Voiceless Bird

Chapter 7

Something That I Should Have Known

As I walked back to my room, I couldn't help but let a small smile cross my face. Life here in the academy was actually pretty good.

In fact, it was amazing.

I enjoyed each day, and even with Robin there to pick on me, even he couldn't ruin my day. I was happy, overjoyed and-

"Don't think I'll give up. Scum like you don't belong in the Academy and I am will get at the slime that have slid its way into the Academy."

His words sent a chill through my heart and I suppressed the lump forming in my throat. Why was he so mean?

Robin stared at me, a warning in his eyes.

Then all of a sudden he turned and vanished into his room almost as quickly as Remi.

Robin wasn't going to give up kicking me out of the Academy that easily.That guy had it in for me. Bad. And I wondered... why?

"Nightingale!" Meraella's footsteps echoed up the stairs, "Are you alright? I heard from Primo that some stranger got into trouble with the Headmistress."

Primo?

I didn't see him so I guess he had been listening from inside his room. I nodded and smiled at the worried face in front of me.

Meraella didn't have to worry so much about me; I had literally only spoken about ten words to her.

Maybe I should talk more...

**

We started our normal lessons and I realized that Basic Arithmetic and Basic Physical Education hardly appeared in our timetables. All my other lessons were new and exciting to me, but everybody else seemed to be quite bored, actually. Even Primo looked like he knew all this already.

Which meant that... I seemed to be the only one clueless—then why had I gotten first place in the tests? Weird. Rigged maybe? No, that was impossible.

Magical Animal Study consisted of, yup,  magical animal study. This was one of my favorite subjects as I loved to feel the presence of the animals around me. They all felt so strong and full of life and they never failed to comfort me.

I only realised, quite some time later, that Identifying Poisons was a subject because occasionally Royals get poison put into their food. There are, of course, people trained to check for anything malicious in Royals' food, but sometimes there would be situations where they would not be available.

But what shocked me was that I—and I don't mean to boast—utterly aced Royal Etiquette. This subject included what to wear, say or do during formal gatherings, political meetings, public appearances, Royal dinners and other small basic etiquette things. The speeches and public speaking? Not up to that yet, but hopefully, the theory of that kind of thing would be enough to pull me through it.

**

In other subjects, things that I didn't even know I knew came easily for me. Like knowing which poison did what or the behaviours of all the different creatures.

It was fun and I enjoyed it.

That was when I started to realise that if I wanted to stay in the Academy I would have to study hard for the end of the year Exams.

Months passed quickly as I did my best to make sense of practice tests teachers had given us. Meraella helped, but she liked talking rather than actually revising.

The exam wasn't far off and most of us were hard at work. 'Most' as in Remi and Robin did close to nothing; they didn't seem to care.

Meraella walked into my room and hesitated when she saw me relaxing on the sofa. I wondered why as she usually came in at all times of the day.

"Night... I've got something to say," she looked terribly nervous as she sat down next to me, "You know how Robin's always so mean to you? And you didn't know why? Well, I wanted to find out, for your sake, so I asked my brother. He knows Robin's family personally and I found the reason behind Robin's anger. Do you want to hear it? 'Cos it's not pleasant."

I nodded casually, I mean, how bad could it be? I wasn't at all connected to the Ruling Royals in any way.

"Well, you see, Robin was adopted at a young age by the Ruling Royals. Actually, he would have been no more than a year old when his real parents had died." 

I did not know that.

Meraella continued on, "You're an orphan too, right? His biological parents and yours  were best friends, which was probably why you're both named after birds. Robin's parents were powerful Royals and yours were part of the 'common' people."

This was the first time that someone had ever told me about my parents. A sense of dread crept up my spine as I realised that something bad must've happened.

"But... one day both couples went missing. Nobody knew why because they left their children behind, some even say they were kidnapped.

"Weeks later Robin's parents were found murdered in a secluded forest. A lot of mystery surrounded this incident and there are so many rumours that it's hard to find the truth... but the most important question was: 'Who could have murdered one of the most powerful royals in history so easily?'"

Something about her tone scared me, and I almost didn't want to hear any more.

"The answer: Only by the people they most trusted..."

Some part of me already knew the answer.

"Your parents."

I blinked at her slowly, not quite processing the information.

Meraella had looked at me with concern when I said nothing... but then again, I always said nothing.

"If it makes you feel better, there was never any solid evidence to connect your parents to their deaths, and most have forgotten about it... but obviously not Robin."

She offered some more comforting words but I shook my head at her. I wanted to be left alone and she went out with a reluctant goodbye.

Although now I knew why Robin was so mean, I couldn't forgive him. Sure, I sorta understood... but I was not my parents and letting the anger out on me wouldn't change anything. I realised that he sort of blamed me for his parents' death. Now that I knew the reason behind Robin's hatred it was easier to accept. 

What kept bugging me for a very long time was why I hadn't known anything to do with my parents.

Why I didn't know something this important and connected to why I was an orphan.

Why I didn't know something that I should have known.