"But… why did you bring Victoria?"
"Because of her power"
"What?"
"Hm", Ms. Elton nodded, "Her System allows here to--"
Hearing Ms. Elton's words, Victoria could not help but blink her eyes a couple of times as she rushed towards Ms. Elton. She was about to try and cover her mouth, but Ms. Elton quickly avoided it by hiding behind Van.
"Psh", she scoffed, "Don't worry about it. Mr. Evans here seems to be the kind of person that doesn't talk to people that much"
"Right? Right?", Ms. Elton said as she poked Van's back repeatedly, "Also, It is only fair for him to know your power since you know a secret of his"
Victoria squinted her eyes and looked back and forth between Van and Ms. Elton, but after a while, she sighed and nodded her head.
"Miss Victoria here has the skill to amplify other's skills"
"...What?"
"If I touch her, I can copy skills from people that are far away", Ms. Elton added.
Van tilted his head. A System that makes other Systems stronger? One truly can't expect what one could find amongst the Unique-type System Holders. It was quite an amazing skill, but…
"She doesn't have a power of her own?", Van furrowed his eyebrows. Won't her System basically be useless if she was alone?
"Oh, she does", Ms. Elton slightly chuckled, "But that will remain for my ears only… unless you want to share more of what your System could do? Fufufu--"
"I can understand any language", Van said without hesitation.
"T… that", for the first time ever, Ms. Elton stuttered. "Her... power is still a secret", she then whispered after clearing her throat.
"...But I just told--"
"It is not an equal exchange", Ms. Elton raised her hand before Van could even finish his words, "Now, tell me more about this skill of yours"
"..."
Seeing that Ms. Elton really had no plan on telling him what other skills Victoria has, he could not help but let out a long sigh. "It says I can understand any language", Van said as he slightly shook his head, "Ever since I unlocked the skill, I have been unable to sleep because I keep hearing whispers at night"
"Please, tell me how I can control it", Van said as he once again sighed in frustration. He really has not had a good night's sleep for almost a week now and it was starting to make him… truly uncomfortable.
"Oh, you can't turn it off?", Ms. Elton squinted her eyes.
"It's… a Passive Skill"
"Hmm…", Ms. Elton placed her hand on her chin, "Hearing whispers at night, can understand any language… interesting, very interesting"
"Wait here", Ms. Elton then suddenly walked back inside the house, leaving Van and Victoria alone in the backyard.
But unlike their 30 minutes of awkward silence earlier, this time, Victoria spoke to Van, the tone of her voice seemingly filled with curiosity even though her emotionless face was saying she was disinterested.
"Did you really swallow the crystal?", Victoria slightly squinted her eyes as she looked at Van's mouth.
"...Yes", Van answered.
"What does it taste like?"
"... Chicken"
"R… Really!?", Victoria quickly widened her eyes as she stared Van straight in the eyes.
"No"
"...tch", Victoria clicked her tongue as she looked to the side, once again reverting to her normal cold look.
Seeing this, Van could not help but let out a tiny chuckle. It would seem that Victoria was capable of showing emotions, after all, Van thought. From the two weeks that he had been in the academy, this was the first time he had ever exchanged a conversation with her, even though they sat beside each other in class.
"I'm Van", he then introduced himself, still lightly chuckling.
"...Victoria"
The two looked at each other in the eye, but once again stared at the house in silence, waiting for Ms. Elton to come back.
Finally, after a few more minutes, Ms. Elton came back, her face clearly excited as she held… some small hairless monkey-like creature by its neck.
"...Is that your baby?", Van blurted out.
"Pf…", Victoria let out a tiny hum as soon as she heard that, but she quickly averted her eyes so as to stop herself from letting out any sound.
Ms. Elton, however, seemed to be oblivious of Van's words as she raised the creature in the air, "This, my dear students, is a Cercopes"
"Unhand I! Unhand I! I eat you if you no let go!"
"!!!"
Van could not help but slightly back away as the little creature talked.
"You understood what it was saying, didn't you!?", Ms. Elton waved the cercopes in the air due to her excitement.
Van, however, ignored Ms. Elton's excitement as he placed his attention to the cercopes, "...Hello"
"!!!"
As soon as Van said his greetings, the cercopes instantly stopped struggling as it slowly turned its head towards him.
"You can also talk to them!?", Ms. Elton said as she once again waved the cercopes in the air like a doll, "Interesting, very interest--"
"You ugly! You can speak!?"
Before Ms. Elton could finish her words, the cercopes once again started struggling as it spoke to Van, "Tell human unhand I or I eat your kind!"
Seeing the cercopes looking at Van and making noises, Ms. Elton could not help but smile, "What is it saying!?"
"It says it wants to be cuddled", Van said in a straight tone, "And that it also prefers to eat leaf"
"Interesting…", Ms. Elton turned the cercopes to her, "So they have different diets as well?"
Ms. Elton continued to stare at the cercopes, and after a while, he looked towards Victoria and Van, "Don't tell anyone I have a cercopes, it is illegal to keep this kind of creature"
"..."
In the end, Ms. Elton spent more time bringing out all sorts of creatures that came from the Portals and placed all of them out in the backyard in cages. Van couldn't help but cover his ears from all the noises and murmurings of the creatures.
"This is your training", were the last words that Ms. Elton said before she dragged Victoria into the house, leaving Van all alone to suffer from the creature's incessant curses.