The Retired Hero is an Extra

\'It\'s time for him to arrive, no?\' Jash mused, ignoring the stares and the spotlight he was in.

—Woosh!

The air suddly blasted off in all directions, silcing all the noise that could be heard in the stadium.

"Hah," Jash secretly breathed a sigh of relief at the sight, aware of who it was.

\'So flashy,\' he clicked his tongue inwardly at the needlessly flashy trance of the man floating in the air.

"Finally, the principal has arrived," a murmur low ough to be easily missed was actually heard by a vast majority of people.

Everyone looked at the moving wind, trying to find its source and also the elusive Principal of the Solarnelle Academy.

Finally, the figure of a slightly older man appeared, who had grayish hair and black eyes, wearing a pristine suit.

He had a short beard that suited his sharp face with eyes that seemed to contain an aged wisdom.

Just by catching a glance of his eyes, one could see the wisdom underneath.

\'He looked older than grandpa,\' Jash noted, \'Still, his presce is no joke, ev wh he\'s not releasing it.\'

While Jash could only guess it in his heart, all professors and those ranked S or above felt the Principal\'s presce was akin to that of a dragon.

His unique appearance included features from all three races: slightly longer ears than humans but shorter than elves.

Taller than any dwarf and most humans yet the muscular stature and strong build seemed to have come from his dwarv lineage.

Despite his impressive presce, the Principal had no family backing and was once deemed insignificant trash because of his mixed heritage.

Although rare in the early years, inter-race marriage and dating became quite a common thing.

That\'s why one could see half-elves or those with minute elv or dwarv bloodlines within them.

\'Of course, those darned races banned anyone in an important position from having lovers from other races.\'

While Jash thought so, he knew that the same was the case for the humans, but he chose to convitly ignore that.

A confirmation bias, if you will.

The Principal\'s voice cut through Jash\'s thoughts as he finally spoke, "Congratulations to the Year Represtatives for getting your positions and ranks."

His voice was sere and calm as his gaze fell over Jash and Ziva before turning to the audice.

However, he couldn\'t really focus on them, or else his passive presce of SSS-Rank would bring great oppression unto them.

Although he appeared to be an ordinary man if he wasn\'t in the air, he was the strongest hunter in the whole world.

Turning to face the examinees back, he added calmly, "If you\'re upset or disappointed by the results, th know that you will get your chance to compete again, next year."

\'They really do make the Year Represtative hold the position for a year, ev if they lose their rank,\' Jash thought with curiosity.

However, he suddly seemed to recall something as his expression soured.

The Principal of the Solarnelle Academy, Fdril Vale, was considered the strongest hunter in the world.

\'He\'s also a SSS-Rank, but the strongest? I doubt that,\' Jash guessed, always thinking of untouched elemts or hidd monsters.

Anyways, his guess might be wrong or might be correct, but it would change nothing of the currt situation.

Meanwhile, Fdril turned to a differt spot and called out, "Professor Zander."

Right th, Vice-Principal Zander showed up, nodding to Fdril\'s words.

"Take both of our winners to their rooms and give them their gifts," Fdril implored before turning to the audice.

"With this, I announce the Entrance Test\'s d. To the new studts, we will meet again at the oping ceremony in the next three days wh you will ter the Solarnelle Academy," Fdril added and disappeared just like he appeared.

Professor Zander quickly signaled Rui, who was still in awe and was nervous about his tertainmt being discovered.

Nevertheless, he understood his role as the commtator, "I hope you joyed the Entrance Test!"

"Now..."

While Rui addressed the crowd, Zander disappeared and appeared next to the stage where the examinees were huddled together.

"You guys follow me," Zander said, addressing Jash and Ziva and they both immediately nodded.

"The rest of you, the staff will guide," Zander added before walking away, with Ziva and Jash in tow.

The two nodded to each other behind Zander as Jash had a small smile gracing his face.

It seemed to be telling Ziva, "Now what? Ev I won."

However, Ziva averted her gaze, not getting into his tirades and quietly followed behind Zander.

Dumbfounded by her change of attitude, Jash could only wonder, \'What\'s up with her?\'

He was fed up with the changes in the plotline and couldn\'t understand why everything was ever-changing.

Of course, he forgot to account for the changes brought by himself as Amael was the one who was supposed to win, and not the protagonist.

\'Shit! Just what the hell is his name!?\' Jash cursed inwardly, getting angry due to the frustration from the pain as well as the changing state of evts.

While the two were being led away, the remaining examinees were guided away by the staff members and one of them had a particularly downtrodd face.

"It\'s fine, isn\'t it? We got exposure and that\'s the reason we came here," Caeron said, consoling Vivia and the protagonist.

"Why the long face, huh? Vivia? Helios?" he asked again, unable to understand their situation.

In fact, from their perspective, he seemed to be mocking them, but neither had anything to retort with.

Meanwhile, the VIP rooms were also a hub of discussion,

"He didn\'t perform that well," a person said.

"Well, what could he do in front of the two monstrous giuses, let alone that monster of a kid," another replied.

"Inform them about all of the evts" he continued, "We can help them against each other if everything works out."

In another VIP room, the tire area was thrashed as the noble left after his son faced an early defeat, leaving behind the words, "That can\'t be no son of mine."

Unlike this impulsive noble, a man was consoling his son who couldn\'t ev get into the top 000.

"It\'s fine, son. Life is like this only. At this young age, you wanted something, but you didn\'t get it so you broke down, and that\'s absolutely fine,"

Patting his son\'s head, he added with a smile, "But if you had won, you might have become too proud and lost sight of its true value, since it would seem too easily gained."

While his words might seem random or strange for the Entrance Test, they carried profound wisdom that any mature person would relate to.

"Do you get it son? And what if the Goddess has better plans for you?" he said with a final pat before taking his son with him.

"Wow! What an ideal father!"

"That\'s why he gets marriage proposals despite being a single father..."

If only those who believed in \'seeing is believing\' noticed how the son\'s expression had be froz in terror all the time, they\'d know how wrong they were...