SSS-Ranked Trash Hero: I Was Scammed Into Being Summoned-Chapter 96: Before Gathering

The large double doors of the reception hall were made of heavy, dark wood. When they opened, Lena and Caelum were met with warmth and the sound of people talking.

Inside, it wasn’t a formal meeting room. There was no long table or assigned seats. With nameplates. Instead, it was a wide, open space with high ceilings and lanterns that gave off a soft golden light.

People stood in small groups, moving around, talking, and quietly judging each other before the discussions began.

Lena felt the weight of the room immediately. It was the social pressure of multiple demon princes all occupying the same area. Each one was a powerhouse in their own right, and they were all busy deciding how to arrange themselves in the room.

It was like watching a group of predators in a cage, each one trying to figure out who was the strongest without actually starting a fight yet.

Lena’s eyes moved fast, even though her face remained perfectly still. From the moment they crossed the threshold, she was clocking everything.

Caelum didn’t stop to wait for someone to greet him, and he didn’t try to push his way into the center of the room. He moved with a quiet, steady pace toward the far edge of the hall.

He wasn’t trying to hide, but he also wasn’t the main focus for the crowd. He chose a spot that gave him a clear view of most of the room while keeping his back near a solid wall. Lena stayed exactly half a step behind him, her head slightly bowed but her senses pushed to their absolute limit.

From this position, Lena got her first full picture of who was in the room. She started reading the princes one by one, noting every detail away for later.

The first person she noticed was Malarek. He was already at the center of the room. He hadn’t made a loud entrance, but he seemed to be the pole that everyone else was spinning around.

He was tall and composed, with dark horns that looked like they were made of obsidian. He was the kind of demon who made stillness look like a powerful statement.

He was currently speaking to two other princes, his voice low and steady. However, Lena noticed that his eyes were doing a completely separate job from his mouth.

While he talked, his gaze moved across the room in a slow, continuous sweep.

Voss stood beside Malarek, who had somehow reached the hall faster despite taking a different route. They weren’t part of the same conversation.

Voss looked relaxed and confident, leaning back slightly as if nothing bothered him. His charm seemed natural.

At one point, his eyes moved across the room and met Lena’s. He gave her a small, quick smile.

The silence of Malarek and Voss was broken by Dethran. Lena heard him before she really focused on him. He was a large demon with deep red skin and a jaw that looked like it was made of solid bone.

He was in the middle of a loud conversation with two others, and he was dominating the space with his volume. He gestured broadly when he spoke, his large hands cutting through the air. He took up the space around him without even noticing he was doing it, forcing others to move back just to stay out of his way.

Then there was Vorath. He was standing alone near the right wall, and he didn’t seem to mind it at all. He was massive, with grey-black skin that looked as tough as stone.

His eyes sat flat and patient in his face, watching the room the way a hawk watches a field from a high branch.

Lena looked at him once and decided right away not to look back too quickly. There was something about the way he stood that made her feel like he was waiting for a reason to act.

In a far corner, Syrel sat with a single attendant. He was reading something. He wasn’t just holding a book to look busy; he was actually reading it.

He seemed completely uninterested in the social games happening around him. However, when Caelum entered the room, Syrel looked up for a brief second.

He gave a nod that was so small most people would have missed it entirely.

Caelum didn’t acknowledge the nod, and his face didn’t change, but Lena noted the interaction. It was the first sign of a connection she hadn’t expected.

Sael was speaking with Calix on the other side of the room. She was doing most of the talking, but she made it look like she was the one listening.

She was the only person in the room who looked genuinely relaxed. Her shoulders weren’t tense, and her smile looked real.

Lena flagged this immediately. In a room full of demons who were all trying to look powerful, the one who looked the most relaxed was usually the most dangerous.

It meant she was so confident in her position that she didn’t feel the need to posture.

Mireth arrived just a few minutes after they did. He didn’t make a grand scene, but his timing was perfect. He moved through the room with the ease.

He greeted people by name and seemed to know exactly what to say to keep everyone comfortable. When he reached the area near Caelum, he didn’t stop to talk.

However, his eyes moved to Lena for just a moment. Not to Caelum, the prince. To her. It was a sharp, calculating look that lasted only a second before he moved on to the next group.

The rest of the princes—Ira, Calix, Dren, and Yuren—filled the edges of the room. Their positions told Lena a lot about where they stood in the family ranking.

Yuren, the youngest, stood out the most to her. He was standing too straight and watching everyone too carefully.

He was trying very hard to look like he wasn’t nervous, which only made his anxiety more obvious. He was a boy playing a man’s game, and he was terrified of making a mistake.

The social geography of the room was fascinating to Lena. Malarek was the center, Dethran was the loud force on the left, and Vorath was the silent observer on the right.

Everyone else arranged themselves in relation to those three fixed points. Caelum remained at the far edge, belonging to none of the clusters. He was attended to by nobody, a prince who was physically present but socially invisible.

The formal part of the evening was brief. An official from the demon council, a dry and procedural man who was not a prince, stepped onto a small raised platform.

He gave a short welcome speech, establishing the rules for the opening session that would take place the following morning.

He talked about the history of the conference and the importance of unity, but nobody was really listening.

The princes were too busy watching each other. Lena was the only one who focused on the official’s words, memorizing the schedule and the planned movements for the next day.

During the speech, Caelum and Malarek made eye contact across the room. It lasted for maybe two seconds. Nothing was said, and neither of them changed their expression.

It was a silent acknowledgment of each other’s existence, a brief moment where the two ends of the power spectrum met.

Malarek was the first to move his gaze away, turning his attention back to the official.

As the formal welcome ended, the gathering began to break into smaller, more private conversations. Lena moved slightly to give Caelum some room while staying within arm’s reach.

She used the movement to get a better angle on Mireth. He was now talking to a member of Vorath’s retinue, which Lena found very interesting. It suggested that the social prince and the silent one might have more in common than they wanted people to think.

One prince decided to approach Caelum directly. It was Syrel. The interaction was brief and quiet, looking almost accidental.

Syrel said something simple about the long journey to the capital, a surface-level comment that anyone could have made.

Caelum responded with a short, polite answer. They exchanged maybe two sentences each before Syrel moved away.

To anyone else, it looked like a meaningless interaction between two brothers who didn’t have much to say to each other.

Lena thought it looked like nothing too, until she replayed the moment in her head. She realized that while Syrel was talking to Caelum, he had positioned himself perfectly.

He had stood in a way that completely blocked Dethran’s line of sight for the entire duration of the exchange.

He had created a tiny, private bubble in a room full of eyes, allowing them to speak without being watched by the loudest man in the hall.

It was a deliberate tactical move, and it changed how Lena viewed the "reading" prince.

As the light from the lanterns began to dim, the gathering started to wind down. The princes and their attendants began filtering out toward their respective wings.

The first readings had been taken. Nothing had been said that actually meant anything on the surface, but everything had been communicated through movement and silence. The board was set, and the players knew where everyone else stood.

Caelum and Lena walked back to their wing in silence. The halls were cold and empty now, the polished floors reflecting the dim light of the moon through the high windows.

Caelum said nothing about the other princes or the insults from earlier. Lena said nothing either. They reached the Iron Thicket, and the heavy door shut behind them with a dull, final thud.

That night, Lena lay in her dark room and couldn’t sleep. She went through every face she had seen in that hall, one by one. She thought about Malarek’s sweep, Voss’s empty smile, and Syrel’s hidden nod.

She thought about the letter from the Hollow Seal that had burned to ash on her desk back in Ashfen.

She thought about the one week she had to finish her task or face the consequences.

The vipers were gathered, and they were all waiting for the first one to strike. She closed her eyes, visualizing the room one last time, realizing that the real war hadn’t even begun yet.

She had seven days to navigate a maze of assassins and princes, and the margin for error was zero. Every look, every step, and every word mattered now.

The gathering was over, but the hunt was just beginning. She would be ready for them. She had to be. Her life, and the life of the prince she was supposed to kill, depended on it.