The Retired Hero is an Extra
Chapter 170 - 170: Helios Auris

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As Jash had anticipated, the protagonist, or Helios Auris, was behaving differently from the novel, in fact, way too different.

'Just how did I lose...? I was supposed to be stronger...'

(Host...)

The system did not have emotions but it could sense his, and wanted to console him, feeling the profound sadness within.

Unable to accept his loss, Helios was reluctantly consoled by Caeron, despite his frustration with the latter.

In the end, he just asked for some alone time, "Vivia, can you do me a favor and tell them I wish to be alone?"

He didn't even wait for her to agree and entered his room, locking the door.

Vivia stood there dumbfounded for a few seconds before leaving, trying to justify his actions as she had seen just how much he trained for becoming the Year Representative.

"Just what went wrong?" Helios yelled from frustration building within him due to his failure, it was a major failure.

"How?!"

He kept repeating the same question in different ways, but couldn't come up with even one plausible answer.

It only served to fuel his frustration as his system remained silent, not helping him in this predicament, unlike always.

The system was a part of him, something that even Jash and Amael didn't know about.

After all, no system was ever mentioned in the novel Jash read in his past life or from which Amael received his information.

The two were oblivious about it all, and the protagonist was smart to keep it a secret.

He wasn't just a cliche goody-two-shoes protagonist that both of them considered him to be.

He too had a life, a complex one, just like them, even if that trashy author never mentioned it.

Although the start of his life couldn't be more cliche.

He was the apple of the eye of his parents, of his village, of everyone around him, being the kind and brightly shining kid.

His golden hair and eyes were considered a good omen by the villagers as whoever was near him never went through hardships.

Even some people with frequent illnesses started to feel better with him around.

His body, soul, mind, presence—his existence itself—was nothing short of a blessing to the world, not just a small village.

Bathed in the light of the Goddess at birth, he shone like the sun, tearing apart the vast darkness of the space and providing warmth and light.

The Village Head had even called him the "Coming of the Hero".

Alas, every good thing comes to an end, and so did his village.

After a dungeon appeared nearby, the villagers panicked, not even knowing what to do.

They decided to report it, but before they could, the dungeon immediately broke apart.

Waves after waves of mana were sent across, causing shockwaves and even some weak elders to die from the sudden increase in mana.

A few infants also got inflicted with it, facing the same end.

However, that wasn't the end as monsters after monsters exited the dungeon.

No one even knew their name, just that the monsters had six eyes, four feet, two arms and were 2-3 meters tall.

Unlike human skin, they were all deep blue-black with their arteries and veins being green and visible atop their skin.

Sadly, that wasn't their skin, but their armor as their skin was searing hot, even a single drop of their blood was enough to melt through a human's skull.

Despite all of it sounding terrifying, the strongest among them was just at (B+)-Rank.

Though there were no Hunters in the village; the end result was obvious.

"Helios, RUN!"

Hearing his parents' desperate voices, he ran and ran and ran...

Tears leaked from his eyes, getting mixed with the dust and dirt all around as he ran until his legs bled, but he didn't stop running until he fainted.

Dried tears, caked blood, dirt, mud, pale skin, wrinkled lips, sunken cheeks—

He remained like that for a prolonged time, unable to muster up the strength to even move.

On the verge of starvation, he was found unconscious by the Church members, who were on duty to look for traces of the dungeon break.

Luckily, he had come far away while the monsters were busy taking down the villagers and some vagrant Hunters.

They thought they hit the jackpot, but only ended up as monster food, and the Church was chasing them after they hurt a Church member.

That's when an escaping Hunter yapped everything, causing them to come here.

"He's alive, and a kid. He's likely from that village and a survivor," a priest said after checking him up.

"Take him to the Church and heal him," another priest suggested, knowing it was better.

"You mean..."

"Yes, if he can, then he should awaken," the head of the delegation replied before anyone could refute.

Now, it was absolute.

However, Helios only woke up after another few days, finding himself in a simple room on a wooden bed with white sheets.

Overwhelmed with grief, Helios wept uncontrollably, yearning for his parents or a release from his suffering.

But he was calmed down by the Head Priestess who brought him back.

"You can awaken, grow stronger and save others from that situation, or you can lament, cry and feel depressed, helping no one, not even yourself."

Hearing such words, the naive Helios did his best and easily crossed 4 hours of awakening time, reaching 4 hours and 30 minutes.

Obviously, his awakening time was a guarded secret, even within the Church as it was the first time to have someone so talented.

He was personally visited by the Saintess who revealed that he was blessed by the Goddess.

She only revealed it to the Pope, who chose to conceal it, and just call Helios a Saint Candidate.

Just like Vivia, who was a saintess candidate, and Caeron who also became a Saint Candidate.

Three saint candidates were unheard of in one generation as it mattered little.

Only one could become the saint or saintess, after all.

Oblivious to it all and even to being blessed, Helios put in all his effort to grow stronger.

At the time of the Academy Entrance Test, he hoped to become the Year Representative and did his best.

However, he ended up losing to Amael and then slowly but surely grew stronger than Amael.

The first event of Jash's death unsettled him, forcing him to break down his shell of naivety and grow up to see the harsh truth of the world.

It was a trauma for not just him, but everyone around.

Despite his intense desire to help others overcome their suffering, Helios felt increasingly powerless, realizing that all he could do was focus on his own training and growth.

Sadly, fate had other plans as he ended up attracting girl after girl, even when he didn't wish for it.

Helios was different from typical harem-seeking protagonists, he was forced to be this way.

After many brushes with death, he gave up and accepted his destiny filled with women, having a harem and using everything he could to grow stronger.

Despite this, he had never slept with any of them, not even kissing them.

He was far too gone on the path of revenge and vanquishing monsters from the world to care about such things.

Alas, he was seen as a scummy man because of jealous weaklings who spread rumors about him.

And upon seeing countless women vying for his love, the rumors were confirmed without even ever asking him or any of the girls.

However, he never gave a damn about any of it until...