The Genius Perfumer of the Fallen Cult - Chapter 41

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

The Genius Perfumer of the Fallen Religious Order Episode 41

 

Prim had made her decision.

 

“Bianna, come here.”

 

“What? Me?”

 

“Yes, I’ll teach you how to do this.”

 

Bianna just blinked with a face that showed she didn’t understand what she had heard, then jumped up a beat later.

 

“What, what?”

 

“I said I’ll teach you how to do this.”

 

“Why? That’s impossible! Why? Why?”

 

Bianna kept repeating “that’s impossible” and “why” while breathing rapidly and waving her hands behind her, as if this was completely out of the question for her.

 

Methods like handling these tools and extracting fragrance materials were naturally strictly controlled, and learning them required either entering a city guild for long training or paying a large sum of money.

 

For an orphan with nothing, learning such things would require doing menial work at a guild for several years. And now she was offering to teach her just like that?

 

“Bianna, I’m going to make fragrance materials from the flowers here and sell them.”

 

“Huh…?”

 

At the sudden announcement of plans, everyone looked at Prim.

 

“I discovered a special rose in the Silver Aspen Forest. This is that rose, and now I need to consistently make fragrance materials from this rose here. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

 

“No?”

 

“But there’s a limit to how much I can make by myself. I have to do perfumery too.”

 

“I said I don’t understand.”

 

Bianna mumbled, but Prim continued speaking.

 

“So I’m saying I want to hire you.”

 

Even at Prim’s words, Bianna just stood still and blinked.

 

Bianna thought.

 

Good things don’t happen to kids like me.

 

When Baroness Corvus had raised her hand to slap her cheek, she remembered rejecting all those who had approached her saying they would adopt her into the best families.

 

While feeling scared, anxious, and frightened, she later thought that she was being punished for coveting what was beyond her station, for selfishly rejecting kindness that was already more than she deserved.

 

After everything was over, Bianna lay in bed thinking deeply.

 

Maybe she had become an orphan because of that too? Maybe she had been a worthless child from before she could even remember.

 

So there was no way such an opportunity would come.

 

For a kid like me…

 

Bianna’s eyes slowly began to moisten. But Prim didn’t mind and continued speaking.

 

“All perfumers use their own special fragrance materials.”

 

“Uh, uh-huh?”

 

“I need fragrance materials too if I want to continue perfumery. My own fragrance materials.”

 

Of course, perfumers didn’t use ‘only special fragrance materials,’ but Prim didn’t bother adding that fact. Bianna nodded again.

 

“So I’m trying to have you make fragrance materials.”

 

“…”

 

“You promised to listen to me well, Bianna.”

 

“Ah, no, that’s… that’s true, but…”

 

Bianna would normally have glared and asked when she had said that, but this time she vaguely agreed.

 

“…Even so, I don’t have… I, I don’t have money.”

 

Bianna said while shrinking back. No matter what, she couldn’t pay for the learning.

 

Prim nodded.

 

“Yes, I know. Learn and pay it back.”

 

“What if I… what if I’m not good at it while learning? If I fail…”

 

Prim looked around at the flower petals and Ether Solvens, then frowned and looked at Bianna.

 

“This? If you’re human, you can’t fail at this.”

 

“What if I’m not human!”

 

“You only smell like a human to me.”

 

Bianna’s face flushed red and barely calmed down. Watching such Bianna, Prim said.

 

“You can take it slow. If you still can’t do it slowly, I’ll give you other work.”

 

“What if I just learn the technique and run away? What will you do then!”

 

Prim scratched her cheek and her eyes sparkled.

 

“Let’s make an oath.”

 

“An, an oath?”

 

“Yes, let’s swear before Varin that we won’t betray our faith.”

 

An oath made before a trusted god could not be dared to be broken. In this land where curses and gods truly exist, those who break oaths naturally receive divine punishment.

 

“Uh, before Varin…?”

 

But Bianna seemed more surprised about doing it before Varin than about making the oath itself.

 

“Bianna, you ate, drank, and grew up at Varin Orphanage, so were you planning to go find another god?”

 

“No, no! No! That’s not it, I just didn’t think I’d decide already!”

 

Bianna hastily made excuses.

 

Usually, which god to follow is decided upon reaching adulthood. In the case of renowned noble families, it’s sometimes decided from birth, but usually it wasn’t.

 

“If you have loyalty, you follow Varin.”

 

Prim said firmly. While Bianna nodded as if enchanted and Rozien held back laughter, Priest Marseria watched the scene warmly.

 

“Now, let’s swear before Varin.”

 

“What, what should I swear?”

 

“Hmm, that you’ll do your best in making fragrance materials here.”

 

Bianna hesitated a little. That didn’t feel sufficient enough.

 

“Why? Won’t you do your best?”

 

“No, that’s not it. I mean… I won’t betray you. Yes, that would be good! Let’s go with ‘I will not betray.'”

 

Bianna said while looking at Prim.

 

Prim frowned slightly.

 

“Were you thinking of betraying me?”

 

“That’s why I’m saying I’ll swear not to! You really are something!”

 

Bianna glared at Prim once, then avoided her eyes and clasped both hands together and closed her eyes.

 

“I swear before Varin. I, Bianna, will not betray Prim.”

 

“Also say you’ll do your best at making fragrance materials and growing flowers here.”

 

Bianna opened one eye to glare at Prim, then sighed and closed her eyes again to finish the rest of the oath.

 

“I will not betray Prim, and I will grow flowers for Prim and do my best in making Prim’s fragrance materials. I will definitely pay for learning the Fragrance Extraction Method. And I won’t push Prim away anymore.”

 

At that moment, green light particles gently fell down in front of Bianna.

 

“Oh my…”

 

Hearing Marseria’s ecstatic murmur, Bianna opened her eyes and stared blankly at the star dust falling and melting before her eyes.

 

It meant the god had heard the oath.

 

Prim said.

 

“Varin is watching over us.”

 

Though we’re the only ones for him to watch. Prim didn’t say that part.

 

“Ah…”

 

“Then let’s start working. Ah! Before that, Priest.”

 

Prim called to Priest Marseria, who was even shedding tears at this dreamlike scene.

 

Varin’s religious influence must grow.

 

It must grow much larger.

 

A god’s power can be strengthened by consuming fragrance, but naturally it also grows when the number of followers increases.

 

The fact that Varin’s power grows stronger by consuming the incense she offers is, in Prim’s opinion, certain but somewhat crude.

 

Even in this industry, the way perfumers make the most money isn’t by directly creating fragrances and selling them at high prices after receiving divine blessings.

 

Trading the blessed fragrance formula with the temple, and receiving the promised percentage of profits when the temple mass-produces and sells it.

 

Only this truly promises wealth.

 

Faith was exactly the same.

 

While one fervent and exceptional believer is certainly important, having a moderate number of believers who moderately believe in Varin would also be very good.

 

And to expand that religious influence, Prim now thought about the order with the greatest power.

 

Traditionally, Alendia of purification and disease was the most stable, but the order with the greatest influence now was the Retemore Order. This was because Cardinal Sorman of Retemore was the highest priest of these Thirteen Orders, the High Priest. It’s natural that an order with a High Priest would gain more popularity and grow in scale.

 

After logical reasoning close to simple arithmetic, Prim thought.

 

‘Then? Priest Marseria could just become the High Priest too.’

 

Marseria has sufficient qualifications. She is a faithful and pure-hearted priest who follows Varin even now when everyone has forgotten Varin, and she is already a cardinal.

 

What she lacks is merely experience, career, recognition, popularity, wealth, the various academic knowledge and political power that other competitors have built up over nearly a hundred years, the miracles she has shown as a cardinal, and the ambition to become High Priest.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————