The Genius Perfumer of the Fallen Cult - Chapter 66

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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 66

As soon as Prim finished speaking, she realized.

Throughout her life, there weren’t many times when being honest had made others happy. Silence was usually the best option. The more Prim’s skills were recognized, the more this tendency increased.

And now something was definitely wrong. The atmosphere around them had instantly turned cold. She felt like she could grasp that frozen air in her hands.

Prim squeezed her eyes shut.

‘No way.’

No way, no way, no way… Could it be that he didn’t intentionally create gaps in the fragrance, but actually presented it thinking it was a completed fragrance?

With that thought, her heart sank. She had just openly said that the exam supervisor’s fragrance was lacking and that she had fixed it.

‘But wait, if you gave me this kind of fragrance, how can you say that wasn’t your intention? Is that why I didn’t recognize his face?’

After showing such a beautifully unbalanced composition, this wasn’t a test?

Prim looked up at him with desperate eyes, hoping he would just say this was a test.

Mennellik’s face repeatedly turned dark red then pale white before he spoke in a deeply subdued voice.

“Indeed… you saw through my intention.”

“Ah! I knew it.”

Prim nodded with the feeling of wanting to clap her hands. Mennellik cleared his throat and asked.

“In what direction did you improve it?”

Mennellik covered his trembling lips with his large hand, pretending to stroke his chin. Unaware of this, the girl spoke softly.

“I saw the given problem as controlling the low-grade ambergris, bringing out the high-grade bergamot, and supplementing the insufficient grassy notes to complete the balance.”

“…”

“Hmm? I, is that so?”

“I added clary sage, and a bit of vanilla and ambrette seeds…”

Perfumery was like an arch-shaped bridge where everything was properly interlocked and erected. Prim inserted the keystone into this fragrance that lacked one, composing the scent more precisely.

The arch becomes sturdier and extends into a more beautiful form. Mennellik fitted each thing Prim mentioned into his mind one by one.

The amber nuance of the ambergris survives, and the vetiver and patchouli strengthen the feeling of vast plains and leather scent. The landscape he had vaguely drawn instantly became clearer and more vivid.

Just like when he first smelled that fragrance.

A landscape he didn’t even know he wanted unfolded.

Goosebumps rose on his arms.

Mennellik crossed his arms and spoke, knowing they weren’t visible under his clothing.

“The reason you decided that was because the ambergris was low-grade…?”

Mennellik’s tongue stumbled briefly when he said “ambergris was low-grade.” The appearance of ambergris as a fragrance material in the exam was itself impossible.

Just before the second exam began, he had suddenly insisted on using fragrance materials as expensive as gold of the same weight for the test, causing trouble for the exam organizers.

It was only accomplished with difficulty after he promised to limit the use of his newly composed fragrance to Castellanza and put his heart into selecting perfumers.

Naturally, it wasn’t the highest grade ambergris, but he had brought sufficiently usable ambergris, yet she openly called it low-grade.

‘Just where did she smell such high-quality ambergris!’

Mennellik had looked at the first written exam answer sheet and immediately began bergamot extraction according to what was written there.

He purchased Mount Solevante bergamot, obtained glazed terracotta pottery, scraped bergamot peels with a knife, hung them to collect the juice, and searched for who this ‘Prim’ was that wrote this answer.

An orphan cursed at a young age.

From the penniless Varin Temple Orphanage, barely turning eleven after the new year.

Honestly, he thought it was ridiculous. It was hard to believe that a priest from that poor Varin Temple had rushed in like a chihuahua bitten by a werewolf to let a ten-year-old take the exam, and it was hard to believe that such a young child had written all those answers.

But when he actually confirmed her face, she really was a young child. She even looked younger than her reported age.

“No. Um, actually, rather than because it’s low-grade ambergris… there are two reasons. First, this would suit the gentle smell of grass grown in soil better than the slight ocean scent that ambergris carries.”

“That suits it better? By what standard?”

“Because they’re not travelers who came by ship.”

“…”

At those words, Mennellik opened his mouth then closed it. What he had tried to depict when composing this fragrance was…

“This fragrance isn’t depicting a traveler who came by ship from distant seas, but someone who has ridden horses for a long time.”

His thoughts came out exactly from Prim’s mouth.

The landscape he had tried to draw in this fragrance, exactly as it was.

As anyone whose inner self has been excavated would feel, his chest turned cold. As if unaware of this, the girl continued speaking.

“The ocean feeling in ambergris might provide a sense of liberation, but it’s somewhat off from this theme…”

“Right, if that’s the first reason, what’s the second?”

Mennellik hurriedly asked the next question like someone shocked and frantically shaking their head.

“Well, because ‘ambergris’ itself is too expensive a fragrance material.”

“When you become a renowned perfumer, you can use such precious fragrance materials as much as you want.”

He deliberately swallowed the unspoken words, “though that’s a world you don’t know yet.” Prim blinked and tilted her head.

“But what about the people who will buy this fragrance?”

“What? They are.”

Like someone alertly stopping before a trap, Mennellik stopped speaking and held his breath.

Nobles could easily afford this expensive fragrance. Merchants with gold flowing in their bloodlines could too. Renowned and honorable knights could also buy fragrances. They were sufficiently wealthy. For faithful holy knights of the religious orders, the orders would twist themselves to supply fragrances.

But other people…

Mennellik looked around at the other examinees. They had expressions showing they had no idea what Prim and he were talking about.

Who else would buy besides nobles, wealthy merchants, and honorable knights? But Mennellik remembered.

Because he himself was such a person. Neither noble nor knight nor wealthy merchant, but a pitiful human who had yearned for fragrances…

When someone in shock frantically shakes their head, they only become more dizzy. Mennellik sighed at his own foolishness.

Prim looked at Mennellik, who seemed to be experiencing some grand realization alone, with a slightly perplexed expression.

‘What is he thinking so hard about…? Then he doesn’t plan to sell much? That’s how you make money though?’

Prim had experienced it.

True wealth lay only in high-volume, low-margin sales. The nobles who could buy rare and expensive items were very few, and no matter how expensively you sold to that minority, it couldn’t match the income from high-volume, low-margin sales to the masses.

Mennellik kept his head down for quite a while before looking at Prim’s fragrance with considerably clearer eyes.

“…”

Prim saw his face contort and let out a short sigh, “Ah.”

Sometimes when her disciples made that face, they would soon burst into tears and run away, never to return.

Or else they would follow her around obsessively from start to finish, trying to worship her.

Prim said hurriedly.

“Don’t… don’t cry.”

“Cr-cry? Who’s crying! What nonsense!”

Mennellik shouted in panic. Everyone in the quiet examination hall looked at him.

Prim’s eyes widened, then she calmly pointed again to what she had replicated of the given fragrance.

“Anyway, this is what I’m submitting for the exam.”

“…Right, understood. You can also answer about the problem. What fragrance materials are in this fragrance?”

Prim tilted her head slightly and began speaking slowly.

“Bergamot, grapefruit, pink pepper. And there’s a leather accord, which is composed of patchouli, labdanum, cistus, vetiver, benzoin, thyme, saffron, and birch tar respectively. And cacao, tonka bean, ambergris… these went in.”

Mennellik listened quietly to those words, then raised his head and spoke to the people.

“What you just heard is the correct answer for this exam.”

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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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