"Hello, Edward. Can you understand me?"
Edward blinked his eyes a couple of times as he tilted his head from side to side as he stared at Van.
From the stray dogs that were lucky enough not to be eaten in the Relic Graveyard, this was an expression of curiosity, Van thought.
Van was about to say something else, but before he could do so, Edward opened his mouth.
"Yes… understand", he said.
"!!!", Victoria could not help but widen her eyes and looked at Albert, her face filled with excitement as she heard Edward make a grunting noise.
Van, however, could only squint his eyes. Although Edward was obviously intelligent. Even more intelligent than the cercopes that Ms. Elton had in her basement, he seemed to be able not to converse properly.
"...Do you know who that girl is?", Van said as he slowly pointed a finger towards Victoria.
"S… Sister", he muttered quickly without even turning his head.
"Yes!", Van quickly nodded his head, "That's right. She's your younger sister. And the wrinkly old man beside her, do you know who he is?"
"F… food giver", Edward stuttered, fumes shooting out from his nose, he then once again tilted his head from side to side, "You… talk to me?"
"Yes", Van nodded his head, "I have a special… skill that allows me to talk to mons-- to anyone, you see"
"...Special?"
"All you have to know is that I understand you, okay?", Van slowly started to relax his tone, "I understand you"
"Un… understand…", Edward, as well, started to relax as he slowly moved his arms, "You… understand me?"
Edward's shoulders then started to tremble as he hugged himself.
"B… brother", Victoria could not help but whisper as she saw her brother shed tears for the first time.
"Your sister is calling for you, Edward", Van continued to calm Edward down, "She has been wanting to talk to you for a very long time now. And right now, her only wish in the world is to probably hear your voice because…
...because you're family", Van could not help but let out a tiny breath as he uttered his last words.
"F… family?"
"Yes", Van nodded, "So, come back to normal"
"Return… normal?", Edward instantly stopped shivering, "What… is normal?"
"How!?"
Edward once again started to stomp his hooves to the ground as he started backing away while grasping his head.
Van could not help but click his tongue, one wrong word, and Edward was back to being alarmed.
"How does an Evolution type usually turn off their transformation!?", Van then hurriedly said as he looked at Beatrice.
"They…", Beatrice fixed her glasses, "...just turn it off"
Van could not help but twitch his eyes with Beatrice's answer. And with a slight sigh, he once again turned his attention towards Edward.
"...Can you open your System Window!?"
"System… window?"
As soon as Edward said that, his eyes widened in shock and he started recklessly waving his hands in the air.
"...f*ck", Van could only let out a curse as he seemed to have agitated Edward even more.
"What did you say, Van!?", Harvey, who has been quiet for a while now, once again started to panic. He was, after all, being used as a shield right now.
"He needs to calm down!", Van shouted.
"H… how, man!?"
"I got you, little man"
"!!!", the group could not help but turn their heads over to the gates as they heard a voice.
"G… grandmother!"
It was Charlotte Gates, watching them from the other side of the gates. Van and the rest of the group could not help but blink a couple of times as they saw her. Since when was she there? They all thought.
Charlotte then grabbed the railing of the gates… and proceeded to pull them from the hinges casually like it was just a loose bark.
"..."
She then suddenly swung the gigantic gate towards Edward.
"!!!"
"Grandma, no!", Victoria screamed as soon as she did so, but alas, she could do nothing. But as they all thought that Edward would be squished into a paste, the gate abruptly stopped. The force caused the gate to bend in an arc, going over Edward's head and piercing the ground behind him.
She then planted the other side of the gate that she was holding to the ground beneath her before disappearing from her spot.
Van, who turned on his [Time Perception] skill and went into superspeed as soon as Charlotte swung the gates, saw everything that happened clearly… and it made him lose a breath.
Fast, he thought.
Even with his skill on, Charlotte was still moving incredibly fast. It was as if she was moving at normal speed… no, perhaps even faster. Even faster than the strange spider-boss that Van met in the Portal.
"What… a monster", Van could not help but stutter as she saw Charlotte casually bending the gate with her bare hands like it was nothing. And for some reason, her eyes were closed. How was she even able to see what she was doing? Van thought.
And as soon as Charlotte was done in caging the raging Edward, Van turned off his skills to see the result.
He looked over to Charlotte once again, who seemed to have not even broken a sweat after doing all of that. It made Van wonder if he increased his STR to the maximum, will he also be able to do what she did?
Charlotte, who noticed that Van was staring at her, could not help but smirk. "You're an interesting little man, aren't you?", she muttered as she looked Van straight in the eye.
Even though Charlotte was only looking at her, Van still could not help but back away as it felt like something was trying to force him down.
"What are you waiting for then?", Charlotte continued, "Do your thing."
"H… huh?", Van tilted his head.
"You can talk to my grandson, can you not?", Charlotte furrowed her eyebrows, "I saw you talking to him earlier"
"...", Van could not help but blink a couple of times. So, she was already here earlier?
...Then why didn't she help them out?