SSS Talent: From Trash to Tyrant-Chapter 472: Caelvyrn [I]

For a few moments after that, the room remained quiet. Garrika stayed seated, though some of the awkwardness from before still lingered around her. Rhosyn sat across from her with an easier posture, one arm resting near the table, while Trafalgar’s attention drifted now and then toward the door.

The conversation that followed was light enough. Garrika spoke first. "So... where is it going to be?"

"The wedding?"

She nodded. "Yeah."

"In Euclid."

Her ears twitched slightly. "I see." A faint smile appeared on her face. "Then I guess it’ll be cold as hell."

"It will," Trafalgar said.

Rhosyn glanced at him from the side. "That’s a very dry way to talk about your own wedding."

"What exactly am I supposed to say?"

That made Garrika laugh softly, and for a brief moment the atmosphere in the room felt almost normal. Just three people sitting together while the sounds from the rest of the place remained far enough away not to disturb them.

Then Garrika froze.

It happened so suddenly that her body reacted before her mind caught up. Her wolf ears rose at once. The fur along her tail stood up, and tension rushed through her so sharply that even the chair beneath her shifted with a faint sound. Her eyes snapped toward Trafalgar. "We’re being attacked."

"No," Trafalgar said, his voice calm. "We’re not being attacked." His gaze moved briefly toward the door. "I think he’s finally here."

That only made Garrika look more alarmed. "You’re really going to meet someone with a presence like this?" Her voice had dropped, but the panic inside it was still obvious. "It’s suffocating."

Rhosyn had gone still as well, though she handled it better. Not because she did not feel it, but because she had expected something like this more than Garrika had.

Trafalgar leaned back slightly in his chair. "Don’t worry. He’s a good person." He paused for a second. "I think."

Garrika stared at him. "You think?"

"Yes." He did not seem especially troubled by that answer. "Every time I’ve met him so far, he ended up helping me more than harming me. For now, that’s enough."

That did not fully reassure her. Whatever was approaching, every instinct in her bloodline was telling her the same thing. Do not stay close.

"Sorry, Garrika," Trafalgar said, looking at her properly. "You should leave. What I need to talk about with him isn’t something you can be involved in."

She understood immediately. No disappointment on her face, only tension and the quiet certainty that leaving was the right choice. She nodded once, rose from her chair, and stepped out of the room without wasting more words.

Then only Trafalgar and Rhosyn remained inside, waiting for Caelvyrn to enter.

Outside the room, Garrika barely had time to steady herself before she saw them.

Arden was coming down the corridor with someone beside him. The first thing she noticed was the hair. Black, tied back in a ponytail not that different from Trafalgar’s. After that came the eyes. Violet, narrow, with a shape that did not feel human no matter how refined the rest of him looked. Then the horns. Then the white suit, elegant and perfectly fitted, the kind of clothing that should have softened the impression he gave.

It did nothing.

The presence around him pressed against her instincts so hard that the fur on her tail remained raised without her being able to force it down. Every part of her bloodline warning her in the clearest way possible that the being walking toward that door was not something she should ever treat lightly. Without even thinking about it, Garrika moved aside to give him space.

Caelvyrn’s gaze slid toward her for the briefest instant as he passed, and that alone sent a chill through her spine. There was nothing openly hostile in that look. Nothing crude. Nothing violent. He looked calm. Controlled. Refined. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

That only made it worse. He looked like someone who did not need to show danger because danger already belonged to him.

What unsettled Garrika most was not even him. It was Arden. Her grandfather walked beside Caelvyrn with complete normality, not showing the slightest sign that he felt what she did. Of course he didn’t. Compared to her senses, Arden was just a normal person. He could see the horns, the strange eyes, the unusual guest. He could not feel the thing beneath all of that, the pressure crawling under her skin and telling her to stay away.

Arden stopped at the door. "Trafalgar is waiting inside. Please, go in."

Caelvyrn gave a small nod and stepped forward.

Only after that did Arden turn toward Garrika properly. His expression softened the moment he saw her still standing there stiffly. "Go rest, Garrika. You don’t need to keep forcing yourself to help around here."

She opened her mouth, then closed it again. He was right. Her body had recovered well enough, but not completely, and deep down she knew it. The only reason she had kept pushing herself was because she wanted them to see that she was alright. After the fright she had given them, after almost not coming back at all, she had wanted to prove it more than say it.

"Alright," she said.

Her eyes shifted once more toward the door. That thing was going inside now. To meet Trafalgar face to face.

A second later, the door opened. Caelvyrn stepped inside at last.

For a brief moment, Trafalgar just looked at him. The black hair tied back in a ponytail, the violet eyes with that sharp draconic shape, the white suit fitted cleanly over his frame, the two horns rising from his head. The whole image was polished in a way that felt strange on him. It was not that Caelvyrn looked bad like this. If anything, he looked absurdly good. That was exactly why it felt wrong.

Caelvyrn noticed the look immediately. He walked forward with easy confidence and sat down as if entering a room like that meant nothing to him. "Are you satisfied?" he asked, the corner of his mouth lifting. "You’ve been staring ever since I came in. Perhaps you’re admiring me." His smile widened just slightly. "I understand, of course. Seeing such a handsome dragon dressed this well is a rare privilege. Keep looking like that and I might start blushing."

Trafalgar leaned back slightly in his chair. "Honestly, this is stranger than seeing you naked."

Caelvyrn blinked once.

"Most of the time you show up half naked or with barely anything on at all. Seeing you dressed like this is rarer."

For a second, silence. Then Caelvyrn laughed. A real laugh, not some polished noble sound forced out for appearance’s sake. He seemed genuinely amused, perhaps because there were very few people in the world who could look at him, know what he truly was, and still speak to him that casually.

Across from them, Rhosyn looked at him with open disgust.

Caelvyrn noticed that too. "There is no need to make that face," he said, turning his gaze toward her. "You made your answer very clear last time. I understood it."

Rhosyn’s eyes narrowed. "Good."

"And this time," Caelvyrn continued, resting one arm lightly against the chair, "I’m not here to play around. The matter is serious."

That was enough to shift the room. The humor faded almost at once, leaving something more fitting behind. Trafalgar remained still, his gaze fixed on him now with clearer purpose. Rhosyn said nothing more, but the sharpness in her expression eased just enough for the conversation to move forward.

Caelvyrn looked between the two of them. "So," he said. "Who goes first, you or me?"