“Right you are. We have to decide what food to serve when organizing a party, and even if we’re not the host, we do get invited a lot. Of course, we have to eat what we’re serve. Becase of that I’m using the time I have now to get used to n.o.ble cuisine… Are you perhaps interested?” [Elize]
“I would be lying if I said I wasn’t.” [Ryouma]
If the madam talks about it that much, I can’t help but be curious myself.
That being said, n.o.ble cuisine catered for parties must be very expensive compared to normal food.
I think it’s a bit much to request such expensive food just because I’m interested.
“I don’t recommend it that much, but if you insist, then alright. I really cannot reinstate that I do not recommend it, but there should be enough food for another person, so if I tell the head chef, I’m sure it can be prepared. Again. I really do not recommend this.” [Elize]
“…In that case, please allow me to take advantage of your generosity.” [Ryouma]
My curiosity won out.
“Alright then, I’ll have someone call you from your room when the food has been prepared.” [Elize]
Before I knew it the after cleanup of the experiment was already done.
And then mealtime came.
“h.e.l.lo, Ryouma-kun. How was the experiment?” [Reinhart]
“Thanks to your help, I was able to get meaningful data.” [Ryouma]
I spoke to Reinhart-san about the results of the experiment while waiting for the food to be served.
“Thanks to the experiments this morning, I now have an idea what direction I should take my products.” [Ryouma]
Due to the circ.u.mstances surrounding the people cooperating with the experiment,I was worried at first, but they were surprisingly relaxed and were able to honestly give their opinion.
The two most common opinions are these:
• I want a sugar scrub with a strong scent.
• I want a sugar scrub with no scent.
Two completely different opinions and yet the number of supporters behind each is barely different.
I was thinking it would be better to add more scent, but the results are surprisingly different.
I wanted to investigate the results more closely, and it turns out that most of those requesting for sugar scrubs with strong scents are the ‘common women’ servants, who were merely hired.
While those who wanted sugar scrubs with no scent were the ‘men’, ‘some of the female servants’, ‘the madam’, Rurunez-san, Riviola-san, and the ‘servants with high rank’ like the maids accompanying the madam. There were all sorts.
When I asked for the reasons behind the requests, I found out that the women who wanted the scented sugar scrubs, wanted them for the following reasons:
• Perfumed oil is expensive and is a luxury, so it’s not something that they can easily use.
• Depending on the variant, commoners might not even be able to acquire them, so there’s a sense of luxury.
• If they can also add scent to their bodies after using the sugar scrub, then it will make the sugar scrub a bargain deal.
There are some differences in the details, but if you summarize their opinions, it all basically boils down into these three points.
Apparently, using perfumed oil is quite a luxury to the common women, and just having even a drop of perfumed oil already gives a luxurious feeling to the product. All the more so if the scent can remain after use. Those who were especially honest said that they could use the scent after bathing themselves to appeal to men. They spoke about various methods of using the product.
…At some point, the contents they spoke about became too dangerous to be spoken of to a child (me), so they ended up incurring Riviola’s scolding, but I protected them with all my strength. That was probably the most exhausting part of the experiment today.
“Sounds like you had a harder time than I thought…” [Reinhart]
“They were very important opinions in improving the sugar scrub from a mere prototype to an actual product.” [Ryouma]
“That’s good to hear. So, what about the people that preferred an unscented variant?” [Reinhart]
“Oh, in their case, they had all sorts of reasons. One reason given was a simple ‘I hate perfume’, but this was a minority. It was mostly the men who were saying this.” [Ryouma]
“Ah, yes. There are indeed people who hate the smell of cosmetics, aren’t there? I’m not too fond of it myself.” [Reinhart]
Reinhart-san too? Actually, me too.
“But girls just want their partner to find them beautiful…” [Elize]
“I know they put a lot of effort into it. I won’t deny that.” [Reinhart]
When the madam muttered that earlier sentence to herself, Reinhart-san quickly followed up that he acknowledge the effort of women.
Is that the action of a good man? In the end, I could not tell from the madam’s expression if that was the right action or not.
I continued.
“The servants working in the kitchen said that a strong scent would ‘interfere with their work’ or ‘they’ll be scolded’. Their reasons were because of their job. As for the madam and the high-cla.s.s servants, they are all regularly using perfume already, so in order to be able ‘to pick out a perfume they like’, they want an unscented sugar scrub that they can use in the bath.
A kitchen maid says that she wants to use a scented sugar scrub if she could, but given her work, she’ll have to use the unscented one instead… Just being able to know this difference in opinion based on one’s occupation and social standing is a huge help. I also think it’s simply interesting.” [Ryouma]