SSS Talent: From Trash to Tyrant-Chapter 487: The God of War [II]

The moment they sat down, almost as soon as their backsides touched the chairs, the dwarf was already there with drinks for all of them.

Even Trafalgar looked at him for a second.

The old man set everything down one by one without saying much. Beer, water, beer, water. It was obvious he had not known what to bring them and had decided that this was safer than asking too many questions.

Then he stepped away again.

The table fell quiet.

Vivienne sat near Dravok without hesitation. Rhosyn took her seat beside Trafalgar, saying nothing for now. Caelvyrn leaned back with the same easy air as before, though the look in his eyes had changed. Trafalgar sat facing the man with scars.

Now that he was closer, he could see him properly.

Brown hair touched with grey. Pale green eyes. A beige shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Old scars everywhere, not just on the face. One ran from below the cheek and continued down across the neck. Others marked his arms where the fabric ended. He looked like a man who had gone through too many wars to care what people thought of him anymore.

Then the man looked at Trafalgar and spoke first.

"You really do look a lot like your mother."

The words came without warning.

Trafalgar’s eyes stayed on him. "Thanks, I suppose. I never got to know her."

The older man held his gaze for a moment longer, then gave a small nod.

"I know." A brief pause followed. "My name is Dravok."

That was all he said. From the first line alone, it was already obvious that Dravok knew exactly who Trafalgar was.

Caelvyrn was the next to speak.

He rested one arm over the chair and looked at Dravok with that same polished ease, though the look in his violet eyes had changed completely now.

"So it really is you." A small smile touched his mouth. "I had assumed you were dead."

Dravok gave a low breath through his nose, not quite a laugh. "A lot of people did."

"I was among them." Caelvyrn leaned back slightly. "Centuries pass, your name vanishes, and then suddenly you decide to appear in the middle of a war." His gaze moved once toward Vivienne before returning to him. "And with a disciple." The smile deepened a fraction. "That, I confess, I did not expect from you."

Vivienne stayed quiet beside him, though her eyes shifted briefly toward Dravok.

Dravok picked up the glass the dwarf had left and took a small drink before answering. "Many things happened."

Caelvyrn watched him in silence.

Dravok lowered the glass again. "And after what happened recently, I had little reason to keep hiding." His eyes moved toward Trafalgar for only a moment before returning to Caelvyrn. "I never expected to see the son of that woman still alive." Another brief pause. "Or the son of Magnus du Morgain."

Caelvyrn’s expression did not shift much, but the amusement in it thinned again. "You say that as if you’ve spent a long time thinking about ghosts."

Dravok’s mouth curved faintly. "When enough centuries pass, that’s what most old names become."

Rhosyn said nothing yet. Her eyes moved between them, listening.

Caelvyrn tapped one finger once against the wood of the table. "You disappeared well enough. Even I stopped expecting to hear your name again." His gaze dropped briefly to the scars on Dravok’s arms, then rose back to his face. "Though looking at you now, I can see life was not entirely kind."

Dravok let out a short laugh this time. "You say that as if it was ever kind to any of us."

"Fair." Caelvyrn lifted his glass but did not drink. "Still, I had half expected that if you were alive, you would be ruling some battlefield, sleeping in a palace stolen from kings, or making yourself insufferable like a dickhead in some other grand way."

Vivienne glanced at him. Rhosyn did too.

Dravok looked almost amused. "And yet here I am."

"In a rotten bar in the south of Velkaris," Caelvyrn said. "Your standards have changed."

"They had to."

The answer came simply, but it carried enough weight that even Caelvyrn let it sit without breaking it right away.

After a moment, he spoke again, quieter now. "It’s been a long time."

"Yes," Dravok said. "It has."

Trafalgar listened without interrupting. He could hear it clearly now, even without either of them spelling it out. This was not a casual acquaintance from some distant past. There was history here, the old kind, worn into both men deeply enough that it no longer needed dramatic words to show itself.

Caelvyrn looked at him for another second, then said, "We crossed blades, teeth, claws more times than I can count, and I still never decided whether I enjoyed fighting you or hated it."

Dravok’s eyes settled on him with more life than before. "You enjoyed it."

Caelvyrn smiled. "I did."

"And you lost often enough to remember it."

That made Rhosyn glance at Caelvyrn.

He placed one hand over his chest, mockingly offended. "A cruel thing to say in front of company."

"You were always arrogant."

"And you were always bad-tempered."

"Yet you kept coming back."

Caelvyrn’s smile returned fully for the first time since sitting down. "Of course I did. There were very few worth fighting."

That line stayed at the table for a second before Dravok turned his head.

His eyes fell on Rhosyn.

He looked at her more closely now, and when he spoke again, the tone shifted.

"You were always near that woman too," he said. "I remember you. You’ve grown well."

Rhosyn blinked once, clearly caught off guard by that. "You know me?"

Dravok kept his gaze on her. "You probably don’t remember me."

Rhosyn’s brow drew together faintly. She searched his face again, slower this time, as if trying to force something old to rise from memory and finding only fragments.

Dravok saved her the effort.

"I was a general. The general of our clan, of the Primordials themselves, though I suppose that belongs to the past now."

That made Rhosyn go still. She looked at him again, more carefully this time, as if trying to pull something old from memory and finding only scraps. "I don’t remember you."

"I’m not surprised," Dravok said. "You were young, and a great many things happened after. Enough to bury names, faces, ranks..."

Rhosyn did not look away. "If you really were our general, then why are you here like this? Why did you disappear?"

Dravok took a slow drink before answering. "Because the world we belonged to broke apart, and with it, so did the people inside it. Some died. Some ran. Some hid. I was one of those who left." His gaze lowered briefly to the glass in his hand before returning to her. "So yes, if any of our people still remember me, I doubt they remember me kindly. To some, I would be the general who vanished. To others, a coward. To others, a traitor."

The table stayed quiet.

Rhosyn’s expression had changed now. There was surprise in it, but something heavier too. "And are they wrong?"

Dravok’s mouth curved faintly, though there was nothing light in it. "No. Not entirely."

He said it simply, which only gave the words more weight.

"I carried our banner once," he continued. "I led our army. Men and women followed my orders into battle, and many of them never returned from the fields where I sent them. Later, when everything began to collapse, I chose my own survival over standing at the center of the ruin. There are names for a man like that. Some harsher than others. I’ve heard most of them already."

Dravok was silent for a moment, then looked at Trafalgar.

"I only understood what was happening recently," he said. "Because of you."

Trafalgar’s gaze did not shift. "Explain."

"Your presence. What happened in the war. The reaction it caused." Dravok’s fingers rested against the glass. "That was enough to make old traces move again. Enough to make me look where I had stopped looking long ago."

The table stayed quiet.

"And what did you find?" Trafalgar asked.

Dravok’s expression did not change. "That the bloodline did not recover. What remains is scattered, hidden, and far worse off than it should be."

Rhosyn said nothing, though her eyes hardened slightly.

Trafalgar leaned back just a little. "Do you know where the others are?"

Dravok met his gaze.

"Yes."