Enigma of Sin

As Kayn awoke for the day, he couldn't help but remember the words spoken the night before.

'Look into the organization opposite of the one I'm in. Hmmmm, does this mean that I can still make progress even with my lower stage? Maybe once I figure out exactly what this means I can work on making my plans perfect before I'm even able to reach the stage I need confront Marco DeMarco.'

Kayn couldn't help but try to think of ways in which he could learn the information he needed to, but it was fine to worry about all of that later. Right now, he needed to get ready, feed and place Lara inside the Villa, and then eat his own breakfast before class began.

The Astaro Academy had a massive magical bell that would ring out when classes began and when they ended. The timing was based upon the sun's position in the sky against the bell tower itself. It essentially functioned like a massive sun dial.

Even though the concept of minutes and hours wasn't present here, he still tried to track time in smaller increments. He intentionally woke up a few hours before his class was supposed to begin as he wanted to finish all of his chores and arrive around an hour early.

Thus, Kayn performed all of his morning duties and ate before taking the portal system to the healing department building and entering his lecture room.

There wasn't anyone here yet, just as he expected. He then placed a small stack of papers that he brought with him on the podium before taking a seat at the small table that was next to it. And thus, the wait began with Kayn reviewing his plans for the morning inside of his head.

With about 15 or so minutes until class began, according to Kayn's calculations, students began to show up. With Kayn's Mana Sense he could see that they all radiated auras at the beginning of the 1st stage.

If he were to guess their ages, he would say that 15 or 16 was the youngest, with 20 being the oldest to show up so far. This meant that none of the ones that had shown so far possessed ungodly talents, but 15 was still an excellent age to develop a core.

As more and more seats began to fill up, Kayn saw someone he wasn't expecting to see today. This person walked into the room, and promptly took a seat in the front row. Director Vix gave Kayn a small smile, but didn't say anything. Kayn figured that since he was new, maybe he was being evaluated on his practical teaching abilities.

The students that were sitting on the sides of Director Vix hadn't actually met her, so they only saw her pure white uniform which differed from their own. They could only assume she was either staff or some special older student.

With less than five minutes to go before the bell rang and Kayn started the lecture, a young boy of maybe 14 that had actually made some progress within the 1st stage entered the classroom. He had fluffy white ears and a bushy white tail, otherwise his features were human aside from his sharper than normal canines.

Inwardly impressed by this student, Kayn watched as he took a seat near the middle of the room after kicking another student out of the seat. He also had a small posy following him that did the same. The students following him were a mixture of races between human and beastkin, male and female.

Kayn could only sigh at this poor behavior, and hope that it didn't reflect on the student's ability to pay attention or succeed in studying.

As Kayn was still watching the main boy with interest, the boy's attention suddenly turned to Kayn, who was sitting behind the table at the front of the class, a spot meant for the professor.

Noticing Kayn's young-looking face, he stood up and pointed at him, "Hey you, the one at the professor spot! I don't know how you stole a professor's uniform, but clearly you are not the professor. Get into your seat properly before I make you. And you might as well sit at the back since you're clearly you're not going to do well!"

The students around this young man all laughed and started repeating what he had said, bashing Kayn for acting so high and mighty when he was clearly trying to pull a prank or something on the first day.

Director Vix turned around to look at the audacious student and frowned upon seeing who it was, but she had no intention of interfering. This was Kayn's classroom, and he needed to learn how to control it.

The student was standing with his arms crossed trying to look high and mighty, but he recognized Director Vix turn to look at him, which egged him on even more.

"Look! Even Director Vix, the leader of the entire healing department is here, in fact she might even be teaching this class. How dare you disrespect her! I humbly ask Director Vix to immediately expel this student as he is definitely going to be a disturbance to our learning environment."

Director Vix simply ignored the student and didn't bother to turn around. The bell for the start of lecture rang out at this moment, so Kayn stood up from his spot and approached the podium. The student was still glaring at him, and couldn't fathom the disrespect this student was giving not only him, but Director Vix as well.

"I would introduce myself, but it appears I'm trying to be ousted on my first day. Young man, you better take your seat before I expel you from my class. I'll forgive you this once since I am new and no one will recognize me yet, but I don't take disrespect and audacity in my classroom kindly, understood?" Kayn spoke with a calm and collected voice.

"Ridiculous! You're clearly only a few years older than I am. Do you know who I am? Who my mother is? If you don't stop this farce, I will immediately get you expelled if not imprisoned." The young man blurted out, his face getting redder by the second.

"No, I don't know who you are as even though I read the class roster, I don't know everyone's faces yet. Director Vix is also here, and even she isn't doing anything. So, shouldn't that tell you something? Where is your confidence coming from? Last chance, sit down and be quiet so I can begin."

The student didn't speak out again, but was clearly trembling in anger trying to figure out what to say. He still refused to sit though. Kayn thought his young appearance might cause some discord, but he was wearing the proper uniform. He didn't think a student would be this outrageous on the first day, nor this arrogant in front of the director.

"Fine, let's have a little pop quiz about the art of healing. I will award you with 10 contribution points per correct answer, but take away 50 per incorrect answer. The student who has been speaking out must answer first, whether he knows it or not. If he is wrong, the question moves on to the rest of class to have the opportunity to answer."

The student in question laughed a little, "My name is Marvelo Whiteclaw. It's not like you can actually do what you say with contribution points anyway, so I accept. I'm confident in my knowledge of the healing arts that I have studied thus far!"

Marvelo had a smirk on his face as he was confident to clearly wipe the floor with Kayn by answering every question perfectly. Once he did, he would once again ask the director to expel Kayn from the academy.

One must know that contribution points were not easy to come by. Most of the time, students were only awarded with 1 or 2 at a time. Gaining 10 was amazing, but even worse was losing 50. Especially since none of these students had the opportunity to earn any yet.

Kayn was willing to entertain this Marvelo for a little while as he had plenty of time for today's lesson. Not to mention, he could mix his actual lesson plan into some of these questions.

"First question, I'll start off extremely simple. What is the name of this class?" Kayn asked as he was basically giving away contribution points, but he was just giving Marvelo a little bit of leeway since he was planning on putting him well into the hole.

"Introductory Healing, next." The arrogance Marvelo was exuding honestly made Kayn feel sorry for him.

"Correct, plus 10 contribution points." Kayn wrote '+10' on the board behind him under Marvelo's name. "Next question, what is the most common element that healers use?"

"The light element."

"Correct again," Kayn copied his previous actions. "Next, which element or elements besides light are able to be used for healing?"

"Only water. Maybe fire if you include cauterizing wounds." Marvelo smirked, with this he would already have 30 contribution points. That was, if Kayn was the actual professor, which he still didn't believe. However, he failed to notice the frowns on a few of his fellow student's faces.

"Incorrect. Minus 50 points. Would anyone else like to answer?" Kayn asked as he proceeded to write '-50' underneath the two '+10's he had already written.

Immediately a young human girl sitting at the front of the classroom raised her hand. "Please, go ahead miss?" Kayn ended his sentence asking for her name.

"Annabelle Mirth, Professor. And as this class listed that any elemental attuned mage could take it, I am under the assumption that any element has its use within the healing process." The young girl had stood up once called upon, and promptly sat back down upon answering.

"Very good Miss Mirth plus 10 points." Kayn spoke as he proceeded to write her name down on the board with '+10' underneath.

"Now knowing each element has its uses within the healing arts, it is important to note that each element is better for something than others. For our purposes, light and water are technically the best elements to use on flesh and blood, but that's not always the case."

Kayn paused before continuing, "This will be the last question, name one benefit to using the dark element on a patient."

Marvelo stared at Kayn as if he could kill him, but Kayn could only laugh since the kid wasn't actually radiating any killing intent as he had never killed anything or anyone. However, "If you keep staring at me like you want to kill me Mr. Whiteclaw, I will expel you from my class. Now, answer or lose another 50 contribution points."

"I don't see how the dark element can be useful in healing! All it does is corrode and decay. There is nothing beneficial about it!" Marvelo yelled as he couldn't think of one use on the spot. He had studied the light element a lot and had neglected the others unfortunately.

Inwardly, Director Vix was shaking her head. Knowing what family Marvelo Whiteclaw belonged to, his knowledge was quite shallow.

"Incorrect, though you did name part of the answer within your complaint, regardless minus 50 points. Would anyone like to answer?" Kayn asked before he put the question to rest and started his lecture as planned.

This time someone that had the appearance of a husky, but in humanoid form raised their hand…paw. "Yes, Mister?"

"Luvio Malesque, Professor. A benefit of the darkness element while using it on actual tissue is exactly that it can corrode things. While the light element can heal through dead tissue, it would be more beneficial to get rid of the dead tissue with the dark element first before healing it or creating new tissue with the light element."

"A perfect answer, plus 10 points Mr. Malesque. Now if the three of you who answered will please approach the podium, I will appoint your new contribution points to your student badge, otherwise I will ask Director Vix to do it remotely." Kayn spoke as he gestured for the three who had answered questions, both right and wrong, to approach him.

"This is absurd! You can't treat me like this! Negative 80 contribution points on the first day?! It takes almost the entire semester just to get 50! What a sham of a professor if you even are one! I can't believe Director Vix is letting this farce continue!"

Director Vix held in her anger, but was still going to let Kayn resolve this situation, even if she wanted to beat the twerp to a pulp and expel him on the spot for being so disrespectful to a professor.

"In that case, please leave my class Mr. Whiteclaw. I'm here to teach about the wonderful arts of healing, not entertain a child who can't even realize his situation. I will remove your name from my class roster by the end of the day." Kayn stated as even he was getting tired of Marvelo's entitled attitude.

"Ha! I was going to leave this joke of a class anyway. I'm disappointed, Director Vix. My mother will hear all about this, I promise you. And you, new professor or whoever you are, prepare to have your core crippled and be jailed for life for insulting and humiliating me!" Marvelo then stomped out of the room and slammed the door, not even waiting for his group of followers.

No, he tried to. Before he could actually slam the door closed, an overbearing pressure descended upon him. "Marvelo Whiteclaw, you will report to my office at the end of the lunch hour, or you will be immediately expelled from this academy. Do I make myself clear?"

Director Vix spoke in such a terrifying tone that even Kayn was surprised. Apparently, she really didn't like being disrespected and having her authority undermined.

"Ye…Yes, Director Vix!" Marvelo timidly responded. With that, Marvelo bowed, shut the door and walked away as fast as he could.

Director Vix's expression returned to normal after he left before she turned around to the other two students who Kayn had called up. "Well, you two, he asked you to approach to receive your points, I suggest you do so. 10 contribution points on the first day is quite a lot after all."

Without hesitation, both Luvio and Annabelle approached Kayn and presented their student badges to him. He waved his hand over each one and the number 10 appeared on their badges that previously said 0. These badges worked very similarly to an adventurer's identification plate after all.

Once the two returned to their seats, Kayn released a sigh. "Well, this wasn't exactly how I wanted my first class to go, but here we are. Let me introduce myself first, my name is Kayn Ashan, but you will address me as Professor Ashan.

"I am a 4th stage healer of the light and water elements, but I have studied intensively about all of the elements and how they relate to healing. Together with the one who taught me healing, we theorized and created multiple multi-elemental procedures that recently changed the scope of how healing is approached. That is why I opened my class to those of you who are attuned to other elements, not just light and water."

Director Vix was inwardly surprised. She hadn't heard part of this information herself, only trusting that Kayn was skilled because of his reference from the leader of the White Hand Society. She was itching to know which theories and processes he was involved in creating, but she held back as he had a whole morning of class to teach still.

"Now, let's begin your first lesson!"