Enigma of Sin

Satisfied with Kayn's answer, Headmaster Alman had all of the others return to their duties. He then led Kayn and Charlotte to a separate floor where there was a large platform with what looked to Kayn like a one of the large body scanners at an airport.

"Please step into the center of the device area and I will begin the core and age examination as soon as you are ready." Headmaster Alman stated as he gestured for Kayn to approach the device.

At this point, Kayn actually became a little nervous. He thought he was going to be touching an orb or something like last time and he could just mess with the invasive mana a little bit to alter its reading to think he was older than he was.

He glanced at Charlotte and gave her a nervous smile, but the deep frown on her face told him that she wasn't expecting this either.

"I see you have updated your scanner from the previous Identification Orb. How does it work?" Charlotte asked as Kayn tried to slow his gait in order to listen to the answer and come up with a quick solution.

Charlotte knew that Kayn was a quick thinker and also that pure mana had a wide versatility, hence she tried to help him out.

"Ah, the artificers of our research and development department actually just finished this device recently! The arms that are hanging down will spin around the individual inside and map out the individual's body. This will give us and Healer Ashan a good layout of his body and where his core is. 

"At the same time, it will check the mana his core gives off as well as the age of the soul rather than bone age. We discovered that bone age was actually quite flawed as a measurement system in recent years. We just haven't made this public yet as the Emperor wanted more testing to be completed first."

Headmaster Alman spoke with pride in his voice since he had personally worked on this project. "Ah, Healer Ashan, you shouldn't take in your daughter with you as that will mess up the results."

Kayn gulped nervously, but tried to keep his face expressionless as he slowly walked back to Charlotte before asking if she would hold Lara for a bit.

Now, his main problem wasn't them discovering his age, it was them having a scan of his body. From the sounds of it, this device would map out his entire mana system as well as his core, and he absolutely could not have that.

Charlotte was also wondering how she could help, but she couldn't think of anything other than just destroying the device, which was not really an option. Her only option was to speak with Matias after the examination in order to get him to delete the scan data and keep Kayn's age and possibly even race a secret as the device might be able to discover his compressed mass.

As Kayn stood in the center of the device, he thought about how to could conceal his mana system and core. He had no clue what to do about his age being discovered as it would read his soul. His age would either come out as 18, or 40 if it registered his previous life on Earth.

"Ready," Kayn spoke even though he was anything but ready.

The device arms began spinning around him, and he could feel some type of energy surrounding him. As a last-ditch effort, he flooded his skin with pure mana from his core. He also congregated a large amount of pure mana into the shape of his old core and mana system, hoping that he would be able to trick the device with the fakes.

Lastly, he began to breathe in the ambient mana from the atmosphere, and even though he couldn't exactly control it, he tried to use it to mask his Demonic Dragon Heart.

After standing there for a few moments, he started to feel a bit uncomfortable as the energy concentration was directed around his head and felt like it was trying to infiltrate his brain.

Kayn could only assume this was the soul examination. While he didn't know much about the soul, he had been able to understand a little about it due to the Wanderer's Villa making his soul its home.

It was then that an alert noise resounded in his head before he heard a voice that appeared a few times from the Wanderer's Villa artifact.

'Detecting soul intrusion. Blocking foreign energy. Energy block successful. Soul shield will maintain until invasive energy dissipates.'

Miracle! It was a miracle Kayn thought! If only the same had happened for his body examination, that would be even better. He could only hope that the fake system and core he had manifested would work.

After a few more moments that felt like hours to Kayn, the arms of the machine stopped spinning and Headmaster Alman gestured for Kayn to exit before they all gathered in front of what looked like a massive white bedsheet stretched across the wall. Charlotte gave Lara back to Kayn before they stood there and waited for whatever was going to appear on the blank space.

While Headmaster Alman was excited as more scans led to better tuning of the device, Charlotte and Kayn stood there practically sweating as they were both nervous. One was nervous about the soul scan, and the other couldn't care less about that but did care about the body and core scan.

A few moments of waiting later, a beam of light shot from the top of the device before landing on the white sheet. Kayn almost released a sigh of relief after seeing the results while Headmaster Alman had a visibly confused expression.

[Core: 4th Stage]

[Soul Age: Unknown error has occurred.]

Below those words was a generalized image of a humanoid type body with a core at the center and thick lines running from it throughout Kayn's body.

"I do apologize Healer Kayn and Lady Charlotte. I've never seen that kind of error for the age before, obviously we have more adjusting to do." Headmaster Alman sighed before thought about it for a little bit.

"On the other hand, your mana system looks very developed and your pathways are very wide, I can understand why you are able to do some of the things I've heard. Age aside, now that we have your scans done, we can move on to the mana imprint and criminal check before Director Vix shows you to your new residence as well as giving you a tour of the academy."

As Headmaster Alman began to lead the way to the imprint room, if one saw him from the front, they would notice that he was mumbling to himself, mostly theorizing what could have gone wrong.

As they were walking, Charlotte whispered to Kayn "What did you do back there? Or did the device really fail to read your soul age as he stated it would?"

Kayn only shook his head and Charlotte understood this as either Kayn didn't know or he didn't want to reveal some of his secrets yet.

…

They shortly arrived at a room where, surprisingly, there were two guards standing by the entrance. Seeing the headmaster and the specific aura that he exuded, the guards let them pass without even talking to them.

Kayn was starting to see a theme in diagnostic and informational artifacts as the room only contained two pedestals with an orb each placed upon them near the center of the room. He was then instructed to place his hand the right orb and it would extract a bit of his mana to register his imprint.

He was still skeptical that it couldn't register his elements, so rather than letting it pull from his core, he gathered a mixture of light and water elemental mana to his palm before placing it on the orb. Kayn could feel the tug on his mana, but he restricted it to the mana in his palm.

As most people couldn't move their mana around their body at will like Kayn could, the orb was designed to just pull the mana from wherever it first sensed it, which was normally the core.

"Okay, you should be registered. Now all you'll have to do to access the functions of certain mechanisms in the academy is to inject some of your mana." Headmaster Alman spoke.

Kayn nodded his head in acknowledgement as he ingrained the specific light to water proportions in his mind so that he could use that every time he interacted with one of the academy's mechanisms in the future.

For the next orb, Kayn was given the pill he was told about beforehand, which he promptly swallowed. Headmaster Alman was honestly a little surprised when nothing about Kayn's appearance changed, but then again there was a precedence for younger looking ancient people standing right next to him.

Kayn then stood in front of the left orb that released a light, scanning his face in detail, and surprisingly even shot out another to scan Lara's face. Lara didn't like the light shining right into her eyes though, so she started crying.

As Kayn tried to calm Lara down, the scan finished and the orb returned to its dormant state. Headmaster Alman then pulled out a stone tablet which he stared at, waiting for Kayn's results to show up. Though, if someone like the leader of the White Hand Society recommended him, he wasn't expecting anything to show up other than "no results".

He was once again stupefied as sentences began to slowly show up one after the other. A frown appeared on his face before he blinked a few times in rapid succession as if he was confused.

"Healer Ashan, did you recently travel here and during your travels happen to save a merchant from goblins? A report appeared here that says you match the description of their savior. It also states that their savior had a white-haired toddler with them, which is why the report appeared in the first place."

"I did kill some goblins, yes. I'm surprised that would show up in a criminal search though." Kayn was just as confused as the headmaster since killing goblins and saving people shouldn't be denoted as criminal activity.

"Ah, the database also pulls from the current search requests made by nobles. It appears that the merchant is distantly related to the royal family. He didn't get the chance at the time, but was hoping to meet his savior and reward them." Headmaster Alman stated what he was reading from the tablet.

Kayn scratched his head as his expression became a bit embarrassed, "I already told the head guard that I'm not interested in a reward, I just don't like goblins. Plus, if I can do something to help those in need, why not do it?"

"Okay, I will mark it down as the person being found, but wishing to remain anonymous. This way the request won't appear in future searches." After swiping on the tablet a few times, Headmaster Alman spoke again. "Now that everything is in order, let's get you to Vix and she will take care of everything else."

Shortly after, Kayn was brought to the floor level again where Vix had been waiting while sipping on tea. "It was very nice to meet you Healer Ashan and welcome to the Astaro Academy. If there is ever anything you need from me personally, don't be afraid to ask."

Headmaster Alman shook Kayn's hand one last time before saying his goodbyes to Charlotte as well and vanishing into thin air. Kayn tried to hide his surprise, but Vix was more perceptive than he expected.

"The Headmaster, as well as the department directors, have the ability to teleport within the academy grounds at will as long as we are not currently engaged in combat. Odd stipulation as that could save a life, but its just how it works. You will have the ability to use the portal system that is set up around the academy though. Now come with me and we will get you situated."

Now that Kayn had been through all of the tedious hiring processes, excitement filled Kayn's thoughts as he couldn't wait to explore the academy.