The Retired Hero is an Extra

'Damn is she determined to become a member of the Council of Races or resolved herself to paint them as an enemy?'

Jash was curious about her interest in the Council, knowing that it would be better if her thoughts matched his latter guess.

'Joining them? Laughable,' he smiled wryly at the sheer stupidity and naïveté of such a thought.

But he wasn't too sure about her line of thought, not knowing much about her except one thing that mattered to him.

If only he could directly approach her and be blunt, but that was not a possibility as she would probably lunge at him, going for the kill.

'In some sense, I am her mortal enemy, after all,' Jash thought, unaware that Ziva had seen his

small

movements.

'He's looking at a girl?' she thought, half surprised, half disbelieving. She knew him all too well to know he hated

annoying

stuff.

It mattered not if it was a person or something, but getting involved with a girl, someone like him?

She almost laughed at the thought, thankful for her improved self-control in preventing a laugh from escaping.

Unlike Jash, she was indeed listening to the class despite how boring it was, also wanting to ask why Galen derailed so much from the topic.

But then again, she remembered a certain someone who could probably derail for hours if someone didn't tell him.

And that certain someone had just turned his face to the front, not really interested in the Council of Races.

The Council of Races was superior to the Hunter Association, even outranked the Solarnelle Imperial Family, which was quite contradictory.

However, it did include important figures from the races as well as the church so it made sense and the special exception: the saintess.

The Saintess was one such member that would get a seat in the Council even if he or she were F-Rank.

Not like their words or opinions mattered, but it was to say that the position of Saintess or Saint carried that much allure.

They could literally twist the narrative and have the world in their hands, but could a Saint or Saintess chosen by the Goddess of Light be wicked?

Not a chance.

Of course, that was how it was perceived by others but only those old fogies knew how much of a problem the current Saintess was whenever she showed up.

After all, the Council of Races decided most rules and was the ruling authority of the world.

And even the voting power isn't a 1-1 situation, it can change depending on the matter and sometimes be a pure unanimous only decision.

They called it

'doing it to maintain the system of our current society',

but was it truly?

'For the people, my ass!' Jash cursed inwardly, aware of all the sinister intentions they held beyond those smiling, kind facades

'I've already been betrayed enough to know that they all just want the power to make the world bend to their whims...'

Jash's thoughts were outrageous, but held the cold harsh truth of any world.

It mattered little what sleazy excuses were being thrown around as that mattered not.

Feeling the weight increasing on his shoulders, Jash let go of his thoughts and he heard some more words from Galen.

"Now, you must be confused about me mentioning so many things unrelated to Beast Theory, but this is the basis for the subject," he exclaimed, proud of his words.

"Let's begin with the first Dungeon appearance, around the time when humans didn't use mana like we do now,"

"Mana Core Formation was discovered and stabilized too slowly, and the first dungeon breakout exterminated majority of humanity at that time,"

"Of course, all this is assuming that all those old records mentioned are the truth," he smiled meaningfully.

His words were quite intriguing for students from a common background who didn't know much about the old records.

But the privileged students could only see them as bold words, as those records were cherished and believed by most nobility.

Unfettered by the students' gaze, he added, "But then, Hunters were born, and we, humans, awakened to the dormant power of mana,"

"Though we are still improving," he smiled at his letter words, easing the atmosphere as it seemed to have taken a heavier tone.

'Ugh, not this anymore,' Jash hated it inwardly as Galen continued, his hands gesturing animatedly, discussing dungeons—something Jash knew thoroughly.

Each Dungeon had its own unique environment and they mostly appeared in highly dense mana regions.

Of course, not in mana rooms as they were artificially created using runed, mana stones and whatnot, but the natural regions.

'Not like it's true for every dungeon out there,' Jash mused, shuddering all over as his traumatic experience came to his mind.

As time passed by with nothing interesting being taught, Jash had a hard time coming back to the present from his traumatic memories, suffering from PTSD.

No matter how he survived, it was a fact that he could have very well died, his entire existence wiped out yet something strange saved him.

And any sane person would fear the unknown, regardless of how good it seemed, as the ancient saying goes;

"Sweet words, honeyed speech and the sweetest things may be the most poisonous."

While Jash was busy with his own internal musings, Galen wrapped up his class and went out.

'What the hell?! What was even related to Beast Theory in it?!' Jash couldn't help but want to curse out loud, cry his indignation to the Heavens.

Alas he wasn't the wronged protagonist of a xianxia novel who would get a golden finger

(system)

or some passing old man would leave their inheritance to him.

Ahem, nor would he get a ring in which some old master's dissipating spirit existed, wanting to teach him to resurrect themselves.

Unlike him, many students had dropped their heads down on their desks, wanting to get a good sleep after all that boring nonsense...

Though some were eagerly conversing, stretching and making more plans to explore the Academy, or even go to the Great Library.

However, all of it was in low voices so as to not get on the bad side of the Year Representatives as their crazy videos of the Entrance Test were still being spread.

If not for them, some young master or young miss with an ego would throw a fit, claiming they were wronged by these classes or whatnot.

But nobody here had the audacity to offend the scary Year Representatives who didn't even care about the Student Council, or so the rumors were going on.

Speaking of which, in the hallway outside other classes, students could be seen walking in groups or alone, or some forming their own cliques.

There were even cases of

'protection fees'

but as mentioned it was a loophole, not something anyone would want to involve themselves with.

Only that the ones taking the fees were smart enough to not offend someone with a background or someone who was friends with them.

Of course, if someone was stronger than them, they would be skipped regardless of their background.

Typical fear the strong and dominate the weak attitude...

Just nearby a student observed some bullying but acted blind, instead asking to their friend, "Tomorrow is the Aura Creation class, right?"

"Yeah... did something happen?" The friend noticed something off and immediately asked.

"Nothing much, Professor Ronan was stupefied when Jash Ramille didn't show up to class. Apparently, he has chosen elemental theory," the first person said with a half-smiling, half-disbelieving expression.

His friend shrugged, "Why do you even care? Not like it affects the likes of us; let's just focus on enjoying the drama tomorrow."

"Haha, you're right," the first friend chuckled in agreement.