Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume5 Chapter1 4

Research. Part 4.

"Chocolate for onee-sama? Yes, I gave her some last year, why?"

After finishing her cleaning duty, Yumi ran to the martial arts building at the back of the school and caught Rei-sama before club activities began.

"Ah, umm, I was hoping for some references. Umm, you didn't… give her a super large chocolate cake, did you?"

"Oh come on. I can't bring that to school."

Rei-sama cackled, then mumbled, "Yoshino must have talked," while looking proud. Oh, no. Rei-sama doesn't get how Yoshino-san feels, at all. She wasn't bragging about the super large chocolate cake, but rather quite the opposite.

But Yoshino-san's agony wasn't important here, so Yumi felt sorry for her, but decided to leave it aside.

"Indeed."

She concurred, laughing, hahahah.

"Just a trite thing. Something that fits in a bag."

Using her thumbs and index fingers, Rei-sama made a square. It was around the size of a book. Something that size could be called "trite," and it would be perfectly safe to bring to school.

In a sense, her treatment of Yoshino-san and Rosa Foetida was wildly different, but on the other hand, the only person she could make a super large chocolate cake for was her neighbor. And of course, to Yoshino-san, that could also be called a "heavy burden."

Finally, someone I could use as a reference, Yumi thought. Tsutako-san was right, after all. Indeed, things went smoother by asking people who were first-years last year. Plus, since it was in the past, there was the added bonus of knowing the effects. So she could ask the onee-sama who received the chocolate, and would be able to set up a perfect Valentine's Day.

Last year, Rei-sama was the sister of a bouton, like Yumi, so she was the perfect person to ask. And only because there was no way she could ask Sachiko-sama, whom she was going to give the chocolate to.

"So what was it?"

She asked, excited. Pure chocolate by a famous chocolate company? Adult-flavored chocolate bonbons?

"What was it? Oh, the chocolate?"

In Yumi's mind, she was already thinking back to the department store's chocolate display. High-class chocolate in modest-looking boxes seemed like such a perfect fit.

"Umm, if I may ask, for reference's sake."

What would she do if she were told, they were dried-plum-sized chocolate worth several hundred yen? But the opponent was Sachiko-sama, so cheap chocolate might not fit her tastes. But at the same time, Yumi decided that if she'd have to use up her New Year's money, she would, and that's when Rei-sama answered.

"Bitter chocolate truffles. I think six in a box."

"Truffles."

What an expensive echo. The little, dried-plum-sized chocolate in the department window might have had that name too, yes, and they were absurdly expensive.

And Yumi, being a commoner, quickly began calculating in her head.

If they were 200 yen each, it'd be 1,200 yen.

300 yen would be 1,800 yen.

400 yen would be 2,400 yen.

500 yen would be- she stopped. She felt a bit faint. Because for a commoner, the thought of six balls of chocolate costing 3,000 yen was unbelievable.

Even though she attended a ladies' school, it was troublesome to be bundled up together. Because each household had different fortunes and assets. She knew this from the start, but when she visited Sachiko-sama's house over New Year's, it was really hammered home.

Even though they both lived in Japan, and both attended the same school, they were really, really different in terms of value. Not that she was dissatisfied with her home or anything.

"What's wrong, Yumi-chan?"

"I feel faint."

Little bills were flying around chocolate like butterflies, in her head.

"Did the thought of giving truffles to Sachiko exhaust you?"

"Umm, something like that."

"Don't worry, it's not that bad, give it a shot!"

"---"

Not that bad? Maybe Rei-sama, who seemed like someone closer to her in terms of class stature, actually wasn't? "Give it a shot", she said. Yumi felt like withering.

And, the more expensive it became, it also felt like she was going further and further away from her original intention of giving Valentine's chocolate. Maybe that was a vulgar way of thinking, though.

"I'll write the recipe down for you."

Rei-sama pet Yumi's head and smiled.

"Re-recipe?"

"If you want to make truffles. I'll help you a bit, just keep it a secret from Sachiko."

That's when Yumi realized.

"Um, umm, do you mean, how to make truffle chocolates, when you said recipe?"

"Mm?"

Rei-sama's confused face spoke volumes. The chocolate Rei-sama gave Rosa Foetida was, like what she gave Yoshino-san, handmade.

"What, Yumi-chan?"

"… nevermind."

Yumi mumbled. There was no need to confess having made the wrong assumption.

Rei-sama was superhuman. On one hand, chocolate truffles and on the other hand, chocolate cake. And she made them both almost simultaneously.

But, in the end, it wouldn't be much of a reference, after all. It wasn't something to brag about, but the most Yumi'd ever done with baking was help her mother bake doughnuts by taking them out of the moulds. So to tell that sort of person here, try making chocolate truffles? Skill was a bigger problem than money.

Rei-sama said she'd help, but if it ended up with her doing most of the work, she wouldn't be able to make truffles next year. And if Rei-sama did more than half, it would lose the "handmade" part of the gift. But all that said, Yumi'd never even imagined making truffles by hand.

"Thank you very much. I'll think about it."

Yumi bowed her head and dashed away. She'd underestimated things, fixating on chocolate, and now she felt like she had nowhere to go.

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