My Hermes System

"...Ms. Elton?"

Van slightly stepped back, even hitting his butt on the door as he noticed Angela Elton standing near where he was before, in front of the television.

"What… are you doing here?"

"I followed you here, of course."

Angela Elton just shrugged her shoulders as she walked around the spacious room, scanning and looking out the window with a curious expression on her face, "I wasn't supposed to show myself and just keep quiet the whole journey, but who knew I would fail without even a day passing. Why'd you even have to talk to this weird machine anyway? Didn't you know it would be funny if someone heard you? Maybe you already knew I was here so you did that? But no, that would be impossible… besides being fast, you're incredibly dense with other things. Really? You talked with this weird machine thing? Wait… maybe you can? You can talk with animals right?"

"..." Van could only furrow his eyebrows as Angela started blabbering. He still couldn't wrap his head around as to how and why she was here in the first place, and now she was talking as if she has been with them from the start, "So you've been with us since we got here, Ms. Elton?"

"I suppose," Angela once again shrugged her shoulders as she returned standing in front of the television. Van, as well, slowly approached Angela.

"...How?" He asked, "I thought you can only copy other people's skills?"

Angela's System, as far as Van was aware of, was to copy the skills of other Systems. Does that mean that they were in close proximity to someone who had the skill to conceal the presence of the holder?

"I can also save them inside my system," Angela said, "Don't tell that to anyone or I will kill you."

"...Wow," Van could not help but let out a voice of admiration upon hearing Elton's words.

She also has the ability to store someone else's skill? If Van didn't hold a special System, then he would have probably already fainted. How would one even fight someone like Angela? Take her to somewhere with no people so she can only use the skills she has stored?

...But then how many skills has she stored in her System? Was it something like his [Conductor of Souls] passive skill?

"..."

"..."

The two then remained quiet for almost 10 minutes before Van gave up and opened his mouth, "But why are you here?" He asked.

"Your lovable mother, my Master Evangeline asked me to follow you," Angela quickly answered, as if already know what Van was going to ask, "I honestly didn't want to go, but I really can't disobey your mother. Also, if I didn't go, then she would have sent that bald-ass Hans to follow you. I am sure both you and I don't want that… and seeing as the muscle demon is with you, Hans would be too busy being bullied to even--"

"Evangeline again?" Van did not let Angela finish her words, interrupting her with his words obviously exuding disdain, "Did she… heal Victoria? It was our agreement, after all."

"She should be awake now," Angela nodded, not even minding that Van cut her mid-sentence, "If there's something your mother holds dear in this world, it is keeping her words and her inability to lie to people."

"She… doesn't lie?"

"Hm," Angela nodded, "She has no need to. Your mother knows… things."

"I find that hard to believe," Van shook his head.

"Why? Because her son is a pathological liar?" Angela bluntly said, "You do not have to worry, Mr. Evans. You and your mother are nothing alike, except when her other personalities resurface, but we're not talking about them."

"..."

"You have more important things to worry about," Angela followed, "You should focus on the duel happening tomorrow. You should be asleep right now, or even training or something. Honestly, even amongst the students of Unique Class-1 up to Class-12, you're probably the laziest one of them all."

"That--"

"Focus on the duel. I can't have my student losing his first battle in another country, it would bring me shame and dishonor. What? What do you mean I have no honor? Go away and just do something else."

"..." Van could only keep quiet as Angela once again started talking to herself. Also, why does Angela still consider Van as her student when she herself already destroyed the Academy in the first place? There was even that graduation battle that he… lost.

But seeing as Angela was weird in the first place… there was probably just some weird reason to it as well.

"Does Miss Charlotte know you're here?" Van then just asked another question.

"Of course," Angela quickly nodded, "That muscle demon is probably listening in on us right now in the other room."

"She should have helped me in waking up this television thing then," Van let out a sigh. He had been tinkering on how to turn on the television for half an hour before Angela made her presence known, and yet he had failed to even do that single task.

"...Do you know how to turn it on?" Van then asked Angela.

"Pft," Angela let out a loud scoff as soon as she heard Van's words, "Of course not. I've never been out of our beloved country before, only heard stories from that eggnog and muscle demon."

"...But aren't you a Gold-rank Explorer?"

"Yeah, I guess," Angela shrugged her shoulders, "But I don't like not being in a familiar environment… Speaking of which, does this small thing really light up with images like the big one we saw earlier?"

"The man earlier said it was a television as well."

"Hm."

The two then stared at the television for another 30 minutes until Angela accidentally pressed something on the television, causing it to light up.

"Ah!" Both she and Van exclaimed as soon as the images appeared on the tv. And funny enough, the first thing they saw was Van's face.

"What's it saying?" Angela asked as she couldn't understand the language being spoken on the tv.

"...It's about the duel tomorrow."

"I see," Angela took in a small breath, "You seem to be getting famous. That's good, that's good. You make me proud as your teacher, Mr. Evans."

Angela patted Van on his shoulder a couple of times, "But maybe you should change your hairstyle, half of the image is being blocked by your hair."

"..."

The two watched whatever it is being shown on the television for about another 30 minutes before Van finally realized something crucial.

"...Where are you sleeping, Ms. Elton?"

"On the bed, where else?"

"..."

"You can just sleep on the sofa. You're small, so you should have no trouble fitting there," Angela said as she made her way to the bed which was obviously too big for her since she was even smaller than Van in stature, "...My old bones need to be laid to rest on the bed."

Angela then crawled on the bed, patting it before proceeding to snuggle herself on the blanket, turning around and no longer minding Van.

"..." Van could only let out a sigh before he made his way… towards the bed, lying beside Angela.

"...What are you doing, Mr. Evans?"

"What do you think I am doing…

...Ms. Elton?"