The Retired Hero is an Extra

As the students began dispersing, the professors ensured that nothing out of place occurred in the meantime.

Watching them go, Ziva sat quietly beside Jash before breaking the silence. "What happened to you?"

"Hm?" Jash looked at her questioningly, unable to understand what she was implying.

"Rank 1, the speech, the banquet in retrospect—everything, you don't like those stuff, yes?" she said rhetorically, nodding afterward.

"Only your last words about wanting to give it away were true in that speech as well, and before that—the class division–"

"Alright, alright, I got it," Jash cut her off, not wanting to hear her list everything that was different about him.

Because it wouldn't change a thing, he hadn't even told his family yet, so why would he tell her?

Well, if he knew the future, he would've told her as soon as possible, but that wasn't in his capabilities, so he chose to lie.

"Nothing much, you know, just the same, wanted to become Year Representative due to perks and a good sleep," he shrugged.

"I mean, wouldn't I be able to keep up with others with the extra resources?" he asked truthfully.

Looking at her still doubtful expression, Jash cursed inwardly, 'Damn her element!'

After all, her element helped her intuitively to understand if things were true or false, and it was telling her this was the truth.

Yet her instincts informed her that it was only a half-truth, something he said to cover up the real reason.

'I'll investigate later,' she thought, noticing a professor coming their way with a bright smile on his face.

Though even a toddler could tell it was a fake smile from how excessive it seemed.

"I will take you to your dorms," he said, prompting the two to stand up and follow him with an, "Okay."

Right outside the auditorium were a few students queuing up to get their dorm keys from the staff members.

However, Jash and Ziva only cast a glance once before following the professor away while others were being led in groups by the staff.

Following the professor, it still took them nearly half an hour to reach a five-floor building that seemed to be equally divided into two sides.

This type of architecture was fairly common in their world, a marvel of highly advanced magic engineering.

"This building was made for the top ten, that is, the Rankers among the freshmen," the professor explained.

"Right now, it's empty, but the top ten students will stay here after the assessment test," he said before gesturing.

The silver-blue door opened and he explained, "This is a co-ed dorm. Each floor has only two rooms, but there's no separation based on genders, only ranks."

Though it might seem like keeping teens with raging hormones together would be a bad idea, it worked fairly well.

At least it motivated the teens to outperform the other gender, or impress a girl/boy, and in various other ways.

"Isn't that unsafe?" Ziva asked with a disgusted expression on her face, startling the professor for once.

"Ahem, no. Ever since this dorm method was applied, no such incident has ever occurred as no one can enter this building except the rankers,"

"And the bracelets on your wrist will help you if it actually happens, just one thought and the person nearby will face severe punishment,"

"Of course, some couples might want to joke around with this, but that's just going to end up badly for them," the professor clarified,

The sneaky smile on his face as if signaling something irked Jash but he could only keep it to himself.

'He's a professor, Jash, let's just remember him and make sure he becomes a casualty,' he told himself to calm down.

Unaware of the crazy idiot he annoyed, the professor felt a sudden chill go down his back, feeling the urge to leave suddenly.

"Anyways, the rooms are based on ranks: Rank 1 in room 1 on the 5th floor, Rank 2 in room 2 on the 5th floor, Rank 3 in room 3 on the 4th floor, and so on and so forth."

Jash wasn't paying attention, already aware of it from the novel after the protagonist became a Ranker from the Assessment Test.

Oblivious to it, the professor continued, "But fret not, the privacy is well-respected with the rooms being soundproofed,"

"Also, as the floor goes up, the facilities in them also increase, but all the floors are way better than what other students will live in."

Not stopping, he added hastily, "Naturally, the higher the Rank, the higher the perks and facilities, even on the same floor."

There was no real need to speak about this because anyone could see that this sort of building was a rarity, a luxury that only a select few could get.

"After the assessment test, depending on your rank in the top 10, you can go higher or lower from floor 1," the professor said, entering the lift as soon as it arrived.

They were currently present in the ground floor lobby room, which was a common area for the top 10 rankers to interact with each other.

'The cafeteria seems like a better place,' Jash thought, reluctantly entering the lift, while Ziva looked at the training grounds with a similar expression.

"Your ID bracelets will become your dorm keys after being linked, so there's no need to worry about misplacing them,"

"And there's some stuff already present in your rooms, so you can check that out or may rest for the day," he said before turning around and entering the lift.

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He was really in a hurry and had opened the room number 9 and 10, binding them to their ID bracelets.

"Hmm, so is my room better than yours?" Jash asked with a smirk, finally feeling free from restrictions as he noted his room number to be 9.

"Childish," Ziva muttered under her breath, and entered her room, locking it using her bracelet.

Jash saw it, but didn't have a change in expression as if used to it and entered his own room.

"Wow, how extravagant," he whistled, seeing the huge room that screamed luxury, but it wasn't enough to faze him in the slightest.

He was the son of a duke, there were very few things that he would covet and a simple room wasn't one of them.

"Damn this color coding," he grumbled, trying to find the bedroom to get a good rest in.

The huge living room with some white doors having golden design on them didn't sit well with his eyes.

Entering one of them, Jash smiled more naturally than ever. "A kitchen, huh? How nostalgic," he muttered with a longing gaze.

Despite knowing that there was a cafeteria and most of the food would be served free of charge, he still wanted to try it out.

"Well, not now," he sighed, closing the door and getting out, before entering another room.

It was the Mana Training room and he immediately closed it, not wanting to train in the least.

Contrarily, Ziva had entered that same room in her dorms and had already begun training.

But it wasn't like she really needed to, she was just a training maniac, if Jash were to describe it.