Chapter 26 - 26: Beatrice Williams
All classes for the day have ended and the other students have already started leaving one by one. Van, however, was still in his seat. With his head down and his eyes blinking every now and then.
"Van... you alright, man?", seeing Van’s dejected look, Harvey could not help but narrow his eyebrows as he walked towards him, "Everyone’s leaving, let’s go, man"
And even though Harvey called for Van, he did not even respond as he kept on staring lifelessly towards his desk, as if he didn’t even hear a single word of what Harvey said. Harvey was about to slap Van to snap him out of his stupor, but before he could do so, Beatrice hummed as she realized something.
"I think I know why he’s so down", Beatrice whispered, "He doesn’t know how to read, remember? He probably had a hard time following the lecture earlier"
"Ah, you’re right!", Harvey groaned as he lightly hit his forehead. But then, his eyes glimmered as he clapped his hand, "Two birds with one stone then!", he declared.
"Hm?", Beatrice tilted her head.
"We visit his house every day, and in turn, we will teach him how to read and write", Harvey said as he crossed his arms and nodded to the genius of his plan, "Well, mostly you will, but you get what I mean. Kakaka!"
Hearing Harvey’s words, Van woke up from his stupor and looked at the two of them, his eyes looking as if he was a lost puppy, "Would... would that really work?"
’...Why not just ask the school to help Van?’, was what Beatrice thought. But as she was also curious about where Van lives, she just shrugged her shoulders for now.
"Of course", Harvey said as he exited the classroom, his face full of excitement, "Let’s go then, onwards!"
***
"This... is your house?"
Beatrice could not help but slightly stutter as they entered Van’s house. She remembered Van telling them that he used to live in the slums, so she was expecting something more humble, but this house might even be more luxurious than her own house.
"Did you... already sell all your crystals to rent this place?", Beatrice fixed her glasses as she looked at Van with her eyes squinted. Van did get a lot of crystals on his first day, it would make sense if he could rent something like this already.
"Oh, no", Van quickly shook his head, "This is compensation from the Explorer’s Association... my father died due to a loose Portal monster"
"S... sorry"
Hearing Beatrice’s weak response, Van could not help but chuckle wryly, "Don’t be...", Van said softly, "My father is in a good place now"
"...Hm", Beatrice could only nod her head awkwardly. She was curious about Van’s situation, but she didn’t really want to pry too much as Van looked like he did not really want to talk about it.
"This is a good neighborhood", Harvey voiced out, his tone filled with satisfaction, "My family owns a subdivision near here"
"...", Van and Beatrice could only look at each other as they heard Harvey’s statement. As expected of a rich kid, they both thought.
"Ah! That’s right! There’s a market near here that sells some good skewers!", Harvey’s excited clap echoed through the house, "You guys make yourself comfortable while I go buy us some!", Harvey shouted before quickly running back outside, his loud voice still reaching Beatrice’s and Van’s ears.
"..."
The two could only look at the door as they were suddenly left alone inside the house. An awkward silence that lasted for a few seconds filled the entire house before Van cleared his throat.
"Shall we... sit while we wait for him?", Van stuttered as he gestured for Beatrice to take a seat on the sofa.
"Hm", Beatrice could only nod.
What happened after, however, was another round of silence. Ever since Beatrice lost to Van during the match, she couldn’t really strike a conversation with him anymore without it coming off as awkward.
But after a few more seconds, she let out a sigh, breaking the long and awkward silence. "You know, Van...", her quiet whispers resounded in the quiet walls of the house, "I envy you"
"Envy... me?", Van could not help but tilt his head, his face containing a bit of confusion.
"Hm", Beatrice nodded, "You see, my parents are both System Holders and they run a guild. It’s... not a strong guild and they never really made a name for themselves, and most of the time, they were being laughed at whenever they try to recruit members", Beatrice could not help but release a sigh as she told her story.
"So when I was young, I promised myself that I would help make their guild famous", she slightly chuckled, "And so I trained. At a very early age, all I did was train my body. While my friends were playing outside, I strived to be stronger... to be on top"
"I wasn’t even sure that I would be a System Holder back then, but even still, I pushed myself. And when the System’s words appeared right in front of me, I pushed myself even harder", Beatrice’s breaths started to become heavier, "I promised my parents that I would make our guild famous and that I would do anything for it to become number 1... for me to become number 1 so that no one could laugh at them again"
"But in the end... everything was in vain", Beatrice let out a deep sigh as she glanced at Van, "I still lost in my very first day in the academy... I lost to you"
Van could only look Beatrice in the eye. So this is the reason why Beatrice was so obsessed with winning? Even now, Van could see traces of it in her eyes.
He wanted to comfort her, he wanted to say something, but he knew anything he would say would be meaningless because he too, had the same eyes as her.
"I wish I was lucky and received a System as strong as yours, Van", Beatrice uttered.
"...Lucky?", hearing Beatrice’s final words, Van could not help but release a slight chuckle. Every day of his life was a fight to survive. Not knowing if he would still be alive come the next day, or if he was, would he even have something to eat. Wondering how many bruises and scars his father would leave him that day.
His life... was hell. There were a lot of thoughts racing inside Van’s mind, but in the end, none of it came out of his mouth as he just smiled towards Beatrice.
"I’m back!", a loud banging sound suddenly thundered throughout the house, making both Van and Beatrice flinch. Harvey then quickly rushed to the living room and placed the skewers he bought on the table.
"W... what the...", as soon as he saw Van and Beatrice’s solemn expressions, Harvey could not help but slightly back away, "What’s with this mood?"
"Could it be... that I was interrupting some sexy time?"