The Retired Hero is an Extra

Although its comfort was nothing compared to his bed back in the Ramille Estate, he had already practiced sleeping anywhere during the Entrance Test.

Unlike other noble scions, he had spent days inside dungeons, while most of the rich scions preferred staying only a few hours.

After all, the dungeon belonged to them and only completing E-Rank dungeons would require days while F-Rank dungeons at most would need 2-3 days.

While this estimate was conservative in and of itself, it excluded the maniacs who wanted to explore the entire dungeon or eliminate every single monster.

Though rare, such crazy people indeed exist.

Yet no one in their entire batch was like that, and most were busy complaining about one thing or another.

Despite all the complaints, there were people training with their weapons or practicing their mana circulation to increase their mana.

Unlike Jash, who didn\'t need to attend any of the Weapon Arts subjects, most students did.

The students similarly were quite elated at the prospect of growing stronger and matching those monsters who took their spotlight.

Sadly, the students were set to be disappointed as the basics of mana eluded some and that was needed even before anything else.

Mana was the foundation of everything in this world, after all.

It didn\'t matter if one was a mage, warrior, blacksmith, alchemist or any other path, they must learn about mana.

—Ring! Ring! Ring!

Already knowing it, Jash was resting peacefully before his bracelet rang an alarm.

"Ugh, what now?" he grunted as he woke up, quickly dispelling the alarm as it sensed his state of being awake and desire to silence it.

"Damn this forced alarm!" Jash cursed as he remembered that the ID Bracelet rang for everyone and there was no muting it.

As unfortunate as it was, it served as a wake-up call, ensuring no student missed attendance.

Of course, it only took into account an average of thirty minutes to get ready in the morning.

So anyone who wanted more than that ought to wake up on their own or set another alarm manually, and if they woke up, the forced one wouldn\'t buzz.

—Sigh

Jash let out a weary sigh as he rubbed his eyes, before noticing the light on his ID Bracelet blinking, signifying a new notification.

"So it is inevitable, huh?" he sighed again, looking at the notification of a Student Council meeting which was personally called by the Student Council President.

Accepting his fate, he went to take a quick shower before dressing himself and leaving the room, bumping into Ziva on the ground floor.

"Huh?" He was surprised to see her focusing on something that he let out a sound, attracting her attention.

Jash blinked, slightly dazed as her brows furrowed, then softened into a hint of recognition, and finally, a beautiful smile played on her lips.

He gulped nervously, having hoped to not meet her, but he ended up bringing her attention to himself.

\'By the looks of it, she was probably choosing breakfast,\' he noted, observing her position and how she said something before gesturing two at the person behind the counter.

"Good morning," Ziva greeted him with a smile, surprised to see him be on time.

"Mornin\'," Jash replied succinctly, averting his gaze and trying to minimize his presence.

Yet his fidgeting around seemed to only make her smile widen as she teased, "So what got you ready on time?"

\'She\'s sure I woke up to that alarm instead of by myself,\' Jash guessed, displeased by it despite knowing it was the truth.

Unlike him, Ziva had been awake for more than 1 hour, and so, the ID Bracelet muted her forced alarm, telling her about it when she went through it.

That was how many students got to know about it, so Jash was sure she knew of it, the phrasing of her question confirmed his doubts.

"Breakfast, I need energy after sleeping," Jash shrugged casually, acting as if he didn\'t hear her teasing tone.

"Oh? I thought you\'d be running late, so I already ordered two of them," Ziva replied, acting oblivious to his intentions.

An awkward silence followed before Jash muttered, "Thank you, I guess?"

"Hmm." Ziva nodded and the two who didn\'t talk much just stared at each other, or more like Jash tried to avoid her gaze.

The two waited in silence before the food was given and then more awkward silence followed as the two had breakfast.

It was nothing special; just some veggies, a smoothie and a chocolate cookie to go by.

It was too light to be even considered breakfast, but it did complete their nutrient requirement despite being a custom meal that Ziva asked for.

She knew that Jash didn\'t eat any meat, so she simply ordered it in that manner, and ate the same thing.

On the other hand, Jash was eating with a suspicious eye, wondering what got over Ziva to eat the same food as him.

\'She sure used to eat dishes I couldn\'t stand to irk me,\' Jash recalled his distant childhood memories, but could only recall unpleasant ones.

\'Is she content with the embarrassment I felt yesterday?\' Jash doubted that was the case, though.

\'No way, she isn\'t like that... wait, could it be...? Yeah, it has to be that!\' He finally felt like he was closer to figuring out her intentions.

"You got the notification of the Student Council meeting as well, right?" he asked as the two put away their plates.

As they exited the lobby, Ziva replied, "Yeah, I am also a member of the Student Council, aren\'t I?"

"What do you want?" Jash asked directly as they walked to the nearby exchange sector to reach Block 1.

Naturally, it was near the Ranker\'s Dorms—another perk of being a ranker, though indirect.

"Hm? What would I want?" Ziva retorted as the two arrived at the exchange sector.

"I don\'t know? Not like I can help you with anything," Jash replied starkly, entering the portal to Block 1 where their class was located.

It was early morning, and the Block was sparsely populated with many students yet to arrive.

"Hm? Then why ask?" Ziva asked after arriving, and catching up to him.

Jash just glanced at her but didn\'t say anything despite wanting to state it clearly.

There was no way he could say "you were being polite and ate the same meal as me, so what\'s up with that?"

Thankfully, he wasn\'t stupid and didn\'t say something that would come to bite him back later on.

"Just... nevermind," he said, shaking his head and hastening his pace.

"What?" she asked, confusion apparent from her expression as he easily matched his pace. m-vl _e mpY _r exclusive content

In the end, she got no answer as Jash quietly made his way to his seat from the previous day after reaching the classroom.

The classroom had been abuzz with chatter, as the students got to know each other and excitedly discussed exploring the Academy.

However, Ziva and Jash\'s entrance caused the conversations to go silent, to the point that the silence was almost deafening.

\'Might as well arrive late to not meet anyone,\' Jash mused, looking outside the classroom, annoying Ziva in his own way as she struggled to maintain her quiet facade.