The troubles of knowing yourself

Unlucky surprise

"That's enough for today's lesson." Octavio remarked with a curt nod.

Ilkani stretched where she sat before giving a nod as well. "Thank you again, your majesty. Your kindness knows no bounds." She stood up, brushed herself off, and bowed to him.

Octavio looked away. "There's no need for all that. I'm still the king of absolutely nothing from in here."

Ilkani crossed her arms and frowned. "...my offer still stands, you know. I could-"

"No, if you let me out now it would cause a fuss. Might as well serve my time so everyone forgets about me again. It'd be safer then."

"As you wish, your majesty..." Ilkani trails off. She clears her throat. "In any case...how well am I doing so far, would you say?"

Octavio hummed. "You're learning rather fast, I will admit. But you won't be fluent anytime soon."

"I don't need to be fluent...I just need to know enough to get by on a surface level." She replied.

The king rolled his eyes. "Right. Well it shouldn't be long then in that case. You know your greetings, and danger words."

"I've memorized their weird little warbles, too."

"You know how to say 'booyah'. I think you'll get by on most of that. There's just a few more nuances that I'll need to teach ya, but that'll be for next time." He nods again. "Be on your way, Ilkani."

Ilkani bowed again, and turned to head back to her dome.

"...remember what I told you, Ilkani." He called back to her before she got too far away.

The Octoling stopped dead. She sighed. "Yeah, I remember. Don't breath a word. I wasn't planning on it."

"Good."

"...why do you think I'd disobey you? You're still my king. Everyone else may have lost their senses, but I haven't."

Octavio's eyes widened, though Ilkani's back was still turned to him so she didn't see. "...you...you haven't heard the song." He murmured in realization.

Ilkani half-turned. "Pardon?"

"...nothing to concern yourself with. Just talking to myself. Be on your way."

The Octoling nodded and departed, leaving Octavio alone.

...except...

The king sighed in exasperation, eyes drifting over to the cabin. "...I know you're there, Craig. You aren't sneaky in the slightest."

There was a tense moment of silence, and then the elder Inkling in question stepped out from behind the cabin. "Wasn't tryin to be. Just didn't want to interrupt you doing something good for once."

Another long, drawn out sigh escaped him. "What, is it so hard to believe that I have a single heart?"

Cuttlefish gave him a pointed stare.

Octavio closed his eyes. "Whatever. Did you want something, or are you just here to glower at me?"

"You're withholding information from her, Octavio."

The king flinched.

Cuttlefish's eyes narrowed as he continued. "I know for a fact that you know her birthday by heart. Why are you doing this, Octavio? Have you not hurt enough people yet?"