A Couple of Chocolatiers

Vespera had brought us dozens of crates, each filled with fruits and choco beans. The villagers seemed excited to try something new, so I asked the small demon spiders to give everyone a bag with fruits for them to try at home.

As for the choco beans, we took them so we could experiment and find out the best way to make good chocolate with them.

We arrived at my home and went straight to the kitchen, then unloaded some of the choco beans into bowls.

I asked the princess to stand next to me and get a hold of one of them, since I was going to use nature magic to process the beans, I thought it would be good practice for her too.

("Alright, let's think… These aren't exactly cocoa beans…") I thought as I grabbed one and placed it in my mouth. ("They taste extremely bitter… Like, the darkest chocolate I've ever had…")

"Okay, let's try this!" I said confidently while focusing magic onto my bowl filled with choco beans, slowly melting them all together into an aromatic, thick, brown paste.

The only sugar that we had was the brown sugar that we imported from the other cities. It wasn't terrible, but it had its own flavor to it that just wasn't as refined as the white, fine sugar from my old world.

So I poured the sugar into another separate bowl, and focused magic on it, thinking about the consistency and flavor of the white, sweet, powdery sugar that I used to know. After that, the sugar did look more finely grinded, but it still kept a somewhat yellowish color.

After mixing the sugar with the melted choco beans, I grabbed some milk that I was keeping in my void pocket, since it kept it from expiring, and slowly poured it into the hot mix while my gravity magic swirled the contents of the bowl.

When I turned to look at the princess and explain to her the process, I noticed she was at the same step as me, swirling the hot mix while slowly pouring milk. ("Woah, she learns fast. Even with her 'magic assimilation' skill, it shouldn't be that easy to copy every single step I made without some sort of reference…")

"Is this right?" she asked, placing the milk jar down on the side.

"Umm, it looks good to me! I honestly don't know if this is even going to work…"

I quickly grabbed a wooden board and used nature magic to carve small and smooth sockets in it, the same way an ice tray would look. Then me and the princess filled each of these sockets with our chocolate mix. Mine was slightly darker than hers, but that was only because I added less milk.

Since we were still experimenting, we only filled 2 boards, which was around 20 pieces of chocolate, and used ice magic to chill it. Once the pieces were solid, I smacked the board softly against the table, and pulled out the chocolate pieces from their sockets.

Both me and the princess grabbed a piece each, although reluctantly, and gave it a bite at the same time.

The princess opened her eyes with a surprised expression. "T-this is…"

"It's so gooooooood!" exclaimed Vespera, who had sneaked behind us and grabbed a piece of chocolate without us noticing. But to be fair, they were right. The chocolate was indeed amazing.

"One is sweeter while the other is a little more bitter, I could get addicted to these!" said Vespera as she grabbed another pair of chocolate pieces.

I asked Yoru if he was able to eat chocolate, since it wasn't supposed to be good for dogs to be eating that. But obviously, Yoru wasn't a dog, and he absolutely loved the chocolate pieces that I gave him, especially the sweeter ones.

Now that we had a good recipe for making it, I wanted to try the first idea I had in mind; Covering the new fruits with the chocolate.

I grabbed a few of the oversized strawberries that were called "sweet reds" and some bananas that were called "yellow horns". Then held them above an empty bowl as I poured the hot, melted chocolate over them, one by one.

Once they were completely smothered in chocolate, I had them resting on another board where I asked the princess to chill the chocolate, solidifying around the fruit.

I left the pineapple, or "king's fruit", for last since I needed to chop them. Although it didn't take me that long. I sliced it into cubes, then tried one out.

"Ah, this pinea-... I mean, king's fruit is great! It's sour and juicy…" I said as I put another cube in my mouth. Making both Vespera and the princess jump ahead and get one themselves.

I ended up having to cut another pineapple since Yoru and the maids also joined in on the first. However, I also ended up covering those cubes with chocolate and solidifying them with ice magic.

"Now, this is what I wanted to make from the beginning." I said as I placed down the plate full of fruits covered in chocolate to everyone in the house. At that same time, both Harvey and Thomas knocked on our door.

Both knights had spent the day walking around town and getting to know the residents. When they arrived back at the annex, they "smelled a sweet scent coming from here" and knew that I was up to something, so I told them the gist of the situation.

By the end of the night, everyone in the house was satisfied with the dish. So much that both me and the princess had to make another batch. I felt a strange sense of nostalgia, but I still had lots of fun doing it.

Watching everyone eat with a smile, the princess learning magic with her powerful aura that somehow put everyone around her in a good mood. ("It's times like these that made me glad I'm here…") I thought.

__________

The next morning, I was woken up by the princess knocking on my bedroom door. However, since I was still sleepy, I just mumbled random words and she took that as a "come in".

"Ichiro!" she said with an urgent tone.

"Wh-whats up!?" I said loudly as I quickly sat up on my bed.

"Ahh, no. Nothing bad, sorry! I just… Inspect!" she said as the tablet with my information opened in front of her, although with most of it covered by a black bar. "Umm, could you please show me for a moment…"

I didn't mind showing her all my information since she already knew all of it, but I was extremely curious what had caused her to act so rash, so early in the morning.

"Sure, but what's this all about?"

Her eyes widened and a bright smile covered her face as soon as she saw my uncensored information. "Hah! You got it too!"

"What are you talking about?" I questioned while raising an eyebrow and inspecting myself.

<Name: Ichiro

Age: 14

Skills: Kobudo, Martial Arts

MP: 14,000

Titles: Child of Phelena, Master Alchemist, Master Craftsman, Chocolatier.>

"Wait, wh-what the hell is this new title? Chocolatier!?" I exclaimed while focusing on the individual title.

<Chocolatier: Obtained after successfully cooking delicious chocolate with magic.

Effect: Makes the person's chocolate, or dishes containing chocolate, even more delicious.>

("R-really? A title for making chocolate?") I thought. "You have it too?"

The princess nodded fervently. "Take a look!"

<Name: Melina Sephyr

Age: 14

Skills: Magic Assimilation

MP: 16,000

Titles: Princess, Phelena's Blessed, Chocolatier.>

"Hmm, I don't really know how to feel about this…" I wondered while staring at her information.

"Huh? What do you mean?" said the princess with genuine confusion. "This has been so much fun! It's only been a few days since we arrived and I already got a new title. Besides, it says it will make our chocolate even more delicious!"

The princess radiated such a soothing and positive energy, that I realized how dumb I was for not appreciating our new title. We both had a lot of fun making chocolate, and the princess loved it. The title could have been seen as a prize for having fun, so the fact that I felt dissatisfied with it at first was pretty childish of me.

"Heh, you are right. I guess we should pay that island a visit and see if we can find something else to cover in chocolate."

Vespera, who hadn't gone to sleep that night, heard my comment and bolted straight to my room. "I'm ready whenever!"

"I must ask to let us accompany you too." said the maid Carli as she arrived at my room right after Vespera, with Gina behind her.

"Yeah that's no problem. Let's all get ready!"