Content Warning: Depictions of Racism and Acts of Violence towards innocents

"Watch it, Plegian brat!"

Robin felt his rage begin to build as the imposing knight roughly shoved his sister to the ground.

"I have half a mind to drop you from the castle walls. Watch where you're going!"

Robin snapped. "That's Pegasus Dung!"

Robin could just see the knight's eyes widening under his helmet before they narrowed in anger. He tried to interrupt, but Robin was on a roll.

"We were never in your way! You went out of your way to pick a fight! What's wrong with you? We're in the castle library, and not only are you causing a racket, you're attacking kids? What kind of Knight are you?"

Robin was breathing hard, anger robbing him of breath, and glaring at the man, who seemed stunned just at having been talked back to. He recovered quickly enough.

Robin was blindsided by a steel-covered first colliding with his face. In a flash, he was lying on the ground next to Reflet, dazed and blinking heavily.

"How dare you speak to me like that, whelp!" The Knight raged. He moved to strike Robin again, and he squeezed his eyes shut tightly.

The expected hit never came. Instead, Reflet cried out in pain as she intercepted the kick aimed at Robin's side.

The man's nostrils flared and grabbed her by one of her pigtails. Robin looked desperately to the librarian for help, but he was dutifully not paying attention, either out of fear or his own sense of satisfaction at seeing Plegian-born children hurt, Robin didn't know.

Just as Robin was preparing himself to do something foolish, the door burst open to reveal a very angry Chrom, flanked by Ricken and Miriel.

"What is the meaning of this?" Chrom asked, face red. He looked incredibly imposing for a boy of only sixteen years. Miriel held up a tome, and a flash burned against Robin's eyes. A snapshot tome. The knight dropped Reflet immediately.

"Milord!" He stammered. "I-"

"Save it!" Chrom said, scarily calm. "That was rhetorical. A knight is supposed to protect people, not harm them! I'm going to report this to your superior officers, and if they don't punish you accordingly, then I will."

The knight wisely kept his mouth shut. Chrom continued to glare, likely struggling to contain his anger. Finally, he blew a breath out of his nose.

"Get out of my sight," he said, and the knight left quickly, shooting one more dirty glare at the twins.

Chrom's face shifted to one of concern as soon as the man was gone, and quickly crossed the room.

"Are you two alright? What happened?"

Robin sat up and groaned, helping Reflet to sit up as well. "We were supposed to meet Miriel and Ricken here to go over some magical theory," he began. "Next thing we know, that jerk was coming up to us and yelling. He pushed Reflet to the ground out of nowhere, and he hit me when I told him off. I don't know if he was here specifically to look for trouble or if he was in a bad mood and just happened to find us. I know that not everyone here looks on us favourably, given our origins."

Chrom sighed. "Frankly, I don't see why your origin should matter. You've been with us since you were both a year old."

"Unfortunately, that's not how stigmatism works, Chrom," Reflet said, nursing her bruises with a sad look on her face. "Some people can't let go of their hate and take it out on others."

Chrom nodded before his face shifted to a look of realization. "This isn't the first time something like this has happened, isn't it? Why wouldn't you tell me?"

Robin shared a look with Reflet. "We didn't want you to worry, mostly," he said. "And we knew that you'd try to do something about it. Unfortunately, you can't force people to let go of their hate. All we can do is prove to those who doubt us that we are not what they think we are. Don't tell me you wouldn't try and change that knight's opinion yourself if you had known."

Chrom opened his mouth to argue, but closed it after a moment when he couldn't think of a counterargument.

Miriel cleared her throat. "I would like to fill in some of the gaps in the twins' recounting of the events," she said. "Ricken and I had just arrived to meet them as was agreed upon, and we arrived at the precise moment when the man noticed them. He said some rather foul things I'll not repeat, before making his way over to them. That was when I bade Ricken to fetch you, Chrom, as I suspected violence would break out. I am thankful you arrived when you did, as the issue had quickly escalated out of hand. As for myself, I went to retrieve my snapshot tome, in case we require proof of the knight's breach of oath."

Chrom pushed his hair up out of his face and sighed.

"I'll see to it personally that the knight is punished. Once Frederick hears what happened, he'll be furious, and having the prodigy of the knights on our side will be extremely useful. In the meantime, I suppose we ought to get you two patched up."

Robin shook his head. "I don't know how helpful that would be. It could only make the man more angry."

"That may be so, but his behaviour was inexcusable. We cannot refuse to act because of how it might make someone else feel, especially when that person was the one in the wrong."

"He doesn't think he's in the wrong," Reflet interjected. "It's fine, Chrom, we can handle it."

"For one of the smartest people I know, you sure can act dumb sometimes. We were babies during the war, Reflet. Maybe that knight met some bad people in Plegia. We know there were bad people on our side. That doesn't excuse a grown man from being unable to differentiate the innocent from his enemy. You should also know that I will never let you 'handle' any sort of injustice alone. I am always on your side, and I want you and Robin to be able to come to me for things such as this. I am sure our friends agree with me."

Chrom gestured to Miriel and Ricken, who nodded in agreement. Robin blinked. He knew of course, that Chrom would support them, but he and Reflet had hoped to avoid causing him unnecessary worry. Perhaps they should have done as Chrom said and come to him from the beginning, after all.

"Right then," Chrom said, seemingly satisfied that his point had been made, and leaned down to scoop Reflet off the ground. She squeaked, and her face flushed, and Robin couldn't help his snicker.

"Lucky, I want to get carried too," he said cheekily, causing Reflet's blush to deepen while Chrom, ever oblivious, rolled his eyes.

"Glad to see your sense of humour survived your encounter," Chrom said with a roll of his eyes. "I'm pretty sure Reflet needs more help than you, Robin. Ricken, do me a favour and help Bird-Brain here up. Let's go find one of my sisters."

Robin groaned. In trying to avoid worrying his friends, he'd managed to do exactly that. Now all three of the royal siblings would be fretting over them.