SSS Talent: From Trash to Tyrant-Chapter 445: Decision [IV]

Caelum followed the messenger without ever appearing to do so.

The elf moved through the corridor with long, controlled strides, armor muted beneath a dark cloak carrying the insignia of House Sylvanel at the shoulder. To anyone watching from a distance he looked like exactly what he was meant to be, an official envoy sent to retrieve a political prisoner who had just been elevated to something far more significant.

Caelum remained several turns behind him. One shadow along the wall detached briefly, then slipped forward. Another presence moved across the ceiling beams where the corridor narrowed. His clones kept the distance, passing information silently back to him as they shifted along the route. The messenger was alone. The escort that would accompany Lucien had not yet joined him.

He closed the distance slightly and studied the man more carefully now that he had time. The elf carried himself with discipline, but the tension beneath it was visible in small details. Shoulders set too tightly. His jaw shifting occasionally as if grinding against something. Even the way he walked held a faint stiffness that had nothing to do with caution and everything to do with restraint.

Emotion. Not fear. Anger.

Caelum’s gaze settled on the scarring along the elf’s exposed knuckles. Old cuts healed unevenly. A soldier’s hands. The pieces aligned quickly in his mind. The war had not ended cleanly for Sylvanel — too many dead, too many burned sanctuaries, too many villages caught between armies that moved without asking who lived nearby. And then there had been Icarus, a raid no one had officially ordered, striking sacred sites across Sylvanel territory. Labeled a rogue operation afterward. The damage had been catastrophic regardless of the label. Soldiers had died defending temples they had sworn to protect. Families had disappeared beneath collapsing stone and fire.

Resentment did not vanish because a war ended. It waited.

The elf reached the base of the staircase and slowed as he began climbing, his breathing deepening with the effort. Caelum noticed the brief flicker behind his eyes when the Sylvanel crest on the wall caught the torchlight. Hatred rarely needed encouragement. Only direction.

Caelum’s hand moved quietly beneath his sleeve. Between his fingers rested a small glass vial no larger than a finger joint, the liquid inside carrying a dull amber tint that caught the corridor light in faint ripples. A single-use catalyst. Not poison. Not mind control. Something subtler — it did not create emotions, it simply removed the restraints people used to bury them. He had collected many things like this over the years. Tools that turned existing impulses into something uncontrollable.

Near the landing the elf paused, glancing toward a side table where several cups of water had been left for the corridor guards. A small habit born from the war, when fatigue had become something people carried in their bodies without realizing it. Caelum’s clone moved before the thought had fully formed. For the span of a heartbeat the vial tipped, releasing a single drop into one of the cups before dissolving back into shadow.

The elf reached the table seconds later. He picked up the cup without thinking and drank half of it in one motion before continuing up the final steps toward Lucien’s chamber.

The effect would take less than a minute.

Caelum remained behind him, unseen, patient. All he had to do now was wait for the resentment the elf already carried to become something far more difficult to hold down.

It began before the elf realized it. At first it was subtle, a tightening in his chest that felt deeper than simple irritation. His breath grew heavier as he moved down the corridor, boots striking the stone with slightly more force than before. The castle air felt warmer, thicker, as though the walls were pressing closer.

He slowed for half a step.

Something was wrong. Or perhaps nothing was wrong at all. The thoughts that had been sitting quietly at the back of his mind for weeks began pushing forward, no longer content to stay buried beneath discipline and orders. Images rose with disturbing clarity. Burned stone. Broken temple gates. Bodies carried out beneath smoke-blackened skies.

Icarus. The name surfaced like a blade dragging itself through memory. Everyone knew what had happened. Everyone had heard the explanations afterward. Rogue operation. Unapproved action. Tragic consequences of war. His fingers curled slightly as he continued walking. He remembered the sanctuary near the northern ridge, the one where his sister had served. She had not been a soldier. She had spent her days copying old Sylvanel texts, preserving histories older than most kingdoms.

The sanctuary had burned anyway.

The potion had not created the anger. It had simply removed the barriers he used to keep it contained, and now it filled the spaces where discipline had once lived. He could feel it in his voice before he even spoke.

Two guards stood near Lucien’s door. They glanced toward him as he approached, recognized the Sylvanel insignia, and one stepped slightly aside. "Message from Lady Elenara." The elf stopped in front of the door and stared at the wood for a moment. Behind it was one of the heirs whose family had helped ignite the war that burned through Sylvanel lands. One of the men who would walk into that chamber and begin rebuilding power as though the last months had been nothing more than a temporary inconvenience.

His hand rose. He knocked.

"Lucien du Thal’zar." His voice carried more weight than the formal tone required. "Lady Elenara au Sylvanel and Lord Valttair du Morgain are waiting for you. Please come with me."

The guards shifted slightly at the roughness in it but said nothing.

Inside, movement answered almost immediately. Footsteps crossed the floor. A chair scraped faintly against stone. Then Lucien’s voice came through the door, calm and slightly amused.

"So it’s finally time?"

The elf’s jaw tightened. "Yes." The word came out sharper than intended.

A lock turned. The door began to open. Lucien du Thal’zar stepped into the corridor, unhurried, carrying the ease of someone who had just been handed everything he wanted.

And in the shadow where the torchlight failed to reach, Caelum watched the moment unfold. The catalyst had taken hold. The resentment was already moving, already looking for somewhere to land. All it needed now was the right moment.

It would not have to wait long.