Chapter 16
The duke looked at her for a moment, then burst out laughing.
“Miss Monbel… I thought your entire house had fallen, but it seems your gift for words is still alive.”
“It isn't just my gift for words that's alive.”
“Good. Let me see the dessert as well.”
The duke leaned back in his chair.
Until just now, he had spoken very naturally about taking me to his own estate.
As casually as offering a compliment, or saying he would buy something he liked.
It left a foul taste in my mouth.
But now wasn't the time to get angry.
There was nothing to gain by getting angry at someone like the duke.
People like him thought they had won the moment their opponent became angry.
So at the table, instead of getting angry, I had to defeat him one more time with flavor.
I took out the dessert.
Today's dessert was raspberry sherbet.
It wasn't made exactly the way it would have been on Earth.
This world had neither freezers nor the stabilizers I knew.
But in the basement storeroom of Monbel Manor, there was a small storage chamber kept cold by magic stones.
I had heard it was originally used to store alcohol and medicinal herbs.
There hadn't been much inside it until yesterday, but once we had money, I immediately thought of putting it to use.
I crushed raspberries, added just a little honey, brought out their acidity, and froze them.
I scraped it out at intervals to incorporate air, adjusting the texture so it wasn't a completely solid block of ice but soft enough to scoop smoothly with a spoon.
A dish that would coldly cut through the fat and sweetness weighing down the mouth at the very end.
I had deliberately served the duke a course that was sweet, fatty, and intense.
So the ending had to go in the opposite direction.
If you kept pushing all the way through, it became vulgar.
Even greed needed room to breathe at the end.
“Marie.”
“Yeah.”
“Go slowly this time. It melts quickly.”
“It melts?”
“Yeah.”
“Then why make something like this?”
“That's why it's expensive.”
Marie looked at me for a moment, then shook her head.
“It's getting hard to argue with you.”
“That's a good attitude.”
I placed the raspberry sherbet in a small glass bowl.
I didn't overdecorate it, placing just one small herb leaf on top, with a very thin honey biscuit standing beside it.
For the duke's course, it was an unexpectedly calm finish.
Marie carried the dish out.
“This is the final dish, made from raspberries scraped into a cold sherbet. It washes away the sweetness and fat remaining in your mouth and captures the brief chill left at the end of greed.”
The duke looked down at the dish.
“What is this supposed to be?”
For the first time, his voice held genuine confusion.
Until just now, the duke had been able to predict the dishes to some extent.
Expensive ingredients, strong sauces, game bird, butter, and honey.
We had given him the things he liked, and he had been satisfied, just as expected.
But the sherbet was different.
The nobles of this world weren't entirely unfamiliar with cold desserts.
They had simple drinks made by mixing fruit juice with ice, and frozen fruit made in winter.
But scraping the particles to create a texture and serving it at the end of a course to cleanse the mouth was uncommon.
The duke picked up his spoon and scooped up a very small amount before putting it in his mouth.
The next moment, his eyes widened.
I saw that expression through the crack in the door and laughed inwardly.
‘Yes. This is your first time, isn't it?’
The duke paused for a moment with the spoon still in his hand.
The raspberry's acidity touched his tongue, the cold crystals melted softly in his mouth, and the fat and sweetness left moments earlier were cleared away in an instant.
The more someone liked strong flavors, the more vulnerable they were to a properly delivered cold acidity.
It was like dousing a hot griddle with water.
The duke silently took a second spoonful.
This time, it was a little larger.
By the time he took his fourth spoonful, the glass bowl was empty.
The duke stared down at the empty bowl.
He looked genuinely disappointed.
He no longer had the face of a powerful man who had just said he would take me away, but the face of someone who wanted one more spoonful of something delicious.
This was why food was wonderful.
No matter how exalted a person was, they still had only one mouth.
The duke called for me.
“Kyle Prat.”
I went out into the parlor and bowed my head.
“Yes, Your Grace.”
“What did you call that just now?”
“Raspberry sherbet.”
“Sherbet.”
The duke repeated the unfamiliar word as though rolling it around in his mouth.
“Cold fruit ice?”
“Something like that. But it isn't simply frozen fruit. The sweetness, acidity, and even the size of the crystals all have to be balanced.”
“Can this be served on its own?”
I was silent for a moment.
The fact that the duke wanted the dessert by itself was an offer that smelled of money.
If I played my cards right, I could sell the sherbet separately.
But not now.
I bowed my head.
“It would be difficult.”
The duke's eyebrows rose.
“Difficult?”
“Yes. This dish was prepared as the finale of today's course. The sweetness, fat, and spices from the preceding dishes need to remain in your mouth for it to be properly appreciated. It would still taste good on its own, but it wouldn't be the same as what you experienced today.”
The duke looked at me for a moment.
“Even if I want it?”
“I'm refusing so I can serve it to you in a better way.”
The parlor fell silent.
Only after I had finished speaking did I realize it.
I'd been rather too arrogant.
But the duke didn't get angry. Instead, his expression turned strange.
He probably hadn't often been refused when he said he wanted something all his life. Least of all by some cook.
Yet he looked more disappointed than displeased.
The duke looked down at the empty bowl again.
“What a shame.”
He was sincere.
“It's a great shame.”
Elysia spoke gently.
“We can prepare it differently at your next meal.”
“The next meal.”
The duke slowly smiled.
“Miss Monbel, you know how to do business.”
“Our chef taught me well.”
“I still covet that chef.”
The duke's gaze returned to me.
‘He still hasn't given up.’
But there was a slight change in his eyes.
If he had first seen me as something he could buy, now he saw me, at the very least, as something he couldn't simply take.
It wasn't a major difference, but in business, that small difference was what set the price.
The duke raised a hand, and an attendant brought over a money pouch.
“How much for today's meal?”
I answered briefly.
“Five hundred gold.”
The duke laughed.
“Expensive.”
“It was a meal tailored to Your Grace.”
“I like the sound of that.”
He placed the money pouch on the table without any particular attempt to bargain.
It landed with a heavy thud.
Marie's eyes grew almost as large as the plate, while Thomas stood frozen in the kitchen with his mouth hanging open.
The duke rose from his seat.
“Serve this sherbet again next time.”
“I'll prepare it if it suits the course.”
“You really are stubborn to the end.”
“It's for the sake of flavor.”
“Good. I don't dislike that sort of stubbornness.”
The duke looked at Elysia.
“Monbel is still interesting. Very interesting.”
“Thank you for seeing it that way.”
“And, Miss Monbel.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
“You, too, may prove worth watching for longer than I expected.”
His tone was still unpleasant.
But it was no longer the gaze of a man looking at a woman he planned to take once she fell into ruin.
At least for now, he was looking at the owner of Monbel's table.
That alone meant we'd won today.
After the duke left, Elysia stared down at the money pouch on the table.
“Five hundred gold.”
“Yes.”
“That man really paid it.”
“The sherbet did the trick.”
“I thought my heart would stop when I refused to serve just that separately.”
“So did I.”
“Then why did you refuse?”
I answered as I looked at the empty glass bowl.
“Because it would look cheap if I sold it separately.”
“Even after getting five hundred gold?”
“That's why it can't look cheaper still.”
Elysia looked at me for a moment, then laughed.
“Kyle.”
“Yes.”
“You're a truly awful merchant.”
“Thank you for the compliment.”
Right then, Marie came in from the kitchen and asked quietly,
“So now it's time to do the dishes?”
I nodded.
“Yeah.”
“Even if we earn five hundred gold, we still have to do the dishes.”
“Even rich restaurants wash their dishes.”
Marie sighed.
“Life is so unfair.”
“Should we hire someone just to wash dishes?”
“Yes!!!!”
“I'll think about it.”
“Aww…”
Even so, Marie left with a smile.
“My lady.”
“Yes, Kyle.”
“Would it be all right to pay everyone at the manor all their overdue wages in one lump sum after we're finished today?”
Elysia didn't offer much argument, surprisingly, and nodded immediately.
“All right. Let's do that before everyone goes to bed tonight.”
It was a good decision.
When a manager makes money but pinches pennies with employees, the employees start thinking about other options.
But if you pay them well, they usually let most complaints slide.
Elysia seemed to understand that, at least roughly.
This young lady has more talent for management than I'd expected.