Chapter 12 | The Assassin’s Chocolate
After we finished with the appraisal sheets, I held a tea party. There was something that I wanted Dia and Tarte to try.
I chose to hold the little event at a table outdoors, where we had a view of my mother’s so-called flower bed. It looked far more like a vegetable garden. Admittedly, after I’d seen the beautiful garden in the royal castle, this greatly paled in comparison.
“Some vegetables have flowers, too, so we may as well grow things we can eat.” That was what my mother always insisted.
“I’m ready, you two,” I announced.
I presented Dia and Tarte with a cup of special herbal tea each and lined the table with an item that was finally ready for sale after many long years of research.
Arranging things like this was typically a duty that fell to Tarte, but I wanted to surprise the girls this time.
“Hey, this is what you gave to me as a souvenir a few years ago. I remember thinking it was incredibly delicious and wishing you had more,” remarked Dia.
“You have a good memory. That was a test run, but I’ve finally finished it,” I responded.
Tarte’s eyes widened slightly in remembrance. “Oh, I remember loving this, too! Lord Lugh let me taste test it once. It was bittersweet.”
“Yeah, chocolate is so good,” Dia said.
“It is!” Tarte added happily.
I had indeed laid out chocolate on the table. Soon, it would be Natural You’s flagship product.
“Please try some,” I offered.
“Wow, this is as delicious as I remember. It feels so luxurious,” Dia commented.
Nodding, Tarte added, “Yes, it’s enchanting. I don’t know if I will enjoy another kind of treat ever again.”
They both clearly appreciated it. I tried a piece as well and found it unsurprisingly delicious.
It possessed a smooth texture. I had achieved a perfect balance that gave you the taste of cacao without being too bitter. Back on Earth, this would have been called dark chocolate.
There was an undeniable air of luxury to it, and it was the best choice for demonstrating the chocolate’s appeal.
“But compared to the chocolate you allowed me to try a while ago, the texture isn’t as smooth, it’s a little dry, and it doesn’t taste as good. Ah, but it’s still really, really delicious! Sorry for my rudeness,” Tarte said.
“You don’t have to apologize. I’m actually impressed you noticed that. This chocolate is definitely of lower quality than the variety I had you try before,” I explained.
“Really? Did you use different ingredients?” she questioned.
“I’ll explain later. Enjoy the chocolate for now.”
“Yes, my lord!”
Evidently, Tarte’s sense of taste had improved along with her cooking skill. It was impressive that she was able to notice the change.
“It goes perfect with herbal tea, too,” remarked Dia.
“It’s not bad, but I think coffee would complement it even better,” I stated.
Dia cocked her head to one side. “What’s coffee? I’ve never heard of it.”
“I’ll find some eventually. It has to be somewhere in the world.”
Coffee was another commodity I’d been hoping to acquire. I would undoubtedly make an enormous profit if I brought it here.
“It took you a really long time to turn this into a product, my lord. You made the trial product back when we lived in Milteu,” Tarte recalled.
“Yeah, it was a lot of hard work. Turning cacao pods into chocolate is challenging and time-consuming. I had to scout out and train an accomplished confectioner. After just under a year of trial and error, it’s finally at a point where we can sell it,” I explained.
The first thing you needed to do was extract the beans from the cacao pods, ferment them in banana leaves or something similar, and then let them dry.
That made it sound easy, but there were a lot of factors to consider. Yeast quality used in fermentation affected taste and texture, and the environment the beans were kept in required meticulous care. Fermentation rate changed depending on habitat.
There was also a trick to the drying, and even the slightest error ruined the whole process.
Once the beans were ready, you had to roast them, peel the shells, grind them, mix them with other ingredients, and refine the paste in a seventy-two-hour process called conching. Chocolate’s smooth texture couldn’t be achieved with brute force. Proper technique was necessary.
After all that, you had to temper the chocolate by heating and cooling it in a vessel over different temperatures of water to crystallize the fatty acids and improve the taste. That was the most challenging step and put the confectioner’s abilities to the test. Once this process was complete, the chocolate could finally be molded and finished.
The confectioner I had recruited was an elite, but it still took him a year to earn a passing grade from me.
“It doesn’t taste as good because someone other than Lord Lugh made it,” Tarte speculated.
“That’s exactly right,” I answered.
“You truly are amazing, my lord.”
Tarte then ate her last piece, her expression melting like chocolate. Dia finished hers as well, making much the same face.
They both clearly loved the sweet.
“Wow, we ate those fast,” remarked Dia.
“…I should have savored them more,” Tarte said with clear disappointment.
Both of their plates were empty. Usually, I would have seconds prepared, but I didn’t have any extra to give the girls this time.
“Do you think this will sell?” I inquired.
“Heck yes! Nobles would pay their weight in gold for this stuff!” Dia exclaimed.
Bashfully, Tarte confessed, “I don’t think I would be able to resist buying some if I could afford it with my allowance.”
The taste wasn’t the only reason they liked the chocolate. The polyphenols and theobromine found in cacao possessed a relaxing effect that healed fatigue. It wasn’t just delicious, it was full-fledged medicine.
“I put the chocolate on the market and shipped some to regular customers last month, and it was received very well.”
Sending gift baskets to regular customers encouraged repeat business and reduced crowding in stores, but the biggest advantage was sending items I wanted Natural You to stock to customers.
No matter how excellent the product, it would be meaningless if I couldn’t get it in the hands of consumers. Making a gift basket was an easy way to do trial runs. I also only delivered them to those aristocrats with a major voice in society, who would spread the word for me.
Before long, rumors about chocolate began to spread like wildfire, coming to be known as the phantom candy.
“…You’re going to get bombarded by angry customers,” said Dia.
“This was the first time I’ve included sweets in the monthly shipment, but customers are always happy when I send them tea leaves. Why would they complain if I include some chocolate?” I questioned.
“No, no. They’re going to demand that you sell them more chocolate and put it in stores,” she clarified.
“You’re right about that. I’m already receiving a ton of those complaints.”
“I knew it.”
Inquiries were pouring in daily. Everyone was asking if they could purchase more chocolate and when it would be available in stores. Honestly, the offers were starting to get ridiculous.
“If you consider those angry customers, then yeah, I’ve got a lot of them. Maha’s been taking care of it,” I explained.
Dia frowned slightly. “Wow, that sounds rough. Angry nobles are really annoying.”
“Um, my lord, if your sweets are delicious and popular, won’t other stores try to copy it?”
“Perhaps, but it won’t be easy for them. Cacao pods are obtained from overseas. Natural You is the only company with a deal to import them, and chocolate is tough to make. If any competitors research the process, it will take them a century to figure it out.”
Even if someone obtained a route to procure cacao pods, they’d never think to ferment the cacao beans in banana leaves.
“So we only have to worry about the confectioner getting bribed or kidnapped,” Dia commented.
“I won’t allow that to happen. I’ve invested a lot in this, so I’ve taken precautions. If anyone tries to get their hands on him…they’ll regret it for the rest of their lives.”
When I introduced moisturizer to the market, an appalling number of people had resorted to underhanded methods to discover its secrets. That experience had taught me how to deal with those kinds of situations. The major companies that went after Natural You last time met with some pretty nasty fates. I doubted anyone would try to steal my secrets again.
“Chocolate is so delicious but also such a handful,” Tarte comment.
“That’s what makes it a weapon. And in order to make it as strong a tool as I can, I’ve decided to put it on the shelves and send it to regular customers only once a month,” I announced.
“What? That’s evil. Making it so rare will turn it into a premium luxury,” Dia said.
That was my goal.
Only Natural You could make chocolate, and knowingly making it a phantom candy would drive up its price.
Tarte, however, tilted her head in confusion. It looked like she didn’t understand my reasoning for doing that. “Um, wouldn’t it sell a lot even if it wasn’t so rare? Wouldn’t it be better just to make a lot of it?” she questioned.
“If I was only thinking about profit, then yes. However, the manufactured scarcity makes it valuable in other ways. Anyone would be delighted to receive some as a gift, for example. I made this chocolate expressly for that purpose. I can think of other uses as well,” I outlined.
The more difficult something was to obtain among wealthy society, the more they desired it and the more jealous they would grow of others. Chocolate was perfect for that purpose. People who had tasted it would brag to others, spreading the word.
“Ah, that makes sense! I said that there would be many upset customers, but that’s precisely what you want, right? You’re planning on delivering people chocolate in exchange for favors they never would’ve given you otherwise,” Dia concluded.
I nodded. “That’s exactly right… Nobles love to show off, which makes them easy to manipulate. Especially those men trying to impress women. If they’re desperate to get a lady some chocolate, they’ll have no recourse but to obey my demands, whether they be for information or even some of their authority.”
“Wow, that’s dark. Darker than this chocolate!” exclaimed Dia.
No amount of money could earn someone an extra shipment of chocolate from Natural You. This was sure to produce incredible profits for the company in the future.
Surprisingly, the royal family of another nation had grown so obsessed with the confection that they’d made an absurd offer to procure more.
“That’s why I’m going to use it as a gift when I visit people to make requests. It’s already more valuable than gold among high society. I’m sure they’ll do just about anything I ask.”
I took out a box wrapped in elegant paper.
“You had more this whole time?! You could’ve given us seconds!” cried Dia.
“As I’ve explained, this is a gift,” I responded.
“Who are you going to meet?” she asked.
“The person I know who has the light affinity. I want to make use of your skill. I’m sure you’re itching to use light magic.”
“Aw, man. I guess we can’t have any, then…”
“I’ll reward you both with an extra-large shipment of chocolate next time.”
“Yay, I love you, Lugh!”
Dia hugged me while Tarte looked on jealously.
Tarte will never change, I guess, I thought, but then she surprised me by saying, “I love you, my lord,” and embracing me, too. Perhaps she’d changed a little since activating Servant’s Devotion.
After a bit, I said, “All right, please let me go. I need to prepare for the trip.”
“Okay.”
“Sorry, my lord.”
Initially, I’d planned to only send Nevan Romalung a letter, but I changed my mind. Presenting chocolate myself was the best way to convince her to help. I also wished to discuss some things regarding the assassination of the prince that I couldn’t bring up the last time we met.
With any luck, the chocolate would get Nevan to lower her guard. Sweets were mightier than the sword in the right circumstances.
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