Enigma of Sin

Kayn stared at the black hand with interest. He was familiar enough with arrays to remove the most basic ones, but he couldn't remove the second one on the plate which would most likely reveal the name of the man he had just killed.

He still had a lot of books to go through in order to learn arrays and formations properly, so he decided that after this, all of his free time would go towards that. If he could properly learn arrays and formations, it would significantly boost his prowess as well as add more options to his safety net around Lara.

However, right now he had things he had to do, specifically someone waiting for his call. In fact, Charlotte Erving had been sitting staring at the crystal ever since Kayn disconnected it just a few moments earlier.

While she still didn't know how to feel about Kayn, she instinctively felt that she should do her best to keep him as a close ally. Before her thoughts could stray further from the current situation, the crystal began to glow, indicating that Kayn was calling her back. "Hello again Kayn, is the situation resolved? As you said you would, I want a full explanation."

"Of course, but first, do you know anything about a symbol similar to our own organization, but black and with a bleeding vertical eye instead?" Kayn asked as this could technically be part of the explanation.

"That sounds like the Black Hand Society's crest. Don't tell me that man I checked was an assassin sent by them?" Charlotte asked as not even she would have expected Kayn to be targeted this quickly, if ever at all.

"Did you offend anyone with a high position?" Charlotte asked another question before Kayn could even answer.

"He did indeed say something about someone stronger from his group coming for me after he didn't return with the completion. What is the Black Hand Society?" Kayn asked as he ignored her second question for now.

"It's a group of assassins that take on contracts that are given to their organization. They don't care much for each other individually though. I would say it functions more like the Adventurer's Guild as clients will make a drop with their request, reason for the request, and the payment for the job.

"Then assassins are able to choose which contracts they want to take based upon the estimated difficulty and reward provided. Now that the initial contracted assassin has failed, the contract will have a raised difficulty and additional compensation will be asked of the client." Charlotte tried to provide as much information as she could.

"That sounds a bit troublesome. Do you know how I can get into contact with them myself? Also, I would say that the son of Royal Healer Whiteclaw wasn't very happy with me, but Clara herself seemed very amicable and even chastised her son quite thoroughly."

"First, Clara wouldn't do anything like hiring assassins, but I wouldn't put it past her husband, he's quite the entitled bastard ever since he was given a noble title because of his wife. Second, yes, I know how to contact them, but that wouldn't help your situation at all as only the client can cancel a contract."

Charlotte responded while sighing. Clara's husband was a normal person, but ever since his wife earned their family a noble title, he has acted extremely egotistical and that attitude was copied by his sons.

"Hmm we can discuss that later as it's not my exact intentions. For now, I was thinking about making a mess of my home and then calling Headmaster Alman, what do you think I should do?

"While I can handle anyone within the 4th stage fairly easily, I don't have the confidence against most 5th stage individuals. If not for the intervention of Elder Earthborn after I accidentally tickled him, I would have lost my life to a 5th stage Devil when I was at the peak of the 3rd stage."

Charlotte remained silent as if anyone else claimed that they held back a 5th stage Devil even for a few minutes as a 3rd stage, they would be ridiculed.

"You tickled him? Whatever, I'll learn eventually. For now, I think your idea is solid. Matias will increase security around your home for now and probably restrict entrance into the academy. Call me again when everything has settled, in the meantime I'll contact Clara as I don't suspect anyone else but her husband if you say you didn't offend anyone else."

…

With the call ended, Kayn exited the Villa, but left Lara playing inside as he was planning to create a mess before he took her out with him. He launched a massive beam of light and fire, with light covering up the fire mana in a pillar inside of his home. The beam tore a hole straight through the guest room above and the roof, shooting into the sky.

"Whelp, that should do it…" If Kayn was honest, that was a little bit more than what he was hoping for. He still hadn't gotten used to using attack spells with his 4th stage core yet. Putting yet another thing on his to do list, he used his communication necklace to call the headmaster.

"Professor Ashan? What can I do for you so late at night? If you didn't feel that mana expenditure just now, that's our top priority. We have to make sure whatever is what isn't a harm to our students." Headmaster Alman spat out in a hurry as he was getting more calls by the second, but he had answered Kayn's first since he was the first to call.

"Actually, that was me Headmaster. I had an intruder, they're dead now, but I believe we may need to increase security in the future." Kayn was going to reveal more once he was in front of the headmaster, but he expected it to be just a few moments before the headmaster could make it to him.

Kayn could feel the connection breaking, but less than a second later, Headmaster Alman was standing in front of his house. He then tapped his necklace twice and Kayn heard the headmaster's voice coming through his own necklace.

"The threat has been eliminated. Security post up at the borders and double check the surroundings. All students and non-combat personnel are to return to their residences."

Kayn stepped out of his house with Lara in his arms while the headmaster was making his announcement and patiently waited for his turn to talk.

After he finished speaking, Headmaster Alman looked directly at Kayn with a serious expression on his face, "Tell me what happened."

Kayn then explained how he felt something was off when he entered into his house. Then he stated a poison gas trap went off to which he kept his sister and himself safe by casting a barrier of light.

His story continued as the intruder attempted to attack him with a dagger, which Kayn pulled out and showed to the headmaster one of the weapons he found.

Kayn said he used his strongest light attack that resembled a burning beam of sunlight and evaporated the intruder along with part of his house. Kayn finished his story by saying all he found left of the intruder was the dagger and a silver plate which he tried to inspect.

Kayn handed over the silver plate with the insignia of the Black Hand Society on it and Headmaster Alman's face immediately scrunched up in displeasure.

"This…isn't good. I'm going to have to make some calls. For now, we will increase the security around you and your home. Just try to keep your head down for a bit and go back and forth between your home, the cafeteria, and your department. I will keep you appraised of the situation as we make progress. I'm glad you're okay though."

Kayn only nodded before looking back and sighing as he had blown a hole in his own home. Headmaster Alman noticed the rueful expression on his face before gently chuckling.

"We will provide you with a better and more secure home within the academy grounds. We will probably just place you into the director district as it has tighter security and entry restrictions placed on it. Wait a moment and the head of security will lead you to your new home."

After that statement, the headmaster once again vanished into thin air to go deal with this problem as soon as possible. Just as he said, a few minutes later, a woman with a set of what looked like a flexible plate armor appeared to take Kayn to his new residence.

The new place was inside of a gated area where there were only 25 or so homes. Kayn was astonished to find out that only approximately 20 of them were occupied at any given time. He also had to register his mana imprint with an entirely different system than the overarching academy system.

Fortunately, he hadn't really unpacked much at the old place aside from Lara's crib, and that was an easy move. This new place was much nicer, featuring both a shower and bath as well as a sauna. The bed was also much larger and the overall home was much more lavishly decorated, it reminded him of his home back in Carnet.

Knowing that he should be safe here and things were taken care of as much as possible on his end for now, he decided to spend the night improving his core while Lara slept on his lap.