He had woken up as Leon Fou Bartfort many years ago.
After a single night, he had realized what kinda world he was in.
In his shock and desperation he conceived a hair-balled scheme to somehow take advantage of the plot.
He tried to make some sort of agenda or schedule of getting things he spent hours scrolling online wikis and forums for. Which was difficult considering they were still emerging. He even listed down the location of a paid item, the most expensive one.
But as he grew, as he worked, as he started life all over again, those desperate ambitions faded.
He grew to love his new found family. While life was simple and arduous, he couldn’t find it in his heart to outright hate it, much less dislike it.
As Leon wiped the sweat off his brow, he couldn’t help but feel proud of his work.
He had pestered his father to buy seeds of a produce he wasn’t familiar with, something normally found outside the kingdom they reside in, and it had grown quite well.
“I was never a fan of tomatoes, but after years of not eating it, I can’t help but be excited,” Leon muttered to himself as he looked at his crop.
“Big bro, are these really edible?” Colin, Leon’s baby brother, asked as he eyed the baskets of tomatoes incredulously.
“Course they are,” Leon said as he ruffled Colin’s hair, “don’t tell me you doubt me now.”
“But bro, you grew those cucumbers before and they weren’t really tasty," Colin whined.
Leon laughed, even in another world, children still didn’t want to eat their fruits and veggies.
“It’s something you gotta learn to appreciate. Besides, we sold the cucumbers for a decent amount didn’t we?” Surprisingly, the cucumbers didn't grow in the kingdom either, and it took a lot of cajoling to get his father to buy them as well, and he managed to turn them into a profit.
“Hey Leon!” a voice called.
“Huh? Nicks! When did you get back?” Leon shouted with a grin when he heard the voice.
“Big bro Nicks!” Colin shouted with glee.
The two turned to greet their eldest brother, Nicks. Unlike the two brothers, the eldest wore pristine looking clothes with a lot of care put into them.
“Right now, numbskull. How have you two-AH! Colin-wait! You’re dirty!” Nicks backed away from Colin who rushed in, ready to give a hug.
“Careful Colin, those clothes ain’t cheap. They also smudge easily,” Leon said. “I oughta know, it was my harvest that paid for ’em,” Leon said smugly.
Zola, his father’s "legal" wife, basically got Nicks some free but tattered and patched hand-me-downs from her acquaintance’s deceased partner and told him it was good enough for the likes of him. Zola spent all the money that could’ve been used on Nicks, on her children instead. So Leon helped his older brother out, and never lived down a moment to revel in his accomplishments.
“I’m grateful, truly I am, Leon. But really, you gotta do something about that attitude of yours, or you won’t attract a girl.”
“But all I did was state facts though. Besides, if you want to be mad, be mad at Zola and her brats.”
“First of all, they are still our siblings. Two, It doesn't matter if it’s true or not, it’s a matter of discretion and humility. And three, you need to know these things Leon! Especially if you want to marry someone who isn’t Zola.”
“Bah! I would rather be forever alone than married.”
“Tch, hey you–”
“Hm? But do you guys really have to marry someone? Can’t we just stay like this forever?” Colin asked
Both brother’s paused and turned to look at their youngest sibling.
The two sighed and deflated.
“Colin,” Nicks said as he rubbed Colin’s hair.
“Stay innocent,” Leon finished as he too rubbed Colin’s hair.
“AH!” Colin let out in an annoyed tone, “Stop it! You’re being as weird as Leon, Nicks!”
“HEY! I’m never weird!”
“No-he’s right, weird is the best way to describe you.”
“HEY!” Leon whined as his brothers laughed, but he smiled soon after..
The three brothers laughed as they teased each other.
“Ugh! These aren’t even cute. Can you even sell them for anything!”
“Geh.” Leon let out when he heard that voice. “Of course you’re back too.”
“How rude!” His older sister Jenna said. “Have respect for your older sister!”
“Big sis, Leons say these aren’t for showing, they're for eating.” Leon’s little sister Finley, the second youngest of the five, had said while pointing at the red fruits of his labor.
“Eating? Did he finally snap and decide to poison us?” Jenna asked loudly while looking away with a fearful expression on her face.
“HEY! It’s edible!” Leon whined.
“Whatever, just hurry up and sell these nightshades off.”
“Tomatos! They’re tomatoes!” Leon whined loudly.
Honestly? He expected Medieval European inspired society, that’s what the game was going for. But he didn’t think it’d be very similar. Back in the before, when he went to college, he did a paper on the history of Tomatoes in a sociology class to impress a college senior. It worked, he hit a home run. Tomatoes had a slow rise to popularity in Europe, mostly because it’s something not many have seen and resembled poisonous European counterparts, and some places grew a certain strain of tomatoes as living ornaments. Though when he thought about it, the fact that the game had a ton of scenes with sweets and meat and little with healthy fruits and vegetables should have been a dead give away, though he honestly didn’t expect that level of detail on the developer’s part.
“Yeah yeah, just hurry and sell them off. A friend of mine found a great deal on a paramour and I really want to buy him.”
“What’s a paramour,” both Finley and Colin asked.
“Oi oi!” Leon shouted as both he and Nicks covered their younger siblings' ears. “Not in front of the innocents!”
“You also shouldn’t own one!” Nicks chastised.
“Especially not with my harvest!”
“Oh grow up you two, you’re both acting as if it’s not within my right as a woman. Honestly, I don’t even need to buy one, I can just tell some good looking low noble I need a toy and they’ll comply for a chance at my hand. Not that I’d give them the time of day. But it’d be an issue if I get pregnant.”
“Y-y-you,” was all Nicks said, absolutely flabbergasted.
“Yeah well I’m not about to pay someone to get my sister’s rocks off. Go ask Zola if you’re that thirsty. Who knows, you might even be able to share a boy-toy with one of our half siblings,” Leon said.
“Why you-!”
“Enough! Both of you!” Nicks said loudly. He let go of Finley’s ears and nodded to Leon to do the same with Colin. “We get enough of this at the academy, we came here for vacation, so let's enjoy it as it is.”
The two grumbled but nodded along. Women may hold the power, but Nicks was still the oldest sibling in their half of the family, and everyone still deferred to his wisdom.
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“Also Leon. Don’t act like you don’t care either, I recall you desperately hustling in order to pay for Jenna’s uniforms and scholastic material when she finally enrolled into the academy.”
Leon grumbled unintelligent words. The exact same thing that happened with Nicks occurred to Jenna. She received hand-me-downs from their elder half-sister that had clearly seen better days and were stained in questionable areas. Even if Jenna annoyed the living day-lights out of him, she was still his sister.
“And Jenna, don’t act like you're not grateful. I know you were over the moon when you got new uniforms.”
“Hmmp, whatever,” Jenna said as she looked away.
“Good!” Nicks said with a big wide smile. “Now, how about some dinner, it was a very long trip on the ferry.”
“Not to mention that god awful dinghy we had to take afterwards,” Jenna muttered.
“Right, so let’s get some grub! Hopefully, Leon’s Nightshades won’t kill us.”
“They’re tomatoes! They're edible!”
The siblings laughed while Leon whined, but even so he smiled.
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“I must say, I thought this was the end, but this was a really great meal,” Luce, their biological mother and father’s mistress, had said as she stabbed her two-pronged fork into the salad of tomato’s, cucumbers, and local edible greens, vinegar and oil with salt and pepper, and some crumbled farmer's feta.
“Course it is, ma, I made it,” Leon said with a grin.
“Big bro, you also made those moldy white things and nearly died eating it.” Colin said as he drank more of his discount gazpacho.
Leon winced at that. He was glad it was just bad food poisoning and not botulism he contracted from his failed experiment to make Tofu. Don’t ask.
Luce sighed.
“I thank my lucky stars that my boy Leon has been able to live this long,” Luce said in a somber tone, though she was clearly smiling.
“Oi, that’s not funny!”
“Guess he can do something right once in a while,” Jenna said as she spread some more chunky tomato spread on her slice of bread.
“It’s a dice toss with Leon though,” Finley said as she copied Jenna.
Leon just grumbled angrily.
“Ha ha, don’t mind it little brother, we all knew you’d die first eating this before any of us did,” Nicks said teasingly.
“That’s not helpful.” Leon said.
“Ha ha ha,” their father, Balcus, laughed heartily. His voice boomed with merry. “I’m just glad you convinced me Leon,” he said as he patted his belly.
Seeing as how the official lady of the house, Zola, and the children she gave birth to were living in the capital, their half of the family had decided to eat together inside the manor house.
The privilege of living in the manor house was reserved for the lady of the house and her children. The exceptions were Luce’s daughters, the (zola’s) house servants, and the paramours. So the family eating together in the manor house was a rare treat.
And the family ate and teased each other on random stuff. Despite being his second life, growing up again as a youth, Leon couldn’t help but enjoy every second of it, even if it did feel like his family picked on him a bit too much.
And yet, he couldn’t find it in himself to hate it. Even with all the caveats of the Otome Game world, he couldn’t entirely despise his new life.
Life was good.
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“WHAT?”
“You heard me,” Zola said.
She had returned to their humble floating island the next day on her personal airship (funded wholly by Balcus) and pronounced his future.
“Be grateful. Thanks to me you get to marry the daughter of an esteemed noble I associate with and be careered in the army. There shouldn’t be any problems.”
“Daughter!” Leon mocked while holding the surprisingly modern file with a picture of the woman. With the dress she wore, she was basically a bloated tomato! “She’s over 50! Not only that, it says here she remarried over seven times, and all her husbands died in battle! No matter how you look at it, she’s clearly after my death compensation pension!”
“Silence! Men over 25 are trash that get tossed out, and even a scant few get proper educated jobs! Here I am, gracing you with a humble partner and job security, and you have the audacity to complain!”
“Hey wait, aren’t I supposed to go to the academy when I turn 18?”
“Huh? What nonsense are you talking about? The academy is a place to build connections. Obviously, as far as sons go, the first and second should be sufficient enough to build connections to other families. Why would we bother sending a third or fourth? That would make us seem desperate like the other yokels around here! Stupid child!”
Leon could only grit his teeth.
“Yeah, well I refus-”
“You will do as you are told!” Zola shouted, pointing her metal and paper fan at him. “You will soon be a man, and as a man it will be your obligation to work for this family! A man who fails his obligation is nothing! You will marry who I dictate! And you will provide as we deem fit!”
Leon was angry, but there wasn’t much he could do. She was right by law and by norm. He didn’t have a leg to stand on.
“Calm down, Zola,” his father said. “Think about Leon’s position, this would be his first partner an-”
“Silence! This is not a discussion! Or do you really think your third son is capable of seducing some well off girl from a wealthy family, someone who would merit the expenses of sending him off to the academy?”
“I-well…”
“C’mon dad, tell her,” Leon said.
“Ah, I mean,” his father fumbled for words, “with enough time and-”
“Look me in the eyes, you silly man! Tell me you honestly think that a woman would desire THIS backwater, fouled mouthed, ill-mannered, lanky, and downright lacklustre child to be their husband!”
“...Ahhhh….”
“Dad!” Leon whined, nearly brought to tears that his own father couldn’t refute Zola’s claims.
“There you have it!” Zola declared. “Even if we did have the money to spare, it sure as hell wouldn’t be spent on the likes of you.”
In desperate panic, seeing his life squeeze in on him and his impending doom, he furiously thought about what to do. But his mind clung to that one word Zola had said. Money.
“So if I’m able to earn that money, I can go to the academy?” Leon had stated more than asked.
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“Easier said than done,” Leon muttered to himself as he rested underneath a tree, his single-shot rolling block breech loader rifle beside him. A cheap surplus gun that was just within the budget, but it’s combat tested and reliable.
That night, Zola had all but laughed at the idea he voiced. Even his own father seemed to pity him for having such thoughts. He had options, sure, but not very feasible ones. Farming tons of choice crops would take time he didn’t have. And while his body was toned due to hard labor, it was far from the physique expected for the life of adventuring.
It’s simply the reality.
Though the kingdom respected adventurers to the point that it broke the norms of their society, it was incredibly difficult to succeed as one. Especially if you’re poor and desperate.
Rich nobles could afford to throw money at a problem. His debt-ridden family didn’t have that luxury. Every bullet he fired, even in training, had to count. And while he did borrow his father’s old sword, he wasn’t exactly good at it.
It was easy to see why everyone thought he would fail, or worse, die. But he knew something they didn’t. The world operated very similarly to the game he played in the before. And in the game he bought one cheat item, the strongest of them all, and he had a pretty good idea of where it was.
Was it based on assumptions? It definitely was, but he also had no reason to think it didn’t exist in the world either. Everything he’s experienced complied with the premise of the game.
The magic bullets he all but begged his father to buy, putting his family further into debt, could deal with the hostile NPCs guarding the item. What he needed to do was train well enough to ensure he wouldn’t die on the way there. That, and to make every bullet count. It nearly gave him a heart attack to learn how much the ORDINARY ammunition costs. He didn’t have the heart nor stomach to learn about the costs for the magic bullets.
His father and older brother taught him a few magic spells, or tried to at least. Sadly, the only one that took to him was subpar strength enhancement and some basic survival magic. No surprise there. His family were basically mob characters, and a low noble one at that. Of course backdrop characters would have insignificant strength and magical power. But Leon did the best with what he had.
His father taught him the very basics of using the sword and gun. He also taught Nicks, but his focus went to the idiot son going out into the wild.
Nicks taught him to pilot a small airship, something he got to learn from sucking to followers of the Atlee Family. Their family had gotten ahold of a surprisingly expensive yet beaten-up magic flying equivalent of sailing dinghy. Leon found that he liked it alot. It didn’t turn well, and it couldn’t be pressurized for high altitude voyages, but flying it was fun-if a bit heart pounding.
Surprisingly, both Jenna and Finley taught Leon how to read a map and navigate. Though he found them bratty and annoying, they were still very knowledgeable, for the two girls were educated at a proper school instead of working in the fields like their brothers. Still, it was quite a treat for Jenna to be helping out, for once…. That said, he could have done fine without the sass and insults.
And his little brother and mother made provisions for him. His mother had began the arduous process of making portable soup. It’s made with lots of collagen that is reduce and then meticulously dried without heat until it was dehydrated to leather-like consistency. His little brother helped render fat and encase what food could be spared in confit or pickles for Leon’s adventure. Some of the folks living on his father's island even contributed a hard biscuit or two in support.
He knew he was being reckless, that he was making his family worry and pushing them further into debt. It also didn’t help that Leon basically took over Nicks’ duties after he left and still kept up with his own. Leaving meant that his father would have to scramble to find solutions. But he had to do it, and he was going to make sure to pay everyone back for their troubles.
“With interest,” Leon muttered as he got back to his feet.
“Alright, back to it!” he said.
Once more, he practiced handling the gun. Specifically, reloading.
The problem with a single shot rifle is that, as implied, it was good for a single shot. So he had to get faster at reloading. The mechanism was simple and easy to understand, but still annoying.
He had to pull the hammer back, then the snap the rolling block back to be able to insert the dummy slug, lock the rolling block forward, then aim and fire-causing the hammer to snap forward and hit where the primer would be for live ammo.
“I’m coming for ya, Luxion.”
He pulled back the hammer, then the rolling block that ejected the dummy slug, but he didn’t use the right amount of force to send it flying. He shook it off and reached for another dummy slug in his ammo pouch and attempted to insert it. Turns out it was backwards.
Leon sighed as he reset his position.
“This is gonna take a while….”