Van is building the perfect personality for a hero. He's now experiencing hardship himself, so he won't look down on the poor and the working class. Yet he also has people looking after him and cooperating with him, yet not spoiling him, so he understands the value of friends and comrades in getting things done. He's even getting pretty good morsels of wisdom from Hawk. His current tough situation makes him listen to those words.
This chapter is really good at making the character feel human, and honestly it's been YEARS since I read a manga where any character felt even close to this human...