Memoirs of a Witch (In Bloom Book 1.5)

Swap Day Part 2

Upon my arrival, I was greeted by two second years who introduced themselves as Troy and Adonis.

I noticed the absence of other students from the rest of the dormitories, "Am I the only one here today?"

"No, there's a few more, but they're all at the sports field with some of the third years," Troy replied, "They're a bit more interested in the magical wheels than the rest of the dorm."

"B-by the way...your outfit's...really nice," Adonis complimented.

To match the color scheme of the dorm of the Lord of the Underworld, I wore a blue off shoulder top with a black knee length and a silver chain belt.

"Honestly, my outfit isn't as cool as your uniforms."

A slight blush crept up on Troy's cheeks as he looked away, "Well, uh..."

"Let's get on with today, shall we?" Adonis brought us back on track, "You're only here for a day and there's so much to show you."

Afterwards, Troy and Adonis gave me the grand tour of the extremely spacious dormitory. Ignihyde's interior design was a brilliant combination of futuristic and historical. Each room only seemed to be more jaw dropping than the last. As I followed the two second years, I noticed throughout each of the walls were various projections of various data and graphs. All lighting in the dorm was electrical, no need for windows.

Though they tried to hide it, some of the students we passed by gave me curious glances, as if they had never seen a witch in their lives before.

In the lounge, residents could be seen working on their computers or engaged in other activities, like reading, drawing, or card games. My favorite part of the tour had to be seeing the dormitory's own private lab. Unlike Pomefiore's, Ignihyde's contained all sorts of machinery and contraptions. Residents would be occupied with programming and assembling pieces for their upcoming inventions.

While Troy, Adonis, and I headed back towards the lounge for lunch, I noticed one missing detail.

I asked, "Where's your dorm leader? Idia Shroud, right?"

I knew Ignihyde's students were not the most outgoing or social, but I never considered the possibility their own dorm leader would not be around. Unless, he perhaps ran the dorm behind the curtain.

"Oh, my brother?" a voice spoke from behind, "He's in his room."

I turned to face a humanoid boy, about as tall as Epel, with flaming blue hair and a black robotic suit.

Troy began, "Ortho, this is-"

"Cassandra Salvatori, first year student at Ramshackle Dorm," Ortho finished his thought, "You're a witch from the northern region of the Land of Pyroxene born on December 22nd."

Adonis rubbed the back of his neck, "You'll have to forgive, Ortho. He's got a large database of anything you could think of."

I smiled at the student, "It's a pleasure to meet you as well, Ortho. If you don't mind my asking, why isn't your brother out here?"

Ortho explained his regularly scheduled hardware update was supposed to occur today, however the dorm swap brought conflicted with Idia's intended plans.

He added, "Azul Ashengrotto was supposed to help my brother, but since he can't leave his dorm for Swap Day, my brother had to postpone it until tomorrow."

I offered, "Perhaps I can."

Excitement glowed from his yellow eyes, "Really?! Are you sure?"

"I'm not the most tech savvy, but I'm a fast learner. If your brother will allow it, I'd like to help with your updates."

Excited, Ortho lead the way, leaving the two second years behind.

-------------------

Ortho creaked open one of the many doors in the corridor. Inside, I caught sight of another individual with the same flaming blue hair as Ortho's, but much longer in length.

While he was preoccupied with work at his desk, he talked to himself, "Honestly, of all the days for people to come and just-gyah!" he almost fell back from his chair once his eyes settled at the visitors, "Wh-what are you doing here?!"

I said, "Pardon our intrusion."

"Cassandra offered to help with my updates!" Ortho bounced, "Isn't this great?"

"What, no! I told you we'll do it tomorrow," Idia tried to guide us out of the room, "N-now, if you...excuse me...I have work..."

While Idia continued to attempt to kick us out, my eyes drifted to one poster next to his bedside manga filled bookshelf. I recognized the female idol group, "You're a fan of Gakemo?"

As if it was a natural reflex, Idia ran to it and tore it down and hid it behind him, "I don't know what you're talking about!"

"It's okay," I tried to assure him, "I'm actually a big fan of Gakemo's music."

Idia's reluctance to believe me was evident.

Then, I began to list out every bit of information I knew about the group. Their debut date, the members' stage names and real names, their eras in chronological order, and so much more. With each passing minute, I saw Ignihyde's Dorm Leader lowering his guard towards me. Soon, he and I began to have a full discussion on the group's past performances and their upcoming album.

"I...I didn't think you knew about idol groups," he mumbled.

"I listen to a variety of music," I added, "Let's not forget, Swap Day's supposed to be a day for students from different dorms to learn from one another."

In all honesty, I never cared much for idol groups until Cater introduced them to me. He showed me a fan camera of one of Gakemo's performances and I later became interested in the group. I began to listen to more of their music and watch their music videos. From there, I went on to explore several other idol groups.

Who knew one video was all it took for me to fall down the rabbit hole of idol groups.

"Ortho said you needed an extra set of hands, which I'm more than happy to provide," I repeated my offer, "But, I can understand if I'll be in your way or-"

Idia began to ramble to himself, "Well, Ortho's got some complex motion control, and the passwords that are updated every fifteen seconds, not to mention the reassembly..."

"I get it, Ortho's got a lot of moving parts, plus the hardware needs to be handled simultaneously. I can see why you need someone to assist you."

Idia's brows rose in shock, "You understood all of that?"

It was not something complex to comprehend. The night before, I made sure to read on some basic technological terminology and technomancy. Rather than using the newly read information to impress the other students, I wanted to become familiar with their work.

The more I read about technomancy, the more intrigued with it I became. I even began to consider ways I could incorporate it with my craft as a witch.

"See?! She's the best person to be your assistant!" Ortho encouraged, "Pretty please? I'm really excited about these updates. I don't want to wait another day."

Idia pondered for a few moments, his hesitation evident.

I tried to tempt him, "We can play Cut the String."

His interest piqued, "Gakemo's debut album?"

"Not just their debut album....the deluxe edition."

The excitement in his voice was evident, "With the bonus solo tracks from each one of the members?!"

"And with the dance break added to their outro."

Idia grabbed his lab coat from his closet and speedily walked past me, "Enough chatting, let's get to work."