3 bar menu

Volume 3 Sequel 1.1

Translator: Reflet
Editor: Weasalopes

「Haru, what do we do？」

「What to do……」

　Haruna and Mio were fretting excessively over what the queen had asked them to do. Hiroshi had gone to the workshop in Darl to prepare the transportation circle. He also had plans to go to the workshop in Wulls, taking Makoto along with him for good balance.

「What are you worried about？」

「The queen asked me if I could tell her all about making chocolate.」

「……Oh, I see, that’s what you mean.」

「Chocolates are rather strong in their scent after all……」

　Tatsuya strongly agreed with Haruna. Thinking about how Hiroshi would go into full panic mode every time he so much as picked up the whiff of a chunk, it was going to be quite the dangerous task making chocolate treats that carried their scent through the body.

「I know I should have refused her, but……」

「Well, I’m sure you all wanna eat too……」

　Haruna responded in an uneasy tone, to which Tatsuya pointed out the probable source of distress with an indescribable expression on his face that was close to a grimace. That was what it all came down to.

「If this was just a matter of like or dislike, I don’t think anyone has the right to complain about you all eating some chocolate.」

「And his strong reaction is an innate sort of thing……」

　The two of them both recalled the time the chocolates had emerged without warning, bitter smiles on their faces as they nodded at each other. Especially considering how he wavered on the brink of death for three days and three nights, Hiroshi had to have this fear on an innate level. Even if the real source of the smell was rotten meat, his body might mistakenly register it as chocolate and feel as if he had literally eaten chocolate. There was no helping him.

　Even worse was that although Hiroshi claimed to be not scared of anything other than chocolate (for the most part), but he actually didn’t dislike it. If he were to look at chocolates in movies or pictures, Hiroshi wouldn’t get any flashbacks. It was truly tragic that he found chocolate to appear delicious in pictures but could not actually see the thing in real life without freaking out.

　Still, much like his gynophobia, this chocophobia was getting a lot better. When he was hospitalized, it wasn’t just pictures or paintings of women that scared him; the mere sight of someone’s silhouette caused him to panic and possibly faint, and the mere mention of chocolate meant he needed to be tranquilized. Reflecting on all this, the current situation showed him making miraculous progress.

「So you talked to Hiro, right? What’d he say？」

「He said as long as he knows from the beginning that there’s a smell, he can prepare himself and that we don’t have to worry.」

「Yeah, Sensei said that, but…Would you really be able to follow what he says about not worrying？」

「……True, it’s a bit tough.」

　Although Hiroshi had built trust with all of them, it was a burden to have three girls within his vicinity. Both Tatsuya and Mio hesitated to inflict anything further on him. Or at least they didn’t want to inflict anything, but…

「I still wanna eat chocolate……」

「I suppose it’s not the best idea to just deprive ourselves of it.」

「Tatsu, even for you, it’s gotta be difficult to refrain from drinking the coffee in front of you even if someone’s scared of it.」

「Well, yeah……」

　All they wanted to do was eat chocolate. Why did this have to be so complicated? Even worse was that there was less of a reason for him to conquer his chocophobia as opposed to his gynophobia.

　Chocolate was just a luxury item when it came down to it. There were cases in which it was a bad idea to eat it (calories, nutritional value) when being stranded in a disaster or on a snowy mountain, but at least Hiroshi didn’t have to worry about such things right now.

　They did feel bad about forcing Hiroshi to overcome his fear simply because they wanted to eat chocolate, and who even knew what terrible things would happen if they did that. So even Mio, who was a spartan when it came to things like this, did not think to force him.

「Maybe just one time……」

「Nah, but that “one time” probably wouldn’t be the end.」

「Eat it even once and you’ll want to eat it again. At least I don’t trust my self-control in that area.」

「Me too, I guess.」

　Makoto probably agreed on this. As a fellow woman, she of course loved chocolate. Of course she’d eat it if she saw it, and if she ate it then of course she wouldn’t be able to resist the urge for another bite. It was probably because she understood this that Makoto accepted Hiroshi’s request without question.

「It’s the queen we’re talking about. I doubt she’d say anything more if we refused, but it’s just troubling to have to refuse something like that.」

　Honestly, Tatsuya felt they had no choice but to have Hiroshi get the short end of the stick if it meant having these regrets. If they accepted this burden, then it might catch up to them later. 

「Hey, so I was wondering…」

「What？」

「How about we make chocolates that can be eaten even with Hiro nearby？」

「Eh？」

「Even Hiro has a line where he can handle some exposure, so all we gotta do is find the limit and make something to that effect, yeah？」

　Haruna and Mio clearly had never thought about that idea. It was true that Hiroshi was fine with pictures or illustrations, so there must be a certain line that he didn’t mind. Even if it were impossible to have him eat it, there must be some way to make chocolate that they could eat without Hiroshi reacting.

「But I could also see it being taxing on him until we complete it……」

「In the long term that would reduce casualties, so we need him to endure a bit. It should shorten the amount of time overall.」

　Haruna and Mio thought carefully about Tatsuya’s persuasiveness, or lack thereof. But they were beginning to lean toward it being a possible option.

「……Yeah. Even if he can’t eat them, maybe we could use that as a foothold, and eventually seeing the real thing wouldn’t cause him to overreact.」

「I don’t think this would happen, but it would be no joke if Sensei were to be incapacitated due to chocolate, so let’s try to help him overcome his fear without overdoing it.」

　In the end they lost to their desires, and after a further barrage of theories from Tatsuya, Haruna and Mio agreed to the testing. Indeed, people eat what they love to eat.

　Still, it wasn’t like they only gave in to their food cravings. They also wanted to make chocolate for Hiroshi if there was a kind that he would be able to eat, even if it might not be possible. The idea of not being able to eat something out of fear was really sad to them, and the girls felt it was a maiden’s duty to resolve such fears.

　Then again, in Haruna’s case, she was also flirting with the prospect of expanding her culinary knowledge once she began using cacao, so it was difficult to tell who was more sinful: her, or Mio, who just wanted to have some chocolate.

「There’s something else that’s not as important, but just to check…Tatsuya-san, do you prefer mushrooms or bamboo shoots？」

「I’d have to say mushrooms.」

「And you, Mio-chan？」

「Bamboo shoots all the way.」

「Okay.」

　After asking them about the national chocolate treats from a certain brand, Haruna nodded as she continued to unravel her plan. Incidentally, Haruna loved both equally. Her stance was both mushrooms and bamboo shoots had their own good qualities.

「Still, I think the first thing we ought to aim for is the bamboo shoot/mushroom chocolate bar variety that you can buy for a hundred yen. That’s pretty standard, right?」

「Well they do say those three varieties are the standard for chocolates.」

　The best reason for Japan being late in the chocolate game was probably the standard chocolate bars. They were also at moderate prices and were even well-liked overseas for the good balance in taste, so you could already see how sinful the country of Japan was from this example.

　Digressing a bit, the hundred yen chocolate bars could be purchased in Japan with one coin, but it was apparently quite difficult to make the same quality product in foreign countries for the same price. This was mainly because the quality in milk chocolate was higher than that used in the hundred yen variety. As a result, rather than make elaborate chocolates, the Japanese were already plenty content with the hundred yen variety, so Japan in comparison to Europe tended to not be very developed in the chocolate sphere.

　This had a close resemblance to when people decided that the matchlock was good enough to compete with the capabilities and precision of the first rifle, stopping any progression of weapon-making and eventually becoming late to the game in firepower.

「I do get why you want to start there, but wouldn’t that just double the damage done to Hiro？」

「We’ll tweak it from there of course. Starting with the smell, right?」

「Ah, okay.」

「While we’re at it, tell me what your favorite chocolate is, Tatsuya-san.」

「Right, let’s see……」