Birdie's Legacy

As the newcomers stood in the doorway with their eyes wide from shock, Sophie casually sat in the chair. Her glare was clear of curiosity and friendliness, as if they saw each other for the first time. As soon as Eugene realized that no explanation would come if he just stood silently, he made a step forward, but then was stopped by a sudden order from Victoria.

"Vincent, make these 3 leave, but let that boy stay." she pointed at Eugene, "If he wants to get involved with the la Avise family so badly, then so be it."

"Huh!?" exclaimed Maurice and Jessie followed, "But… All this time she was the Cormorant?"

Then Lawrence murmured, "Why did you do it?" Which was overheard by Sophie, thus she said but one word, "Revenge."

"Alright, kids, get out of here. This business does not involve you." Vincent shushed away the three of them, as he was ordered, glanced at Eugene with notes of pity and returned to Victoria's side.

"Revenge? Revenge for what?" asked Eugene, while his legs could barely keep him standing. Arnold took a note of his pale skin and pointed towards the chair that stood in the corner of a hallway. Eugene nodded and sat there, although he could not take as good of a look at Sophie as he could while standing. Which was a benefit for now.

"For what, you ask?" said Sophie, her tone was calm, but with a hint of laughter nearly sprouting out of her voice, "The fact they let you stay here is more than enough to at least make an assumption. But I am quite sure that a young lady here will explain everything to you. Right, Sylvia?"

She was smiling at Sylvia, even though Eugene could not see her face, he noticed her shoulders stiffened up a little. She crossed her arms and said in a heavy tone, "Lady la Avise for you."

"Whatever, go ahead and tell him about how much of a scum I am, and what an exceptional nobles you lot are."

Victoria giggled from the Cormorant's words and said, "Certainly, we are the heroes who saved the works of art from the villainous Cormorant! You flew right into the open cage, expecting a quick meal, but ended up trapped. Monsieur Birdie's education was insufficient, after all."

"He has nothing to do with heists! Keep his name out of this, you wretch!" suddenly exclaimed Sophie, to which Martin huffed, but ultimately remained still. Eugene, however, delved into thoughts. The name Birdie rang a bell for him, yet he could quite grasp from where he heard it.

"Birdie… So you are his daughter?" said Arnold, making Sophie click her tongue in protest, simultaneously, Eugene was able to connect the dots. Monsieur Birdie was an artist whom Arnold met on his first day at the la Avise manor in Switzerland. He was fired due to unexplained reasons, which resulted in the birth of the Phantom Cormorant.

"So, did you do it to avenge your father?" suggested Eugene, to which Sophie replied, "Slowly unravelling it, huh. I guess, there should be at least a spec from other party's thoughts to call it a detective duo."

Sylvia shook her head, looked over at Eugene, but swiftly returned her attention to the Phantom Cormorant, "We kept him in the dark about you on purpose."

"Oho! Jumping in to protect his incompetence! You have quite a catch, Eugene, I am nearly envying you."

"Can you shut up for a second!?" suddenly exclaimed Sylvia, which further triggered Cormorant's laugh. It did not last for too long, however, because Sylvia regained her composure in an instant and broke eye contact with Sophie to face Eugene.

"You did your job perfectly, Eugene." she said, which made Eugene wonder, "What the hell are you talking about? Which role?"

"Of a clueless idiot, obviously!" barged in Sophie, but Sylvia ignored her once again and instead answered Eugene's question, "For our plan to work, we needed someone with ties to the la Avise family, who would also not know that much about us."

She turned to Sophie once again and continued her explanation, "We hunted the Phantom Cormorant for a long time. There was an obvious connection to Monsieur Birdie, whom the family kicked out of the manor around 10 years ago and claimed all of his works of art. For a long time we thought that he was the culprit, but it was you. A daughter we knew nothing about."

"There was no way for you to know. Jaque Birdie adopted me, cherished me, gave me home and love I never received. Once I learnt about his line of profession and what you did to him, I could never forgive you! I swore to destroy every single piece of art that came from your talentless scum you call artists."

Sophie's words slowly but surely drew the entire picture of the situation for Eugene. Birdie was just like Arnold, a man who displeased this corrupt family and was stripped of his dignity. But unlike Arnold, he was not able to cope with this new environment and his passion slowly burnt away with his life. Perhaps, he adopted a girl to once again feel a purpose, but even though he was able to give her his whole, along with the purpose, it was not enough to heal the scars left to him by the la Avise family.

Even though they were on the same side this time, Eugene could not help, but burn Victoria and Martin with his furious look. Once again, he was bewildered by the depth of their pettiness and made him question their sanity. Although he felt like it was impossible to hold his cool in their presence, once Victoria gave him a side eye with that wicked smile of hers, Eugene turned away and spoke.

"Ok, I get it that you wanted the Cormorant… Sophie, to get closer to me and trick me into coming to the castle of Beaumont. In the end, the door she left open for us, was also a perfect escape route after you locked everyone inside with that fake painting."

"You did not even get to use it, in the end. Just made me waste my time, but at least you really did arrive at the celebration, somehow." commented Sophie Eugene's observation, but then Eugene continued, "But how about the plate you stole at the café in the park? The painting at my house, at Monso Rooster? How did you manage to get those?"

"The first was our doing." said Victoria, her smile still intact and even wider than before, "It was the foundation of our cage, a phoney Cormorant's doing to lure in the real bird. You called our dear guest an idiot, yet you are not much further away in my books, Madam Birdie."

Sophie remained silent, her eyes were glowing with evil intent. There was zero reaction from Victoria, her face remained tranquil, thus Sophie only sighed and explained her other heists, "I first stole the painting from the cafe, by bribing some kids to break havoc, then I went to your place to invite you for a walk to construct an alibi, but you were not at home, thus I decided to add your painting to my collection as well."

Eugene looked at her in bewilderment. He was fully aware that it was the infamous robber sitting in front of, yet he was still surprised by her equanimity. It takes a nerve to barge into someone's home just to take something from there. But in the end, Eugene was the one who told her about the painting, which resulted in the heist as a form of punishment for his big mouth. Still, there was one certain aspect he did not quite get.

"Was it necessary to cut my phone?"

Sophie, however, did not answer. A smirk appeared on her face, but it faded as soon as Arnold gave an explanation, "Probably because Vera called you. It would not be exactly a sneaky robbery if there would be so much noise."

"Is that all you wanted to know about me?" asked Sophie, which made Eugene realize that there were not any more points he would like to know. The insight of the Cormorant's doings and how the la Avise family managed to trick her was sufficient, thus he nodded.

Soon enough, two police officers arrived at the house, the same ones who were at Monso Rooster yesterday. Their faces were quite unhappy, perhaps due to the fact that besides the call they also found a hide out of the Phantom Cormorant. It was in the Seine University, a hollow wall behind the closed classroom that was rumoured to be haunted. Once again, even at that ill-fated game of chess, Sylvia did not waste any time and made progress on pinning down Sophie. Her hideout was described as overfilled with works of art, some of them in nearly perfect condition, which made Sophie click her tongue. As much as she hated the la Avise family, she did not have a heart to destroy the embodiment of passion, which she knew well since Sophie also studied in that university, thus the ability to enter its grounds whenever she wished.

Before the police took her away, she faced Victoria for the last time and said, "May I ask you a question?"

Victoria nodded, but Sophie would have spoken regardless, "Why did you fire Jaque? He never told me that."

Victoria chuckled for a second, but then said calmly, "He was mediocre at shading."

For the first time, Eugene witnessed a genuine shock in Sophie's eyes. Soon, they were overflowing with tears and a weak voice escaped her trembling lips, "You are truly the worst."