After the skills are checked, we will have a tea party.
　I have something for the two of you to eat.
　The location of the event is not the mansion, but a desk and table located in a position that overlooks the vegetable garden, which is not really a flower garden that my mother is growing.
　........After seeing the most beautiful flower garden in the world at the castle, the gap is terrible. My mother says, 'Vegetables bloom, too. Then it's more profitable to eat them.
　The vegetables that grow here are delicious, and I actually agree with my mother.

'We're both ready to go.'

I line up the special herbal tea with a special pastry that is finally on the verge of being commercialized.
　Normally it's the tart's job, but this time it's mine to surprise them.

Oh, this is what Lug used to bring me as a gift. It was so good that I've been wanting to try it again.
You have a good memory. That one was just a prototype, but we finally got it to market last month.
'I love it too. It's bittersweet and sweet.
Yeah, yeah, it's good, isn't it, chocolate?
Yes!

It's chocolate.
　Long ago, before Dia was still a Touahade, I gave it to her as a souvenir at a monthly secret meeting and gave it to Dia once.
　So Dia knows chocolate, and I know the tart because I've had a prototype of it for her.

'Go ahead and try it,'
Mmmm, it's really good. It has a very classy feel to it.
Yes, there's this strange, enchanting feeling I get from all these sweets.

They immediately enjoy the chocolate.
　I take a bite.
　Yes, it's very well made.
　The texture is smooth. And the ratio of cacao is good, just before you feel it's too bitter. If I reduce the amount of cacao, the cacao flavor will be insufficient, and it won't be enough, and if I add more than this, it will be too bitter to enjoy.
　Milk chocolate that was commercially available in a previous life is usually 20% to 40% cocoa, but this one is roughly 45% cocoa. This is called "bitter chocolate".
　It's the best way to get people to enjoy the appeal of chocolate.

'But compared to the last one I had, it's a little less smooth and a little fuzzier, and the flavour is lacking. Oh, but it's very, very good. I'm sorry for being so weird.
'Don't apologize. Rather, you've noticed it well. Indeed, this is of a lower quality than the last one I fed you.
'Really?　Is it a difference in materials?
We'll talk later. For now, enjoy the chocolate.
Yes!

Tart seems to have a better palate in proportion to his cooking skills.
　It's quite a feat to notice the difference.

'Mmmm, it goes perfectly with the herbal tea.
Not bad, but if you're going to pair it with chocolate, you might as well have coffee.
What's coffee?　I've never heard of that before.
I'll get it one day. I'm sure there's one out there somewhere.

Coffee, if we can get that one first and distribute it to this continent, we will definitely make a great deal of money.

''But it really took a long time. We had a prototype when we were in Murteu, and it wasn't even ready for sale until last month.
Yeah, it was hard work. It's very difficult to make chocolate out of cacao. It's time-consuming, complicated, and requires special skills. Even if I was the only one who could make it, it wouldn't be a good product. I scouted for good pastry chefs and had them train me. After less than a year of trial and error, I finally reached a level where I could sell them.

It is extremely difficult to make chocolate from cacao.
　To prepare the chocolate, the cacao beans are taken out of the cacao fruit, wrapped in banana peels or other ingredients, and then dried.
　It's easy to say, but the taste and flavor of the chocolate depends on the quality of the yeast used for fermentation.
　The drying process is also a tricky one, and the slightest mistake can ruin it.
　The process of roasting and shelling the pre-prepared fruit in this way takes a lot of patience and effort. The process of crushing and grinding the shells and adding the ingredients to the mixture, and then refanning and conching the chocolate, which takes a mind-boggling 72 hours of continuous kneading.
　It takes a lot of skill to get a smooth texture, and it is not enough to mix it with force.

The process is then tempered, or tempered by boiling water at different temperatures many times to adjust the fat crystals and improve the texture and flavor.
　This is the hardest part. Once this is done, the pastry is finally ready to be placed in a mold.
　I hired a top-notch pastry chef, but after a year of work, it's only a passing grade.
　The chocolate that I had to work so hard for is now in front of me.

Because someone else made it, it tasted worse than the one made by Mr. Lugue.

Tart says, bringing the last one to his mouth and giving him a chocolaty, melted look.
　Dia was similar.
　They both loved the chocolate with a passion.
　If they are this happy, it is worth all the hard work to commercialize it.

─ We ate it all in a flash!
I should have tasted more of it.

Their plates are now empty.
　Normally, we have a spare and offer refills, but this time there was no extra.

'Do you think they'll sell?'
'Yeah, we'll definitely sell it!　A nobleman would buy it, even if it was loaded with gold.
'I don't think I can stand the price of what my pocket money can buy either.

In fact, it's not just the taste that makes chocolate so popular.
　The theopromine, a polyphenol contained in cacao, has a relaxing effect on recovery from fatigue.
　In other words, it is a medicine. Once you eat chocolate, your body subconsciously seeks it out when you are tired, and chocolate is a very special treat.

Last month I sent some to my subscribers and they were quite pleased with the results.

Sending out subscriptions is an anti-resale measure and an in-store congestion measure, but more than that, it's an overwhelming advantage to get people to buy the products they like.
　No matter how good you make something, it's useless if you can't get people to pick it up.
　If you make an assortment of products, you can easily clear the hurdle of getting people to pick them up. Moreover, the only people to whom you can send your products are the wealthy and aristocrats.
　In the blink of an eye, word of the chocolate had exploded and it was called a fantastic confection.

I'm sure the complaints are pouring in at an alarming rate.
'I've never sent candy before, but even tea leaves are appreciated. They can't complain if you put chocolate in it, can they?
I don't mean that kind of thing, I mean, sell more of them, put them in stores, etc., etc., etc.

You're right. I've already received a ton of complaints of that sort.
　Requests for additional purchases, pleas to be sure to include them next month, confirmation that they will be in line at the store, etc...
　Some of them are even saying things that are outrageous.

You know what I mean. If you call it a complaint, I'll be inundated with complaints. Maha is handling it well.

If it wasn't for Maha, I would have snapped and thrown my job away.
　The volume is incredible and they're all a pain in the ass, wielding their power as much as they can against you.

'Wow, that's awful,'
Um, Mr. Lugue, if it's this good and it's so popular, won't other restaurants copy it?
Don't expect it to be difficult. The cocoa is from the other side of the world. The cocoa supplier is across the ocean, and Orna is the only one who does business with them, and, more importantly, it's too difficult to make chocolate. ...It would take a hundred years to study how to turn cocoa into chocolate properly.

Even if you had a cocoa supply route, you probably wouldn't even think of it from the starting point of wrapping cocoa beans in banana peels and fermenting them in the first place.
　After that, there is a series of difficult processes, and things like tempering are not meaningful to just know, but require expert skills.
　It's impossible for other shops to copy it.

The problem is that the artisans are bribed or abducted.
I don't skimp on that. I have invested so much and I'm so careful. If someone messes with it they will regret it for the rest of their lives.

I have dealt with such people rottenly when it comes to latex. That's why I've accumulated a lot of know-how on how to deal with them.
　However, I'm sure the big business associations have seen the painful side effects of that time, so I don't think they'll mess with us this time.

''This chocolate is so delicious, yet it's so hard to make.
Well. That's why it's a weapon. To make that weapon stronger, the chocolates will be in the store and sent to the regular buyers once every two months, just to alternate, and we'll only sell them once a month. We sent them out last month, so this month we'll just sell them in the store for one day.
Oh, wow, they are so rude. There's a f*cking premium on that.

That's the point.
　It can only be made in Orna. Moreover, it is a rare sweet that is sold only once a month.

That sense of scarcity makes the value of the chocolate even higher.
　But Tart doesn't seem to understand the point of doing so and nods his head.

''Um, even if they're not rare, they still order a lot of them, right?　Then we should make it anyway, shouldn't we?
'If it's all about profit. But if it's rare, it can be put to other uses. A fantastic confection that is the talk of the nobility and the rich, you'll be glad to have it. This chocolate is designed for entertaining. And there are other uses for it as well.

The more seldom available, the more envied something is, the more the aristocracy and the rich want it.
　In that regard, these chocolates are perfect. It boasts of what you eat, and is only sold in Orna, and that's only once a month.
　And it comes with quality.

'Oh, all right!　You know, you said earlier that you were having a hard time with all the complaints. I mean, isn't that the kind of thing you'd send out in exchange for some crazy deals?
You're well aware of that. I'm trying. .... the nobility and the rich are very helpful in dressing up. Especially a man who is trying to look good for a woman. If you ask a woman to give you information or rights, or any other flexibility, she will easily accept it.
Wow, black. Blacker than chocolate!

Not money, but what Orna demanded as a condition for sending the chocolates, something she couldn't get for any amount of money.
　This would create a tremendous amount of profit for Orna in the future.
　Surprisingly, even royalty from other countries have fallen for the charm of the chocolates and have offered her something extraordinary.
　This was made possible because of the scarcity of chocolate.

Therefore, I'm going to go and ask for a favor as a gift. The value of chocolate is already higher than gold among the nobility. I am sure they will be happy to oblige me, even if it is a little absurd.

I take out a tastefully wrapped paper box.

'Oh, Roug sly, there was another box!　There's a refill!
I told you. It's a gift.
Who the hell are we going to see?
"To a wielder of light magic. To put Dia's skills to good use. Light magic, can't wait to use it, right?
Ugh, now you're being selfish.
Good girl. As a reward, you can send me extra chocolate next time.
Yay, I love rogues!

Dia hugs me and the tart looks at me enviously.
　Is this the usual pattern? ........When I thought that, Tart also said 'I love you, Rougu-sama,' and hugged me. Maybe that was the trigger for the change in Tart's consciousness.

''For now, let go. I have to get ready to go see you.''
Yes, sir.
Um, I'm sorry.

Initially, I was going to request the matter of light magic by letter, but I decided to meet him in person.
　The person I'm going to meet is Nevan, the daughter of the Duke of Romalung. I asked her to teach me light magic as a gift of chocolate.
　And the reason I decided to go in person is partly because I wanted to talk to her, which I couldn't do at that time.
　It's a request for help to assassinate the second prince for sure.
　If she's the daughter of Romalung, she can surely make the moves I'm hoping for.
　But there is something else I need to know. I need to know that you really want to kill the Second Prince. Even if they do, it's not entirely unreasonable to assume that they have ulterior motives in this business.

Whatever happens, I hope these chocolates will loosen the other party's mind a little.
　Sometimes a candy is a weapon more powerful than a sword.