Let’s Just Give It A Try First! (5)

In the conference hall where the leaders of the noble faction sat facing one another, silence seemed to be the main agenda as everyone kept their mouths shut and only watched one another’s expressions.

“So you’re telling me I’m supposed to believe that?”

At Duke Balsen’s words, Marquis Doriyan broke out in a cold sweat and fidgeted in agitation, not knowing what to do.

It was all because of a single rumor that had been sweeping through the noble faction recently.

The secret formula behind Viscount Ingrad’s medicines had supposedly been discovered, but the problem was that the man who made that discovery had suddenly died, and all of Marquis Doriyan’s underlings who had reported it to him had vanished without a trace before anyone knew it.

Naturally, Marquis Doriyan was the one everyone pointed to as the mastermind behind all this.

“Your Grace, I am a victim as well. You know I have been his master all his life, the one who fed him and clothed him—and now I’m suffering because that wretch betrayed me and ran off with such rare and precious information.”

Hearing Marquis Doriyan’s words, Duke Balsen could only think that it made him snort; Doriyan’s excuse was nothing short of ridiculous.

“Weren’t you the one who, with no wife or children of your own, used to brag openly that with enough money you could even hire ghosts to work for you?”

“Even if I did say such a thing…”

Duke Balsen raised his hand to cut off Doriyan’s words and continued.

“Consider how much of the noble faction’s lifeblood has been poured into that research. You know very well that everyone rolled up their sleeves and financed it for the sake of our faction’s profits. And yet… doesn’t something about this strike you as strange, no matter how you look at it?”

“…I know it’s strange. But I am innocent. If anything, I’m the one who’s suffered the greatest loss, haven’t I?”

“No one can say. For all we know, if we just gloss this over, you’ll set that runaway up in secret somewhere and use him to found a trading house and rake in the profits for yourself. With trust and confidence already cracked, I’m left wondering where, exactly, I’m supposed to start believing a word Marquis Doriyan says.”

Marquis Doriyan bit his lip and trembled, then slowly glanced around and felt the nobles’ gazes all converge on him. After that, he suddenly began to laugh hollowly.

“Has he finally gone mad?”

At Duke Balsen’s remark, thinking Doriyan was laughing without even understanding the situation, Marquis Doriyan abruptly stopped laughing and spoke.

“This is exactly why we’re always losing to those idiots in the imperial faction, isn’t it? When there’s trouble, we should be showing trust and faith, but if our faith is so weak that we break apart and recombine at the slightest thing like this…”

The nobles all flared up at Doriyan’s words and threw in their own retorts one by one, but Doriyan calmly listened to all of them before speaking.

“As I said, I was the one who invested the largest sum in the Pharmacists’ Guild, and I was the one who took the greatest loss. So let us do this… I will cover every bit of damage you have all suffered. And!! As of today, I am no longer part of the noble faction!!”

Marquis Doriyan left that shout behind like an explosion of pent-up rage and tried to storm out of the conference hall—but at that moment, Duke Balsen raised his hand and had the knights block the door leading out of the hall before speaking.

“You can leave when you leave… but you’ll give us the information first, Marquis Doriyan. Did you really think none of the nobles here would notice that you’re trying to keep all the fun to yourself? We’re not such simple fools as that…”

Looking into the nobles’ eyes, gleaming with greed, Marquis Doriyan had no choice but to seriously consider whether this was the future of the noble faction.

A shadow of ruin was falling over Marquis Doriyan.

Meanwhile, the political situation on the continent was shifting rapidly. As several things humans had long lacked finally began to be supplied, the front lines were undergoing sudden, dramatic changes.

Among them, in the Atoon Kingdom and the Mirkas Federation—both of which had lost their Heroes—the appearance of a new woman hailed as a hero began to brighten battlefields that had been full of nothing but gloom.

“Branne! Branne! Branne!”

Amid the soldiers’ chanting, they called out the name of a woman holding aloft the severed head of a demon noble equivalent in rank to a viscount, and her noble, dignified silver hair fluttered in the wind, making the scene even more dramatic.

Moreover, her exploits did not end there.

Previously, she had cut down a demon of count rank and, despite being grievously wounded, had refused to retreat even a step on the battlefield, leading a long and bloody struggle against the demons to victory. She had also driven back the demon forces besieging the capital of the Atoon Kingdom when it was pressed to the brink. With such distinguished achievements, she was beginning to emerge, quite literally, as a “hero on par with a Hero.”

Behind all of this were medicine jars bearing the name “Ingrad” and something she took orally from time to time, and those with sharp eyes had realized this long ago and started sending people out in secret.

“Bring me the medicine Hero Branne takes and the salve she uses!”

Crown Prince Jillien de Atoon of the Atoon Kingdom looked upon the savior of his nation and could not help but be filled with many thoughts. The most frequent of those thoughts were base desires, but beyond his twisted lust, his greatest concern was how to make this imperial noblewoman of such formidable presence entirely “his.”

Jillien possessed skills close to the Master level, but he was not a Master, and so the feats of Branne, who was not only a Master but also beautiful and seemingly noble and pure, were nothing short of the very object of his admiration. But this, instead, only stimulated his warped desires, and he was gradually forgetting what truly mattered, without even realizing it himself.

‘If I could just make that woman mine… this weak, rotten kingdom could vanish for all I care…’
He was beginning to entertain thoughts he should never have had, but in truth the biggest problem—one no one here realized—was the faint, provocative voice that had fully taken hold of his mind.

[ Covet that woman and defile her. The flesh of that “noble and pure” wench will surely have a sweet and unforgettable, strange taste. The sweat that trickles down her body will give you thrills you have never felt in your life, and the fluids that burst forth when you excite her will surpass any pleasure the gods themselves could bestow upon you… It is transgression. Make that wench, who will become the cup of your transgression, your own. ]

Without the slightest inkling that this was the scheme of Demon Duke Hesna, Jillien heard this desire-stirring voice wherever he was—when he tried to sleep at night, when he opened his eyes in the morning, always whispering ceaselessly in his ear. He had no idea it was actually a demon’s trick and believed it to be the voice of his own desire, and so he was steadily walking down the path of corruption.

“Kh… It was definitely cocoa powder.”

I had finished drying the fermented seeds well, ground them into powder, and tasted them. The flavor itself was not what I had imagined, so I couldn’t help but grimace, but the aroma was exactly that of cocoa beans.

Perhaps because of that?

I brought out the sugarcane sugar I had made some time ago and began mixing it with the cocoa powder in a set ratio. Benny, watching me with a curious expression, asked.

“Cocoa…? What’s that?”

“Ah, you can satisfy your curiosity later. Oh—Benny, could you go to the kitchen and bring back some milk? Fresh, if you can.”

“If it’s milk… Yes. I’ll be right back!”

With that, Benny dashed out of the workshop, and while she was gone I prepared a container to boil the milk in, a heating lamp, and, for form’s sake, two cups, set them out side by side, and waited for Benny to return. The problem was that she did not come back alone.

I saw several other people following in behind her.

First were Demina and Hare, then Linda and Matilda, and I could not help but ask what on earth they were all doing here.

“I thought I asked you not to just walk into the workshop whenever you like?”

“You were bringing food into the workshop, so I got curious and followed you.”

Hare’s words left me dumbfounded, but Demina said Hare had dragged her along, and Linda and Matilda said they had used the excuse of “regular reports” to come in.

“Reports… Didn’t we do that this morning?”

I was pretty sure I had already received all the reports I needed, and when I said that, Linda and Matilda gave awkward smiles and answered.

“W-we used it as an excuse…”

“We do have things to report, but nothing urgent. We were just curious! We wanted to know how it tastes!”

Matilda’s boldness made me snort with laughter. Linda, it seemed, was the type who couldn’t quite brazen things out in this kind of situation. Since they were already here and there was plenty of cocoa powder, I nodded and spoke.

“It’s the kind of flavor where you wouldn’t notice if one of the two people sharing it dropped dead—are you all right with that? Once you taste this, you won’t be able to go back to the world as it was before.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle as I looked at the five women nod solemnly at my teasing words.

For now, my plan was to make a rough-and-ready “cocoa tea” with this, but when I thought about the various snacks I could create with it in the future, I was curious what kind of expressions the women in front of me would be making then.

This was only a prototype, after all. I was also a little worried that, since I was using sugarcane sugar itself, the flavor would be somewhat different from sugar that had gone through the countless processes available on Earth.

‘The process can be improved later… For now, I might as well make some and see how they react…’

I immediately poured milk into the prepared pot, set it to boil over the heating lamp, and then had to ask Benny a favor I felt a bit bad about.

“Benny, could you bring a few more cups—enough for everyone? We only have two right now.”

Realizing that I had planned to drink with just the two of us, Benny answered brightly and left the workshop again, and the four others felt oddly guilty as they watched her go.

“If you feel bad, then be extra nice to Benny from now on. All right?”

The women nodded with tactful understanding. In truth, the maids in our domain could not help but live very comfortably and contentedly.

They were provided with Tiger’s Fang nutritional pills, invigorators, and, more recently, early versions of cosmetic-type medicinal products I had begun experimenting with.

There was no way they could fail to notice that their skin grew clearer and more luminous by the day, and that, in turn, made them approach their work in the lord’s residence and their service to me with even greater enthusiasm.

Because I treated them well and they worked hard, I ended up taking even better care of them in return.

In any case, I did my best to provide a good working environment. The same went for slaves and beastkin, and this had brought me results beyond my expectations.

Through increased work efficiency and proactive labor, overall productivity had risen and expanded.

“The milk is boiling.”

Linda, seeing me lost in thought, called out to me, and I stirred the milk as it began to boil so it would foam up.

“What we’re about to drink is something called ‘cocoa tea.’ Instead of using water, you make it with milk. They say that if you get a lot of foam when you boil the milk, it can maximize the drink’s smoothness.”

Listening to my explanation, the women stared intently at the milk. Just then, Benny came back in carrying the cups, and I spooned a measured amount of the blended cocoa powder into each cup, then poured in the milk once I judged it to be more or less done, stirring gently so the milk and cocoa powder wouldn’t clump.

Then, using mana—my so-called magical ability—I stirred the insides of the cocoa teas and moved on to pouring the milk into the other cups one by one, repeating the same process. As the fragrant aroma of cocoa wafted gently through the air, watching the women’s pupils shake violently made me feel an urge to tease them a little.

“Okay, I’ll taste it first and then tell you whether it’s safe to drink. Can you wait?”

The women swallowed hard, their throats bobbing, and nodded. I wondered if the smell was really so good they couldn’t even answer, but to be honest, I was just as excited as they were.

I lifted my cup, blew on it, and carefully slurped a single mouthful.

In that instant, the cocoa aroma and sweetness filled my mouth and made my whole body tremble. I thought it might be a bit too sweet, but in terms of the end result, I could call it “complete.”

So I took another sip, met the eyes of the women all watching me anxiously, and took yet another sip. Perhaps they couldn’t stand it anymore?
Hare suddenly spoke up.

“When are you… going to tell us it’s okay to drink?”

“Ah, did I forget to say?”

“…Yes, you did…?”

“Then wait until I say so.”

“Why…?”

“Because I might die. That’s why I’m telling you to wait.”

“D-die?”

They all stared at me in shock, and I gave a little snort of laughter and said.

“From how delicious it is, I mean. Go on, drink. Ah, come on, no need to glare at me like that.”

If looks could kill, I figured I’d have been laid up for a solid twelve weeks, and I handed out the cocoa teas to the women. After that, watching the five of them, their expressions gone dreamy as if they had never glared at me at all and only sipping their cocoa tea, I thought that this kind of life wasn’t bad at all.