Reincarnated as the Only Male in an All-Girls Magic Academy!
Chapter 35: Imperial Leaderboard!

Chapter 35: Imperial Leaderboard!

Ren stood near the cracked remnants of the formation core, his breath steadying as the cool energy from Mirabella’s potions flowed through his limbs like a warm tide returning to shore.

The bitter aftertaste of the healing elixir still lingered on his tongue, but he could already feel the gashes on his arm stitching themselves up.

His legs no longer trembled, his back was upright again, and the weight of exhaustion had faded to something manageable.

It wasn’t perfect recovery, but it was enough for him to fight again if fight he must. And from the way the air outside the shattered barrier now crackled with sinister pressure, that "if" was about to become a very sharp, very painful "definitely."

His dark blue kusarigama spun slowly in one hand, the chain lightly brushing against the ground like the growl of a waking beast.

His mind wasn’t panicked. It was focused, sharp like a scalpel in the hands of a surgeon. But behind those cold, thoughtful eyes, calculations ran rampant.

’Current status: Strength at roughly 70%. Stamina; regenerated, but unreliable for extended conflict. Wound response; functional. Best-case estimate: Top of Stage 2.’

He sighed through his nose, glancing up at the sky, and cursed softly. If only curses came with a settings menu.

The reality was harsh and simple. He had no business going one-on-one with a Stage 3 curse as he was.

That was a leap too high. The gap between Stage 2 and Stage 3 wasn’t just a step, it was like trying to high-jump over a bus.

He had seen that firsthand. Mirabella, who was clearly leagues above most students, had frozen the entire auditorium solid just to kill a single Stage 3 curse.

And that was with her going all out. Ren didn’t have an "all out" that looked anywhere near that powerful.

At best, he could probably poke a Stage 3 in the eyeballs and then run away while yelling insults.

But he didn’t have a choice.

Across the broken arena, three monstrous figures loomed. They weren’t hiding anymore. They didn’t have to.

These were the frontline commanders of the curse horde. Their skin black and spiky like volcanic stone, their movements twitchy and erratic as if they were puppets being controlled by wires and madness.

Each one was surrounded by a faint, flickering aura that twisted the air like hot oil on water.

Ren, Mirabella, and Lia locked eyes briefly.

No words needed. Just a nod.

They moved.

Swoosh!

Like arrows let loose from the same bow, they shot forward, each targeting one of the three Stage 3 curses.

Behind them, the braver girls of the second layer surged forward in formations; some crude but effective, others tight and surprisingly disciplined.

There was a chaos to their charge, but it was organized chaos, the kind that could break a wave of monsters by sheer grit and numbers.

The curses roared in response. Their screeches echoed through the arena like knives scraping across metal, and then they lunged...

Snap!

The sound was so crisp, so sudden, so completely out of place that it cut through the madness like a ruler slapping a desk in a quiet classroom.

And then...

Everything stopped.

Literally.

All the curses; big, small, twitchy, twitchier, froze in place. Their limbs halted mid-swing, their snarls turned to silence, and their glowing eyes dimmed like broken lanterns.

It was like time itself had sneezed and accidentally pressed pause.

The silence that followed was so awkward it was almost funny.

One of the brave girls, a tough-looking blonde with a hammer the size of her torso, had just been screaming a battle cry that now turned into a confused squeak. "Huh?"

Another girl fell on her butt, blinking at the statue-like monster in front of her that had almost cleaved her in half seconds ago. "...Is it dead?"

Ren sighed, relieved, but mostly annoyed. He cracked his neck slowly, not even looking up. "Took you guys long enough," he muttered like someone whose pizza delivery arrived cold.

Because, of course, he had suspected this from the very beginning. And now, finally, the punchline had arrived.

From the sky descended a figure so dramatically witch-like that Ren nearly rolled his eyes.

A rickety, ancient woman floated downward, her purple hair messy and long like tangled yarn, silver eyes twinkling with hidden amusement.

She wore the most cliché witch outfit Ren had ever seen; a deep purple shirt, a blouse that looked knitted from bad decisions, and of course, a wide witch hat so tall it probably had Wi-Fi.

Trailing behind her were the instructors. Dozens of them. Most looked relaxed. Some were sipping drinks. One woman was chewing on sunflower seeds.

Mirabella clenched her fists. "I knew it!"

Lia blinked. "Is that lady wearing... slippers?"

The old woman landed with a dusty plop, leaned on a crooked cane, and smiled like someone’s mischievous grandma about to reveal she poisoned the cookies as a prank.

"Congratulations, survivors!" she called, as if she were handing out free candy and not congratulating them for not being mauled by demonic mouth beasts.

"You’ve just passed the first unofficial test of your lives here at the Imperial Weave Academy!"

Bing!

All at once, the badges on the girls’ uniforms lit up and chirped with cheerful digital voices.

"Congratulations. Special Event: Cursed Arena Siege – Cleared. Distributing Rewards."

The students froze.

For three full seconds, no one said a word. Not after the announcement echoed across the bloodstained arena in a cold, mechanical voice.

The silence was the stunned, hollow kind. The kind that comes when your brain tries to convince you that you didn’t just hear something insane.

Then a single word escaped one of the prospectives. A whisper. "...What?"

More voices followed.

"Wait, wait. What do you mean, event?"

"No freaking way..."

"Are you saying all that... was a test?!"

The orange scrolls began to unfold from every chest badge, their glow a soft contrast to the horror still clinging to the air like smoke after a fire.

Girls, battered and bruised, covered in blood and sweat, just stood there, blinking like someone had thrown them into a different reality.

Ren didn’t look surprised.

In fact, he looked calm.

"Called it," he muttered, brushing dust from his shoulder as his own scroll unfurled. He gave another glance at the old witch in front of him while waiting for his rewards to be calculated.

Her wild purple hair stuck out like electricity had kissed it, and her silver eyes sparkled with mischief and authority.

"Oh, stop gawking," she said to the girls, chuckling with a surprising amount of grace for someone so old.

"You didn’t really think we were going to throw you into a pit of Curses without a reason, did you?"

The students just... stared.

Even the smarter ones like Lia looked momentarily lost, as if their brains were still buffering.

The Vice Headmistress chuckled, then began pacing slowly in front of them like a drama teacher before opening night.

"Yes, yes, the Curses were real. The danger was real. But the situation? Entirely controlled. Monitored. Observed. We let it play out so we could see something far more valuable than a body count."

She paused, letting the tension sit like weight on their shoulders.

"To see you."

A girl near the front raised a hand weakly. "S-So we weren’t actually gonna die?"

"Oh, no, you absolutely wouldn’t have," the Vice Headmistress said cheerfully, pointing at the badges on their chests. "If you had failed. That would have teleported you away."

Ren didn’t even blink. This was exactly the kind of logic he expected from a top-tier academy. A brutal, mind-melting, curse-infested test to see who would crack under pressure was not too crazy for them.

And now that the theatrics were over, the final act began.

Suddenly, all the prospectives’ orange scrolls began to glow. Dozens of tiny words came to life, casting out the details of the respective student’s reward.

"Reward distribution," Ren said, hands in his pockets, watching his scroll with interest. When he saw the reward distribution system, he smiled.

The Low Rankers, which was every girl in the side block who didn’t directly fight but survived, watched in awe as their scrolls unrolled to reveal the number: 500 OP.

Not bad for hiding and surviving.

The Mid Rankers, which was anyone who had taken down a Curse, even a weak one, cheered as their scrolls displayed 2000 OP!

But the real prize? That belonged to three names.

Ren’s scroll formed text slowly... and the bright digits practically sparkled: 5000 OP!

His lips curled up slightly.

"Now that... is what I’m talking about," he muttered.

With these OP as his reward, he had instantly gained guaranteed entry into the Supreme Class!

No more hoarding AP for OP conversion. With this kind of haul, he could jump directly into the Supreme Class and still have enough left over to spend on equipment, potions, runes, maybe even a self cleaning and repairing cloak so he didn’t look like a blood-soaked death goblin all the time.

And as if that wasn’t enough, a new ding echoed across the arena.

Bing!

A message blinked across everyone’s badges, clear and unmissable.

[Congratulations! Following your outstanding performance in the Special Event: Cursed Arena Siege, the following students have entered the Imperial Leaderboard:

Ren Kisaragi, Mirabella Von Frostweave, Lia Hearthflame.]

The cheers paused. Then silence. Then more cheers, much louder this time.

Ren stared at the message with a slight frown.

He already knew what the Imperial Leaderboard was.

It was the official ranking board of the academy, the elite list that tracked the greatest students based on grades, missions, battle records, and unique accomplishments.

Making it onto that board wasn’t just a big deal, it was the difference between graduating with honors and graduating like a random face in the crowd.

And he had just made it in.

Before even attending a single official class.

Ren’s frown grew a little deeper, but he said nothing.

Lia stared at her message and blinked a few times. "Wait... we made it?"

Mirabella didn’t flinch. She looked at her scroll as if she already expected it, turned her head slowly toward Ren, and gave a small nod of acknowledgment.

Ren gave one back. Their mutual respect didn’t need fireworks or awkward hugs. Just a nod. Simple. Elegant.

Lia didn’t jump on him either. In fact, she was too busy doing a slow double take at her scroll. "I was just trying to not die..."

As the laughter and noise died down, the Vice Headmistress floated closer, her silver eyes narrowing with focus now.

She moved softly on the cracked stone floor of the arena, her voice echoing through the silence.

"This event was not a prank. Nor was it sadism. It was carefully calculated and executed," she began. "Its purpose was fourfold."

She raised one finger.

"First; to develop resilience. You all were thrown into chaos, panic, fear... and you survived."

A second finger.

"Second; to uncover leadership. In true life-and-death situations, it’s not always the strongest that lead. It’s the smartest, the fastest thinkers, the ones who can move even when terrified."

A third finger.

"Third; to stimulate rapid growth. No simulation can equal real experience. Some of you gained more insight into your powers today than weeks of training could have given."

And then a fourth finger, her gaze settling on Ren.

"And finally... to identify anomalies. People who don’t just adapt, but bend the rules. Who defy expectations. Who out-think the problem itself."

Ren scratched the back of his head. "So... guinea pigs?"

The old woman laughed like he had just told the greatest joke she’d ever heard.

"Very insightful, Ren Kisaragi of the Imperial Leaderboard."

He winced. "Please don’t call me that like it’s a title..."

The Vice Headmistress just smirked and turned back to the others.

"There will be no punishment for panicking, or failing to fight. But let this day burn itself into your minds. You now understand the stakes. The horrors that exist beyond the veil. And why we train the way we do."

She turned to the instructors behind her and gave them a silent nod. Dozens of them, most wearing their uniforms and a few in strange armor, began checking on the injured students.

Ren turned back to his badge, still gleaming with that 5000 OP glow, and tapped it to hide the scroll.

As it disappeared, he took in the destroyed arena, the exhausted girls, and the weirdly smug Vice Headmistress with a deep sigh.

"Yep," he said, running a hand through his messy hair. "This school’s gonna be nuts."

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