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 24.1

Chapter 24.1: Monsters Showed Up in the Town

In the end, I ended up giving Lucina a piggyback ride.

She stubbornly refused at first, but leaving her there would’ve just caused trouble for the restaurant staff, so yeah, no choice.

Still, carrying her was pretty heavy, no lie.

“…Should’ve just taken a carriage…”

“Huh? You’re saying I’m heavy or what?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s so rude. You’re the one who told me to eat.”

“I never said ‘eat way too much’.”

Even without turning around, I could totally tell she was pissed.

Her body heat and heartbeat came right through my back, and every step almost threw off my balance.

“Don’t drop me.”

“Then try not to make me drop you.”

The royal capital was still packed with people as usual.

Madams coming back from shopping, kids running around everywhere, adventurers heading home.

All of them just living their normal lives, like this city and this routine was the most natural thing.

Sometimes I seriously wonder if this world is actually a game.

Because for a game, there’s way too much everyday normal stuff going on.

Seeing people just casually living like this makes it feel no different from reality.

Well… since I got reincarnated here, this is my reality now anyway.

“Hey.”

“What’s up?”

“Doesn’t something feel… off?”

“……Hm?”

While I was lost in thought, Lucina suddenly muttered that.

The moment I looked around wondering what she meant—screams came echoing from the direction of the gate.

“A scream?”

“That’s not a normal voice.”

Something weird was definitely happening in the town. Probably coming from the gate area.

“Monsters!! They got inside the town!!”

Right after that, a guy’s shout rang out loud.

“Monsters?”

“Hey, monsters!”

“Shit, we gotta run!”

The second that guy yelled, the whole flow of people flipped instantly.

Everyone started scrambling away from the gate in panic.

But the streets weren’t wide enough for everybody to run freely, so people were shoving each other, tripping, falling—total chaos and screaming everywhere.

The crowd was in full panic mode, and the whole town turned into a mess.

“What do we do?”

“First, I’m putting you down.”

Couldn’t move properly while carrying her, so I set Lucina down.

Then I calmly scanned around—and over on the other side of the street, monsters appeared.

Goblins… and orcs.

Not that many. But since it was right in the middle of town, dealing with them was gonna be rough.

“Let’s run.”

Lucina tried to turn on her heel.

But right before she could, I grabbed her wrist.

“We’re fighting.”

“No way. I’ve never really fought for real—”

“Just try it. Being thrown into a completely different situation might change something.”

Yeah—this was a chance. The perfect chance for her to break out of her shell.

“…No way.”

“Come on. Shoot your magic.”

“But if I mess up—”

“I’m here. If it looks like it’s gonna explode, I’ll cancel it. So go all out.”

“……………………”

Lucina went quiet for a second, then swallowed hard and faced forward.

“Okay. I’ll try.”

She said that and stretched one hand out in front.

Her hand was shaking a little, but her eyes had real determination in them.

“Focus… focus…”

While whispering, she poured magic in— a water sphere formed, then quickly sharpened into something like a blade.

“Fire.”

At my signal, the blade-like mass shot through a goblin.

“…!”

Right after, another shot.

Lucina instantly reformed the magic and blasted an orc’s shoulder clean off.

“I did it!”

She whispered, sounding super happy.

The monsters were sprawled on the ground, not moving anymore. Her magic packed way more punch than it looked.

“See? Real combat really is the best way, right? Looks like you’re still not going full power though.”

“Can’t help it. If I mess up it’s a disaster.”

“Don’t worry. I’m here.”

“Even so, I’m still scared, okay?”

She just couldn’t believe in herself yet.

But at some point, she had to break through that.

“Next time, go all out for real.”

“Fine, I got it.”

“For now let’s head toward the center of—”

Right as I finished saying that, the ground suddenly shook hard.

Then came heavy footsteps. Something massive was coming closer… that kind of feeling.

“…No way.”

What came out from the back of the alley was clearly on a whole different level.

A bipedal monster with a pig-like face, way bigger than any human—an Orc King.

Straight-up the superior version of the orcs from earlier. Wearing armor, carrying a huge club over its shoulder—total boss vibes.

“This is bad, right?”

“Yeah.”

An Orc King is disaster-level. Stronger than the Minotaur the protagonist beat before, even.

Why the hell was something like that inside the town?

In the original story, the protagonist fought one near the place where the witch was sealed—at least, it never showed up in the middle of a city.

So this was a huge deviation from the original plot.

“…………”

I desperately looked around.

No adventurers or anyone who looked like they could fight nearby. Calling the city guards would take too long.

Monsters were popping up all over, so I doubted they could even handle this many.

If that thing rampaged here first, the damage would be insane. Unignorable damage.

“Step back and start charging magic, get ready.”

I took one step forward and poured every bit of magic I had into it.

“GUGOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!”

Maybe it recognized me as an enemy—the Orc King let out an earth-shaking roar.

Just that intimidation alone froze everyone around us. Couldn’t run, couldn’t scream—just paralyzed by fear.

So yeah, I had to take it down here no matter what.

“—”

But honestly, my firepower probably couldn’t finish an Orc King. At best I could stall it.

Luckily, Lucina was right here. If I could just hold it in place, that’d be enough.

I kept compressing magic.

I created wind, turned it into a vortex, and crushed it down as tight as possible. Raising the density to the limit.

“…………”

There’s no official name for magic in this world.

In normal games you get stuff like “Fireball” or “Ice Claw,” but the original work is just a rom-com.

There’s no detailed setting like that.

So of course this spell doesn’t have a name either.

But if I had to name it with my previous-life knowledge… this would probably fit.

—Air Hammer.

“—!”

I slammed the compressed wind straight down from above.

The next instant, with a deafening boom, the Orc King got smashed into the ground.

“GUGOOOOOOOOOOOO!!”

The paved brick road shattered violently, and the huge body sank deep like it was being swallowed.

The Orc King ended up crawling flat on its stomach.