The Genius Perfumer of the Fallen Cult - Chapter 61

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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 61

Since external pressure—or something close to it—had influenced her exam registration, mediocre results could spark controversy.

Moreover, she wasn’t in a position to worry about others’ circumstances. If she couldn’t solidify this regression, all her current leisurely thoughts would become meaningless jokes.

Until now, she had offered fragrances to Retemore, Tamdrion, Yulberon, and even Curresen while focusing on laying groundwork and survival, and Varin had understood her reasons.

But now Prim was determined not to waste a single fragrance material within her reach, nothing at all.

“Do all the other perfumers distinguish this much too?”

“Yes, of course.”

Prim nodded at Bianna’s question.

So to produce results among them, she had to go one step further.

Bianna thought ‘I don’t think so…’ but since Prim knew the world of perfumery best among the three of them, she decided to change the subject.

The winter river wind was quite cold.

“You’re going back now, right? Will you play chess again when you get there?”

There are many virtues a knight must possess.

Not only various foreign languages but also thorough education, and naturally basic knowledge about perfumery and fragrances, poetry and music, and even chess proficiency.

Rozien gathered his belongings and lifted Prim up, saying:

“The person who comes last folds towels.”

“Honestly, there are too many towels! The loser moves the ether solvents!”

Rozien looked at Bianna as if exasperated.

“That’s just asking me to do your job.”

Bianna hadn’t come here just to play either. She was practicing the solvent extraction method she’d learned from Prim.

“Then towels! Why are there so many towels? It’s because you wash too much morning and evening that laundry piles up.”

“But I sweat after training, what can I do? I can’t just bathe once!”

Rozien flapped his shirt as he spoke. A very faint rose scent mixed with soap smell wafted out. Bianna frowned.

“Those Yulberon apprentice knights get by just fine being grubby.”

In fact, they were quite clean compared to ordinary apprentice knight boys, and recently they’d become even cleaner under Rozien’s influence.

However, to Bianna, who had only seen peers like Prim and Rozien, and the orphanage children who acted like them, those boys looked almost like wild beasts.

And Rozien felt the same way.

“Ugh! I really can’t stand that.”

Rozien spoke with genuine disgust. Bianna giggled, then suddenly became serious.

“So what will you do if you lose at chess?”

“I said fold towels.”

Bianna felt slightly wronged and muttered:

“Then I’ll wash morning and evening too.”

A determination to contribute to increasing the number of towels to fold.

“Do whatever you want.”

Rozien pouted and smiled while shrugging his shoulders. When Bianna stamped her feet in frustration, Prim smiled softly.

* * *

The day of the first written exam.

Prim adjusted the coat the Marseria Priest had given her and the scarf Rozien had wrapped around her.

Her whole body felt heavy, but surprisingly her mood was good. Thinking of Bianna’s back as she barely managed to drag away the two who couldn’t leave out of worry made her smile a little again.

The exam questions were densely packed. There were short-answer questions as well as essay questions requiring detailed responses.

Prim’s hand quickly wrote down answers. She had worked in the field until the very last moment before regression. Considering the break, it hadn’t even been half a year, so nothing written here was difficult.

‘Solvent extraction method… I just did this with Bianna recently.’

She carefully wrote the process of using ether solvents to make concrete, dissolving this concrete in alcohol to separate it from wax, and finally evaporating the alcohol to leave only the fragrance materials.

‘Characteristics of bergamot extraction method.’

Collect all bergamot peels with finest linen cloth and hang them from the ceiling, gathering the peel juice in glazed pottery. The bergamot aged in pottery develops its distinctive flavor.

There’s the joy of how the fragrance changes subtly depending on what pottery is used and how low or high the bergamot peel pouches are hung.

‘Types of magical beasts that can produce agarwood resin.’

While resin comes from agarwood wounds, when scratched by magical beasts, more special resin is produced. The industry speculation was that darkness from magical beasts had a special effect.

Therefore, the fragrance of agarwood resin changed subtly depending on which magical beast caused the wound. Prim wrote down the names and characteristics of magical beasts and the corresponding changes in resin fragrance.

‘Enfleurage.’

Prim tickled her cheek with the pen tip.

As solvent extraction using ether solvents became popular, this method of making fragrance materials by attaching flower petals one by one to fat had nearly disappeared.

It required excessive labor and long time, causing fragrance material prices to skyrocket.

However, Prim often used fragrance materials made this way. The long time allowed capturing even the delicate fragrances of flowers. Though being very expensive, she usually only used it for hobby perfumery.

— Make two panels by evenly spreading refined fat from cattle or pigs on glass plates. Attach flower petals to these panels without damaging them. Place the two panels against each other, then…

The questions mostly asked basic things. Her hand was somewhat tired from all the writing, but nothing was difficult.

‘Does this kind of exam have discriminatory power?’

Prim tilted her head. Wouldn’t it be hard for those determined to become perfumers not to know this?

Was the perfumer exam in her past life like this too? But only a vague memory surfaced of never finding that exam difficult either. Back then, she hadn’t placed any meaning on this exam.

‘Regional water characteristics.’

Prim smiled slightly. That the examiner properly understood fragrance creation gave her sufficient pleasure.

In Castellanza’s case, due to the influence of silica sand and soda ash from glasswork in the adjacent Bitrelia Islands, the water has hard properties and causes citrus fragrance materials to volatilize faster.

Northern water has extremely few minerals and very soft properties, while southern water, being near the sea, has salinity and holds fragrances well. Compared to Castellanza, citrus fragrance materials last somewhat longer.

And the eastern edge, being a mountainous region with Sturmgebirge where frequent lightning strikes, strengthens woody fragrances and amplifies green notes while increasing musk persistence, but alcohol easily deteriorates and discoloration occurs easily depending on fragrance materials.

“Hmm.”

After writing all answers to the given questions and looking up, everyone was still scribbling something.

A passing exam supervisor seemed to look at her strangely, so she briefly met his eyes, but he quickly averted his gaze and left.

Sitting quietly, Prim couldn’t bear the boredom and yawned lightly. She missed warm, rich hot chocolate. With just a little mint and cinnamon added and plenty of cream on top, it would be nothing short of heaven.

Her feet were cold, but since outsiders couldn’t enter until the exam ended, Prim, who couldn’t walk, had to sit still helplessly.

The proctor slowly walked around the examination hall once, then glanced at the small girl sitting by the front window.

Wearing an adult-sized coat with a scarf wrapped twice around her, she looked like a snowball placed on a seat. In contrast, her feet were bare with nothing on them, and her exposed toes trembled in the cold air.

‘Tsk tsk.’

The exam supervisor clicked his tongue.

They said she was an applicant with a recommendation letter from the Temple of Varin.

Recently, some Empire citizens didn’t even know about Varin, but the Castellanza perfumer qualification exam organizers already knew. One person applied every year.

However, until now they had all been applicants sponsored by the Aurum Vena trading company—probably coming with recommendation letters bought from that last remaining parish of Varin—but this time they brought a ten-year-old child. An orphan from that temple.

He’d heard there was an uproar about letting this child take the exam, but seeing her in person didn’t sit well with him.

A child who hadn’t even grown properly yet, wearing several coats and multiple layers of scarves, looked like a beloved doll cruelly cherished in the wrong way.

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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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