I Got Reincarnated as a Villainous Noble, and When I Tried to Create an All-Male Academy to Avoid a Bad Ending, for Some Reason the Gender Ratio Reversed?

Chapter 20: The Original Main Heroine Is a Broken Cheat Character

The protagonist had gotten way stronger than I ever imagined.

Like, his growth speed was on another level compared to the original story.

When I realized that, part of me just wanted to dump the whole witch-slaying job on him and call it a day.

Like, why not? Maybe he could actually handle fighting the witch just like this?

For a second I thought that, but…

—Nah, no way.

I left the courtyard and wandered around the academy while coming to that conclusion.

Because in the original witch battle, Lucina played a huge part.

The protagonist’s a swordsman—his one-hit sharpness and close-range combat skills are off the charts.

But when it comes to wide-area firepower? Totally different story.

In the original, the biggest damage dealer was definitely Lucina’s magic, no question.

Her spells had insane scale and power. If she went all out, she could legit blow away everything in the area.

In the witch fight, Lucina was the one who landed the first real hit on the witch, shattered her barrier, and weakened her.

Then the protagonist charged in and finished it with one clean slash. That was the flow.

So basically, there’s only one thing I can do at this academy right now.

—Get Lucina up to her original-story level of strength.

No matter how strong the protagonist gets, without her, he can’t beat the witch.

If that’s the case, then I gotta set the board up properly. Like Fran would say.

With that in mind, I headed straight to the training grounds.

And right away, I spotted her.

“………”

Over in the corner of the training field, she was quietly practicing mana maintenance.

There were other students around, but a perfect little empty space had formed just around her—probably ’cause when she messed up, it ended up splashing everyone nearby.

Because of that, she was all alone. Even though the other students were practicing together in groups, cooperating and stuff.

She just kept training silently by herself. Rainy days, after classes, holidays—she never slacked off.

That was Lucina Ronet.

“……”

A big water sphere appeared right in front of her. The shape and size were stable—way better than before.

She could probably handle normal-person-level magic just fine now.

But as it started expanding further, the water sphere’s shape gradually warped, and

“—!”

The next instant, it scattered into mist without a trace.

Water from the bursting sphere splashed everywhere. My shoes and the bottom of my pants got completely soaked.

“…Yeah, full power’s still impossible, huh.”

Lucina bit her lip, looking frustrated.

Her uniform was damp from all the repeated failures, clinging enough that you could see the lines of her body.

So I took off my uniform jacket and gently draped it over her shoulders.

“No need to rush.”

“Eek— you were watching?”

“We made a promise I’d teach you magic, remember? Anyway, you’ve improved a ton.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

She turned around, giving a small wry smile as she spoke.

“I can do normal magic now. But the second I try to go full power, I lose control right aw—achoo!”

She sneezed before she could even finish.

“You catch a cold?”

“No. When I fail, I get soaked, right? When I’m soaked, I get cold and start sneezing. And when I sneeze, my focus breaks and I fail the magic again. Total vicious cycle.”

“…I see.”

“But if I can’t go full power, it’s pointless.”

She sniffled while complaining.

Normal output was fine, but the moment she tried max power, it fell apart.

That was probably her current biggest hurdle.

But it’s a wall everyone hits at some point.

Having way more mana than average means control can’t keep up—it’s super common. Even I struggled with it at first.

Well, in her case, the potential she has is on a whole different level compared to me.

Right now my total mana is higher, but eventually she’ll awaken and surpass it.

By the way, in this world’s common sense, your total mana amount is fixed at birth. You can’t train to increase it later.

But she’s the exception. After awakening, it’ll double.

Just goes to show—she’s the original main heroine, so of course she’s a totally broken cheat character.

“Hey.”

Lucina looked over at me, her cheeks faintly flushed.

She was fidgeting like she had something hard to say. With her face blushing and looking all embarrassed like that, yeah, something was definitely up.

“What’s up?”

When I asked, she hesitated before speaking.

“Could you… show me an example?”

An example, huh. Yeah, that could work.

“Sure, no problem.”

“As close to full power as you can, please.”

“Got it.”

Not sure if it’ll actually help as reference, but I’d show her my max.

“Step back a bit.”

I planted my feet, took a stance, and poured mana in at full force.

Right in front of me, wind started swirling. It compressed into a circle at first, then kept expanding.

It spun like a mini typhoon, shaking the air in the training grounds. The wind brushed my cheeks and messed up my hair.

But it wasn’t done yet.

“—!”

Eventually it turned into a cylinder shape, spiraling up toward the ceiling. It spun wider and wider, pulling everything around it upward until it became this massive pillar of wind.

And finally, the magic completed.

“…Amazing.”

Lucina whispered, totally moved.

“Amazing.”

She said it again. Her eyes were sparkling, like a little kid getting super excited.

“This is my limit.”

While keeping the mana stable, I slowly dialed it back so it wouldn’t explode. Then I perfectly controlled it until the wind vortex vanished completely.

“Phew…”

Magic is actually hardest to cancel out.

If you didn’t care about collateral damage, it’d be way easier to just let it loose.

I let out a relieved breath, and

“How can you control magic on that scale?”

She asked, so I answered lightly.

“You get used to it.”

“You say that so casually. I’m asking ’cause even getting used to it doesn’t work for me.”

“Just keep increasing the number of attempts, that’s all.”

I’m no genius or anything, so that’s literally the only advice I got.

But she didn’t seem convinced.

“Really? Knowing you, you probably have some secret trick you’re just not saying out loud, right?”