Idia’s Dream

Malleus sends all of Sage’s Island to sleep in Book 7 so that they might enjoy “unending happiness…without sorrow, where you will never lose a single person—not friends, not family.”

For Idia this seems to manifest as a dream world where human-Ortho is alive and starting his first year at Royal Sword Academy as Idia begins his third year at Night Raven College.

After a phone call with Ortho he enjoys an entire day of online gaming with Muscle Red.

We then see a recreation of Idia’s first day as housewarden at NRC: he runs into Malleus in the courtyard just as he did in reality, but this time they have a conversation about Roaring Drago, and Malleus has not forgotten about orientation. 

In reality, Idia became flustered when Malleus seemed to be mocking his anxiety and ran away to his dorm room, breaking a promise to robot-Ortho that they would attend the ceremony together, while Malleus forgot the ceremony entirely.

Both Idia and Leona reflect on how the ceremony was as boring as ever, with Idia saying that nothing happening is the ideal scenario, and insinuating that neither Grim nor the prefect exist in Idia’s idyllic dream.

Idia has another phone conversation with Ortho before bed, saying, “You’re an extrovert, unlike me…I’m happy for you,” and wondering why he feels as though he has forgotten something important.

Idia spends the night running dungeons with Muscle Red with an unusual amount of success, saying that he also pulled three SSRs in a gacha game event for his favorite character, and he is suspicious of all of his good luck.

When robot-Ortho appears Idia mistakes him for his living little brother in cosplay.

Ortho tells him that it is time for him to wake up and Idia’s dream becomes unstable with the resurfacing of memories of what actually happened to his brother. 

Dream-Ortho calls him on his phone, claiming that the robot is an imposter, and appears in Idia’s room in an RSA uniform to drag Idia down into a deeper sleep.

Idia’s dream resets with his first day as Ignihyde Housewarden and Robot-Ortho invades, but Idia does not recognize him.

Idia’s dream begins to break down due to the paradox that is robot-Ortho’s existence: his presence in the dream means that Idia’s brother is dead, and the dream can no longer fulfill the purpose for which it was designed of being a happy ending.

Idia is dragged down into a deeper level with the dreamworld’s collapse, which Malleus describes as “the abyss.”

Idia is now in a familiar place that he describes as cold, dark and lonely, which is revealed to be the Underworld, with Phantom Ortho. Idia refuses to believe that Ortho is truly dead, insisting that he has a ton of extrovert friends and he would never end up in a place like the Underworld.

Phantom Ortho tells him to stop blaming himself for what happened and Idia remembers his attempt to reset the world in Book 6, and then everything else.

Idia is upset by how he always needs to be saved by his own little brothers and decides that he has to go back to save Ortho, even though he doesn’t know what is happening.

Phantom Ortho says that he cannot allow Idia to return to the world from whence he came, as ruler of the Underworld, and Idia reminds him that he, also, has the curse and/or blessing to burn blot, so the Underworld increases his power as well.

When envisioning the strongest possible version of himself to prepare for a battle with Phantom Ortho, Idia voluntarily takes on his overblot form. Idia uses his unique magic to escape, returning to his dream, which has again reset as his first day as Ignihyde Housewarden.

Idia again receives a call from Dream-Ortho, but Idia reveals he has remembered what happened and knows that he has been put into a classic otaku fantasy.

Idia says that his little brother would never attend a bright, wholesome school full of extroverts like RSA and his only little brothers are Robot- and Phantom-Ortho. Idia is not impressed with the dream that has been designed for him, saying that what counts as a happy ending is for himself to decide and hanging up on Dream-Ortho.

Robot-Ortho explains the situation to Idia, who vows to make Malleus pay for creating a situation that led to his mother going through his personal computer.