Three days later...

Song and Dance Championship Campus audition day

"Myaaah!" Grim yelped. "There's a ton of competition here!"

"There's gotta be like fifty people." Ace said, looking around the lounge. The group was shocked to see so many people

"Do you know where [nickname] is?" Yuuna asked.

"Hmm, she probably is in the ballroom, judging the auditioners as well." Ace answered.

"O-oh no, I'm tensing up already." Deuce stuttered. "I-I th-think I'm b-blanking out on the song lyrics!"

"You'll be fine if you just chill," Ace said.

"Ooh, what's this?" a familiar voice said, approaching the group. "A2 and the Amaryllis duo? You guys here for the SDC auditions too, huh?"

"Hey, Cater!" Yuuna waved.

"Yeah, how about you?" Grim asked.

"Go it in one of the events happening at our school, and I hear Vil and Y/n's gonna be in it this year." Cater said. "What could be cooler than competing on stage against a mega-celeb with five million Magicam followers and a world-famous singer and Spelldrive player with over 100 million?" Y/n's followers grow every day.

"Deuce took it way too seriously, but you've been way too shallow about it..." Ace said.

"Pfft. I'm pretty sure most people here are like me, actually." Cater said. "Check out Exhibit A over there." he pointed to a familiar Hyena.

"Hm-hm-hmmm, hm-hmm!" Ruggie sang to himself, practicing for the audition. "Hmm. I'm not much of a singer, but I'm sure I can make up for that with my dance moves. I'm taking my share of that fifty thousand thaumark prizes!"

"Myah!" Grim yelped. "Of course, he wants the money" he rolled his eyes.

"Ah, hello, Cater. Fancy seeing you here." a voice said from above.

"WHOA!" the brain cells trio yelped in surprise.

"Khee hee hee!" Lilia laughed. "A Perfect reaction. Heartslabyul students are always so full of vim and vigor as beastie says."

"C'mon, Lils, you're gonna give me a heart attack one of these days!" Cater said, shaking his head.

"Ah, you're the one who always pops in upside-down," Yuuna remembers.

"Khee hee hee..." Lilia chuckled again. "Indeed I am. Lilia Vanrounge, surprise delivery boy, at your service

"Oh yeah, Yuuna" Grim looked at Yuuna. "You said you and Y/n got a holiday greeting card from an unknown sender, right? Ain't this the guy right here?"

"Ah, but you'll find that the initials on the card differ from my own." Lilia smiled in a teasing manner. "Khee hee hee...You'll find out who sent it soon enough."

"I have a feeling Y/n knows who the sender was since she also got one.." Yuuna mumbled. In fact, Y/n does.

"So, Lils. Are you auditioning for SDC too?" Cater asked.

"Mhm. I belong to the Pop Music Club, so I would be remiss to sit out on a musical presentation." Lilia tells them. "I invited Malleus to join me to see his fiance, but he declined, claiming he had no desire to be put on display for humans in front of his lover. He's a surprisingly shy boy, you know."

"I'm...not sure your definition of 'shy' is the same as mine..." Cater sweatdropped. "Gotta give you props for bravery, though. It takes guts to prod a bigwig like Malleus into doing an audition."

"Events like these are part of campus life." Lilia said. "I thought it would do him some good to give it a whirl, but so it goes. And yourself? I'm surprised you didn't invite your partner, Trey."

"Oh, I did. But alas, I got jilted!" Cater sighed. "Riddle's the chairman of the Culture Fair Management Committee, and Trey's busy assisting him."

"Ah, of course," Lilia nods.

"So! How's about we take an audition selfie as jilted buddies?" Cater asked, taking out his phone.

"Certainly. Come, freshmen. Join us." Lilia said, gesturing from the group to get closer.

"Uh, you want us in the picture?" Deuce asked, a little unsure about what Lilia said.

"Nobody rejected us, y'know," Grim said, deadpanned.

"It doesn't matter!" Cater grinned, raising his hand into a peace sign. "YOLO. One, two...yay!"

"Yaaay!" Yuuna and Lilia beamed at the camera as everyone gathered.

Cater snapped the picture, immediately typing on his one and tagging everyone. "Hashtag #NRC, #SDCAuditions, #TottalyPassing, #JiltedBoiz, And, posting...now."

*Ding*

"Y'know, considering Malleus's reputation..." Ace mumbled. "I always saw Diasomnia as a cold, unapproachable kinda form, like how Amaryllis is literally freezing cold. But you're always warm and friendly, huh?"

"Come on, you know better than that." Cater chuckled. "Our dorm's got polar opposites, too. Just look at Riddle versus me and you!"

"Now that you mention it, it's true." Deuce agreed. "Housewarden Rosehearts is terrify- uh, a real stickler for the rules and Y/n. But that makes me wonder...When the Dark Mirror talks about the nature of our souls being suited to a certain dorm, what's the deal there?"

"Khee hee hee...A true learning experience is living among people who think differently than you do." Lilia pointed out. "Let me provide an example. Ignihyde has a reputation for being home to introverts who mislike having any sort of attention called to themselves. Yet one of their students is auditioning today." Lilia pointed to a familiar robotic boy standing all by himself.

"Ooh!" Cater beamed. "That's Idia's baby bro. It's not every day he flies solo."

"You're kidding about the baby part. Dude looks like a grade-schooler. And that getup!" Ace yelped. "It's like he some kinda superhero."

"Oh, I guess you froshes wouldn't know that story" Cater realized. "Idia Shroud, housewarden of Ignihyde, brought his brother Ortho with him when he enrolled."

(Did anyone else cry when watching spoilers for chapter 6 if you play the English version? Author-chan sure did. Welp, at least she's emotionally prepared)

"What?!" Deuce and Ace gasped.

"He took his brother to school with him?!" Yuuna asked in surprise.

"I didn't share any classes with Idia until I started my junior year, so I'm totally up on all the deets, unlike Y/n, but..." Cater adds. "He brings his brother to most of his classes. The teachers never even bat an eye at it."

"I know brothers can be close, but taking a brother with you to school is nuts!" Deuce said.

"This Idia guy's got a few screws loose if you ask me," Grim said.

The little robot was suddenly standing in front of the group, having a cute glare on his face.

"Whoa!" Grim yelped, jumping into Yuuna's arms.

"Does everybody in this school have a super hearing?" Ace whispered shouted. "This lounge's buzzing with people, and we were ever ten meters apart.

"The directional mic my brother installed in me can pick up human whispering fifty meters away like a Levia-fae, like Y/n nee-chan" Ortho happily explained.

"Oho!" Lilia looked genuinely impressed. After all, he didn't know Levia-fae's have THAT long-range hearing. "Not even regular fae and beastmen have capable of that."

"Heh heh! I know, right? My brother's amazing!" Ortho giggled. "...Ahem. Anyway, Idia got permission from the headmaster to let me come with him to class. He's not desperately lonely or anything, okay?"

(My heart! ORTHO IS TOO CUTE. AND he is author-chan's age. According to Twisted Wonderland Fandom, Ortho once recall memories from eleven years, from when he was five years old. This supposedly means that he (or rather his human counterpart) would be 16 years old in the present time. Yes, Author-chan just typed word per-word from what it explained in the Fandom)

"O-oh, gotta. Sorry about that. My bad!" Cater said, looking a bit embarrassed. "You Shroud bros are this mysterious, almost legendary presence on campus. Guess I got a little carried away talking about you."

"Apology accepted. And I'm sorry for getting all huffy about it." Ortho said. "I just don't want anyone getting the wrong idea about Idia."

'Wow, a rare sight in this school: a sweet boy' Yuuna thought in her head. She wanted to hug the boy just as much as Y/n wanted too, who could hear the conversation from inside of the ballroom.

"Bee tee dubs, Orthy, are you here for the SDC audition, too?" Cater asked.

"Yes, that's right!" Ortho smiled with his eyes. "See, my brother..."

"I told Riddle at the housewarden meeting that I'd practice presenting my research...Persephone-chan says she loves the sound of my voice..." Idia mumbled, pulling his tablet closer to him. "But it doesn't how many thousands of simulations I run in my head. Presenting stuff to an audience? That's unplayable difficult only my dear Persephone is capable at playing!"

(If you guys don't know, Persephone is Y/n's nickname from Idia)

"I still don't wanna get YEARGHed at by Riddle, though...So with that in mind, I built a sound library for my own voice. And I've finally finished a program that reads out text smoothly in real time as you type! I never knew I could sound as articulate. It's a level of fluency you'd never expect from synthesized speech!" Idia smirked.

"What do you think, Ortho? Is it sick or is it SICK?" he asked his kid brother. "Nobody would ever guess the voice you're hearing is coming from text-to-speech software, right"

"That's incredible, Idia! Your voice is so crisp and clear! Y/n would be proud of your accomplishments" Ortho praised.

"Right? Man, I never knew I could sound so smooth!" Idia grinned. "With this, I should be able to handle Q&A no prob. Whee hee hee! Science always beats brute-force grinding! Yeah, I'm a genius, I know."

"Uh-uh! I'm sure Riddle Rosehearts will be very impressed." Ortho said.

"U-uh, don't tell him, okay?" Idia asked. "I want to keep his secret from Riddle until the presentation's over. He's gonna give me that smug, know-it-all look and be all like, 'See? That wasn't so hard, was it?' And I'm gonna go, 'Wow, you didn't even notice I was lip-synching? Talk about an amateur hour! You'll never impress Y/n by being this dumb'" Idia's smirk grew wider. "I'm gonna wipe that smug look right off of his face. Whee hee hee!"

"Now, come on, Idia..." Ortho sighed. "It's not nice to pick on underclassmen to impress your crush."

"Oh, it's cool." Idia said with a blush. "He's a grade beneath me in school, but he's been housewarden longer than I have, so he's close enough to an upperclassman. I have to say, though- after doing a deep dive into text-to-speech, it's a fascinating field. Virtual idols and stuff are popular nowadays. I was thinking of maybe installing a vocal synthesizer in you."

"Ooh, that sounds like fun! I'd love to try singing." Ortho nods.

"Great! I'll get you trilling like a canary in no time, little bro."

"...So my brother's been getting big into making vocal synthesizers." Ortho finished explaining. "Since he went to a whole lot of trouble developing and polishing this, I want to see how far I can go with it. That's why I'm here auditioning."

"Wait, he PROGRAMMED a singing voice?" Ace's jaw dropped. "Are you for real?!