Enigma of Sin

"I truly don't know what I'll do with my father's core yet." Kayn repeated as he shook his head.

"Hmmm, why don't you just hang on to it for now? I actually have an idea, but now isn't the right time to discuss it. Just store it for now without opening the container that is preserving it and we can address this issue another time." Charlotte spoke softly, as if she was trying to pacify an upset child.

Kayn nodded as this was just as good of an option as any he could think of right now. With that, a small break period began where Kayn focused only on his professor duties. Nothing else about his family or other missions was mentioned.

…

A little over a month later, the Emperor of Carnet sat on his throne that once again had part of it smashed to pieces. The messenger that brought in the open box was also impaled on a spike high in the air yet again. It seemed that being the bearer of bad news was a death sentence for those who had to deliver it to the Emperor.

"FARAD! INSIDE, NOW!" He shouted as he finally stopped smashing things.

Farad, the new right-hand man of the Emperor after Arlan's untimely death, nervously entered into the throne room. "You called for me your Majesty?"

Farad himself was no pushover. He was a few hundred years old already and had a 5th stage core, but that mattered little in front of the man before him. The reputation of the Emperor had grown steadily over the last few years in a bad way. It was not a good idea to be in front of him when things were not going his way.

"Take that 'package' and find out everything you can about it! Figure out where it was sent from, who sent it, everything! Even better, get our mana signature experts involved and see if they can figure out who killed her." 

"Right away, your Majesty!" Farad bowed as he quickly went to put the lid back on the box. He was startled for a moment as he hadn't heard about this just yet. He was surprised to see Tessa's dismembered body, but he quickly grabbed the box and left the throne room. The less time he spent with the Emperor currently, the better.

…

About a week later, Farad was once again having an audience with the Emperor. He should have been much less nervous now that the Emperor had calmed down, but with the information he was about to give, he ended up preparing several artifacts to try and save his pitiful life.

"Your Majesty," he bowed as he got onto one knee in order to deliver his report. "The investigation on Tessa's death has been concluded. I will now state the results:

"Tessa's body was sent through at least 17 different courier services, most of them being expedited deliveries. We were able to track the package back to a small village just over the border of the Inmortuea Empire, but that village is well known for just being a pass-through site for black market goods. Unfortunately, they didn't know where the courier who delivered it to them came from or who they were."

The crumpled expression on the Emperor's face worried Farad, but he knew that he had to continue, even if the next part was going to lead to his death.

"Our mana signature experts were able to find a signature and even match it to one that is registered in our system. Your Majesty…the mana signature wasn't a complete match, but it looks to belong to the former Royal Aide, Arlan."

"WHAT!?" The Emperor shouted as he began to mumble to himself before addressing Farad. "And what of the items that Tessa had in her possession?"

He honestly couldn't care less that he lost one of his concubines, she was replaceable. What he cared about were Ezekiel's core and ring. Even if he couldn't access the ring, it was still a marvelous trophy to have. He had sent Tessa because she was sufficiently strong by herself with her wolf. She should have been able to sell off the items for a large amount of coin, and then rob everything back by killing the buyer.

Farad gulped as he was about to give the final piece of bad news. "Unfortunately, we were unable to trace what happened to them. Tessa last reported that she was going to try and sell the items in an auction, but didn't specify which one or where. 

"She stated that Palatine was a possibility for her travels, but if she was sent from Inmortuea, there is always the chance she went to one of their cities instead. After all, the liches there would probably cough up a fortune to have the mana core of their sworn enemy."

The Emperor sat in silence for a few moments before coming to a decision, "For now, keep trying to locate the original location that Tessa was sent from. Also, go round up that bastard Arlan's family. Post an announcement that if he doesn't come out of hiding before the week is over, his family will all be executed. That will be all."

As Farad was waved out, he couldn't help but relax his shoulders a little bit. Fortunately, he had somehow come out of there alive, in one piece too! Once he left the throne room, he relayed the orders he was given and Arlan's entire family, wife, kids, grandchildren, and great grandchildren included were all imprisoned.

Less than a week later, every single one of them was publicly executed as Arlan didn't show up, but how could he? He was very much dead. Kayn obviously had no idea about what was happening or the pot he had stirred in Carnet, but if he did, he would probably have thought it to be justice.

Arlan had taken away his entire family aside from his sister, it was only fair that he repay that favor tenfold. He may have felt bad for the innocent children, but that didn't stop them from targeting his sister's or himself, so why should be feel bad about theirs?

…

On the other side of the continent, the semester was about halfway completed already. Kayn had been diligently focusing on his students and his own studies during this time with no unscrupulous activities involved.

He even was able to leave the academy for a while to commission a few things from Tina with the materials he had purchased or robbed.

He also spent a good amount of time inventorying what was inside the dimensional ring, which was taking far longer than he predicted as it had items that he had no clue what they were or what they were used for, and Analyze wasn't helping him either.

The biggest expenditure of his time in this aspect was organizing all of the various books that were spread around the space. He ended up removing the bookshelves his father had placed there as well as any book he could find and sorted them by topic before placing them into his own personal library inside of the Villa.

Lara herself was growing up too fast for Kayn's liking. He spent another good chunk of time on her education though. She was old enough to learn and sort out shapes as well as start counting. He also spent time on her literacy, helping her to begin reading and writing the alphabet even if she was a mere toddler.

He and Kinzie were also steadily progressing their relationship. She would visit him at least once a week for dinner and they would eat at the restaurant once more. She typically spent the night with Kayn after their dinner dates, and now their mouths were beginning to have more use than not.

As for Charlotte, she would come and go as she pleased. If she was there, Kayn would allow her to study his body and core while also asking for her help with anything he was having troubles understanding in his studies. She wasn't a master of all, but she knew enough about multiple subjects to help him out.

As for his core, Kayn began making rapid progress as Charlotte had helped him to further optimize his Void Star technique. This was her main focus as she couldn't help but marvel at the process and spent the majority of her time watching and trying to understand how Kayn's Demonic Dragon Heart worked exactly.

Trial and error had increased his core expansion rate by at least 5% during this time. And while that may not seem like a lot, considering that Kayn was already moving through the stages many times faster than a regular mage would. Though, it would still take him a few years at the very least to reach the 5th stage if not a decade or two.

Kayn soon began leaving the academy during the evening of his classes in order to pick up and complete contracts. He spent one day doing all of the research and the scouting he needed before going back to the academy to teach and leaving again during the night to complete the contract.

It was during this time that Kayn suffered his first major defeat against another individual. He ended up having to turn tail and run for his life, even missing teaching his class for a day due to not being able to lose his pursuer.

His tier 1 contracts were supposed to be easy and already initially scouted out to ensure that at most it was a 1st stage mage that he was eliminating. Unfortunately, while Kayn was eliminating the fully grown scumbag adult son of a high-profile merchant in the middle tier of the city, he failed to notice the 5th stage protector that was hiding in the shadows.

He initially tried to fight the protector, but it quickly became evident that unless he wanted to make a show of his elemental talents, he wasn't going to win. Not even using his Extinction Flames worked as the man simple dodged them or deflected them using his own spells.

It was the first time that the Extinction elements hadn't simply overpowered someone and it showed Kayn just how big the gap there was between the higher stages.

After that incident, Kayn had to refrain from his assassin activities for a while as he was reprimanded by a very angry Director Vix. Being a little late to classes wasn't a big deal for professors, but missing one entirely with zero contact before or during was a definite no no.

He could only profusely apologize and state that it wouldn't happen again. The reason he stated for his absence was an utter load of bullshit, but Director Vix seemed to buy it…this time at least.

Charlotte probably could have helped with the situation, but all she did is tear up because she was laughing so hard at Kayn's misfortune. If he was severely injured, sure she would have been concerned, but he hadn't been thanks to the Garment's special passive effects and the active teleport that eventually helped him escape.

Just before the semester was coming to a close, Kayn retrieved his commissioned bow from Tina and gifted it and the bracelet he obtained to Kinzie during a special date night to help her relax before her final exams.

She was so happy with the gifts that she exclaimed she would pass all of the practical exams with perfect scores, but Kayn rained on her happiness a bit by saying he wanted to see that with her theory exams too.

Before Kayn knew it, his first year as a professor was behind him. Break had come once again, and he had a lot of work to get done.