SSS Talent: From Trash to Tyrant

Maledicta vanished from Trafalgar’s hand in a ripple of dark mana.

The pressure over the field broke with it. The students around the barrier began breathing normally again, the quiet tension loosening into murmurs and low voices as the duel finally ended. Trafalgar lowered his arm and offered Xavier his hand.

”Are you all right?”

Xavier stared at the hand for half a second, snorted, and desummoned his spear as well. The weapon dissolved into red-gold light before he took Trafalgar’s hand and let himself be pulled back to his feet.

”Physically, yes,” he said, dusting the back of his trousers with one palm. ”Personally, I think my honor and reputation took a beating.”

Trafalgar gave him a dry glance.

”You lost to the best first year in the Academy. The result was more or less obvious from the beginning.”

Xavier exhaled through his nose, half annoyed, half amused.

”When you say it like that, it sounds almost comforting.” He rolled one shoulder and stretched his neck, grimacing faintly. ”Almost.”

A few people near the field were still staring at them, especially after the way the duel had ended. Trafalgar ignored them. Xavier noticed them and looked ready to say something stupidly proud, but in the end he let it pass.

Instead, he said, ”Do you want to go drink something? We’ve got plenty of free time, and after moving my bones around like that, I have absolutely no desire to keep training today.”

Trafalgar thought about it for a moment, more out of habit than reluctance.

”We can go. I need to stop by my room first and leave something there.” He turned toward the path leading back to the dormitory section. ”Call Barth while I’m doing that. If he’s free, the three of us can go.”

Xavier’s expression brightened immediately.

”Oh? A boys-only outing?”

Trafalgar nodded once.

That seemed to satisfy him more than it should have.

They left the training field together and headed back toward the dormitory building. The circular platform that served as the internal lift was already waiting when they arrived, a broad disk of silverstone engraved with mana lines that pulsed softly underfoot. Xavier stepped on first, hands in his pockets now that the duel was over, while Trafalgar followed with the same quiet posture as always.

The platform rose.

At Bartholomew’s floor, Xavier stepped off.

”I’ll drag him out if I have to,” he said.

”Try words first.”

”No promises.”

The platform continued upward with Trafalgar alone on it until it reached the level reserved for the heirs of the Eight Great Families. The corridor there was calm as ever, almost unnaturally so after the noise of the training grounds below.

Trafalgar unlocked his room, stepped inside, and shut the door behind him. The first thing he did was leave the things he had been carrying on the table. The second was head straight for the bath.

The shower was brief, enough to wash away sweat, dust, and the remaining heat of the duel. By the time he stepped out, changed into something more comfortable, and tied his hair back properly again, the sharp edge in his body had faded into something easier to carry.

He was reaching for the door when a thought crossed his mind.

Trafalgar materialized [Shadowlink Echo] in his hand and pushed mana into it. There was already a message waiting.

A moment later, Caelum’s voice began to play directly from the item, direct and formal as always.

”Young master, your father has already been informed of what we discovered about the void creatures. I should say he was expecting something along those lines, but he did not take the confirmation well. His anger, however, is not directed toward what you may think. He blames himself for not going all out against the void creature and ensuring its death. At present, it is wandering freely in another dimension, and that alone has displeased him greatly.”

Trafalgar stood by the door, listening in silence.

”There is more. I also have news from the main house. Rivena has advanced again. She is now in Ascend, the sixth core. I assumed you would want to know. As for Maeron and Lysandra, both remain one stage above her. In terms of all the siblings, she is now third in raw progression. Knowing her, caution would

be wise.”

Caelum’s voice carried on without changing its calm pace.

”At present, she is occupied with certain matters even I do not have access to, which I regret. Maeron’s position remains stable. Lysandra’s as well. The wives and their children have not changed in any significant way. Helgar may hold resentment toward you, though I doubt he will act openly. Even so, care would be prudent. The atmosphere in the main house has grown less stable with your father in seclusion and focused entirely on training.”

The message ended there.

It had been long. Longer than usual, and full of things Trafalgar would have preferred not to hear all at once.

He let the item dissolve.

So Valttair had expected the truth already. Caelum’s confirmation had only placed it firmly in his hand. In one sense, that helped. Valttair, for all the filth attached to him as a father and as a man, remained one of Trafalgar’s greatest advantages. Possibly the greatest.

That did not make the rest of the message any lighter.

’Rivena reached the sixth core...

Trafalgar had been in Flow for a while now, though Prime was close enough that he could feel the threshold every day. Even so, the gap remained a gap. Rivena becoming stronger again meant the revenge he had never forgotten would have to wait longer. Maeron at the seventh core made the scale of it worse. That level of power had already moved beyond ordinary combat and into the sort of force that changed landscapes. He still remembered what Valttair had done long ago, back when Trafalgar first awakened in this world. The image of a mountain broken by raw might had never really left him.

He exhaled slowly.

’No point chewing on that now.”

He locked the door behind him and made his way back toward the platform.

As expected, Xavier and Bartholomew were already waiting below. Xavier leaned lightly against the side rail with the lazy confidence of someone who had never once worried about being left behind. Bartholomew stood beside him with his usual slightly awkward posture, dressed and ready, though clearly still not entirely sure where he had agreed to go.

Trafalgar stepped off the platform and glanced between them.

”Any ideas where we’re going?”

Bartholomew adjusted his sleeve and shook his head. ”I-I don’t know. Xavier

just told me to get ready and that we were going out somewhere.”

Xavier pushed himself off the rail.

”We’re staying in Velkaris,” he said. ”I don’t feel like leaving the city today. And

judging by your face the last time, I don’t think another party outside the walls

is exactly your dream plan.”

Trafalgar gave a quiet hum.

”Don’t take that personally. Big crowds just aren’t really my thing.”

Xavier smirked. ”Good. Because I wasn’t planning to drag you into one.”

With that, the three of them headed toward the Academy station to catch the high-speed mana train bound for Velkaris, the capital that never seemed to run out of places worth wasting an afternoon in.