Ryu and Leanne, along with their Kamiza, returned to the fortress built on the border with the Demon Forest for a temporary stay.
Since it was a facility also occupied by the border troops, the living conditions weren’t bad.
“Sorry for the sudden idea.”
Ryu apologized to the two.
“No worries. Ryu, did you think it would be beneficial for this landmark territory? Besides, this kind of work can be enjoyable.”
Kamiza said with a smile, patting Ryu’s head.
“More importantly, Ryu, how do you turn the collected cacao into that ‘chocolate’?”
Leanne asked eagerly, expressing her excitement.
“In that case, let’s prepare.”
Ryu said, taking out cacao beans from the magic storage and placing only the seeds inside, then taking them out again.
Taking the mountain-like cacao in his hand.
“Once taken out, wrap them in banana leaves. Then, let them sit!”
He put them on the spot.
“Eh, just leave them? And you’re not storing them back in the magic storage?”
Leanne asked, puzzled.
“Yeah, if I store them, they won’t ferment properly. So, I’ll let them ferment for a week.”
“So that’s why you said it would take a week.”
“And this batch will be used as ingredients for the sweets we’ll sell at this year’s Harvest Festival.”
Ryu pointed at the cacao beans wrapped in leaves.
“Then I’ll help too.”
Leanne agreed, helping Ryu wrap the cacao seeds in leaves.
The next day and onwards, the three worked together, occasionally encountering demons, but Leanne sensed them beforehand and informed Kamiza, who dealt with them before they became a problem.
A week passed, including the day they returned home to report.
The temporary walls surrounding Kamiza’s planned cacao field were completed.
At that point, Ryu finished drawing the roads, and Leanne’s collection work also came to an end.
“Then, since the cacao seeds we prepared a week ago have fermented nicely, let’s take them out of the leaves and dry them. This time, to finish quickly, we’ll use the heat from fire magic and the wind from wind magic to create hot air.”
With that, Ryu, who had recently improved his skills, simultaneously used fire magic and wind magic without incantation to create hot air and began drying the cacao seeds.
Kamiza watched Ryu’s magic improvement with narrowed eyes, impressed, and Leanne, struggling with fire elemental magic which she was not good at, also created hot air using wind magic.
While replenishing their magic power with mana potions, they continued drying the seeds.
“Since they’ve dried nicely, let’s move on to the next step.”
Ryu said to Leanne.
Leanne nodded and dispelled the magic.
“Sustaining it for a long time is quite exhausting…”
Leanne sighed with relief as she transitioned to the next stage.
“Then, collect the finished cacao germ with the magic storage…”
The protruding part of the cacao beans disappeared in an instant.
“No one probably uses magic storage in such a way.”
Leanne said, astonished, but at the same time, she admired Ryu’s idea.
“I’ll roast these cacao beans.”
Ryu said, taking out a frying pan and a stove from the magic storage and heating the cacao beans on the stove.
After finishing that task.
“To crush them, I’ll use a low-power version of the wind magic ‘Vacuum Blade’.”
With that, Ryu raised small, fine vacuum blades on his palm, turned them into spheres, and began crushing the cacao beans in a container, similar to a food processor from a previous life.
To prevent the cacao beans from splattering, he didn’t forget to create a thin wall of wind around the container.
Since he had learned fine manipulation from Cecile, controlling it was a piece of cake.
“This is amazing. I couldn’t do this trick. Wahaha!”
Kamiza praised Ryu, impressed by his magic.
“Wind magic is my specialty, so I can do it too!”
Leanne challenged Ryu.
At first, they failed to control it, and crushed beans flew, but they quickly adjusted the wind wall to envelop the cacao beans and began to crush them carefully.
“Both of you are doing great!”
Kamiza was delighted to see his grandchild’s growth.
As the cacao beans were rapidly crushed, they turned into a gooey substance.
“Wait? It’s not turning into powder, it’s all gooey.”
Leanne panicked.
“It’s okay. That’s just the oil coming out of the beans.”
Ryu reassured her, then proceeded to mix in powdered milk and corn syrup from his magic storage into the gooey liquid.
“When this sets, it’ll become chocolate. This time, we’ll finish it off by coating it with bananas!”
He said, then used his magic storage again to retrieve bananas, coating them with the chocolate. He used wind magic to cool them down.
He then handed them to Kamiza and Leanne.
He urged them, and the two of them tried the “Choco Banana”.
“It’s sweet and delicious! The bitterness of the chocolate mixed with the sweetness of the banana is fantastic!”
“Hoho, I quite like the bitterness of this chocolate! Adjusting the corn syrup could make it even more enjoyable.”
Ryu felt relieved as he received positive feedback from the two of them.
