The Genius Perfumer of the Fallen Cult - Chapter 53

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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 53

 

“Then what is it about?”

 

Luciano tilted his head. Lord Sanbertal hesitated for a moment before smiling.

 

“Well… you see, the Elector of Castellanza sent you to me, didn’t he?”

 

“That’s right. Aren’t you one of his most loyal vassals, my lord?”

 

“Haha, this fellow, the way he talks. But tell me, have you ever… met the Elector in person?”

 

“I haven’t yet.”

 

There was no way someone like him, who wasn’t even a great merchant or heir to a great merchant, but merely a candidate for heir, would have met the Elector of Castellanza Territory.

 

If he had met him, it would have been as a vassal, wouldn’t it? Even if just to swear an oath of loyalty.

 

When Luciano tilted his head, Lord Sanbertal suddenly narrowed his eyes and tried to look shrewd.

 

“You naturally intend to inherit the merchant guild, don’t you?”

 

“Of course.”

 

If it weren’t for that ambition, he wouldn’t have come all the way to this remote mountain village. Luciano knew his manners, so he didn’t say that out loud.

 

“Then someday you’ll face the Elector and sell him your wares.”

 

“That’s one of my greatest dreams. Of course, another dream was to lend money to your lordship and forge this connection.”

 

“Haha, thanks to you I can breathe easier, so I’m grateful indeed. Among the things you’ll sell in the future, there will be Prim’s fragrances too, won’t there?”

 

“You mean this?”

 

Even before becoming a perfumer, who knows how many times she had already heard the voice of God. That child becoming the Empire’s greatest perfumer was practically a foregone conclusion.

 

“Then when you sell that to the Elector in the future, please explain well who Prim is.”

 

“…Pardon?”

 

“How old this child is, when she made what fragrance, what kind of natural talent she has, what she looks like, how she grew up… things like that. If he knows who the perfumer who made that fragrance is, he’ll naturally be able to understand that fragrance even better. Since I’ve decided to sponsor that child…”

 

In other words, he wanted her to make an impression on the Elector.

 

Luciano, who hadn’t thought that far into the future, readily nodded. Then he grinned like a kindred spirit who understood, and finally left the reception room.

 

Lord Sanbertal stared blankly at his retreating figure, then took out the 500-year-old gold coin he had bought from Prim and gazed at it with an ecstatic expression.

 

* * *

 

“So if I eat one of these violet candies each day… my curse will disappear after a hundred days?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

After the storm-like schedule at Sanbertal Manor had ended, on the night before departing for Castellanza to take the exam.

 

Prim slowly confessed to Rozien while looking at the tin case containing the violet candies. The fox Bell sniffed curiously at the violet candy case.

 

‘Will the time headache come after a hundred days too?’

 

The time headache hadn’t come at the Temple of Curresen either. Her guess was that she would either feel minute pain spread over a hundred days, or it would all hit at once on the hundredth day.

 

Prim looked up.

 

When she learned that the fragrance she made had received a blessing that destroys pain, Rozien’s expression had been so joyful his eyes turned red as he said he’d be able to endure the pain in his feet just by applying that scent. But now his expression was somewhat strange.

 

“This curse will… completely disappear?”

 

“Huh? Yeah, though it’ll take about a hundred days.”

 

“…Did you make this fragrance to receive this blessing?”

 

Rozien’s voice sounded not just hoarse but cracked.

 

“Yeah.”

 

Prim tilted her head briefly. Only one reason came to mind for why Rozien wouldn’t be happy about this news.

 

“Is it because it takes… too long?”

 

“Huh?”

 

“Since it takes a whole hundred days…”

 

At that moment, light appeared in Rozien’s eyes and his expression changed instantly.

 

“No, no! I can’t believe it! I never imagined such a thing could happen. Really… the curse will really be lifted?”

 

“Yeah! I’ll be able to walk and run now. Just wait a hundred days.”

 

Just a hundred days.

 

“I already ate one earlier, right after receiving the blessing. Now there are 99 days left.”

 

“Ninety… nine days.”

 

Rozien, who couldn’t speak properly for a while, rolled the remaining days around in his mouth. Both a hundred days and ninety-nine days seemed endlessly far away, yet also felt breathlessly close, like just a few days away.

 

Rozien was looking down. Some emotion seemed to be overflowing. Prim hesitated a little, then took Rozien’s hand.

 

“Rozien, my curse isn’t completely lifted yet, and I have to eat one of these every day for the curse to be lifted, but…”

 

Rozien looked up. Something like inexplicable anticipation could be seen in his deep emerald green eyes.

 

“Now you don’t have to worry, so do what Sebardo wants you to do.”

 

“…”

 

Rozien’s eyes widened.

 

“You promised with me, didn’t you? That you’d become a knight and later become a Grand Lord.”

 

“…”

 

“You worried a lot because I couldn’t walk. Now don’t worry and—”

 

“I wasn’t worried, I wasn’t concerned! I didn’t worry about anything like that! I…”

 

Rozien’s expression somehow became a mess. Prim couldn’t understand at all and stared up at him blankly.

 

Suddenly Rozien covered his mouth, then rubbed his face vigorously. Prim just watched him quietly.

 

Rozien, who seemed to have barely suppressed some intense emotion by pressing down his heaving chest, spoke very difficultly, fumbling for words.

 

“I’m really… really happy that your curse can be lifted.”

 

Rozien squeezed his eyes shut and opened them.

 

“Because of me, because I acted like a fool, you… you’ve had such a hard time all this while.”

 

If I had been a useful person, could I have avoided being abandoned?

 

Rozien had once thought such things.

 

Being born with blood-red hair was unavoidable, but if only he could have proven that he was useful, would things have been different somehow?

 

If he were someone who helped others, someone who was recognized by others, could Prim trust and rely on him more…

 

The back alley was a dim and damp space.

 

In that darkness, his red hair stood out even more, and those who had lived only being robbed were more easily swayed by superstition. His red hair became justification for all violence directed at him.

 

Then one day, Prim appeared.

 

Her cream-colored hair that seemed like it would smell sweet and savory was always a clean light even in the mud of the back alleys.

 

That Prim treated him as if she had never once heard the superstition about red hair—that they were half-bloods of demons.

 

In days of being cast out, pushed away, and excluded, for the first time someone sat beside him.

 

Prim shared with him the jerky that a drunk person had dropped. It was in return for the old, worn blanket he had shared.

 

— Don’t you think I’m a demon?

 

Rozien said, raising both arms threateningly. On the streets, there were children who would scream and run away when he just poked his head out.

 

But Prim just watched that display like shadow puppetry.

 

— You’re a demon? No.

 

Prim firmly denied it like someone who had heard something absurd.

 

— No?

 

— Yeah, your smell is completely different.

 

— Smell?

 

— You don’t smell like a demon at all.

 

Do demons and humans smell different?

 

They must be different…

 

They must be different!

 

There were times when even he thought he might be half demon.

 

Could all this hatred and violence really be just because of false rumors, misunderstandings, and ridiculous superstitions?

 

Maybe he really was half demon, and this red hair was the same color as demon fur?

 

Having such a proper reason would explain all these consequences more rationally.

 

But Prim declared without a shadow of doubt. That he was human.

 

— Then why on earth did those people.

 

— Maybe it’s just because they’re that kind of people.

 

Because they’re just that kind of people…

 

Not because there’s something wrong with me, not because I committed some sin I never chose from the moment I was born, but just because they’re that kind of people.

 

Because they’re the kind of people who believe in ridiculous superstitions and don’t respect others.

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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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