Ramon picked up an icy slate and scratched it with his claw. A clear mark was left on the material, and Ramon nodded his head. This would work as a writing pad. In order to solve this mystery, he had to go around looking for clues. However, weren’t testimonials better than clues? Rather than snooping around, waiting to see if someone would poison Alfonse again, he’d take the initiative and question everyone. He went over to his first suspect, Kondra. “Grandma, where were you when Alfonse was poisoned?”

“Are you suspecting me?” Kondra asked, raising an eyebrow. “You actually think a holy dragon would do something so low as to poison another creature? We don’t even eat them for sustenance. It’s against our nature to harm them for fun.”

Ramon’s claw scratched a few sentences on his slate: Avoids answering the question. Very suspicious. Currently the greatest suspect. He nodded at his grandmother. “Do you have anything else to say?”

Kondra snorted and raised her head, but Ramon pulled his slate closer to his body, preventing her from reading it. “I didn’t do it.”

Ramon nodded. That was exactly what someone who did it but didn’t want to admit to it would say. It was time to move on to the next suspect. He shuffled over to the side. “Grandpa,” he asked, causing the dragon sleeping next to Kondra to open one eye. “Where were you when Alfonse was poisoned?”

“Eh?” Kondra’s mate eyes opened. “Alfonse? Who the heck is Alfonse?” He raised his paw up and counted on his claws while mumbling, “Leila, Leo, Luke, Lulu….” He turned his head towards Kondra. “Did we have a fifth child?”

Kondra glared at her mate before shoving his shoulder with her paw. “Alfonse is Gloria’s pet bear.”

“Oh,” Kondra’s mate said and nodded. He turned his attention back onto Ramon. “I don’t know why anyone here would want to poison a bear, but it was probably Lulu. She’s always causing trouble with her alchemy. Just the other day, we were forced to run out of the cave because her experiment went wrong and poisonous fumes were released everywhere.”

Ramon nodded and pressed his claw against his slate again. Like the last suspect, Grandpa avoided answering the question. He also threw suspicion onto Aunt Lulu. He’s more suspicious than Grandma right now. “Okay, that’ll be all. Where’s Aunt Lulu?”

Kondra’s mate blinked. “Shouldn’t she be in her room?”

Ramon nodded and slunk away on three legs. He had to make sure the slate was pressed against his body to prevent anyone from seeing his notes. If the culprit discovered what he wrote down, they might manipulate him into a false conclusion. He shuffled towards Lulu’s cave and knocked on the entrance’s wall. “Aunt Lulu, can I come in?”

“Oh? You finally learned to knock, huh?” Lulu’s voice echoed out of the tunnel. “Sure, come in.”

Ramon entered the tunnel and poked his head out the other side. Lulu was sitting on her butt like a human would. Her hindlegs were extended, and a massive book was resting on her things. She was using her front legs to turn the pages of the book. She stared at Ramon. “What’s up?”

Ramon glanced at his slate. “Alfonse has been poisoned,” he said. “I’m trying to figure out who did it. Where were you when Alfonse was poisoned?”

Lulu scratched her head. “What time was he poisoned?”

Ramon blinked. “Uh….”

“You don’t know?” Lulu asked, raising an eyebrow. “How are you going to figure out who did it if you don’t know any details? Do you know what type of poison was used? Do you know how it was administered? What if it was a slow-acting poison from something he consumed three weeks ago?”

Ramon blinked again. Aunt Lulu was bringing up very valid points. “How do I know what he was poisoned with?”

Lulu beamed. “If you’re willing to learn, I can teach you.”

Ramon scratched his head. “Can you explain it to me?”

“Sure,” Lulu said. “As you can probably guess, there isn’t much recorded information on what can poison a behemoth bear. When we’re broaching a new field of study, the simplest method of obtaining information is through trial and error. For figuring out what poisoned Alfonse, you should gather everything you can get your hands on. Then, you inject, force feed, or insert those objects into Alfonse and see which substance replicates his symptoms.”

Ramon frowned. “That sounds like it’ll take forever.”

Lulu shrugged. “I never said it’d be easy. If you want something, you better put in the work for it. For example, look at me. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve forced everyone to evacuate because some things I tested happened to be dangerous. The most important thing is to never give up.”

Ramon took out his slate and scratched at it. Aunt Lulu brings up some very good points. If I want to find out who poisoned Alfonse, I have to find out what kind of poisoned was used and how it was used to poison him. If someone has been seen with or around the poisonous object, then they’re very suspicious. Ramon hid the slate underneath his belly again. Somehow, he couldn’t help but get the feeling he was missing something very important. He scratched his head and dismissed the uncomfortable feeling. There was a more important question at hand. Should he gather objects and test them on Alfonse, or should he continue his interrogation of the remaining suspects? It was certainly much easier to ask questions than it was to open a new field of study. If he could find who did it because of a slipup, then he wouldn’t have to go through the troublesome process of discovery. He nodded. “Thanks for the help, Aunt Lulu.”

“No problem, kiddo,” Lulu said. The smile remained on her face as she watched Ramon leave. It was great having the little troublemaker around. Now, in her mother’s eyes, she wasn’t the problem child anymore, Ramon was. “If you need anything else, just let me know!”