Enigma of Sin

Over the next two weeks, rumors started to spread throughout the continent that the united front of elves in the Great Forest had defeated a beast tide within a few days of it forming. Though these rumors were also accompanied by other rumors stating that it wasn't the elves who defeated the beasts, but a single dragon.

The news of a dragon possibly appearing in the continent quickly became the hot topic to talk about as the last time a dragon was heard from or spotted on Lavanth was hundreds of years ago, if not thousands.

Both the Carnet and Mancean Empires sent envoys to the capital of the elves in the Great Forest in order to get permission for their forces to explore the eastern part of the forest. The Emperor of Carnet was oddly pushy when it came to finding the dragon.

Unfortunately for them, they were met at the border to the forest with a firm no. The dragon hadn't reappeared or caused any havoc, so they elves were going to treat it as a savior to their people.

Since it went back into hiding, they assumed that the beast tide disturbed its peace. They weren't going to allow anyone to approach the area it could be residing in, potentially bringing a catastrophe upon the area by bothering it once more.

Both empires still tried to enter the forest at various points in the forest, but they always met with resistance or death. The only ones allowed to enter were the usual visitors they knew about and merchants they traded with.

Even other elves from the empires were heavily questioned about their intentions for coming to the Great Forest. If it was found that they had any desire to search for the dragon, they were sent back.

On the other side of the continent, the congregation of liches were making bets about who could obtain a new bone dragon first, if they could figure out a way to get to the Great Forest in the first place. But liches were always eccentric beings and most of them even quickly forgot their bets as they became distracted by other matters.

During these two weeks, Kayn spent his time healing his wounds and regrowing his wings. Fortunately, he had examined his wings quite thoroughly beforehand, and was able to create a diagram in his head of their structure.

The actual healing process itself only took a week, but he had to spend time preparing before his attempt. His mana capacity still limited him greatly and he couldn't regrow whole limbs in a quick manner, not to mention something as complex as his wings.

He was worried that after he regrew them, he wouldn't be able to retract them back inside his body anymore. But to his surprise once they were fully formed and they mana pathways established themselves into the blood vessels once more, everything functioned just how it should.

The next day was spent with his wings being played with by Est, Horace, and Titus as they examined every nook and cranny while asking what he could achieve with them aside from flight. Titus mostly just tried pulling on them, which Est and Horace put a quick stop to as the bone spikes sticking out of his wings were very dangerous for a child to be around.

At this point, everything was prepared for Kayn and Lara's departure aside from packing up his bag. He dumped out everything remaining in his bag and gathered anything he left around the room in front of him.

He organized things by their use or importance. He placed his books in the bag first, aside from the Tethers' manual which was stored back inside of the box before placing that on the books. He placed things to take care of his sister on top of that along with his extra clothing they purchased at the village before leaving.

Anything that was meant for preparing food for Lara, who was fully weaned off breast milk now, was put on top for easy access. Although, his stuff didn't even fill up half of the bag since it had spatial expansion enchantments.

Lastly, sitting in front of Kayn were two pouches. One was a small brown pouch that contained all of his money. After counting it all out, he had roughly 45 gold split between gold, silver, and copper coins with 37 of them being gold.

He had made quite a bit between his adventurer days and healing in the village, even if he didn't charge much, he rarely spent money on anything aside from food, which usually only cost a copper or two.

He placed the money pouch back into the side pocket where it was before, then glanced at the deep violet pouch that was even smaller than his money pouch.

Kayn remembered that he found it a few months ago, but had put off looking inside of it and then in the end just completely forgot about it as he had other things on his mind.

The bag had a wonderful velvety texture and was bound at the top with an ornate golden string. He tossed it around in his hands a bit to see if he could feel what was inside, but to his surprise, no matter how he squeezed it didn't feel like there was anything inside. The odd thing was that it clearly had some weight to it though.

Unraveling the string tying the top, he looked inside, and to his surprise it was just like his rucksack and had spatial enchantments. From the looks of it, it could hold even more than his backpack could!

To Kayn's dismay, there were no items or anything of the sort inside. However, there was a giant pile of gold coins with a wax sealed envelope placed on top of it.

Kayn swallowed as he started feeling nervous all of the sudden. He reached inside and took out the envelope, broke the seal, and pulled out the letter it contained.

Kayn,

If you're seeing this letter, I most likely wasn't able to stay with you. Maybe, I even died. You should already have the two legacy items from my Obsidian Void Dragon clan aside from the ring which your father currently has. I have nothing more to give you as the path you pave is your own from now on.

I snuck this bag of money into your belongings in the case that you were forced onto a path that you were required to look after yourself and Lara on your own. This money was our family's spare wealth that we didn't keep inside of the treasury of the Empire or the ring your father carries. I can only hope that it is enough to provide you and Lara with a safe environment to grow.

I know you're probably going through a lot right now, but I know that you can overcome. You've proven to me time and time again that you can achieve whatever you put your mind to. I'm so proud of you, Kayn.

Hopefully you'll be able to meet up with your Father and Clementine, but in the case that the worst occurs, please take care of Lara. As the older brother, it is your responsibility to raise her and provide her with love in our place. I know you can do it if you put your mind to it.

I love you, my son. Stay strong and be safe.

Love always,

Mom

The letter was short, but Kayn's tears were already falling like a waterfall. He had to hold the letter away from his body as he didn't want it to get wet and possibly spread the ink.

Kayn finally calmed himself down after a few more minutes of silently crying before clenching his fist that wasn't holding the letter. "I promise you, Mom, I'll protect and raise Lara with everything I have."

…

The next day, Kayn said his goodbyes to Est and Horace while placing Lara in a carrying satchel in his front and his rucksack on his back.

They had offered for Kayn to use their horse for his travels, but he quickly declined as he knew that a normal horse wouldn't be able to hold him now, at least until he figured out the weight situation.

He still didn't understand how beds didn't break when he laid on them. But some things in this world just didn't have any explanation, at least ones he could get right now.

After watching Kayn depart, the couple went back into the house. As Titus was growing, and the room Kayn stayed in was originally meant for him, they decided to prepare the room for Titus to move into.

Walking into the room they saw a small brown pouch on the bed with a letter neatly folded next to it. The contents of the letter were mostly a long thank you for taking care of Kayn and his sister, but also provided notes on his guesses of mana core formation in the case they wanted to increase Titus's chances in the future.

He also congratulated them for something which they hadn't talked about with him yet, which was that Est was pregnant. Lastly, he stated that the brown pouch was his way of thanking them for everything with more than words, saying that he hoped it would help with their future children.

Horace opened the pouch and was flabbergasted as he dumped it out. On the bed were several coins. In gold coins alone Horace spotted more than 30 at a glance. Horace looked over at Est knowing that she was hoping he would hop on the horse and return it to Kayn.

However, the letter specifically stated that he wouldn't take any anything back, even if they tried. That was probably why Kayn left it without telling them about it in the first place.

"Est, how about we build a bigger and safer home for our family that will hopefully only grow more in the future? Plus, then we can make a guest room in the case he ever returns for a visit."

Est only nodded while moving closer and wrapping her arms around her husband.