Claude's POV

It took ages for me to arrive at the restaurant. Even after taking two trains and a bus, it was about one in the afternoon when I had finally made it there. I knew it will take some time to get there, but, I never knew that it would take a few hours.

The entrance to the restaurant was blocked off by barricade tapes with the words 'POLICE LINE. DO NOT CROSS'. And also by the entrance, four police cars were parked in a perfect line, and by perfect, I mean, terrible, to the point that I have to climb over one of them to enter the restaurant. I really apologize if you find this offensive, officers, but you guys really need to learn how to park your vehicles.

Overall, excluding the vehicles and the tapes, the restaurant looked like a pretty nice place, except for the fact that a case of mass killings had occurred here about a few days ago.

As soon as I got to the entrance, a police officer shouted from one of the vehicles. "Hey!" he ran towards me alongside his partner, they wore black t-shirts, black trousers, black boots, black custodian hats. To make it simple, their whole attire is black. They had taser guns at hand, probably in case they need to zap someone, which in this case, that would be me.

One of the officers had a athletic build, with blonde hair, brown eyes and a fake orange moustache. His partner, was surprisingly (forgive me, sir), short for a male, I can tell that Edward is taller than him by four to five centimeters. This officer wore a pair of spectacles, he had black hair, except for the sides of his head, with were dyed blue.

"Hold it right there, sir." The officer with the fake moustache said, now aiming his taser gun at me. "This building is currently under police investigation, and citizens are not allowed to enter this building. This is my first and final warning. Please-" "Whoa, Jeremy." The officer with spectacles interrupted Jeremy, he narrowed his eyes as he stared at me. His eyes later widened, and he elbowed his partner Jeremy. "That's no citizen, That's Claude Clifford! The current King of Paxsalam and the Ice Guardian!"

Jeremy lowered his taser gun, and rubbed his eyes, like he was trying to make sure that he wasn't hallucinating. "Oh, Y-your Majesty." He started to bow, he glared at his partner, who isn't doing the same thing. "Hey Axel, shouldn't you be submitting to him as well?" Axel yelped and straightens his glasses, "It's alright, officers. You may rise." I replied, as Jeremy rose up.

They told me that they were expecting someone like me to arrive, since the investigators can't find any evidence on how all of the people in the restaurant managed to be burned alive at the same time. And they said that the only possibility, is that someone else had used magic to commit this crime. "May I have your permission to enter the restaurant?" Jeremy and Axel turned to each other, and nodded in a silent agreement. Jeremy took out his walkie-talkie.

"Chief. This is Officer Brown speaking. Uh, one of the Twelve Guardians is at the crime scene right now." The chief spoke some unintelligible words from the walkie-talkie. "Yeah, Officer Rogers and I am with him right now, and he is asking permission to be let into the restaurant." More unintelligible words. "Okay, I see. Yes sir." Jeremy turned off his walkie-talkie, and turned to me.

"Okay, Your Majesty. The chief has accepted your permission to enter." Jeremy confirmed, I nodded and the two officers began to remove some of the tapes at the door to let me in. "And, one last thing, I did inform one of my teammates to arrive at the crime scene. If he or she has arrived, can you let them in?" "Your wish is our command. Your Majesty." Jeremy and Axel spoke in unison.

The place was quite dark, even when it's afternoon.

There were even more barricade tapes around all the tables, and even some on random spots. I could tell why; there were piles of ashes on the floors of the table, and some on random places like the counter. I stared at all the piles with sympathy, knowing that those piles of ashes were once human, who had normal lives, before someone had the nerve to take it away from them.

"Don't worry." I said to the ashes, knowing that they will never hear my words. "I will find the person who did this to all of you. And I'll send them to justice, I promise." I continued to investigate the building, where I find more areas with more piles of ashes lying on the ground, as well as more company.

"Yo." A familiar voice spoke behind me, I turned to the voice, and smiled. "Good afternoon, Clovis. The Water Guardian" I greeted, Clovis smiled back and bowed. "Afternoon, Claude, The Ice Guardian." Her attire was exactly as I remembered during the last time we met; she wore a royal golden dress with a scarlet-red cape attached to the back, a silver necklace was tied around her neck and she wore some silver bead bracelets around her left arm.

Even though her attire does make her look like a queen or a princess, Clovis actually wasn't a member of a royal family. It's just her, hobby to wear dresses like that. "So... found any evidence yet?" Clovis asked. "I just got here, but so far, none for now." I replied. "I see. Well, I just talked to the police officers outside, and they said that there is a small group of investigators upstairs right now, we should go and meet them." "Agreed."

The investigator team were shocked (they didn't know that two had suddenly entered the restaurant) and awestruck (by the fact that two members of the Twelve Guardians are standing right in front of them) when we made it upstairs. They immediately greeted and submitted (to me), some of them squealed silently, excited to see us in person.

One of the investigators, a man in his mid-fifties, stepped forward and shook our hands. "Greetings to you two. I'm Nicolas. I'm the lead investigator for this case, and I had a theory that all the victims in this restaurant were incinerated by someone or something who has access to magic. May I ask that, do you two have any idea on who or what could have did this?"

I started to brainstorm on the possibilities, there were so many I could think of, I should start with the most basic first. I cleared my throat to get everyone's attention. "Even though we just got here, I think I have some ideas. Firstly, the killer could be a Magician, who has the Element of Fire. The theory is that a Magician had entered the restaurant and killed everyone with their Fire Element. There are positions in the Fire Element that can burn individual beings. However, if that were the case, then the objects around the victims would be incinerated too, since the flames from the Fire Element is way more powerful than that of a flamethrower. And the whole restaurant would be burned down."

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"Or an alchemist." Clovis added. "Since alchemists are able to manipulate the properties of matter, they can use it to cause people to disintegrate. And it might have nothing to do with fire." The two of us waited for the investigators to say something, they just stood there, watching us with awe, probably impressed about our knowledge on magic.

"I-I think that Claude's theory does make more sense... Sorry, Clovis." Nicolas said, rubbing his eyes. "Since we did find a fire extinguisher lying next to a ash pile, we think that a person was trying to save someone who was already on fire. But Your Majesty, if your theory is true, then, what else could have caused this?"

I began my second theory (third actually, Clovis can be a mind-reader). "A magical creature, obviously the ones that can use pyrokinesis." I began to walk around in a circle, "Fire-breathing dragons or chimeras can be major culprits of this tragedy. But, their flames are more destructive than the Fire Element. So, I suggest that it might be a creature that has high intelligence." The investigators started to chat amongst themselves, one of them raised their hand in question.

"How intelligent? Like the ones with an intelligence that rivals that of crows? Or the ones that are as smart as, us? And, what makes you think that they are intelligent creatures?"

Two good questions, I thought.

"And please do not reply 'it's just a guess'." Nicolas added. "It's because that I believe that the creature is able to manipulate it's own flames into burning only the person themselves, normally, any creature that can breath fire tends to just, let it all out, they don't care about the size of their flames, or what is caught in the fire, they only care about getting rid of the particular thing. But, more intelligent creatures, prefers to burn only the desired object that they want to get rid of, they can understand that they can draw unwanted attention if they choose to go all out."

"And, we're not sure how intelligent these creatures are." Clovis added. "The culprit could be anything, fire-breathing foxes, goblins, or even fire giants, the creature could be anything." After she finished, the entire area was silent. The investigators were already writing down all the clues and theories that we had mentioned. "I wish this place had installed security cameras." One of them muttered.

I remembered a question that I had forgotten to ask them. "By the way, were there any witnesses to the crime?" "Yes, there is one. A waitress, the sole survivor of this incident." Nicolas replied. "Did she say anything? About what happened?" Clovis asked, "Well, she said that before the incident began, she went to take a restroom break. Then she heard screams and wails from outside, and she said that she was too scared to take a look outside. And by the time she managed to get the courage to get out and have a look, all the people have been turned to ashes..."

"But, she did mention that after the massacre, she heard a conversation between two people. She said that they were making a deal or something, but she was too traumatized to hear out what they were saying. That's all she said to us." Clovis and I looked at each other, and turned to the investigators. "May you tell us her location?" I asked, "We can try to talk to her, maybe see what else she knows?". All of the investigators shook their heads in unison.

"She's currently in a hospital, under the name of 'Imperial Medical Centre'. But, talking to her will be an obstacle though. The doctors informed us that she was too mentally unstable to communicate with." Nicolas said, sighing a moment after. "Don't worry. I can try." Clovis said cheerfully, "But, I already said that-" "Yeah, Clovis has been through hundreds of psychiatric hospitals." I backed her up, "She knows many ways to calm down even the most aggressive patient. I'm sure she can cheer up a waitress."

Clovis's eyes glittered, and she gave me a 'thanks man' look. "I see, I wish you luck. Water Guardian." Nicolas said, "And please inform us once you got valuable information. And thanks to you too, we are getting close to getting a lead in this case. So, thank you. Guardians." He and the rest of the investigators bowed with honor. After the meeting, the investigators all wanted autographs from both me and Clovis, which we agreed to sign it for them, they all giggled with joy after they got our signatures.

Since the investigators convinced us that we should now leave the rest of the case to them, I knew that our job here is done, for now.

We bid farewell to the investigators, and went downstairs. We paid our final respects to the human ashes, and exited the restaurant. The two officers, Jeremy and Axel, were still present at the doorway, now playing some video games or texting on their phones. They noticed us, they immediately placed their phones back into their pockets, and saluted us, the 'Devote your Hearts' style from Attack on Titan.

We smiled and saluted back, the two officers later fished out their phones from their pockets, and continued to do whatever stuff they were once doing on their phones once we left the place. We stopped at a nearby bus station, and I sat down, waiting for a bus to arrive. "It's been a while since all of us Guardians are reunited, huh." Clovis said, trying to ignite a conversation with me.

I nodded, "When was the last time since we all last met? About, six to seven years ago?" "I think it wasn't that long ago." I tapped my staff to the floor, "I might have lost track of time. But nevertheless, I can assure you, that has been a long time since all of the Twelve Guardians are reunited."

Clovis started to toy around with her beads. "By the way, how's Edward?" I stretched my legs, "He's doing good. I actually got him to join this year's Magician Games." Clovis had stopped on whatever she was doing to her beads. "That's great! What did he do to make you that impressed?" I told her about Edward defeating me in a game of dodgeball, with our snowballs instead, and he had listened to an advice from an Indian Quarterback on how to beat me.

"Did he beat you at your?" I shook my head, "Nope, I was using my weakest strength." "And, I don't remember your mother mentioning any dragons in Paxsalam's sanctuary." I closed my eyes and sighed, which I always did when someone mentions my parents. Clovis seemed to be saddened by my reaction, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings." She said, I turned to her, and smiled. "It's alright. We're starting to accept it. And, yeah. Some migratory dragons do take residence in our sanctuary. Mainly the rainforest, the savannah and the temperate forest biomes. And to prevent them from preying on the endangered animals there. The conservationists had built some towers with meat slabs, so that the dragons will go after the meat instead of the animals."

We started more conversations with each other, even telling jokes and sharing experiences (including Edward's reaction to getting hit by snowballs). After minutes of chatting, we decided to call it a day. "I'd best be heading to the Imperial Medical Centre to talk to the waitress." She began brought out a round metallic object from her purse, a warp gate. "Till we meet again. And if you happen to encounter one of our teammates, please tell them I said hi." I nodded, "You do the same for me."

Clovis threw the warp gate to the floor, and chanted silently, which I can that she was saying the words 'Imperial Medical Centre'. After chanting the words five times, the warp gate opened and formed into a violet portal. Clovis got up and she gave me one more smile, before entering the portal, which immediately vanished once its user had entered it.

Now, I'm having regrets on not bringing out a warp gate with me, and I don't even know when will the bus arrive. I sighed, knowing that it can take hours for me to get back to my palace. I began to tap my staff, now playing the waiting game for the bus.