The Genius Perfumer of the Fallen Cult - Chapter 14
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Genius Perfumer of the Fallen Religious Order Episode 14
Luna Ether can be obtained by very slowly distilling Silver Argentum in a crystal distiller—Silver Argentum that blooms only on the western coastal cliffs on windy nights when the full moon rises.
It was a fragrance material with a clean metallic scent like cold wind blowing, mixed with a subtle floral note. Naturally, it was very expensive and difficult to obtain.
Prim opened the lid of the fragrance material. A sharp scent that was slightly murky but carried hot energy leaked out.
‘It’s not top grade.’
To be precise, it was barely above low grade. The fragrance itself was also subtly different.
‘It doesn’t seem to be exactly the same as the Luna Ether I used to use.’
But who would have thought they’d have even this low-grade level in stock?
“That! That needs to be used sparingly! It’s very precious and expensive! It was really hard to make!”
Baron Corvus jumped up and shouted.
Prim nodded half-heartedly, added just a little bit of Luna Ether, and finally poured in sandalwood, cedarwood, and tonka bean infusion. When everything mixed together, she could see the fragrance materials rippling in a deep color.
Everything was just mixed together with nothing harmonious, and all the fragrance materials were asserting themselves individually, but Prim could fully imagine the sweetness that would come when this chaos ended.
“Hey! What, what is this? You mixed everything together? The ratio? You remember it, right? Right?”
Baron Corvus looked at her with a bewildered, dazed face while holding a pen and paper.
Then he came to his senses and rushed like flying right up to Prim’s nose, sniffing at the fragrance contained in the bottle.
“This, this! …This?”
Baron Corvus seemed a bit flustered by the rough, intense fragrance that was different from what he expected.
Prim couldn’t hit him, so she just stared blankly and nodded.
“We need to wait a bit more. This fragrance needs about three days?”
“Ah! It needs to be stabilized, right.”
Prim thought for a moment, then took a handkerchief from his front pocket. She dropped one drop of the fragrance material that mixed all the ingredients onto that handkerchief and wrapped it with her hand.
The fragments of fragrance melted away gently from the heat of her hand. Just as hard butter becomes soft when warmed and gives off a savory fragrance like cream on white bread, the sharp fragrances that had been wildly tangled also became gently subdued and began to emit a harmonious scent.
Prim finally slowly caressed the handkerchief, delicately controlling how the fragrance materials clumped and spread.
Of course, it wouldn’t be as good as slowly aged fragrance, but it would be enough to gauge what kind of fragrance it would become in the future right now.
When Prim returned the handkerchief to him, Baron Corvus’s hands trembled slightly. Then he put his nose to the handkerchief and slowly inhaled.
His pupils contracted sharply then dilated. He murmured.
“Oh, Retemore…!”
At first, it seemed like he was smelling a clear breeze that had blown from a vast lavender garden.
Then he realized it wasn’t just that.
It was the fragrance of some unfamiliar garden. A garden where flowers of all colors bloomed and luscious fruits had ripened. The clear scent of lilies, geranium that was like roses but with more green undertones, the acidity of bergamot, the warmth of neroli.
And the wind stirred by the heat of the earth where those flowers bloomed slowly embraced the surroundings. The moist, warm earthy scent felt underfoot when leisurely walking through a sun-drenched garden.
Baron Corvus unknowingly shed a tear and trembled.
It felt as if all of this was a miracle of god blessing his future.
“With this fragrance, surely, with this kind of fragrance…! The ratio, what’s the ratio? This needs to be recorded!”
Prim looked at his emotion and admiration with blank eyes.
‘Such a great miracle isn’t possible with this kind of fragrance.’
If tonka bean absolute had been used, it would certainly have become a much deeper fragrance, but with the tonka bean infusion available here, it ended up somewhat rough and light.
Therefore, it wouldn’t perfectly match Retemore’s taste. And that was also what Prim intended.
It wouldn’t do for the baron couple to receive Retemore’s tremendously grand blessing and rush off to the Bitrelia Islands thinking this would be enough.
Prim wrote down the ratio casually while looking at her own fragrance with slight dissatisfaction, seeing dozens of points that could be improved right now.
And Baron Corvus looked at that fragrance with worshipful eyes as if gazing at a brilliant jewel, then hurriedly corrected his expression.
* * *
The Temple of Retemore located in this Sangbertal Territory was small and modest compared to the luxurious temples of the Imperial Capital, but even that was at a level that shone with a halo compared to the Temple of Varin.
And when light truly flashed in the prayer room of that temple, all the priests of the temple came rushing to that prayer room in a hurry.
That light was proof that there had been divine blessing. For decades, no temple in this territory had seen such light.
However, when Baron Corvus emerged from that prayer room with an elated face, Priest Loret felt strange suspicion first rather than admiration and blessing.
‘How on earth with that terrible perfumery skill?’
Wasn’t he the one who had offered fragrances to Retemore for over a year but never once received proper blessing?
There had been numerous times he brought strange fragrant oils—honestly speaking, disgusting ones—that no one could tell what had been put in them.
When he couldn’t stand the fishy smell and asked what had been put in to make it, he only had to hear the absurd accusation of trying to steal the perfume formula.
Baron Corvus had even made the ridiculous suspicion that perhaps this wasn’t a proper temple, so prayers didn’t reach Retemore.
His honest feeling was that he wouldn’t take such a formula even if given.
Unless he had been struck by lightning, how was it possible for him to suddenly create a fragrance that could call forth such light?
Priest Loret, who had been thinking this way, suddenly came to his senses.
No matter what, how could he suspect a believer who had consistently offered fragrances throughout the entire year? He reflected and recited prayers while glancing to the side.
However, he noticed that the fellow priest who had rushed over with him was also harboring the same suspicion.
“He’s been bringing nothing but crap all this time, insisting it was heavenly fragrance, so how…?”
“Pfft.”
Priest Loret swallowed his laughter.
However, the Bishop was indeed different. He greeted Baron Corvus with a calm but clearly joyful voice.
“Baron Corvus, congratulations on Retemore’s blessing! What joy that such happiness has reached our temple.”
Priest Loret nodded while listening to the Bishop’s excited voice, but struggled to hide his suspicious expression.
In fact, Baron Corvus was the only one in this area who had shown such enthusiasm for perfumery.
‘Even if a person throws darts, if they throw a hundred times, one might hit the center once.’
“This must be the fragrance that Retemore has blessed!”
At the Bishop’s exclamation, the priests gathered in front of Baron Corvus’s perfume bottle.
Priest Loret slyly covered his mouth and nose with the sleeve of his priest’s robe, either to hide his disbelief or to make use of past experience. When several priests acted similarly, the Bishop looked at them with reproachful eyes.
Water was placed in a small bowl with a lit small candle underneath. When the heat began to circulate, the Bishop made way for Baron Corvus.
The candlelight flickered red over Baron Corvus’s face. His heart also fluttered along with it.
Until now, he had only barely received blessings that were like faint shadows, and even then, he would only test the fragrance with ordinary priests, not the Bishop, and put up name tags at most.
Had there ever been a time when everyone’s attention was focused like this!
When he opened the bottle cap and dropped the fragrant oil onto the water in the bowl, the fragrant oil warmed up and the fragrance began to spread.
The blessed fragrance instantly filled the inner chamber.
Baron Corvus clearly etched in his eyes how the priests’ expressions changed completely.
The moment their faces, which had been filled with disbelief and contempt, became full of shock and admiration, and even their gazes toward him changed, he trembled finely.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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