The Knight’s Barracks and Chocolate

The princess and I had started the construction for the building that would become the barracks of the knight's order that was on its way to End Town.

With the help of her "magic assimilation" skill, we were able to make the entrance hall in less than an hour. It wasn't finished, but we had the base for it.

My plan was to build the frame of the entire barracks first, then we could fill everything up with magic. That way, if we made a mistake, we wouldn't have to take down entire walls that could potentially make the others collapse.

From the entrance in the south, we built a long hall that formed a square, leaving a large open area in the center. That was going to be the training grounds for the knights, and the hall that went around it would be the main passage to any other rooms.

On the west side of the training grounds, we built the frame for the room that would become the kitchen and storage. It was a pretty large room, but we thought it would be better if they had extra space anyways.

On the east side, we built the frame for the office and the armory. The office room was pretty large, enough to fit at least 10 desks for the knights that had to do paperwork. Besides that, we also built another separate office for the commander to use.

The armory was a bit smaller in size, but the princess said it was about the same size as the one in the barracks at the capital, so we left it like that.

To the north of the training grounds, we built the dormitories for the knights.

They were supposed to be 30 in total, counting Thomas and Harvey, which was something to keep in mind.

At first, I thought about making an individual room for each, but the princess told me otherwise. Apparently, in the knight's barracks from the other cities, the dormitory was either a large room filled with bunk beds, or were separate rooms where at least 4 knights could fit.

In the end, we ended up building the frame for 10 different rooms. They were big enough to fit two bunk beds each, so even if they somehow managed to get new recruits into their order, they would have a place to sleep in the barracks.

We built the entire frame in a few hours, then took a rest with the maids who brought us fresh and cold limeade. Since it was almost time for lunch, I started wondering where the hell was Vespera, but just as soon as I was going to send her a telepathic message, one of the kids in the village came by the construction and said that Vespera had arrived bringing some strange fruits.

The maids, princess, and I, walked all the way to the eastern gates of town, where villagers were gathering around Vespera's demon spiders, who were holding crates filled with fruits. However, they were all products that we hadn't had before.

"Ichiro! Check it out." said Vespera, as she approached me.

"I'm guessing this was the surprise you mentioned?"

"That's right! My spiders found this new, small island to the east of the forest that had all these fruits."

"An island, you say?"

Vespera nodded. "You know how if you go all the way to the east, you reach the ocean?"

"Right…"

"Well, just a few meters away from the forest's shore, a new island appeared!"

"That… sounds very strange…" I said with an ounce of suspicion. Even in a magical world such as this, islands appearing out of nowhere couldn't possibly be that common.

"It was definitely quite peculiar. But I explored a good part of it and didn't find any strong monsters…" said Vespera.

The demon spiders left the crates they were carrying on the side, so me and the princess started inspecting the products. Although the princess looked way more optimistic about it than me.

The first crate was filled with small bananas which the inspection window called "yellow horns". ("That's the stupidest name for a fruit I've ever heard… But my opinion might be biased…") I thought.

Another crate had a fruit that resembled strawberries. However, these were double their size, and the inspection window called them "sweet reds". I picked one up and bit into it, and sure enough, it tasted exactly like a fresh strawberry, sweet and tangy.

As I was about to open the third one, Vespera warned me to be careful since the fruits were "spiky", so I heeded her advice and slowly opened the crate.

("Oh! These are…") "Pineapples!" I yelled out loud as I glanced at the fresh fruit filling the crate, almost overflowing.

"Pineapples?" said the princess with a confused expression.

When inspecting them, I saw that their name in this world was "king's fruit", which was probably the coolest sounding name out of all the food ingredients I had seen.

From the final crate, a familiar smell slipped through the cracks.

"This smells like…" I said as I slowly opened the crate. "Cocoa beans!?"

The sweet and bitter smell that was so familiar to me was chocolate, and Vespera had gathered tens of crates filled with these aromatic cocoa beans. However, I couldn't help but wonder if these were the same thing as the ones in my world.

As far as I knew, fresh cocoa beans didn't smell like dark chocolate. I mean, I wasn't a chocolatier, or a chef, but I was pretty sure that there was a more complicated process that went on when turning cocoa beans into chocolate.

When I inspected them, they were called "choco beans". I couldn't help but let out a muffled laugh. ("Pffft, 'choco beans'? That sounds like a snack you would buy at the store or something…")

However, upon further inspection by the spell, I got to the description. <Bitter beans with a hint of sweetness. Can be processed with high heat to obtain 100% dark chocolate.>

("Hold up! So this means that chocolate not only exists in this world, but it has the same name too. Just like it did with wine…") I pondered, just before Jackson arrived at the scene and glanced at the crate filled with "choco beans".

"W-where did you find this?" he said with an almost terrified expression, so I explained to him what Vespera had told me about the strange island that appeared next to the forest.

"Hmm, the island is certainly strange, although not unheard of. I've heard there are lots of moving islands throughout the world. Most people that find them, tend to use them to their advantage and gather as much of their resources as they can before the island moves again… But for it to give us choco beans… That is quite lucky."

"Is it really?"

Melina interjected. "Chocolate is considered the dessert of the kings. My father used to get it as a gift from the Tonaro Kingdom in the eastern continent. But one day they stopped producing it." she giggled. "It was a secret how they made the chocolate in the first place, but now I'm starting to think that they came across one of these islands, and once it moved, they couldn't find it again."

"So basically, we won't be able to harvest this stuff for a long time… Vespera, take me to the island tomorrow." I said decisively.

"I want to go too!" said the princess as she yanked my shoulder softly. "Oh, but what about the barracks?"

"It's alright. We already built the frame and it won't be needed for another month. We can finish it once we check this island out. I wouldn't want it to leave before we see it."

The princess smiled brightly, and nodded.

"As for tonight. I think we have some cooking to do!" I said as I slapped the crate filled with choco beans.

("This world is about to discover fruits with chocolate, and they are not ready for it!")