3 bar menu

Volume 3 Sequel 1.2

Translator: Reflet
Editor: Weasalopes

Haruna asked Tatsuya what his favorite chocolate was, so he contemplated it for a bit. He didn’t hate them or anything, but neither did he eat them actively. If they were there he’d eat them, but there wasn’t 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 wouldn’t be the case either.

　Essentially, he was fine with regular chocolate.

「Gotcha. Yeah, guys tend to be in that category, huh.」

「Pretty much. But girls aren’t all that keen on sweet stuff either, right？」

「There are a few exceptions, but yes, of course girls have their limits.」

　Haruna agreed with a grimace on her face when Tatsuya pointed out the obvious. Quite a few girls really didn’t get along well with sweet things, so there probably wasn’t 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 “not very sweet, but tasty”.

「Also, this is just a personal preference, but I like the idea of finger chocolate.」

「Ah～、yep. That’s pretty good too.」

「It’s cheap, but it goes well with liquor.」

「Umm, isn’t that because it’s made to go with liquor?」

「I won’t deny that.」

　Haruna took a brief note of Tatsuya’s preference. It wasn’t what she wanted to prioritize, but there was nothing wrong with mixing it up.

「Well, either way we’ll be making a lot of different things, so we might smell like chocolate for a week.」

「Probably. Well, do your best.」

「Mm.」

　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 Darl’s detached palace kitchen, the smell of chocolate wafted about in the air.

「I guess this is as far as we go with Darl goat milk……？」

「With the quality we were able to get, yes.」

　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.

「Yeah, kinda feels like it’s too demanding to aim for the quality of the Japanese chocolates.」

「Plus the taste is just way too different with goat milk as opposed to cow milk.」

　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 couldn’t seem to reach that golden balance the Japanese chocolate bars had.

「Plus, I just thought about it. Would people from Darl even consider the Japanese chocolates to be tasty？」

「……Come to think of it, we should have really considered that.」

　With different climate and topography comes different taste in flavors. Other than wyvern bone soup, they probably wouldn’t 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.

「Which means we need to have someone else sample it.」

「Who are we going to have sample it？」

　After ventilating the area to lessen the smell of chocolate, they thought of a candidate for sampling. They didn’t 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 didn’t 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.

「So in order to get a pro’s opinion, we needed the main kitchen.」

「Seems like you’re in the middle of preparing for a food war. Is it gonna be okay?」

「It should be fine to have one of them take a bit.」

　Haruna felt herself get a bit uneasy at Mio’s 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 couldn’t 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.

「Is your work complete for today？」

　Before Haruna and Mio could turn around, one woman with a refined tone called out to them.

「Magdarena-sama？」

「I heard that Her Highness asked something difficult of you, so I snuck over here to see how things were going……」

　When she mentioned the queen “asking something difficult” 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 Aearis’ introduction. This was the former Farlane First Princess Magdarena.

「I’m really sorry that we had you come out to work in an inconvenient place like this. It was just a sudden interruption unfortunately.」

「That won’t be an issue, but are you going to be okay by yourself in a place like this？」

「Maybe not two years ago, but now there isn’t an issue with me walking around the palace.」

　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 couldn’t 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.

「Umm, is that all you wanted？」

「Well, now that I’m here, I was wondering if I could have one of those cacora…or, you called them chocolates back in your country? One of those chocolates that you’re making.」

「They’re still trial products, and we were thinking of hearing what others had to say before adjusting the flavor……」

「Then you may have my opinion as well.」

　Haruna and Mio weren’t sure what to make of her intangible suggestion. The thing was that Magdalena’s sense of taste was most likely different than those of Darl.