Selling Chocolate with Lily (2)
Sometimes the medieval brain takes a vacation and the modern one clocks in instead.
This mistake had been exactly that.
Chocolate was just too familiar to me as a dessert, and before I knew it, I'd handed some over to Lily without a second thought.
Of course, nothing catastrophic happens from eating chocolate, so there was no harm done—but if it hadn't been harmless chocolate, who knows what kind of disaster might have followed. I'd have to be more careful from now on.
A little while after Lily ate the chocolate, I decided the effects should be kicking in around now, and made my way to the room where she was resting.
────.
A sound drifted through the door. I couldn't quite make it out, but it was probably singing.
And when I opened the door and stepped inside, I was sure of it—Lily was humming to herself.
"How are you feeling?"
"Hee──"
Lily let out a foolish little sound and beamed up at me with a dopey grin. I'd only turned away for the brief moment it took to let the chocolate set, but in that time she had pushed two chairs together, lain down across them, and was hugging a doll tight to her chest.
Had what she eaten been mixed with alcohol after all?
Not according to my memory, no.
Either way, the Lily I knew would normally have been mortified to be caught looking like this, but apparently the dopamine flooding her system had burned straight through her capacity for shame.
"Owen. You said it was an aphrodisiac, so I was worried, but I guess I didn't need to be. I ate it and I feel perfectly fine!"
Uh, you're already in a very abnormal state.
I crouched down in front of her so our eyes were level, then asked, "Nothing feels off anywhere?"
"Hmm…… my head does hurt a little?"
"That can happen when you eat chocolate. Though I don't think you ate enough for it."
Worried it might be something else entirely, I brushed her hair back and pressed my hand to her forehead.
"Owen?"
Hmm. She felt lukewarm—maybe. Slightly warm—possibly. It was vague enough that I couldn't say for sure, so this time I checked her temperature at the nape of her neck instead of her forehead.
A touch warmer than her forehead. Judging by the faint flush on her cheeks, she might genuinely be running a slight fever.
"I-I'm fine. I'm not sick or anything."
"Still, better safe than sorry. I'll walk you back to the dorm."
"You don't need to go that far. I can get back on my own, you know?"
Lily popped to her feet and strolled off in a show of confidence—only to wobble after a few steps and suddenly crumple to the floor.
Eyes squeezed shut, clutching her calf, she wailed in agony, "Ah—cramp! I've got a cramp!"
"It's always something with you."
"No, this one's because I was lying on my legs. It'll be fine in a little whiiiiiile, ow……"
The muscle in her calf was squirming like something alive. She'd cramped up badly, all right. It hurt just to watch.
"Hold still."
I knelt down between her legs, slipped off her shoe, and took hold of her foot.
"Owen? What are you──"
I hooked her outstretched leg over my shoulder and pressed her toes firmly back toward her body. At the same time, I dug my fingers in behind her heel and pushed hard up the length of the cramped calf.
"Hyaaht……!"
Her stretched-out leg quivered like a struck string, and tears welled in the corners of Lily's eyes.
"Any discomfort anywhere else?" I asked as I kneaded her calf with the flat of my palm. "Like your heart racing?"
Lily pressed the hem of her skirt down with both hands and answered, "D-Did you really have to ask that right now?"
"If not now, when?"
After a moment's hesitation, Lily shyly turned her head to the side. "It is… beating a little fast……"
"That could be the caffeine. Nothing to worry about there."
"……"
Aside from being in a noticeably better mood, she didn't seem to be showing any other reactions. That was a relief.
* * *
It reminded me of something from the old days. What was it again… Dubai chocolate?
There'd been a craze for this Dubai chocolate brand that stuffed a traditional Middle Eastern shredded pastry called kataifi inside a chocolate coating. It was YouTube's doing, really.
Anyway, everyone and their mother started hunting for Dubai chocolate, and the stuff that was already popular became nearly impossible to find. And since it was so hard to get, people took to making it themselves—and that was right when my own rising days began.
"……Are you blackmailing me right now?"
Luke, the young lord of a Count's house, narrowed his eyes and made no effort to hide his displeasure.
"'Blackmail' is such an ugly word."
For the record, I was currently strong-arming Luke into buying chocolate.
Why?
Trends existed in the medieval era just like in modern times. And the ones who spread those trends were usually members of the upper class—people who could become someone's idol, like a modern celebrity or influencer.
"Not blackmail. A request."
So that's what I'd done. I'd requested it of Luke.
Asked him to buy chocolate. Asked him to buy the chocolate and confess to a girl with it.
He wasn't quite on my level, sure, but objectively speaking he was decently good-looking, and he had the kind of status that could make him an idol to someone.
"Buy it now and you won't regret it. Once the trend takes off, it'll be hard to get your hands on any."
Unlike my old world, this was an age drowning in no such surplus of information. Chocolate itself hadn't even been invented yet, so even if it caught on, precious few people would actually be able to make it.
Which meant, in the end, everyone would have no choice but to come knocking on the door of the sole producer: me.
"Absurd. A snack that boosts your odds of a confession if you feed it to someone first? What is it, a date-rape drug?"
"Technically speaking, no."
It was weaker on people unfamiliar with it, but it did produce a similar effect.
"Anyway, that's the kind of rumor I'd like you to spread around. You're the only one I can ask."
I pressed two pieces of chocolate into the reluctant Luke's hand, folding his fingers shut around them.
"You've got some nerve. Do you have any idea what I've been put through because of you?"
"That's what you get for swinging first. Seriously, who told you to get your own mother pregnant?"
"I didn't love her because she's my mother. I loved her, and then it turned out she was my mother. What part of that is wrong?"
Look at this guy.
His eyes were so utterly sincere it was starting to frighten me. Had he really not come to his senses even after his father beat him half to death?
"Besides, I already hold a woman in my heart, so I don't have any particular interest in anyone at the Academy."
"Funny—I seem to recall you taking an interest in Lily."
"……"
Luke shut his mouth.
"……Hmph. So I asked a commoner to have a meal with me once, and that's grounds for wild overinterpretation? You must be truly deranged. You mages, I swear."
"Hey, I can normally let things slide, but hearing that from you is really pissing me off. Can I punch you just once?"
"Do you actually dare lay a hand on me, a commoner like you?"
"Ohhh? Keep running that arrogant mouth and I really won't hold back?"
"My apologies. That slipped out."
Recognizing his own weakness, Luke apologized.
At first I'd assumed he avoided gossip because he feared being branded the most unfilial son in history—but looking at him now, that didn't seem to be it. It was more like… he was actually trying to protect the real Countess, out of genuine love for her.
For all I'd said, he might not be the world's greatest scoundrel after all.
"Fine. I'll drop the hints the way you asked. But what do I do if they ask where I got it?"
"I'll be selling it at the Academy's main building."
"Right."
Luke scooped up his chocolate and turned to leave, and I caught him by the shoulder. As he looked back at me with an irritated expression, I thrust my palm out at him.
"Money."
"What?"
"You have to pay before you leave. Why are you just walking off?"
"You're unbelievable. Well, I suppose I can't expect anything more from a pauper's beggar mentality."
"Ha, you really keep itching for a beating, don't you."
"Sorry. My true feelings slipped out again."
Calling it his "true feelings" to turn every insult into a power play—infuriating.
Luke pulled out his wallet and asked, "So how much?"
I answered by holding up my fingers.
Luke's brow creased. "Isn't that a bit steep?"
"Hey, do you have any idea how much sugar went into this? At this price the margins barely work. And nobles burn through this much money every day anyway."
"Easy for you to say—money this trivial hardly matters to you."
Ha, this guy again.
Every time we exchanged a few words, his true colors came bubbling up. At this rate, I was starting to wonder if he even cared about his weakness being exposed at all.
"Sorry. True feelings slipped out again. What I meant to say is that I doubt anyone will pay that price for it."
"That's not an opinion, that's a disease. I hope you get treatment."
"……"
Luke pressed his lips into a thin line.
Anyway.
It had been a whole circus of events, but with that, my viral marketing preparations were complete.
Today marked the start of full-scale sales. The wind rattled past, and noisy cicadas battered at my eardrums.
……So much for the calm before the storm.
Be that as it may, I didn't bother arguing with Luke—Luke, who had laughed at chocolate then and was laughing at it now. Whether he was right or I was, the results would speak for themselves.
"What are you staring at like that for?"
"Sincerely speaking, the one who needs treatment here is you, not me. Watching you sit in the middle of the Academy grounds gazing misty-eyed at the sun, lost in solitary contemplation—absolutely ridiculous. And you were squinting so hard from the glare, too."
"What would you know? Hurry up and get lost."
"Ugh, what a lunatic."
Luke was, in many ways, incompatible with me—but when it came to getting things done, he was reliable.
The day after my meeting with Luke, word spread through the Academy that there was a snack guaranteed to make a confession succeed, and on the heels of that rumor came another: it was being sold by some deranged mage.
Ha, but seriously, why does this guy keep getting under my skin?