SSS Talent: From Trash to Tyrant-Chapter 468: The Fifth Legendary Character [II]

Chapter 468: Chapter 468: The Fifth Legendary Character [II]

When Xavier returned to where he had left them, neither Trafalgar nor Vivienne was there anymore.

He slowed for a second and looked around the hall, expecting to spot them nearby. With how crowded the place was, it was easy enough to think they had simply moved a little to the side to avoid the nobles still trying to approach Trafalgar every few minutes.

At first, he did not give it much importance.

Then a minute passed.

Then another.

Xavier began walking through the nearby groups, glancing from face to face until he finally stopped beside two young nobles he vaguely knew.

"Have either of you seen Trafalgar?"

Both shook their heads. One of them even let out a small laugh.

"If you find him, let us know. We’ve been looking for him too."

That did not help at all.

Xavier moved on and asked again. Then again. Every answer was the same. No one knew where Trafalgar had gone. Some said they had seen him not long ago. Others admitted they had also been hoping to speak with him and had lost sight of him in the crowd.

"Where did he go?" Xavier muttered under his breath.

He tried to think back clearly. Just a moment ago, Trafalgar had been standing there. Xavier had spoken to him, then his mother had called him away. Trafalgar had not been alone either. There had been someone next to him.

A woman.

Xavier frowned.

His mind caught on that detail and then slid strangely around it, as if something refused to let the image settle properly. He could remember the space being occupied. He could remember that someone had been there with Trafalgar. But the more he tried to focus on her face, the more blurred the thought became, like reaching into water and finding his hand empty every time.

His head suddenly throbbed.

Xavier brought a hand to his temple and shut one eye for a second.

"Argh... my head."

That was when the feeling shifted from mild confusion to something else.

Something was wrong.

In another part of the Council grounds, far from the noise of the great hall, Trafalgar stood with Vivienne in the gardens.

The place was quieter there. White stone paths curved between trimmed hedges and pale flowers, silver lamps cast soft light across the marble, and the distant music from the hall reached them only as a faint murmur. The air felt cooler too, cleaner, free from the heavy perfume and endless voices of the nobles inside.

Trafalgar had brought her there on purpose.

He wanted answers, and he was no longer interested in pretending that anything about her was normal.

Vivienne stood a few steps away from him, her posture composed at first glance, though the tension in her shoulders gave her away if one looked properly.

For a few seconds, neither of them spoke.

Then Trafalgar finally said, "You’ve been looking at me too much all night."

Vivienne blinked, caught slightly off guard by how direct he was.

"Sorry," she said. "That wasn’t my intention."

Trafalgar did not believe that for a second.

"It was enough of an intention for me to notice."

Vivienne held his gaze for a moment, then looked away briefly toward the hedges before returning her eyes to him. "You were looking at me too."

"Yes," Trafalgar said. "Because I wanted to talk to you."

That made her go quiet for a second.

He kept watching her.

Her face was calm, but not relaxed. She looked like someone holding a door shut from the other side with both hands, hoping it would not be forced open.

Trafalgar took one step closer.

"Who are you?"

Vivienne did not answer immediately.

Instead she said, "I already told you."

"No." His voice turned colder. "You gave me a name. That’s not the same thing."

Still she did not move.

Trafalgar’s eyes narrowed. Maledicta materialized into his hand at once, dark and familiar, its presence alone enough to change the air between them. The moment Vivienne saw it, her expression changed completely. Whatever balance she had been forcing into herself cracked.

Real fear crossed her face.

"I’m Vivienne," she said quickly. "Xavier’s sister."

Trafalgar did not lower the blade.

"That’s not true. Xavier was adopted by Althea. He told me himself. He had one brother, and that brother died." His eyes stayed fixed on her. "He never mentioned a sister. Not once."

Vivienne’s throat tightened.

Trafalgar moved Maledicta a little closer.

"Who are you?"

She swallowed, then tried again.

"I’m Xavier’s sister."

This time, Trafalgar felt it.

Something slid across his mind, subtle and smooth, almost gentle in the way poison could feel gentle when it first entered the blood. For the briefest instant, agreeing with her felt easy. Natural.

Of course she was Xavier’s sister.

Of course that made sense.

Then his Primordial Body reacted.

The foreign pressure broke apart almost instantly, slipping off him before it could settle into anything real. Trafalgar’s gaze sharpened.

So that was her other trick.

His voice dropped lower.

"You used a skill on me."

Vivienne’s face went pale.

Maledicta’s edge touched the skin of her throat.

That was enough. Her knees gave out, and she dropped to the ground in front of him.

"No," she said quickly, panic breaking through at last. "No, I’m not Xavier’s sister."

Trafalgar said nothing.

Vivienne stayed on her knees, breathing unevenly now, both hands pressed against the ground as if that were the only thing keeping her steady.

"I used his name to get close to you," she admitted. "That’s all."

"Why?"

She looked up at him, clearly afraid, but there was something else there too. Something that did not fit with simple malice.

Desperation.

Vivienne lowered her eyes for a moment before answering.

"Because there was no other way."

Trafalgar’s grip on Maledicta did not change. "Explain."

"I heard too much about you," she said. "At first it was the same things everyone heard. The war. The Void Creatures. The way your name suddenly started appearing everywhere." Her fingers curled slightly against the stone. "Then I heard other things. Smaller things. Stranger things. The way you move. The people who survive around you. The kind of decisions you make."

Trafalgar remained silent.

Vivienne looked back up at him.

"You keep doing things that shouldn’t be possible."

Trafalgar studied her carefully. She was still scared. That much was real. But she was no longer lying just to save herself. He could feel the difference in the way she spoke.

He asked again, more quietly this time.

"Why did you need to get close to me?"

Vivienne’s lips pressed together.

Then she said, "Because I need help."

That was not the answer Trafalgar had expected.

His expression did not change, but something in his gaze shifted slightly.

Vivienne noticed and continued before she lost the chance.

"And because I was told to find you."

That made Trafalgar’s eyes narrow.

"By who?"

Vivienne hesitated.

"I can’t say everything here," she said.

Maledicta pressed a little more firmly against her throat.

Vivienne shut her eyes for a second and forced the next words out. "It’s about the Void Creatures." Her voice came out lower now, tighter. "Something happened during the war. I got too close to something I shouldn’t have, and since then..." She stopped for a moment, then looked up at him again. "I know something I shouldn’t. And the one who found me after that told me to come to you."

The gardens stayed quiet around them.

Trafalgar weighed every part of what he had heard. She was a liar, that much was undeniable. She had come to him under a false identity, used Xavier’s name, and tried her skill on him. But fear was difficult to fake at close range, and so was desperation that had already gone past pride.

"If you needed help," he said, "why not go to your own people?"

Vivienne let out a small, humorless breath. "If I had people I could trust, I wouldn’t be kneeling in front of you right now."

That answer landed more cleanly than the others.

Trafalgar looked at her a moment longer. Then Maledicta vanished.

Vivienne did not move from the ground right away, as if she still expected the blade to return the second she breathed wrong.

"No more lies," Trafalgar said.

"Alright."

"And don’t use that skill on me again."

"I won’t."

He still did not know who she really was, or what kind of trouble she had just placed at his feet. But one thing had become clear enough. She had not approached him on a whim. Something connected to the Void Creatures had pushed her into someone else’s hands first, and from there, straight toward him.