'I should get up…'
Lying in his hammock and staring at the gigantic sword on the horizon, Leo started gathering his will to leave the bed…
In reality, Leo had already woken up a few hours earlier than scheduled, almost at sunrise, unable to indulge in sleeping more than necessary. The reason for Leo's insomnia was very obvious, his mind was simply too active thinking about how today would end.
Although he had completed every last bit of his preparations, almost to perfection, Leo still couldn't help exchanging thoughts with himself as both excitement and anxiety had engaged in an 'emotional' battle of their own.
Having woken up that early, Leo didn't surrender to his overthinking and instead kept going through the plan he put for himself today, trying to itch what he already memorized even deeper into his head.
Leo wasn't the type to overdo things, but he couldn't start his plan too early since he wasn't the only participant in it. Besides, nothing much changed just because he woke up early. if his mind was too stubborn to accept resting, then he would at least rest his body as much as he could considering how much he had to exert it later.
'No matter the result…'
The first thing he did after washing his face was head to the big bakery in town. After all, the first segment of his 'home defense' plan started with treating the whole Orphanage to another special breakfast.
"Wake up everyone, I have got a surprise for all of you!"
Although slightly earlier than the usual average waking up time of his 'siblings', Leo gently shook his siblings one by one to wake them up before throwing the bait.
"Big brother got us meat buns again!"
As usual, Annie was the first to get up as she immediately recognized the familiar smell. Despite the fact that the quality of their food increased thanks to Leo's 'donation', the meat buns that started that trend still had their special place in the hearts of the little kids.
'If only it wasn't this expensive…'
Receiving the same reaction for the meat buns, Leo felt slightly helpless. If this was his world, having something like meat buns every day wasn't that hard, but due to the special setting of this world, even meat buns were treated as a sort of 'luxury food'. Even his bag of shiny 'gold swords' couldn't allow him to spend this much on food.
Not to mention his 'siblings', even Leo had to switch his breakfast into something cheaper, pursuing nutrition rather than taste. Although there were more than a few ways to earn money using his modern knowledge, He didn't plan to get swept into money-making before he had a solid spot to stand on, that was disregarding the possible butterfly effect that modern knowledge could have.
'It's not worth it.'
While changing the plot and the setting could allow him to gain 'reading points' taking that last incident as a reference, Leo didn't find it worth losing his 'future knowledge' advantage in exchange for 'points' that had an unknown value. No matter how much its worth was, even if they surpassed gold in value, they would be cheaper than sand if he ended up dying due to the aftereffects.
"I know that I have been rarely joining you for breakfast lately, but thanks to that, I have managed to prepare a small surprise for us!"
After the buns had been distributed and everyone settled in and started eating, Leo paused to introduce the start of the plan.
"Anoder surrprise?"
Annie questioned with a full mouth that only made her look cuter. She and the other kids thought that the meat buns were enough as a cause of celebration, they didn't expect that the surprise Leo mentioned was something else.
"Mhm, most of you don't know, but I managed to get a good job at one of the smithies in town. The boss there treats me very well, and the pay is also great. In fact, right after God's help, he is the main reason why we get to eat better as of late!"
Switching into Arthur's way of speaking, Leo started explaining the situation in order to reach his target.
"Woah!"
"Anyway, as we spend quite a bit of time swamped by work, we make small talk by exchanging our thoughts. Since he knows I'm part of our family, he always keeps asking about my brothers and sisters who are the best in the world. He didn't stop talking about wanting to meet all of you, so today we are going out on a small field trip!"
Responding to the interest shown by his siblings' surprised sounds, Leo continued telling the story he cooked up. Only a quarter of it was true, but it was the setting that he and Crane came up with for the sake of his plan.
'More like an evacuation trip…'
"A field trip?"
This time, it was Ria that spoke out. She had been silent trying to enjoy the joyful mode as much as possible, but she couldn't help but raise her eyebrows when she heard Leo's last words.
"Yes, considering today is the smithy's monthly break. The boss has suggested we do a house visit so he could finally meet my siblings, while they get to see the cool stuff he made. Ah, don't worry, all of the dangerous stuff is kept away."
Leo did his best to sound like Arthur disregarding the influence of his main personality, but he still noticed the worry on Ria's face.
"Are you sure this is a good idea? We don't want to impose…"
Ria couldn't help but have countless scenarios play out in her head. Did this 'Boss' have bad intentions towards her 'children'? Was this the reason he was treating Arthur this well?
All the worst possibilities ranging from simple accidents to child trafficking went through her head, but as she saw Arthur staring at her with 'those' eyes, all this worry vanished, shifting its direction to something else…
'Something is wrong…'
"We can go, right?"
As Leo followed up with this question, coupled with the expectant eyes of the children, Ria could only nod in confusion. She could tell that Arthur had another important reason behind this 'field trip'.
Even as the only 'adult' in the Orphanage, Ria often relied on Arthur as she did with his 'older brother'. Despite being ten years older than him, Arthur was something more mature than her thanks to the influence of his abnormal 'older brother'. If he needed them to leave the Orphanage today, then something must be happening.
"Alright, let's get ready, help each other get dressed, we are going on a field trip. No running though."
"Yay!"
Trying to hide her worry, Ria confirmed her answer as the kids jumped with joy before hurrying to change. Only Leo stood in his place as he smiled and nodded.
'It worked.'
Leo let out a sigh of relief deep inside. While it wasn't shown much in the novel due to the little 'screen time' the Orphanage got, Arthur was quite a smart kid, the influence of the protagonist who entrusted the job of protecting the place to him wasn't small, which made him an anchor that even Ria sometimes relied on.
Being Arthur himself, Leo knew that the special 'leave it to me' look didn't always work on Ria. Thankfully, Ria seemed to be even more affected by it than usual, otherwise, the first segment of the plan might have failed considering how suspicious its details were.
'That's the best I could do with the time I had…'
Seeing Ria's expression that seemed like she wanted to talk, Leo pointed to his 'siblings' who already changed. It didn't take much time considering their age.
"Haa. Great, you are all ready. Every three hold each other's hand, we are having a 'field trip'."
'Success!'
Letting out a sigh, Ria smiled before she announced the start of the 'evacuation trip', consequently blowing the horn for the start of Leo's 'home defense' plan!