Haruna asked Tatsuya what his favorite chocolate was, so he contemplated it for a bit. He didnât hate them or anything, but neither did he eat them actively. If they were there heâd eat them, but there wasnât anything in particular he wanted to eat. At most Tatsuya would say he wanted to avoid ones that were too sweet, but if asked if he liked bitter chocolates, that wouldnât be the case either.
Essentially, he was fine with regular chocolate.
ăGotcha. Yeah, guys tend to be in that category, huh.ă
ăPretty much. But girls arenât all that keen on sweet stuff either, rightďźă
ăThere are a few exceptions, but yes, of course girls have their limits.ă
Haruna agreed with a grimace on her face when Tatsuya pointed out the obvious. Quite a few girls really didnât get along well with sweet things, so there probably wasnât a huge difference between either gender. While there were those who would engulf any sweet thing that men had difficulty with, there were plenty of instances in which girls would agree that the sweets men liked were ânot very sweet, but tastyâ.
ăAlso, this is just a personal preference, but I like the idea of finger chocolate.ă
ăAhď˝ăyep. Thatâs pretty good too.ă
ăItâs cheap, but it goes well with liquor.ă
ăUmm, isnât that because itâs made to go with liquor?ă
ăI wonât deny that.ă
Haruna took a brief note of Tatsuyaâs preference. It wasnât what she wanted to prioritize, but there was nothing wrong with mixing it up.
ăWell, either way weâll be making a lot of different things, so we might smell like chocolate for a week.ă
ăProbably. Well, do your best.ă
ăMm.ă
Deciding their initial objective, Haruna began preparations. Looking at how she hummed a tune while scrutinizing the ingredients, all said and done, Haruna was truly just happy to be able to eat chocolate.
And so the project designed as both an excuse to eat chocolate and to help Hiroshi overcome his weakness had begun without him knowing it.
That day in Darlâs detached palace kitchen, the smell of chocolate wafted about in the air.
ăI guess this is as far as we go with Darl goat milkâŚâŚďźă
ăWith the quality we were able to get, yes.ă
Haruna and Mio came to that conclusion after sampling several trial products and tilting their heads to the side. They were on a pretty good course, but something was a bit too little, or maybe too excessive, they felt.
ăYeah, kinda feels like itâs too demanding to aim for the quality of the Japanese chocolates.ă
ăPlus the taste is just way too different with goat milk as opposed to cow milk.ă
Haruna said in a dampened tone, while Mio agreed and brought up a problem she felt was relevant. If you wanted a mellow taste, then the flavor would be richer, and if you wanted to prioritize the balance between sweet and bitter and the aftertaste, then the smooth, melt-in-your-mouth sensation or the good taste would have to go. They tried adding and subtracting all sorts of things, but they couldnât seem to reach that golden balance the Japanese chocolate bars had.
ăPlus, I just thought about it. Would people from Darl even consider the Japanese chocolates to be tastyďźă
ăâŚâŚCome to think of it, we should have really considered that.ă
With different climate and topography comes different taste in flavors. Other than wyvern bone soup, they probably wouldnât be huge fans of the Farlane dashi flavor. But judging from that exception, the chances that the chocolates they made got top ranking in Darl were not entirely none.
ăWhich means we need to have someone else sample it.ă
ăWho are we going to have sample itďźă
After ventilating the area to lessen the smell of chocolate, they thought of a candidate for sampling. They didnât know many people in Darl. The only ones who might do it for them were a few people at Igreos Temple, the queen, Sergio, Dentlis, or maybe the servants who helped them out there when they were staying.
Although the queen had given the instructions, they hesitated to make the greatest figure in Darl stoop so low as to sample food, which automatically meant they would have to take her retainer, Sergio, off the list. Dentlis was just a drag to deal with in many ways, and the people at Igreos were a bit too far away.
So by that logic, the servants would be the best idea, but disturbing them during work would be burdensome and didnât sound like a good idea. As for the chefs, this kitchen in the detached palace was cleaned from corner to corner, but it was hardly used. As a result, there were no chefs in the area and there was no one to ask the opinion of. They had to prepare for a sudden feast and had not been able to reserve space for taste-testing.
The apologetic looks of the workers in the detached palace were enough to make them feel grateful, in fact.
ăSo in order to get a proâs opinion, we needed the main kitchen.ă
ăSeems like youâre in the middle of preparing for a food war. Is it gonna be okay?ă
ăIt should be fine to have one of them take a bit.ă
Haruna felt herself get a bit uneasy at Mioâs overeager attitude, but they had never been able to find anyone to taste test in this area of the palace since no one came in except for cleaning and maintenance in the morning and couldnât think of any other ideas, so she decided to go ahead and barge in for a bit.
They managed to shrink it down to three candidates before adequately wrapping two of them that had a more extreme mixture of ingredients. When the girls got up to leave, they sensed someone enter the kitchen.
ăIs your work complete for todayďźă
Before Haruna and Mio could turn around, one woman with a refined tone called out to them.
ăMagdarena-samaďźă
ăI heard that Her Highness asked something difficult of you, so I snuck over here to see how things were goingâŚâŚă
When she mentioned the queen âasking something difficultâ of them, Magdarena had a rather exasperated tone in her voice before continuing on in her gentle, refined voice. They had only once seen her with Aearisâ introduction. This was the former Farlane First Princess Magdarena.
ăIâm really sorry that we had you come out to work in an inconvenient place like this. It was just a sudden interruption unfortunately.ă
ăThat wonât be an issue, but are you going to be okay by yourself in a place like thisďźă
ăMaybe not two years ago, but now there isnât an issue with me walking around the palace.ă
Magdarena had to get married to a younger prince, a thirteen year old at the time. They could sense the firmness of character in her voice, which was unusual. The assassination of the previous king seven years ago and the chaos that followed. In order to suppress it and solidify the queen as the rightful ruler, Magdalena had to become the crown princess.
In addition to those complicated circumstances, anyone marrying into their family couldnât say anything careless without things turning grim, so other than when she had to do the bare essential work as a crown princess, Magdalena generally pretended to not exist. Because of that, people only complimented her appearance but knew nothing else about her, good or bad.
ăUmm, is that all you wantedďźă
ăWell, now that Iâm here, I was wondering if I could have one of those cacoraâŚor, you called them chocolates back in your country? One of those chocolates that youâre making.ă
ăTheyâre still trial products, and we were thinking of hearing what others had to say before adjusting the flavorâŚâŚă
ăThen you may have my opinion as well.ă
Haruna and Mio werenât sure what to make of her intangible suggestion. The thing was that Magdalenaâs sense of taste was most likely different than those of Darl.