My Dream

🍎 Zealous Developer

"Why do so many people here have super hearing?" Ace asked. "This room is pretty noisy, but he heard us from 10 meters away."

"The omnidirectional microphone that my brother gave me can pick up a person's whisper from up to 50 meters away." Ortho explained.

"Oh, very impressive." Lilia said, genuinely looking impressed. "There's very few Fae or beastmen that possess hearing that sharp."

"Right!" Ortho giggled. "My brother is amazing."

Ortho then cleared his throat, looking serious now.

"Aw!" Gwen clutched at her heart, feeling overwhelmed by the little robot's cuteness.

"Just so you know, the headmaster gave us his express permission for the two of us to attend classes together." Ortho began. "He didn't just bring me to school with him because he's lonely."

"Oh-ohh, I see." Cater nodded, looking a little embarrassed. "Sorry, sorry. You Shroud brothers are as mysterious as one of the Seven Mysteries of NRC so we just got ahead of ourselves."

"It's fine as long as you understand now." Ortho seemed to grin. "And I'm sorry for overreacting. I don't want you getting the wrong idea about my brother..."

"Hey, we're sorry too." Gwen said. "We really should've been watching what we were saying. How'd your brother like the robot by the way?"

"Big brother thought it was very cute." Ortho said. "We couldn't keep it for long, but Idia has been trying to make tech that could be doodled on where the doodles are easily erased."

"Really?" Gwen asked. "That's so cool!"

"By the way, are you here for the VDC audition too?" Cater asked.

"Yep, that's right!" Ortho confirmed. "My brother..."

Idia sat at his desk in his room, rapidly typing out something on his laptop. "I know i told Riddle that I'd practice my speech for the research presentation at the dorm head meeting but..."

Idia trailed off, pulling his tablet closer to him. "No matter how many times I run stimulations in my head there's no way I'm getting up in front of people and just going at it!"

Idia's voice echoed from the tablet as he talked. "Not that I wanna make Riddle blow a gasket... after all that thinking I came to the conclusion to just build my own voice bank and... finally I've gotten it to the point that it will speak in real time as I type, so it'll sound totally natural as it reads my report."

Idia grinned victoriously. "It doesn't even sound like me anymore, the lines are coming out so smoothly!" He said gleefully. "And it flows so well that you can't tell its a voice synthesizer!"

Idia spun around in his chair to face his little brother. "What do you think, Ortho?" He asked. "Calling it perfect would be an understatement. No one's ever gonna notice that this is just a computer generated copy of my voice!"

"It's so awesome, brother!" Ortho praised. "You thought of the perfect solution!"

"Right?" Idia's grin grew wider. "And, you know, I've actually got a pretty great voice! This'll make that Q&A section a breeze! Hee hee hee!"

Idia giggled, sounding a little unhinged. "Tech really does have the advantage when it comes to if there's a will, there's a way! My apologies to all those geniuses out there."

"Yeah! I'm sure Mr. Riddle Rosehearts will be blown away." Ortho agreed.

Idia paled, setting his tablet down. "Nope, nope, nope!" He shook his head. "U-until my presentation is over we can't let him know. I gotta wait for that rule devotee to compliment my speech with that smug smirk of his, then... I'll ask him why he didn't notice it was a synthed voice, like an amateur! And I'll get to point and laugh at him in the end."