The Retired Hero is an Extra

As Jash walked towards the two, a sudden thought came to him, 'I don't know his name.'

He had always referred to the golden-haired guy as the protagonist since his name seemed blurred in his memories.

It wasn't that he didn't know; it was more like he wasn't allowed to know.

'Might as well ask,' he thought, approaching the two who were eyeing each other warily as well as him.

"Hey..."

—Clang!

Before Jash could say anything, the two clashed swords with each other, forcing him to take a step back.

However, he almost dashed in, trying to intervene and enter the fight, but stopped at the last second.

'Wait, what am I doing? Isn't this what I wanted? So why?' Jash thought to himself, confused by his own instincts.

It wasn't that he actually wanted to fight and make his body cry in pain; if possible, he'd avoid fighting altogether.

Sadly, the situation was too suspicious, as the two had just stood at a distance when Jash performed his sword move.

At that time, the two could've fought each other or even eliminated Jash after he executed a sword move.

Surely, there'd be a window to take him down right after he executed a move that was somewhat out of his league.

'Even if they weren't expecting it, their sudden clashing is strange,' Jash thought with an observing eye, rooted to the spot.

Amael and the golden boy kept exchanging attacks at a slow pace as their speed kept rising steadily.

Jash's eyes followed every movement that the two were making, wary of some sort of alliance against him.

'Yeah, that's highly likely. After all, they weren't enemies at this time,' Jash concluded, his eyes narrowing in concentration.

Both weren't even using anything except their bodies and sword to fight, the mana boosting not only speed but also reaction time and all senses.

To keep up with them, Jash had to exert his core and use mana to make sure his body was ready to react at any moment of time.

—Clang!

Accompanied by the loud metallic clangs, Jash's ears began hurting after a few minutes of their tempo rising.

It wasn't just one clang every few seconds, but more than a few clashes every second.

The ringing noises made Jash frown as his concentration was getting broken due to the unrhythmic sounds.

On the other side, the golden-boy countered most of Amael's attacks with a focused look, similar to that of Amael.

Due to that, Amael attacked with even more intensity, causing the golden-boy to also put in more mana and strength, being forced to match Amael's strength.

To the audience, all of it was starting to get blurry as their speeds rose to the level of most E-Rank Hunters, something most of the audience wasn't used to.

Even though there were several E-Rank hunters in the Entrance Test, none had the leeway to exert themselves fully to reach such speeds.

Only someone like Amael and the golden-boy could do that and still say, "This is not even our best!"

Of course, the clueless audience didn't know and could only compare it with Jash's sword move which was slowed and replayed for them to see.

As if already anticipating this, the screen's speed slowed, allowing the audience to get a better view.

However, the VIP rooms had no need for it, the screen being at its normal speed as they could even point out gaps and faults within the moves.

Inside one of the VIP rooms, the dignitaries from the Church knelt on the floor with their heads lowered.

All of them had fervent expressions as the holographic image of a blindfolded woman seemed to be gazing at the screen.

The head of the delegation was the only one who had his head raised as he gazed fervently at the Saintess.

Her expression remained stoic as she watched the duel going on despite her blindfold.

Though it would make no sense to anyone else, no one here had even the slightest of a question about her integrity.

Unbeknownst to anyone, the Saintess looked more closely at Jash than the duel.

She couldn't tell much about him due to the distance and it being a holographic video call.

If she was there, the screen would be enough for her to see what she wanted to, alas, it wasn't possible.

"Tell the Principal that the top 5 at the end of the second year of this batch..."

The Saintess began explaining to the room about what she had decided before her hologram closed off.

She didn't give any time for them to question her decision or try to understand it.

She had ordered and they had to do it.

That was all.

"Everyone! Did you all hear the Saintess?" the head of the delegation asked as everyone echoed unanimously, "YES!"

"I'll go arrange for it," a girl with a veil on her face said, still kneeling and lowering her head.

"Very well!"

She moved only after getting permission and left to arrange for everything, not paying attention to anything else.

At this point, they already believed that the reason the Saintess agreed after all the badgering was that the winner was decided.

Alas, it was the opposite.

She expected him to lose and wanted to meet Jash, making a balanced choice to meet five instead of three or ten.

What her motives were or what she planned to do remained a mystery to even the Church Members.

However, it was something pleasant for them as they would be able to witness the sight of the Saintess with their very own eyes.

While this was happening in one room, someone in another VIP room was looking on with a critical eye.

Nothing about the person could be discerned except the real holders of the VIP room were unconscious.

"A pity I can't finish them."

A hoarse voice sounded from under the cloak before it vanished and the room returned to its earlier state.

Nothing about their gender or age could be discerned by their voice as they finished just before Amael and the golden boy were about to engage with Jash.

In another room, Amael's father spoke, "That sword boy is good. But when did he get this good at his basic footwork and sword mastery?"

Despite his tone, a smile lingered at the corner of his lips as he watched Amael dodge every counterattack from the golden-haired boy.

He even countered some of the counterattacks, as they reached near Jash, ready to pull him in their tempo.

Unfortunately, they were in for a good surprise.

Although it appeared that two weren't moving a lot, if one looked closely, they had already circled around Jash multiple times.

Each time, the radius decreased as they neared Jash at too fast a pace for him to react.

Or so everyone thought.

After all, Jash had not moved or even turned from his initial position, holding the sword by his side, not even in a stance.

Only, he knew how hard it was to recover his mana with so many clashes nearby and having to keep his focus on it.

His nose was on the verge of bleeding as he overexerted his half-recovered mental strength.

He was almost abusing the cheats he got from his past life without a care in the world.

Unfortunately, everything had a limit and Jash was about to push it right when he got the golden chance.

'I am done for after this,' he thought before making his move, unaware of the observing and planning eyes behind the screen.