Enigma of Sin

The same day that he accepted Marie as his assistant, he was finally able to return to exploring the shopping district with his sister. He even visited the restaurant there for lunch to see how it compared to the food he, as a professor, was provided at the cafeteria.

Fortunately, as a professor, he could eat there for free, but while the menu was larger, the food was about the same taste-wise. The professor area of the cafeteria seemed quite top-notch, he guessed that perhaps the same chefs prepared the menu and their understudies would be the ones making the food.

For the rest of the afternoon, he explored the various shops that he hadn't be able to visit before. Kayn was astonished at just how large the shopping district was and merchants it had. He even discovered an area where food stalls were allowed to be set up, and of course he couldn't resist trying the things that stood out to him.

As Lara had started eating solid foods now as her diet, he even allowed her to have some of the things he had purchased that were a little easier to chew. He decided that this would definitely be a place he needed to visit again as upon asking, the stalls were on a first come first serve basis.

Those who had been approved by the academy were allowed to show up at the gates before sunrise and the first 20 were allowed entry and a spot. Of course, these vendors all took money rather than contribution points, but the food was fairly cheap, according to the situation anyway. While a silver could last a rural family for a while, it was easy to spend that much on just food stalls within an hour.

Over the last few weeks, Lara's vocabulary had grown bit by bit. Though her favorite phrases were those such as "Papa, food" or "Papa, play". Kayn had to give up on her changing the way she addressed him, at least until she understood things better.

Overall though, Kayn was pleased with Lara's progress. She was able to say if she did or didn't want something and understood when Kayn told her not to do something. He couldn't help but think she was a bright kid, as all parents would, even if she was his sister.

After a bit of searching, Kayn was able to find a store that was selling toys and had some educational and learning toys, so he purchased a few for Lara to play with in the future.

As they had been eating here and there throughout the afternoon, Kayn decided to just keep walking around the academy to get more used to the layout.

He eventually arrived at a smaller building, relative to the rest in the academy, at three stories high. He had actually been looking forward to visiting this specific building as it was home to a department that he wanted to explore, the music department. Instruments were different here, but many made the same sounds and functioned the same as instruments that Kayn was familiar with.

Kayn used his mana imprint and entered into the building as it would be locked to those who were not part of the department or professors at this time of night. The first floor was mainly lecturing rooms and Kayn couldn't find anything interesting, the same with the second floor.

The third floor is where Kayn finally found rooms with instruments on their holders or set in place for people to practice on. Strangely, he didn't come across a single person this entire time, but this only made him happy that no one would witness him if he found what he was looking for.

Shortly later, he entered into a room that only had a single large instrument in the middle of the room and a few chairs spread around here and there. It was the exactly the instrument he was looking for, at least it appeared similar.

A beautifully finished wooden piano was sitting in the middle of the room. The keys were also made of wood, but the strings were made of a special metal that Kayn could feel the mana coming off of if he focused on them.

He sat down on the bench, placing Lara on his lap before he pressed a few keys. Seeing this, Lara immediately wanted to do it as well, but before she could slam her hands down, Kayn stopped her. He then allowed her to touch the keys with a gentle touch as he didn't want to accidentally ruin the piano.

In only a few minutes, Lara lost interest, but Kayn still wanted to play some songs, so he pulled out one of the new toys he purchased for her to play with next to him.

Playing the piano for him when he was on Earth was always a hobby of his and a way to calm his head down after a long day. Like riding a bicycle, Kayn closed his eyes and extended his hands above the keys, playing each note to determine if the tone was the same as he was used to.

He didn't have perfect pitch, but he had practiced the piano enough that he had a very trained relative pitch. Knowing how each key was supposed to sound and step up or down from the one next to it, Kayn proceeded to adjust the wire tensions to tune the piano to suit his needs.

It didn't take him long to figure out the structure of the piano, even if it was a bit different to what he was used to.

Kayn had only ever owned a keyboard, but he was able to play grand pianos on several occasions, and even taught how to adjust them if he needed to and this piano was very similar to a grand piano.

Once he was satisfied, he ensured that Lara was entertained and safe before he sat back down on the bench and once again extended his hands above the keys. He knew several different compositions, but decided to play one of his favorites that he remembered, Mariage d'Amour.

Kayn quickly became entranced in the music and even subconsciously stopped paying attention to his Mana Sense.

With his eyes closed, there were only himself and the keys in front of him. He didn't even notice as a woman, with long and wavy black hair that tumbled down to her waist, entered into the room and silently began listening to his performance.

He hadn't played the piano in over 18 years now and the keys were even a tad bit thinner than he was used to, but he quickly adjusted and barely made any mistakes.

After playing through the entire song, Kayn removed his hands from the keys and with his eyes still closed, he raised his head and took a deep breath. This was exactly what he was looking for to clear his mind of everything that had been happening.

However, his calm was soon broken as he was startled by a voice that spoke to him from the other side of the room, causing him to chastise himself for letting his guard down.

"That was a beautiful piece. It was like the story of two lovers, from their meeting to the hardships that come with a relationship. Though, I'm more impressed that someone knows a song on and how to play the mallet harp." The woman had a gentle smile on her beautiful face.

Kayn turned around to look at who was speaking with him only to notice the charming woman in front of him. He saw how her hair fell to her waist and outlined her face perfectly, and her robes didn't do much to cover up the fact that she had curves where most would want them.

The woman was a human who didn't look much older than her mid-30s if Kayn was being objective about it. If he was subjective, she was drop dead gorgeous.

He couldn't even sense any mana exuding from her, meaning that she was just a normal human being. She was wearing the uniform of a professor, though rather than the regular pants and shirt combination, she had on a dress with the uniform robe over it.

Kayn hadn't opened his mouth yet as he was still pondering how or why a regular human was a professor, only to have it dawn on him where he was. One didn't need mana to be supremely talented with music, nor to teach it.

Seeing that Kayn seemed a bit tongue tied, the woman smiled before talking for him. "I apologize if I startled you Professor, I was just making my last rounds through the department before I left for the night as it is my week to lock up the building you see.

"When I heard your wonderful playing, I couldn't help but stop and listen. I'm Professor Cassandra Merlo of the music department. Though, I prefer to be called Cassie by fellow professors that I am acquainted with." The professor now known as Cassie once again showed Kayn her dazzling smile.

Quickly snapping himself out of his stupor, Kayn stood up from the bench and picked up Lara before giving her a small bow. "My name is Professor Kayn Ashan of the healing department. I also apologize for intruding upon your department. I wished to explore the academy more as I am new this year, and when I saw the piano, or what you called a mallet harp, I couldn't help myself."

"Piano, you say? Where did you learn to play it? We've only just received this within the last year as it is a relatively new instrument that was invented recently." Cassie couldn't help but ask Kayn as the way he played was quite masterful, as she had arrived after Kayn adjusted and stopped making mistakes.

"Where I am from, we have something similar to this instrument called a piano and I have played that since I was a small child. Once again, I apologize for intruding on your department and hope that I haven't imposed on you much. As you were trying to close up for the evening, I will take my leave now, it was nice to meet you Professor Merlo." Kayn spoke as he was actually quite embarrassed by his behavior and wanted to end this interaction as soon as possible.

"Cassie, just Cassie is fine Professor Ashan, or Kayn if I may. Also, you didn't bother me at all, in fact, I would love to listen to you play again sometime. At that time, if you don't mind, I would also like to bring my husband who is also a professor of music, we both appreciate expanding our horizons when it comes to music."

Kayn paused after hearing this as he was inwardly surprised. Not only did she want to listen to him playing more, she also wanted her husband who was also a musician to listen to him. "Ah, I mostly just play as a way to relax. I would be happy to play for the both of you sometime though."

"I'm honestly a bit surprised that it's just a hobby with as talented as you are. Also, feel free to come play whenever you want to, the department is always open to other professors, you're not restricted from playing when no one is in the building.

"We only do rounds to ensure there are no students left inside. Just call me through the academy's communication necklace when you are free to play for us. I'll let you take your leave now as your daughter looks like she is ready for bed."

Cassie had noticed that Lara was falling asleep in Kayn's arms as they were speaking. With Kayn giving her a small bow and thanks as a goodbye, he departed from the room and building while Cassie sat down on the bench trying to imitate the keystrokes that she had seen Kayn making before.

…

Like this, the weeks went by. Kayn spent a couple of afternoons every week teaching the trio he had agreed to tutor privately as well as every other morning with Marie. Having her as an assistant was actually a lot more useful than Kayn initially thought as she would grade his assignments while he lectured and was able to finish doing it before he was done.

He also often found himself sitting in front of the piano, playing songs that he remembered. Most of the time it was late at night and Lara seemed to relax while he played, quickly falling asleep 90 percent of the time. Kayn even met Cassie's husband, Martin, and played a few of the more complex songs he knew for them.

Before he knew it, three whole months had passed and the fall season was well under way. Starting in the second month, every week the different combat departments would all get together and have sparring sessions with each other.

The ones who got injured sparring would end up in the academy clinic most of the time, but now that his students had a basic understanding of the useful healing spells for their element, he wanted them to have practical experience.

After receiving permission from Director Vix as well as the director of the combat courses, he prepared his class to experience what it was like to heal people, even if it was in a controlled setting.

The morning of, Kayn met his students in the normal classroom before leading them all to the arena portion of the department building where the practice battles were already underway. He also figured that it would be good to have his students, as well as himself, interact with the other departments as making connections was important.

Entering the arena, Kayn got all of his students situated into teams of different elemental aptitudes before assigning the first couple of teams to heal some of the students that had already sparred. He only allowed two teams to perform at once with him watching over one and Marie watching over the other.

It was only after everything was situated that Kayn bothered to watch any of the sparring sessions currently happening on the massive arena floor.