kscans

Chapter 262 - Episode 5: Part Two Chocolate is Not Sweet

"I see you’ve noticed. That’s right."

Plural grinned at Natalie, who had calmly analyzed the chocolate and cheese cake.

"Which means this isn’t the recipe for the enthronement ceremony, is it."

"Correct. The balance of the two layers is off, of course. The texture, the color balance, everything lacks refinement. It won’t be ready in time."

"You’re as particular as ever. So, you’re going with the chocolate ice cream after all."

"The sweetness is one thing, of course, but if you ask me whether that is the ultimate Cacaulus dessert..."

"I see. The defining characteristic of Cacaulus isn’t just its richness, but its aroma."

"Exactly. Ice cream is wonderful, but it inevitably dulls the flavor of the Cacaulus. And this time, there’s the matter of the Reizouko to consider separately. It’s quite the dilemma."

Plural glanced at the rectangular box that occupied the seat of honor in the kitchen.

"Speaking of which, what is he up to?"

"Did you not hear about it when Sherry came by?"

"...I had other things on my mind then. I only heard a little. Something about how she went to him with an idea to improve the Reizouko, only to find him drinking with Maytyl-sama and Mia in the middle of the day."

Plural recalled how Sherry had looked downcast after venting about Dalgan.

"Well, I suppose you can’t blame her for getting upset, seeing them having a party with chilled white wine in the afternoon while she was struggling."

"According to Alfina-sama, they were just drinking the failed experiments so they wouldn’t go to waste. I wonder what he plans to do with sugar. He wouldn’t tell me since he wasn’t sure himself."

"Well, he is a Vinder. He wouldn’t just serve plain chilled wine. Thanks to him, Rilka, who is in charge of the appetizers, is worried sick."

"She has to consider the pairing with the aperitif, after all."

The idea that his junior would do something ordinary was simply not conceivable. This was a truth shared by all of them.

"You’ve been a great help today. Well, I think I’ll experiment a little more."

Plural stood up, tools in hand. He was already busy with his daily duties, so developing new menu items was always a nighttime affair. The craftsmen who had been roped into helping with the irregular new cream cheese menu yesterday had been sent home early today.

"If you don’t mind, could I help you?" Natalie asked, looking around the deserted kitchen.

"But..." Plural hesitated, glancing at the dark window outside.

"I don’t have an assignment this time. And considering how this all started, I feel I should at least help a little."

Natalie smiled sweetly.

"Besides, I’m interested in how to use the Reizouko. You know, temperature is crucial when setting gelatin."

He knew that the Reizouko, which should have originally gone to Natalie, was being delayed because of Sherry's improvement proposal.

"Alright then, I’d appreciate the help."

Plural nodded.

"Shall we try drastically increasing the amount of chocolate?"

The two of them faced each other across the kitchen table. First, they discussed the basic approach.

"That would deepen the black and make the color beautiful, yes. But it creates a problem with the mouthfeel."

"I see. It becomes too hard. Texture is important in a dessert."

They both fell into thought.

"Even if we increase the proportion of Cacaulus, there are ways to maintain the softness of the ice cream. You know, it’s the same as that."

"The cheese Rilka brought."

"Yes. We’re already using cream in the chocolate. The trick is not to add too much, or it won’t set. The balance there is delicate."

Plural spoke, remembering three years of trial and error inspired by Ricardo’s far from brilliant idea, "I want a dessert made of hardened Cacaulus."

"I see. But that’s because it’s chocolate, right?"

"That’s right. With ice cream, we can just freeze it. Alright, let’s try increasing the cream."

…

"No good. It still sacrifices the texture."

Plural shook his head at the sticky consistency.

"No matter how rich it is, ice cream is a frozen dessert. The way it melts in your mouth is important. It needs to dissolve more smoothly."

"We’ve already reduced the milk to compensate for the cream, so this is difficult..."

…

"This isn’t working."

"It’s not. It’s too hard. To make it softer we’d need more cream..."

"There’s nothing left we can reduce."

"..."

They faced each other at the table lined with bowls of prototypes. It was a disastrous scene that would have made the shop’s accountant faint, but they had made no progress. On the contrary...

"Somehow, this isn’t even ice cream anymore, is it."

"...You have a point."

Natalie popped a small, black piece into her mouth and nodded. It had been made small to freeze it quickly, but it had to be melted in her mouth like a piece of candy.

Yes, this was the result of their stubborn pursuit. Had his craftsmen been present, they would have admonished him, asking how he failed to notice until things got this bad.

"The Cacaulus aroma gets a passing grade, though," Natalie said, trying to smooth things over. Of course it would, this was practically pure chocolate now. But her words made Plural stop.

"Not ice cream!?"

Plural stared intently at the latest prototype. Then, after mixing the ingredients in the same proportions, he poured the mixture into a long, thin mold and headed for the back of the kitchen.

"What are you doing?"

"The reason I limited the amount of cream when I was making chocolate was to make sure it set properly. It was summer then, too."

Plural opened the lower door of the Reizouko.

"With this, I might be able to achieve the melt in your mouth texture I gave up on back then."

"...I see."

Natalie glanced at the white cream cheese that had been pushed to the edge of the table.

"In that case, perhaps it doesn’t need to be sweet. Why don’t we make it a more adult flavor?"

Natalie pointed to Sherry’s souvenir and a bottle of cooking spirits.

"Hehe, I’m glad you’re here. My subordinates would have stopped me."

"Mainly for cost reasons, I imagine."

The two looked at each other and laughed eerily. The meticulous thinking essential for creating sweets was nowhere to be found.

Chun chun.

The chirping of small birds could be heard from outside. The room, lit by the morning sun streaming through the window, was filled with a sweet, alcoholic air. A man and a woman who had spent the night together lay on the floor.

They were on opposite sides of the table laden with prototypes.

"In the end..."

"...Yes."

"There were a lot of things we didn’t need."

"Right. We didn’t need the eggs, either."

"And it was fine with less sugar."

"That point is still debatable. But I will praise how it brings out the maximum aroma of the Cacaulus."

"I wonder if the final prototype has set yet."

Plural slowly pushed himself up and took a shallow, rectangular mold from the Reizouko. It was a rectangle, half black and half a greenish black. He carefully inserted a knife into the black half, dicing it. He picked up a small cube and offered it to Natalie. Natalie accepted it with her mouth.

Natalie’s cheeks relaxed, and she let out a blissful sigh.

"You too, Plural-san..."

Natalie cut the green side in the same way and extended her fingers toward Plural.

"Branch manager, good morni... My apologies!!"

Just then, the kitchen door opened. It was one of the craftsmen, arriving dutifully first thing in the morning. He saw his boss being fed chocolate by Natalie’s fingers and hastily shut the door.

It was after Natalie had left. While tuning out his boss’s mumbled explanation of "I was up all night, you see...", the craftsman sampled the new chocolate.

"The chocolate ‘part’ wasn’t that sweet."

So went his review.