Side Story – Reading the Momotaro tale with Leo and Bruno.

(O3O)/ – This is an extra Chapter!!!

(-.-) – I don’t know anything about Momotaro, nor have I ever read anything related to it, so forgive me if I make some mistakes.

(O3O)/ – Yeah!!!

(-.-) – And one last thing, this Side Story happens way before Leo even met Leena.

(O-O) – Well, I hope you guys like this extra content.

(OwO) – Enjoy∼♥

 

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In a cold, autumn night.

The kids of the Hannah Orphanage were wrapped in blankets to try and pass the night.

“Then, I’ll be the one reading tonight.”

The one who said that was Leo, with a lot of kids surrounding him.

They had a lamp to light the room.

Tonight, with Bruno, he was on duty to make the younger children go to sleep.

“Are you really okay with this story?”

Leo sees the shabby book that Bruno was pointing to.

“Un, I used to read this a lot. But today we have two men here, so it’s okay.”

“Un.”

The children were paying attention toward Leo.

“From… around here, I think.”

Bruno grabbed the book and handed it over to Leo.

“Momo… taro?”

One of the kids asked.

“Yes, it seems to be a fairy tale from the east. I used read it a lot back then, but couldn’t understand the second part that well.”

It’s a tale about a boy that was born from a fruit named Momo and gathered a lot of friends to fight a powerful enemy. But the book is old and some words were missing.

“Momo… what kind of fruit is a Momo?”

“Dunno.”

Bruno wasn’t an expert about food.

“Is Taro the name of a person?”

One of the kids asked. Again.

“Yes, this name seems to be common in the eastern continent.”

Patience is important when reading to little kids. And thinking so, Leo Made the name easier by changing the name of the book to: “Hans of the Rose.”

“Leo Onii-chan is the best!!”

“Mhmm… A long time ago, there was a poor but beautiful lady. She lived in the mountains… and, hmm, how do you read this…?”

Some letters were frayed and couldn’t be read.

However, if you lived in the mountains… you were probably a lumberjack, an illegal trader, or a bandit.

But Leo couldn’t use these heavy depictions for little kids.

“She gathered branches and flowers in the mountains. And sometimes she washed her clothes in the nearby river.”

The wording was a success.

“I wanna wash the clothes in the river too!!”

“You think this work is easy? You need to always pick good branches and washing your clothes in a river is reaaaally hard.”

Leo not only was kind to them, but he would always give them a glimpse, of how the real world worked.

“Well, back to the book. This lady would go to the upstream of the rive and… what is this part meant to be?”

“Isn’t this the sound effect of the river?”

“Haaah, I guess.”

Leo agrees with Bruno. After all, fairy tales need to be read with sound effects to be impressive.

“And from the upstream of the river, she could always hear the sound Clink! Clink!”

“What is Clink, Clink?”

“The most precious sound in the world.”

It’s the sound effect of coins falling on the ground.

“It was the sound of a sweet fruit that she always brought home with her.”

“I wanna eat it!!”

“I’m gonna make a pie with it!”

This time the girls were delighted because Leo mentioned the sweet fruit.

Likewise, Leo, who is fond of sweet things, continued to read with a smile on his face.

“But when she decided to eat the fruit… Oh no! A little boy came out of it.”

“””Huh…?”””

The children were confused.

Fruits had seeds inside and the kids knew this fact.

So they couldn’t imagine how a little boy would come out of a fruit.

“She almost ate him…?”

“…*Sob*…Sorry for eating you, little boys….”

“That’s right, she’s evil!!”

“Wait, wait, wait!!” Said Leo, trying to stop the fertile imagination of the kids.

“The fruit was hollow, so the boy could fit inside the fruit. It’s like a big box, and he wasn’t eaten.”

“””Un.”””

“Haaah, a close one.”

The children felt relieved knowing that the boy wasn’t eaten by the lady.

But among the kids, there was a child with a sad face: “But she can still eat the skin of the fruit, right?” The child asked, in which Leo answered: “The skin will be used as medicine, so she can’t eat it.” Comforting the child.

At this age, you need to be really patient with children.

But Leo kept his pace and resumed reading the story.

The boy named Hans was brought up by the lady, which married with a fine man named Tatsumi and the two of them raised the boy together.

“But one day, the young Hans heard that the people, down there at the foot of the mountain, in the wolf village, were suffering and terrifying monsters were attacking them.”

“””Waaaa!!”””

The kids were really into the story.

But Bruno was: “Wolf, where!!!”

Which made Leo think: “Not again.” So he decided to change the name of the village.

“Oh no! I made a mistake! It was Zeni village. It’s a horrible island where all the lost money gathers.”

“The island is Leo Onii-chan!?”

“Yeah.”

The children started to laugh.

Leo waited patiently, so that he could continue the story.

“But, who could be the savior of the people of Zeni?”

And because today he’s with Bruno, the story was going more smoothly than ever: “Me! Hans the savior!” Said Bruno, acting like Hans’s character in the story.

So, after defeating every monster and collecting every single lost coin in the island, Hans, the brave, finally brought peace to the people in the island.

“But Hans had to spend the lost money… so he made a purse and went in a long journey.”

“””Why?”””

“Because it’s necessary to pend it too.”

Leo loved to gather coins, but he loved to spend them too, when he could.

“And in one of his journeys, he found the supreme cupcake, so he bought it.”

“””Cupcake?”””

“Its a really small cake.”

The story is going well.

Leo turned the page, a bit hungry.

Hans met a dog too, which became his friend and companion.

But in exchange, Hans had to give the cupcake to the dog.

“What an idiot.”

“Why?”

Bruno was jealous of the dog, for receiving a cake. A small one, but a cake nonetheless.

Then, one of the kids, Emilio, who treats Leo like an awesome hero, pointed out a more realistic way of doing things.

“He could have said that: “If you follow me I’ll give you the cake.” So he wouldn’t give the cake to the dog, but the dog would still follow him.”

Emilio was always a bright kid.

“That’s right, Emilio.” Said Leo with a serious tone.

He gently patted Emilio’s head and said.

“Do you all know why he is right?”

“””No.”””

“In other words… Hans was baiting the dog with food and he gained a follower for free.”

Leo always educated the children in the wrong, but practical, ways of life. If you were sneaky enough, no one would catch you.

“Hans of the Rose” had become a dark fantasy… no, a dirty fantasy!!!

Hans’s journey to spend money continued and at some point, he already had a monkey and other animals following him.

“But what can I do with all this money, thought Hans….”

Emilio was still silent.

“You can save people not only with good, but bad too.”

Contrary to the beginning, the story was becoming more and more deep.

“But at last, Hans had finally reached the end of the island.”

Leo turned the page and sighed.

“The page here is totally destroyed, so I’ll tell from memory what happens from this point on, okay?”

The kids wanted to know what happened at the end of the journey, so they started booing all at once.

“I want to know what happened with the doggy!”

This was supposed to be a simple story about the travel diary of Hans. But, as Leo gradually remembered what would happen from now on in the story, he thought: “The epilogue certainly wasn’t that good.” So Leo decided to change the ending of the story, but for that, he needed a lot of inspiration.

“Leo, the ending should be a fighting scene.”

Bruno gave the idea.

And the inspiration came from scattered words in the torn page.

“Hans and his animal followers, found a castle at the end of the island. Inside the castle was the king of all evil. Hans and his companions fought against the evil emperor until the last man/beast could stand.”

The orphanage’s books were old and some didn’t even have pages anymore. So Leo had to be crafty with his words.

“But the evil lord couldn’t stand being defeated like that, so he used one last spell.”

Leo had a good brain, his imagination was one of the best things he had.

“And seeing the last spell of the evil king, the monkey yelled: “This could destroy the entire island!” But Hans had a plan, he gathered all of his companions that remained and said: “To save the island once and for all, lets become one and fight the evil king!””

The children were excited.

But, Bruno decided to continue the story all of a sudden….

“The animals died, the island became a sea of poison and the people became lumps of mea–”

“No, no, no! That’s not how the story goes Bruno!”

Bruno dropped his shoulders a bit sad.

“…But, when a big battle happens, your hometown would always be destroyed….”

Bruno was the only person with brown skin in the Hannah Orphanage.

He is a refugee from the kingdom of Eland, that was destroyed by the Weiz Empire.

Leo scratched his head, feeling guilty for his friend.

“It’s okay Bruno. Someday we will be able to go there and visit your hometown.”

“Really….”

“Yeah, lets talk before we sleep and then you can tell me all the stories about your hometown.”

Leo smiled toward his shy childhood friend, “Right?”

Bruno was thinking for a while, but then he suddenly stood up and approached the children wrapped in the blankets.

“What is it, Bruno?”

“Shhhh!”

Bruno then turned around and said.

“They are already sleeping.”

“Eh? Seriously…?”

And while looking at the faces of the children, Leo realized that they were really asleep.

“How… just a minute ago these little guys were….”

“Because they’re kids.”

Leo became a bit downhearted after realizing the truth.

Bruno then turned toward Leo and said.

“Hey, Leo. We need to go sleep too.”

“Un… Let’s go.”

Leo stood up and went to the shelf to store the book.

“…Well, now it’s my story time.”

Now, it was Bruno who would tell the story of his hometown.

 

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“…They’re gone?”

“Yeah.”

After a while, Emilio’s the first one to remove the blanket from his head and take a peek outside.

Instead of falling asleep, like Leo and Bruno thought, they all faked their sleepiness.

“Bruno Onii-chan is seriously scary!!!”

“Because of you Leo Onii-chan became sad at the end!!!”

Said one of the girls, full of remorse.

Emilio, who was still talking with the boy, turned around and said.

“Leo Onii-chan is very popular. Even Bruno Onii-chan is more willing to talk, about his past, with Leo Onii-chan rather than us.”

“Besides, none of you wanted to hear Bruno Onii-chan scary story, right?”

The boys shivered, remembering Bruno who approached the blankets. His face looked like the one of a soldier, who witnessed a lot of battles.

“If we didn’t collaborate to fake our sleepiness, maybe Bruno Onii-chan could’ve continued his story….”

“That’s why I never get close of Bruno Onii-chan, he’s scary.”

But the girl was,

“If Leo Onii-chan knew you were avoiding Bruno Onii-chan… he would be sad.”

She glanced at every one present.

As soon as her eyes landed on Emilio, he said.

“You’re right….”

They all kept staring at the floor.

Deep inside, they knew that Bruno was a good guy. Because even Leo had the courage to call him best friend.

Every kid in the orphanage is starving for love, be it parental love, or the love everyone around them could provide… and their soul siblings at the orphanage too, wanted to be loved.

Leo is always cheerful, and that is what makes him so popular with the children.

“We can’t have Leo Onii-chan be sad because of us, right?”

And, after hearing what Emilio said, everyone answered with a “Yes∼.”

“Tomorrow, Leo Onii-chan is gonna be on the market group with us. We have to work on a strategy to make his work easier.”

“Like when the Obaa-chan of the vegetable shop refuses to give a discount and Leo Onii-chan keeps pestering her until she gives up?”

“No, better than that.”

And so, the night of the Hannah Orphanage, continues.

Only Leo didn’t know that his younger siblings had grown up so much.

 

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Tl/n: For those who don’t know, cupcakes were invented in 1796, so it’s not abnormal that in a world with magic those appeared early (1080). Just my opinion.

And I don’t know why, but I ship Leo and Bruno more than with the prince.

 

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MnS – TOC – Next