The Romantic Trials Of A Transmigrated Empress-Chapter 218: The magic of cocoa.

The letter was set aside as the content had come to an end and an unexpected guest had arrived to help with the harvesting. It was the Lord mage.

"Did you follow me back?" Sigrid asked.

"I heard you were harvesting this cocoa without me. I rushed over as quickly as possible, I flew on the back of my phoenix to get here." He tickled the head of a small fiery bird that was sitting on his right side shoulder.

Another reason for the Lord mage to visit was that he loved the green house. The enchanted glass had been imbued with sun stones that provided warmth to the trees. The earth smelled sweet and the environment was flourishing green and yellow.

Inside the green house it was summer, outside of it winter. As a man that loved the sun more than the snow, this was the best place for him to be at this time of the year.

"You know that you can just build green houses on the mage estate, right?" Sigrid asked the Lord mage.

"I know." he answered. He sounded rather distracted already so she let him be. He could be considered free labor. After harvesting the cocoa, if the taste was right, she could get him to grow more trees for her on the mage estate.

Roland handed her a sickle. "My love, lets get started."

Right on cue at the end of his words, knights poured into the glasshouse with their swords ready to work. The way they were gripping them, it seemed as if they were about to engage an enemy. Their aura was charged, they were ready to slaughter.

It made Sigrid wary for her fruits. She could just picture a knight belling loudly, "yaaaah" and slicing a fruit in half.

"Thank you all for volunteering but I will be harvesting using magic." she announced.

The knights faces fell, they seemed disappointed which made Sigrid chuckle. Nevertheless, she made sure that every swords and sickle was put away. Working alongside Mauve, Roland and the head mage, they waved their hands.

The cocoa pods on the trees responded to the magic in the air and detached from their stems. They floated down gently or quickly, depending on how mage energy each mage was using. The cocoa pods went into baskets that servants were changing switching out rapidly as they filled up.

Mrs. Elsworth was like a factory supervisor, ensuring that no pod touched the ground and no servant pocketed a fruit.

After that exercise, they all moved to the tent that had been set up in the courtyard. Giant cauldrons had been placed in the in different positions , under each one a fire was already burning. Mauve could not wait to start cooking with the cocoa.

"Let’s go, I can’t wait." she vibrated as she nearly ripped off Sigrid’s hand in excitement.

Next came the opening of the pods. It was also done with magic to the disappointment of the knights that were willing to slice the pods open. To everyone but Sigrid, it was the first time they were seeing cocoa beans. These had been grown using magic so they were enchanted which actually made them new to Sigrid. She had never seen glistening cocoa beans.

What that meant for the taste of the final products, she had no idea?

"Do we do eat them like this?" Roland asked.

Sigrid tilted her head to the left and nodded slowly. "It is not the final product but....."

Hardly had she completed her words when a dozen grubby hands started plucking at seeds eagerly.

"Don’t chew or swallow, first peel..." she yelled out.

It was too late, Roland, Mauve, the head mage, some knights and even some servants were already chewing as if they were eating meat.

"It’s bitter." Mauve complained first. She stuck her tongue out as if it was on fire.

"Its an interesting taste, slimy though." The Lord mage commented.

"Actually I think that it is sweet." Roland said.

Sigrid came to realize then that the taste was different for everyone. She observed the untouched fruits and saw differences on the pods. Some were plain yellow, others had a streak of a different color from bottom to top. Red, orange, green and purple were the four colors. freewēbnoveℓ.com

On that basis, they were separated. Red ones had the most bitter taste, orange ones were sweet but with a hint of bitterness. The green ones were sweet but slimy and the purple ones were a little bit of everything.

Mauve rubbed her hands together, a spark ignited in her eyes the way it did when she met a challenging ingredient. "I guess this means we must cook them in different batches and carry out different experiments to see what works."

She started adjusting the recipes Sigrid had give her. Roland meanwhile continued tasting different seeds from each pod. He and the Lord mage were comparing notes.

Sigrid meanwhile got to work again, separating beans from pods, peeling them and sending them into cauldrons. Servants poured cane sugar, spring water, vanilla, orange and other essences into the mix. Roland, the head mage and knights were on stirring duty using magic and their hands.

Finally, from every cauldron, they got a thick, glimmering liquid. In some cauldrons it was like mud and others, molten gold.

With magic, Sigrid and Mauve cooled the liquids, forming big blocks of chocolate.

"Chocolate powder next." Mauve clapped her hands.

She was about to dry the beans and grind them into a powder when Galen arrived and he asked to speak with her. So, Sigrid, Roland and the head mage were on chocolate powder duty. They only gave it half of their attention as their eyes were more focused on Mauve and Galen. Whatever they were discussing, it seemed to be intense and Galen had touched Mauve’s shoulder twice.

Mrs. Elsworth, who was watching them and glaring like a hungry hawk did not seem to be too pleased with the liberties Prince Galen was taking.

"I cannot believe that she has blocked off the sound with magic and we cannot hear what they are discussing." The head mage scoffed. In his voice was both disbelief and disappointment.

"I never took you for one interested in eavesdropping Lord mage." Sigrid commented.

The Lord mage looked around, turning his head from left to right. Then he lowered his head and whispered to Sigrid, "Galen secretly got a divorce three weeks ago. Everyone knows that there is no love lost between him and his two wives. They were forced on him by the queen. With the current marriage laws that support divorce, division of property, financial settlements, child and spousal support and the like, noble women are divorcing like an army of flies dropping dead after being poisoned."