"Pathetic, you two couldn't even reinforce yourselves with your measly magic power" Tiagon scoffed, he pulled his hands off the men and ordered the same meal. He gave the goblin woman two gold coins for repairs of the damage he had created and then he continued to eat.
The livid environment suddenly turned tense with some adventurers giving Tiagon dirty looks, some simply continued their meals while some left in fear of a large fight that might occur.
Nevertheless, Lexar finished the meal without further assaults directed at him, he brimmed with joy and his new face looked like that of a happy child.
"Woman? Do you have something even more delicious?!" He yelled and lifted the empty plate.
"Coming."
The previous day at Minastoma near the church…
A couple of people gathered around Rein's corpse, his body was surrounded by magic knights some of whom knew him. They were to keep it protected and untouched for the detectives that were to inspect.
At a distance from the crowd stood the Grimoire Storekeeper with a blank look, she had spotted the dead mage, things as such kept customers away and although she didn't show it, she was quite annoyed.
Soon the detectives came, looking as mysterious as ever. They hovered in the air casting their shadows on the group.
"The detectives are here!"
The crowd turned to their opposite to meet the mysterious solvers of crimes.
"Move." He said tiredly.
The brown horned detective saw the corpse and the large stab wounds in its chest area.
'The magic is gone'
No trace of magic although she was certain that magic had inflicted the damage. Then she spotted an elf in front of what looked to be a grimoire store.
"Payne, stay here. I'll be back." She said and broke through the crowd to meet the elf.
"Tch… how long has this corpse been here?" Payne asked the magic knights, his hands stuck in his pockets and his head held up high.
"About two hours sir!" One reported.
"Ahh."
He squatted and observed the wounds.
Saris approached the elven woman who stared at her as she came. Saris knew she had something worth knowing.
"Good day Grimoire keeper." She took a guess off her robes, her age telling that she had to be powerful and by the mere fact that she looked like she was trying to protect the store from the ugly gazes of the people.
"Good day detective."
"Do you know the dead mage by chance?"
"Not particularly, but he did purchase a grimoire shortly before someone screamed that a dead man was by the church."
"Hmmm… I see. Did he look scared or did he act strangely in any way when he entered your store?"
"No he didn't. He did ask for a grimoire that one crook had asked for before he came."
"Crook?"
"Yes, and it was a shame. He is the best-looking man that I've seen yet, had he asked nicely I might have…"
Saris interjected with the clearing of her throat.
"Describe to me who this person was and what would you estimate the time interval between their arrivals"
"About an hour. He had red hair, golden eyes and he was quite tall, very handsome as well and he was quite the mage."
"Red hair huh."
Saris dipped her hand into a pocket and brought out a rolled parchment. She unrolled it and a simple drawing of Tiagon was on it.
"Is he something like this?"
"I don't know, he had red hair but I'm not sure about the other features, he doesn't look quite as much."
"But he was tall and he had quite a large amount of Mana, right?"
"Yes."
Saris smirked as she reached a conclusion, the destroyer of Endsege and the killer were the same, or at least similar looking. It was no coincidence that they both occurred on the same day.
'If he truly is the destroyer of Endsege and the killer then he's a formidable mage. I and Payne might have a troublemaker on our hands'
"Thank you." She said to the elf and walked away.
As she walked, she updated her drawing of Tiagon, she gave him golden eyes and added shades to make him appear a little more handsome.
"Saris, I think these wounds were done by large blades."
Saris entered the inner circle.
"I think so too. Do you think they were done by blades with hands?"
Payne shook his head sideways.
"I spoke to the magic knights, they said he was a third-class mage. He must have been able to protect himself from close ranged attacks from those of weak affinity to magic unless he was ambushed. But why?"
"Maybe to get a grimoire?" Saris suggested.
Payne looked up at her brown eyes in his squatting position.
"What makes you say that?"
"The grimoire storekeeper told that he purchased a grimoire before he was killed and that a person had wanted that type of grimoire before him. Is there any grimoire on him?"
"I have checked, there's none."
"She mentioned that the fellow came to buy a grimoire but forfeited in the middle of questioning and then, an hour later, the victim appeared. She described him closely to our suspect, I fear that they are the perpetrator of this too."
"Red hair and tall?" Payne asked.
"Yes."
"We have to hasten our actions then, who knows what he's up to now."
Payne stood back up and said to the magic knights:
"Send his body to his family, let him have a proper burial and be careful out there."
He walked to one of the magic knights with the parchment in his hands, he looked at it closely.
"This man is wanted, we suspect he might be responsible for this and a certain destruction that I shall not reveal. Make copies and announce that those with relevant information shall be given gold. It's of utmost importance."
He handed the copy of the parchment he had cloned. The magic knights carried their colleague's corpse, a few remained to clean the red pool the body left and the crowd began to leave.
"Let's find our man soon and make things interesting." Payne said with a smirk.