SSS Talent: From Trash to Tyrant

Chapter 532: Chapter 532: An Important Meeting [III]

Darian stayed quiet for a few seconds after Trafalgar and Caelum finished speaking.

The room had gone calmer, but not lighter. The conversation had already crossed past courtesy, and all three of them knew it. Darian took a breath, as if deciding whether the next question was worth the risk.

In the end, he asked it.

”Can I ask you something personal, Trafalgar?”

Trafalgar lifted his cup slightly, drank, and put it down again.

”You already started. Go on.”

Darian’s ears twitched once before he spoke.

”Do you hate your family?”

Caelum did not move behind Trafalgar. He remained where he was, silent, hands behind his back, the perfect shadow to his young master.

Trafalgar, however, did not answer right away.

He stayed still, one hand near the cup, the other resting against the arm of the chair. Darian watched him carefully, but there was no challenge in his face. Only real curiosity.

Trafalgar finally spoke.

”What they did to me doesn’t have a name.”

Darian did not interrupt.

Trafalgar’s voice remained even, though it had gone colder than before.

”They don’t deserve to be called family. Blood is blood. That’s all.” He paused for the briefest moment. ”Being from the same bloodline doesn’t make anyone a home.”

Darian lowered his gaze slightly, absorbing it.

Trafalgar continued, calm and hard at once.

”I was born among them, yes. I carry their name, yes. I’m one of them by blood, and that won’t change. But that doesn’t erase what they are. Or what they did.” His expression barely shifted. ”So if you’re asking whether I love them, the answer is no. If you’re asking whether I hate them...” He leaned back a little. ”Some of them, yes. Others are simply not worth the effort.”

Darian let out a slow breath.

”I thought so,” he admitted. ”You never speak about House Morgain the way one of them should.”

Trafalgar gave him a short glance. ”And how should one of them speak?”

Darian almost smiled, though it did not fully form.

”With pride and certainty. As if blood excuses everything.”

Trafalgar’s mouth moved faintly at that.

”Then I disappoint them in more ways than they expected.”

That almost made Darian laugh, but the tension in the room kept it from becoming more than a small exhale.

He looked at Trafalgar for another moment before asking, ”Then why stay with them at all? Why keep their name, their place, their side?”

Trafalgar did not answer.

The silence that followed was not empty. It carried weight, and Darian felt it the moment the question left his mouth. Across from him, Trafalgar remained still, one hand resting near the cup, the other against the arm of the chair, his expression giving away very little.

When he finally spoke, his voice came calm enough to feel colder than anger.

”I think you’re asking too many questions.”

Darian’s ears twitched once.

”You’re a curious man, Darian. That isn’t always a flaw. But remember your place.”

That was the line.

It landed cleanly between them, and the atmosphere in the room changed with it. Until now, the conversation had moved with a certain openness. Darian had pushed a little further, driven by the need to understand the man sitting in front of him. Trafalgar had allowed it for a time.

That time had ended.

Darian lowered his gaze for the briefest moment before looking up again. He understood what had just happened. This was not a game of offense or pride. Trafalgar was reminding him where the edge stood.

”I understand,” Darian said.

Trafalgar studied him for a second longer, making sure he meant it.

”Good,” he said. ”Then keep that understanding.”

The room fell quiet again.

Caelum had not moved once behind Trafalgar. That stillness, somehow, made him heavier rather than less noticeable. He stood with the same perfect posture as before, gloved hands behind his back, expression unreadable, yet Darian could feel him there more sharply now than at any earlier point in the meeting.

Trafalgar noticed where Darian’s attention drifted.

”Since you’re in the mood to ask questions,” he said, ”let me answer one you didn’t say aloud.”

Darian stayed silent.

Trafalgar’s gaze hardened slightly.

”You want to know how secure your seat is.”

A faint chill ran down Darian’s spine.

Trafalgar continued in that same level voice, each word placed with deliberate care.

”You are sitting there because I allowed that path to remain open. Because Lucien died. Because Kaedor fell and because I chose not to let House Thal’zar be buried completely with them.”

The memory came back too easily. Lucien. His brother. Kaedor. The pressure of those days, the blood, the fear, the impossible speed at which everything had been decided. Darian remembered what kind of force had moved the board at that time. He remembered who had stood behind it.

And he remembered who had carried it out.

His gaze flicked, despite himself, toward Caelum.

Caelum met it without warmth. The cold indifference of a man who had already done what was necessary once and would do it again if ordered.

Trafalgar saw the reaction and pressed no harder than he needed to.

”I brought Caelum with me for a reason,” he said. ”Not because I thought you would betray me the moment I stepped into this castle. You’re smarter than that.” A pause. ”I brought him because memory fades if you let it.”

Darian’s fur had risen faintly along the back of his neck before he forced it down again.

”I haven’t forgotten,” he said.

Trafalgar leaned back a little farther into the chair.

”I know. But knowing and feeling are different things.”

The silence after that stretched longer.

Darian broke it himself.

”My loyalty is not in question.”

Darian held his gaze and continued, his voice steady now, stripped of hesitation. ”I know exactly why I’m alive. I know exactly why I’m sitting in this seat and not lying in the ground with the rest of them. I know whose judgment placed me here. I have not forgotten it, and I do not intend to.”

Caelum finally spoke.

”Good.”

Just one word.

That was enough to make the room feel narrower for a moment.

Darian inclined his head in submission.

Trafalgar let the moment settle before reaching for his cup again. He drank what remained of the tea, set it down, and looked at Darian with a calmer expression than before.

”Fine,” he said. ”The first important part is done.”

Darian remained quiet.

Trafalgar’s tone lost some of its edge, though not enough for the room to soften completely.

”And I think some of your curiosity has been satisfied.”

Darian almost smiled at that, but thought better of it.

Trafalgar rose from his seat.

”So remember what I’m capable of,” he said. ”It’ll make the rest simpler for both of us.”

Caelum stepped aside just enough for him to pass, already falling into place behind him without needing to be told.

Trafalgar adjusted his coat once and looked back toward Darian.

”Now,” he said, ”I think we can go see the place where Icarus carried out his experiments.”