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 5

Chapter 5: The Villainous Noble Whose True Strength Got Exposed

Let me take a moment here to recap the original story.

The original genre was a sword-and-magic academy fantasy. But basically, it was a novel-game format that progressed just by reading text, not one where the player moved characters around to fight.

The plot summary went like this.

Long ago, a witch who brought calamity to the world was sealed away by heroes led by a brave warrior.

But lately, that seal had started to weaken.

A few years later, the witch would revive, and an unprecedented crisis would hit the world.

In such an era, one boy enrolled in the royal academy.

He scored dead last on the entrance exam. His magic power was zero. He came from commoner roots.

Carrying flaws that could be fatal in this world, he ended up assigned to Class D, where all the failures gathered.

His classmates numbered only four. Every one of them had a fatal weakness.

But the boy did not give up.

—I want to get stronger.

With just that simple desire, he rose through the ranks.

A natural airhead girl.

A sharp-tongued and clumsy girl.

A haughty young lady.

Together with those wild companions, he resisted an unfair fate and grew.

And then came the approaching revival of the witch.

In the battle that staked the fate of the world, the boy once called the weakest walked the path to becoming a true hero.

That was the kind of story.

In reality, there was almost no part in the main story where they fought the witch. Most of it was chaotic antics inside the academy.

It would not be wrong to call it an academy rom-com.

I only vaguely remembered the future developments, but the protagonist struggled alongside his classmates and climbed his way up.

And what mattered here was the classes.

In the original, class assignment considered magic amount, exam results, status, and family background.

There were four: A, B, C, and D. In the original, Orufusen Starz Island and Fran were in Class A. The protagonist Vista and the heroines were in Class D.

In things like inter-class competitions, the Class A guys like Orufusen bullied the protagonist and his group, but that was fine.

The problem was that class assignment was based on magic amount.

And the event to measure that magic amount was about to start now.

—Magic power measurement.

Thanks to the academy reform, classes had already been assigned, but this event was apparently an annual tradition, so they still held it.

After the entrance ceremony ended, those of us who remained in the auditorium lined up in front of a crystal ball.

One by one, we placed our hands on the crystal ball.

Then a number appeared, making the magic amount visible. It was a development now familiar from manga and anime.

By the way, in the original, the protagonist Vista got the impossible result of zero magic power here.

That became the trigger for him to be labeled a failure and mocked by everyone around him.

In other words, it was a super important event in the original, but to me, it was something I honestly could not care less about.

To begin with, the only reason I attended the academy was because my father forced me to. I had no desire to rise through the ranks here or become number one or anything like that.

As long as I could live modestly, that was enough.

“Next, Orufusen Starz Island.”

When my turn came, my name was called.

I stepped forward and placed my hand on the crystal ball.

In that instant, the crystal became wrapped in light.

It shone strongly enough to brightly illuminate the entire auditorium, and the number shot up rapidly.

“…!”

The people around us grew noisy at the sight.

“Huh? A first-year!?”

“No way something like this is possible!”

“Lies! It has to be lies!”

“As expected of Orufusen-sama, my god whom I worship.”

All eyes focused on me at once, and everyone looked stunned by the result.

The teacher in charge of the measurement briefly showed a doubtful gesture, then quietly announced.

“You are currently the top of your year… no, even including upperclassmen, you are the top in this academy.”

“…I see.”

In that moment, the surroundings erupted again. I only had my magic measured, yet I was enveloped in huge cheers.

It felt extremely awkward.

Sure, in the original, Orufusen also produced an overwhelming magic number, but he was never praised this much, so I had to call it strange.

Well, in the original, the protagonist produced zero magic power and that caused the uproar. That side probably had stronger impact.

“That was splendid, Ol-sama.”

As I stepped away from the line, Fran immediately ran over.

“…It is nothing worth praising.”

“No. Everyone looked very happy.”

“I do not understand why they would be happy.”

As the intense stares from those around me started to get me down, Fran gave a small laugh.

“It makes me a little jealous.”

“Uh, yeah…”

“I feel like I want to monopolize you.”

“…Romance is prohibited, you know?”

“Yes. I intend not to cross the line at the academy… at the academy.”

“That is not the issu—”

“Hehe, but at home, who knows?”

I thought I heard some ominous words, but the cheers around us drowned them out, so I did not catch them clearly.

So I just nodded vaguely and left the place as if fleeing.

The reason was simple. There were too many stares, and the stress was building up.

Ignoring the fierce gazes directed at me from all sides, I thought to myself.

Ever since I looked at the enrollee list a week ago, something had been bothering me.

The reversed gender ratio was a problem, but personally, there was something even worse.

The original protagonist, Vista, had not enrolled in this academy.

—No, why?

No matter how you looked at it, that was strange.

The protagonist was supposed to knock on the academy gates to fulfill his desire to become stronger.

Yet where on earth had he gone?

Just to be sure, I looked for him during the entrance ceremony and the magic measurement, but let alone the protagonist, I could not find even the other male student.

So there was no doubt he had not enrolled.

Then where exactly had he gone?

That was the question I could not stop wondering about.

After all, if we did nothing in this world, the witch would revive and everything would be destroyed. With the protagonist absent, the future looked nothing but worrying.

—I have to find him.

If by some mistake he had died out in the wild, that would be terrible.

I needed to protect him quickly or give him maximum support.

Otherwise, the world would end before I could even avoid the doom flags.

※

【Side Vista】

I, Vista, became an adventurer.

I had originally planned to enroll in the royal academy, but apparently some big-shot nobles started leading a reform.

I did not really get it, but they were saying really complicated stuff about advancing women in society and eliminating status differences to aim for true equality.

To me, it was all so confusing I had no idea what was what.

So I became an adventurer.

—I want to get stronger.

To satisfy this desire welling up from deep inside, piling up real combat experience was the quickest way.

Anyway, if I just fought, I would get stronger.

I would fight and fight and fight and fight, and keep fighting!

“All riiight!”

I readied my sword and cut down the goblin horde that appeared outside town.

It was a cheap sword, so the edge was terrible, but all I had to do was crush them with raw power.

I was born without magic power, but if I wrapped myself in this fighting spirit that the elf granny taught me, I could become even stronger.

Way, way stronger!

“Heh, being an adventurer is the best!”