Enigma of Sin

Kayn watched as Charlotte vanished before his eyes. He was still ruminating over her suggestion. It was definitely like swallowing a bitter pill to be told it, but it also wasn't like it was an inappropriate suggestion for his current situation.

Sighing, Kayn first needed to see if he could restore his mana with a rune beast stone core first in order to heal himself properly, or at least to try stabilizing himself.

To his dismay, after eating one of the few A-class stone cores he had, he only gained enough mana to barely invigorate his tissues with mana again, his core was still as empty as ever. He didn't have enough A-class cores to help him, and eating one of his last two S-class cores would also be a waste if the A-class cores were anything to judge by.

He was already feeling significantly better with his tissues being filled with mana again as his natural regeneration started, so he decided to put off eating any more cores or otherwise until he established if he was where he assumed to be.

He grabbed and changed into clothing that would be considered as somewhat normal here on Earth, a simple pair of cloth pants and a hoodie so he could cover up his ears. He also had the sash on underneath the hoodie, but he wore simple flat shoes.

He looked like a person who just got out of bed and threw on some comfy clothing, so hopefully he wouldn't draw much attention.

He exited the Wanderer's Villa and looked back at its appearance as a small cottage. Inwardly he was happy that no one had noticed it, but it made sense as he had been settled into a small clearing on the side of a mountain.

The reason Kayn knew that this was Earth, was because just down below the mountain in the valley, he could see several cars driving around a busy looking city. It had been almost 20 years since he died on Earth, so the cars looked a bit different and the city-scape looked a bit different than he remembered, but this was definitely where he used to live as he recognized the sky scrapers that rose to the clouds.

Kayn sighed once more as he recalled the Wanderer's Villa back into his soul. It was daylight currently, so he couldn't fly to get to the city faster, his only option was to run or walk. He opted to walk though as his body still hurt everywhere and running would further stress his already injured muscles.

Kayn knew that he really shouldn't be wasting time looking around the city where he used to live as he should be focusing on how to get back, but he wanted, no he needed time to think about everything and he needed a distraction before he could focus.

Plus, there was also the opportunity that the entity mentioned. He was extremely interested in this as if the person connected with him just to tell him about these few things, it had to be helpful to him.

Kayn had already been walking for an hour towards the city after chancing upon a road, he even ended up popping another pain pill because walking was starting to become extremely taxing on him due to the pain.

He had tried hitch hiking a ride into the city by one of the few people who passed him on a road he found, but he had no luck. One of them even threw a drink container at him. Kayn was glad he couldn't use his mana currently, or else he would have definitely attacked that car. He wouldn't have killed them as he wasn't that petty, but their car would be put out of order.

Kayn sighed as he put his hands in his hoodie pocket and continued following along the road at his slow, but steady pace. He was getting closer, but he still figured that he would have at least three or four hours until he managed to make it to the city edge.

Just when he was starting to regret his choice and thought about going back and just working on how to get back home, a car pulled in front of him on the side of the road. Kayn watched as a middle-aged man who was of Asian descent stuck his head out of the window to yell something at him.

"Hey bro! You need a ride? Looked like you're limping a bit and it's a bit of a walk to town. I don't mind giving you a ride if you want."

Kayn looked at this stranger, who was acting kindly, with surprise. He didn't expect anyone to stop for him when he wasn't even trying to hitch a ride anymore. Nonetheless, Kayn approached the passenger side of the car and sat down before the seat belt buckled him in all on its own.

Kayn was surprised at this, but the man laughed a bit when he saw Kayn's reaction. "You must have not ridden in the new models huh? The seat belts automatically fasten now since people weren't wearing their belts and it led to a lot of deaths during accidents."

The man stopped talking for a second and started the car before pulling back onto the road to continue towards the city.

"Name's Tyler, Tyler Pham if you care about last names or whatever. What's yours?"

Tyler was hoping to initiate a conversation with the seat belt thing, but so far, his passenger hadn't said a word. On the other hand, Kayn flinched when he heard the name and tried to sneak a better look at the driver.

'It has to be a coincidence! There's no way this is happening!' Kayn thought to himself as he looked at the face of the man whose car he had entered. With the name and face, albeit older, now convincing him he spoke up.

"I'm Kayn Carter. Thank you for driving me to the city." Kayn spoke with fluent English, though he had a very strong accent as this was the first time he had spoken English aloud ever since he was reborn.

"You don't have to if you don't want, but I'd feel a little more comfortable if you could put your hood down, or at least show me your face." Tyler spoke with some hesitation, but he had always been an optimist and would often help people he saw in trouble.

Kayn slightly pulled back his hood and looked directly at Tyler. This man used to be one of his closest friends when he was Carter Pierce. He found it absolutely ridiculous that the person he managed to come across that was nice enough to pick up a hooded stranger from the side of the road was his old friend.

"Woah! Are you some kind of albino or something with the red eyes and white hair? Also, that's one hell of an accent, where are you from?" Tyler asked as his passenger was getting more interesting by the second.

"Something like that," Kayn replied while pulling the hood back up. He hadn't uncovered his ears as that would be harder to explain, he only revealed his face and hair. "And I'm from pretty far away, you could say I got stranded here and am just trying to get back home."

"Oh, that sucks man. Want me to take you to the airport or something? I can even pay for your flight if you want. I set up a charity to help those in need in honor of my old friend. I'd say you qualify based on my initial understanding."

"Who was this friend? They must have been pretty important to you for you to set up an entire charity in their name." Kayn replied, but he really just wanted more of a confirmation to what he knew was true already.

"Guy named Carter Pierce. Smart guy, almost too smart, ended up losing his way due to a tragic occurrence, but he and I got each other through a lot of hard times in college. I still miss my partner in goofiness, but alas, that was many years ago already. Anyway, you want me to take you to the airport or somewhere else?"

Kayn smiled as he heard what Tyler said, this was definitely his old best friend. He sat in silence for a moment pondering on what his next actions should be. First, if he was going to be spending some time in the city, he needed money, or at least currency he could use here.

This could be easily rectified if he sold a few of his gold and silver coins that were in his sash still. The gold and silver from Talgonoth had very trace amounts of mana in them, so he planned to suck that out before he sold them here in exchange for some spending cash.

"A pawn shop would be great if you know where one is. The most reputable one in town would be preferable." Kayn finally answered after a few minutes of silence.

"Odd choice, but alright, it'll probably take us half an hour to get there."

As much as Tyler wanted to engage in conversation with the mysterious albino, the guy didn't seem like much of a conversationalist, so he remained quiet.

Meanwhile, Kayn closed his eyes to rest for a bit. He was also trying to think of a way to help out Tyler or maybe give him a hint to who he actually was.

Before he knew it, they pulled up near a large building with the words "24/7 Gold Star Pawn" on a large sign.

As Kayn was getting out of the car, he said something that caught Tyler completely off guard. "Whelp, it's morphin' time, thanks for the help bro."

When Tyler finally registered what his mysterious passenger said he looked up, trying to stop him, "Hey! Wait!" However, Kayn was already gone.

Tyler quickly parked in a spot and entered the pawn shop, but he couldn't find Kayn anywhere, it was like he just disappeared.

As he walked back to his car, he thought about the words said to him. Morphin' time was an inside joke between himself and Carter, relating to administering morphine to patients in the hospital, but no one else besides these two knew this.

So how? Carter was long dead. His passenger said his name was Kayn Carter, which he also found odd. He couldn't help but distractedly enter into his car and sit down before staring at the seat the man was just sitting on. However, his gaze held not an empty seat, but a pile of glistening golden coins.

Tyler quickly exited the car and entered into the store only to come out later with a confused face and no answers to his questions.

"What is happening?" Tyler couldn't help but ask himself as he picked up the pile of coins to examine them.

Kayn watched from the roof of the building he endured pain to jump up onto as Tyler slowly drove away.