SSS Talent: From Trash to Tyrant-Chapter 505: Meeting with the Directors [II]
Kaelen waited until everyone had taken their place before speaking again. His voice filled the room with calm authority, the kind that did not need force behind it to be obeyed.
"You all know why you were called here."
No one answered. The four students across from them held themselves in different ways, though none looked comfortable. The wolf-lycan stood firm, broad-shouldered and alert. The bat-lycan kept more tension in him, like he expected the room to turn hostile at any moment. The two elves were quieter, their reserve polished enough to pass for calm from a distance.
Kaelen did not waste words.
"The academy is aware that several of its students were caught in the recent war. Blood ties brought a few of you closer to it. Circumstance dragged others in. That is already done, and we are not here to pretend otherwise." His eyes moved across the room, measured and steady. "We are here to make the academy’s position clear. What happened outside these walls stays outside these walls. There will be no retaliation here nor provocations. And no one will carry family grudges into our classrooms and call it justified."
Eryndor sat with both arms folded, saying nothing for now. Selara leaned over the table, idly turning a small glass vial between her fingers. Althea had not moved at all since Trafalgar entered, and somehow that made her presence heavier.
Before the tension could tighten any further, the wolf-lycan stepped forward.
"I don’t have a problem with that."
Kaelen gave him the floor with a slight inclination of his head.
The lycan turned toward Trafalgar. "You don’t need to worry about me. Or about where I stand."
Trafalgar’s expression barely changed, though his attention sharpened.
"During the war, I wasn’t exactly there by choice," the lycan said. "I was closer to a hostage than a soldier. A body being moved around because someone stronger decided I should be there." His jaw tightened at the memory. "When the Void Creatures came, that changed. You gave us an option. Fight with you, or stay where we were and die."
Aubrelle remained quiet beside Trafalgar. Pipin’s head tilted once, as if listening harder.
"We chose to fight," the lycan continued. "That was the first decent choice anyone had given us in a while."
His attention stayed on Trafalgar.
"You probably don’t remember me."
Trafalgar scratched the side of his neck, mildly awkward for once. "No. I really don’t."
That earned the faintest pull at the corner of Eryndor’s mouth. Even Selara looked entertained.
The wolf-lycan let out a short breath. "Fair enough. There was a lot going on." His tone steadied again. "But I remember you. So I’m saying it clearly now. I appreciate what you did."
Trafalgar gave a small nod. "Then I’ll accept it."
The lycan continued before the room could drift elsewhere.
"And as for the Thal’zar name, things have already changed there. Darian du Thal’zar made the family’s position clear. We can’t stay chained to old sins and past mistakes forever. We move forward now. That’s what we’re doing."
Trafalgar nodded again.
’Darian is doing a good job.’
The next thought came right behind it, practical and immediate.
’Tonight I’ll speak to Caelum. I need him to inform Father about two things. One, Mayla. Two, I want to meet Darian.’
Kaelen watched the exchange without interrupting it. The room had not softened, but the pressure inside it had shifted. At the very least, from the Thal’zar side, there was a real intention to leave the war where it belonged.
One of the elves let out a slow breath, the kind that came from someone swallowing words he would have preferred to keep. His face gave little away, but the bitterness was there, thin as sap under bark. The other elf stood with his chin slightly raised, not hostile enough to invite a clash, not gracious enough to hide what the war had left in him. Neither belonged to the Sylvanel bloodline itself, yet both had clearly grown close enough to its shadow for it to stain the way they held themselves.
At last, the first one spoke.
"We are not here to start trouble."
The second followed a heartbeat later, voice drier, less willing. "What happened in the war happened there. We won’t bring it here."
Kaelen took it without softening.
"See that you do not."
His staff touched the floor once, lightly, but the sound traveled through the room like a line being drawn.
"I do not care what banner your families bled under. I do not care what grudge survived the battlefield." His voice deepened, carrying the steady force of stone under water. "If any of you turn this academy into a continuation of that war, the punishment will not end with you."
That landed harder than anything said before.
Kaelen let the weight of it sit where it needed to. "Your actions here reflect on the houses, retainers, and branches tied to your names. If one of you decides to be foolish, the blowback will reach far beyond this room. Keep that in mind before you test me."
The bat-lycan stiffened at that. The wolf-lycan lowered his head once, accepting it. The elves did not argue. Whatever resentment they carried, they were not blind enough to miss where the danger lay.
Kaelen’s attention shifted.
This time it settled on Trafalgar and Aubrelle.
"And that goes for both of you as well."
Trafalgar met him without flinching. Aubrelle stood beside him with one hand resting lightly near Pipin, her face calm, unreadable in the way only she seemed able to make it.
"You carry more weight than most of the students in this room," Kaelen said. "That makes your conduct more dangerous, not less. Do not mistake influence for permission."
Trafalgar gave a short nod.
Aubrelle inclined her head with the same easy certainty she brought into everything. "Of course."
That was enough.
The meeting loosened after that. . The students began to move first, chairs shifting softly, footsteps crossing the floor in uneven rhythms. Eryndor pushed himself up from his seat with the heavy ease of a man who always looked half ready to walk back onto a battlefield. Althea rose more quietly, dark and severe as a drawn blade. Even Kaelen stepped back, the central purpose of the gathering already complete.
Trafalgar thought that would be the end of it.
Selara had other ideas.
"You two stay."
Her voice cut through the room with bright, casual precision, as if she had only just remembered the most important part. Her emerald stare moved between Aubrelle and Trafalgar, lively and unreadable all at once.
The others kept heading for the door.
