The Genius Perfumer of the Fallen Cult – Chapter 13
It must have been serious, since she was looking at Prim with such a desperate expression.
“I told you that when you come to dine, you must be properly dressed! Honestly, I’m scolding you and you’re just standing there with your eyes wide…!”
Biana had simply worn what she had been given, yet she was being scolded for it. Not knowing what to do, she could only stare. When even that became something to nitpick about, she looked like she might burst into tears.
At that moment, a flicker of joyful excitement crossed the couple’s faces.
Prim could no longer endure the disgusting smell of this failed creation, those expressions on their faces, or Biana’s feelings.
“Baron, Baroness.”
The baron, who had been about to shout, suddenly had his words cut off and began coughing violently.
“Cough, hack, hack! K–khack!”
“P-Prim? Why… why are you saying that?”
“I want to do the perfumery.”
Baron Corvas glared at Prim while coughing so hard his face turned red. What kind of nonsense was this all of a sudden?
“Cough, cough! What? Perfumery? Do you think just anyone can do that?”
He kept coughing. The baroness glared at him and then tried to soothe Prim.
“Why are you yelling like that! Um, Prim, I heard that you’re planning to take the perfumer qualification exam with the priest, but that can wait for later—”
However, Prim already knew how to catch the attention of perfumers.
“Patchouli, vetiver, ginger, frankincense, lavender, vanilla, ylang-ylang, orange blossom.”
The baroness waved her hand again.
“Prim, it’s impressive that you know the names of fragrances, but even so—”
“Wait! Wait, wait! Be quiet for a moment!”
Baron Corvas suddenly shouted as if possessed. The baroness frowned at him.
But the baron was staring at Prim with a mesmerized expression.
“Don’t tell me… you recognized all the ingredients of the perfume oil I made today…?”
When the child said names like patchouli and vetiver, he hadn’t thought much of it. Those were common ingredients.
But the names that continued afterward shocked him. They were all the ingredients he had used throughout the day while making the perfume.
“…Did you spy on me?”
“I can’t walk around.”
Prim showed her bare, uninjured feet to prove her innocence. Even during tonight’s dinner, a servant had carried her in.
Baron Corvas slapped his forehead.
“Ah, right. That’s true. But then how…?”
Prim simply blinked silently as she looked up at him.
When everything feels completely blocked, if even the faintest light of hope appears, people’s hearts inevitably lean toward it. Prim knew that as well.
After the silence stretched long enough, Prim spoke.
“If you add cypress extracted from the wood rather than the leaves, and remove the orange blossom, I think it would become a good fragrance.”
Baron Corvas flinched and then mulled over her words.
“Cypress extracted from the wood rather than the leaves…?”
Yet he still looked like a fool who could not imagine it at all.
Prim quietly gasped in disbelief and reflected, just a little, on how she had scolded her juniors in the past.
“It’s a woody scent, but at the same time bright and light, with a refreshing feeling.”
“Bright, light, refreshing… Yes, you must have talent. That must be why the priest said you were going to take the perfumer qualification exam!”
Prim could sense the exaggerated agreement typical of someone pretending to understand something they did not, but she didn’t point it out.
Baron Corvas suddenly grabbed her wrist.
“First, let’s go to the perfumery room!”
“What? Right now?”
Baroness Corvas, who had been blankly watching their conversation, jumped up in shock.
The cook was even in the middle of serving the meal. But Baron Corvas’s eyes burned with passion.
“Eating isn’t important right now!”
“Well… fine, eating aside.”
The baroness corrected herself to maintain her noble composure.
“But then… what about her?”
She gestured toward Biana with her eyes.
Their plan had been to watch Biana’s blood and tears, but now the situation had suddenly become confusing.
Biana stood there with a bewildered expression, unable to understand what was happening.
“That’s not important right now either. Prim says she has talent for perfumery! As her… father figure, it would only be right for me to give her instruction immediately.”
“Ah—ow.”
As soon as Prim’s feet touched the ground after being dragged out of her chair, thorns sprouted beneath them, making her cry out in pain.
Baron Corvas jumped in surprise and immediately lifted Prim up in his arms.
“See you later then!”
“What in the world— that lunatic… I mean— honestly…!”
Baroness Corvas was left behind, pointing angrily before collapsing into a chair at the dining table after meeting the awkward gazes of the maid and cook.
“You! Why are you standing there blankly again? Sit down and eat. And next time, wear your clothes properly.”
Biana hurriedly nodded and sat down.
She had no idea how she was supposed to wear the clothes any more properly, and the baroness’s sudden anger frightened her.
But at the same time, she found it difficult to look away from the door through which Prim and Baron Corvas had disappeared.
Prim had despised Baron Corvas and his perfumery skills until now, but from this moment onward she decided to despise him even more.
How can someone have a perfumery room like this and produce that kind of fragrance?
The first thing that caught her eye was a large and impressive perfume organ.
Dark bottles were lined up neatly on the shelves, each with a white label bearing its name, making it look just like an organ.
Even she had only acquired a perfumery room of this scale after she had gained considerable recognition as a perfumer.
It’s twice as big as I expected. With this, there should be no problem producing the scent I want.
Even the slight worry that she might not be able to summon Yulberon disappeared.
“Now then, this is a fragrance meant to be offered to Retemor.”
Baron Corvas continued as he seated Prim in front of the perfume organ.
“But I just can’t seem to make any progress.”
“To Retemor…?”
Prim stared blankly up at him.
Unaware that this was the expression she made when looking at a fool, Baron Corvas smiled faintly.
“Haha, after all, a person should be devout.”
Prim could understand why he wanted to offer a fragrance to Retemor and receive a blessing.
If they intended to charm high-ranking nobles and gain power, they would seek a god capable of influencing people’s hearts. Retemor, the god of forgetfulness and dreams, would certainly fit that idea.
However, no god granted blessings that could truly control people’s hearts.
How could someone this ignorant hope to accomplish anything?
“Perhaps some good idea has occurred to you?”
Avoiding the hopeful eyes of Baron Corvas, Prim looked toward the perfume organ.
“Retemor likes lavender and daffodils.”
“Lavender and daffodils? Is that really true? How do you know that…?”
Prim wanted to ask how someone so completely ignorant could be making perfume at all.
She looked at him with that question in her eyes, but Baron Corvas still looked clueless.
Prim simply turned her gaze back to the perfume organ.
“I saw it at the temple.”
“Ah! Right! You were at the temple orphanage!”
Across the black bottles filling the organ, it seemed as if the forms of the ingredients rose above their labels.
Leaves sprouted from the bottles, stems grew, flowers bloomed, fruits formed, seeds scattered—and their fragrances blossomed.
Prim closed and opened her eyes.
“Lavender, lily, geranium, bergamot, neroli, carnation, clove, daffodil, jasmine, tuberose, vetiver…”
“Wait! Wait, wait!”
Baron Corvas jumped up and ran to find a pen and paper.
Meanwhile, Prim didn’t wait and reached for the ingredients.
The ratios depended on instinct, but Prim already knew that her instincts were accurate.
She had to kneel on the chair and stretch her arms to reach, and many things were different from her own perfume organ.
Even so, it wasn’t difficult.
Her hands moved busily back and forth until they suddenly paused at one spot.
“Luna Ether…?”
You even have something like this, and yet your perfumery is still that terrible?
