully as her irises turned golden, "No way! That belonged to the Emperor of the Obsidian Void dragons! Why in the world would a back alley underground auction have something like that?!"

"It was in my father's possession when he died. He placed a bloodline seal on it before he died so no one could gain access to it. Apparently, the Carnet Emperor tried to open it personally and even hired a few experts, but they couldn't do it. Honestly, I was surprised he didn't keep it as a trophy, but I guess it was sold as a package deal with my father's core for a higher price. I didn't really ask about that, this is all information I gathered at the auction.

"But I obtained it, and being the heir of this ring, I was able to open it. It's a bit special though and I was granted access to more than what my parents put into it. You could say I probably have an equal amount of wealth as you if not more currently."

Kayn spoke proudly about the wealth he currently now owned. He wasn't worried about Charlotte telling anyone or killing him and taking it as she wasn't that type of person. All people had some amount of greed, but Charlotte's greed didn't seem to involve money or physical things.

"I wouldn't go bragging about that if I was you. In fact, I would transfer most of what is inside that ring to your soul artifact if possible. That way no one can take it from you, even if you die. You may not be aware of it, but that artifact you possess isn't as simple as you think. Soul bound items cannot be looted from the dead as they follow the soul into the afterlife, hence the rarity."

Charlotte shook her head as she spoke and it was Kayn's turn to sit in stupefaction. Didn't that mean that in the case he somehow died and was offered another chance again, the Wanderer's Villa would follow him?

Snapping him out of his thoughts, Charlotte's voice once again entered his ears, "What about your father's core? What are you planning to do with it?"

"…I don't know."