SSS Talent: From Tra Chapter 487: The God of War [II]

Chapter 487: Chapter 487: The God of War [II]

The mont 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 sa 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 ca 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 mont longer, then gave a small nod.

"I know." A brief pause followed. "My na 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 sa 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 assud 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 na 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 mont 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 amusent in it thinned again. "You say that as if you’ve spent a long ti thinking about ghosts."

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

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 na 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 ti. "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 so battlefield, sleeping in a palace stolen from kings, or making yourself insufferable like a dickhead in so 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 ca simply, but it carried enough weight that even Caelvyrn let it sit without breaking it right away.

After a mont, he spoke again, quieter now. "It’s been a long ti."

"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 so distant past. There was history here, the old kind, worn into both n 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 tis 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 rember 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 ti 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 rember you. You’ve grown well."

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

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

Rhosyn’s brow drew together faintly. She searched his face again, slower this ti, as if trying to force sothing old to rise from mory and finding only fragnts.

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 ti, as if trying to pull sothing old from mory and finding only scraps. "I don’t rember you."

"I’m not surprised," Dravok said. "You were young, and a great many things happened after. Enough to bury nas, 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. So died. So ran. So 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 rember , I doubt they rember

kindly. To so, 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 sothing 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. n and won 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 nas for a man like that. So harsher than others. I’ve heard most of them already."

Dravok was silent for a mont, 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

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 t his gaze.

"Yes."