City ​​of Witches 496

Chapter 496 – #105_Perfume Tycoon (3)

#496

1.
Sharon was just being a little petulant.

She wanted to play and spend time with Siwoo, but he was so focused on Amelia that he didn’t even come to see Sharon, let alone the twins.

Sharon knew about Amelia’s situation from Siwoo.
She knew what kind of wounds she carried, why the two had broken up, and how they had reunited after many twists and turns.

But even though she understood, she couldn’t help but feel a little resentment towards Amelia deep down.

Putting everything else aside, Sharon had directly witnessed Siwoo nearly die because of the disaster Amelia had caused.

When he had stubbornly walked into a place where he was sure to be killed.
When all she could do for him was a flimsy elemental enhancement.
When Duke Errelim’s judgment had painted the sky because they hadn’t timed it right.
When he had finally returned with his left arm gone forever.

Sharon had felt her heart tear into a thousand pieces.

Siwoo was alive now because Amelia had carried out Duke Keter’s hit list, but she couldn’t forget the shock of that moment when the world seemed to collapse.

That might be why she had more friction with Amelia than with the twins or Eloa.

But even considering everything.
It was a reckless thing to say.

“I’m sorry…”

Sharon bowed her head and apologized honestly.
She smacked her lips, thinking about adding some more flowery words, but decided against it.

Because no matter what reason she gave or what she did, it would only be a long-winded excuse.

“…It’s okay. I got a little worked up too.”

Meanwhile, Amelia was in shock, as if she had been hit over the head.
It wasn’t because Sharon’s words were an outrageous slander.

Rather, it was because they were close to the truth.

Siwoo was enthusiastically helping Amelia.

He spent most of his time helping her extract essential oils and with the shop, and he devoted most of his time to Amelia.
That inevitably meant taking Siwoo away from his other lovers.

But Siwoo had never shown any sign of that.
At the root of it was a careful consideration for Amelia.
A touch as if handling a fragile piece of porcelain.

A delusion crept in.

At least as far as Amelia knew, Siwoo was kind.
He was the type to take a loss for others, almost to the point of being a pushover.

So, wasn’t there a gap between his true feelings and his actions?
Didn’t he actually want to spend time with his other lovers, but was tied up taking care of her?

She couldn’t deny it.
Amelia had been vaguely ignoring that fact and monopolizing him.

It might be natural for Sharon to come and complain.

If it had been Amelia before, her mental state would have been shattered, but the time she had spent with Siwoo had not been in vain.

After calming herself down, Amelia immediately apologized for her slip of the tongue and, seeing Sharon looking anxious, realized that there was no malice in her words.

It was a natural reaction to have.
Even if Amelia had been in the opposite situation, it might not have been much different.

“……”
“……”

-Creak, creak

Just as they were hesitating about what to say to each other.
Siwoo came down the old wooden stairs at a good time.

“I’ve brought all the oils you asked for.”
“Thank you. Please put them here.”

After a brief lull, Amelia calmed herself with a deep breath.
She was still feeling uneasy and wanted to ask Siwoo something, but now was the time to work.

Sharon was a customer before she was a rival, and Amelia did not take her responsibilities lightly.
She would put the complex issues aside for later.

Amelia spread out the essential oils that Siwoo had handed her on the perfumery shelf.

The art of perfumery is often compared to composing music.
It is a delicate and artistic process of combining numerous fragrances to create notes and accords.

Amelia poured high-purity alcohol into a beaker and then picked out the essential oils one by one.

Just as the ‘notes’ of a perfume generally take a three-tiered pyramid structure, Amelia’s perfume was the same.

First, the top note, the first scent that can be felt within about 10 minutes of spraying the perfume.
Then, the middle note, the heart of the perfume that comes in richly after the light and volatile top note disappears.
Finally, the base note, the finale where the lingering scent, mixed with body odor, spreads subtly after enough time has passed since the perfume was sprayed.

The first step in perfumery is to capture the framework of the theme you want to express in the base note.
It would be good to describe it as building the scent from the bottom up, like constructing a pyramid.

From this moment on, there was nothing much for Sharon or Siwoo to do.

The theme that Amelia had in mind when she looked at Sharon was a harmonious blend of innocence and sensuality, growth.

She mixed several essential oils based on vanilla, iris, and resin.
The framework of the scent she had in mind was taking shape and revealing its outline.

The second task.
This is the process of adding flesh to the framework of the perfume that has been created.

The essential oils used at this time are called modifiers, and it is the process of painting colors on the sketch that is the base note.
Amelia’s choices were dozens of fragrances, including ylang-ylang, rose, jasmine, cinnamon, lime, bergamot, and narcissus.

Every time she picked up a small bottle of fragrance and dropped it into the beaker, a dazzling fragrance vibrated with a ripple.
The process of carving out the rough and unshaped scent, sometimes adding to it, was so captivating that even Sharon was focused with wide eyes.

Every time her fingertips dropped a small drop, the breadth, thickness, and charm of the scent changed rapidly.

The third task.
The task of adding the top note, the overture of the perfume.

At the same time, it was also the task of coordinating the smooth harmony between the base note and the middle note.

Whether to add one type of fragrance or not, whether to add or subtract one more drop.
Since many fragrances have already been mixed, one wrong choice of a drop can ruin the whole thing.

The scent of the perfume changes with very minor differences, so it requires care and delicacy.

Therefore, it is common to go through trial and error while writing a perfumery chart, but it was an unnecessary task for Amelia.
She entrusted everything to her intuition and artistic inspiration and finished blending all the fragrances in an instant without making a mistake.

“Whew…”

Amelia breathed out and lightly applied magic to the finished perfume.

Normally, after the previous three steps, it is necessary to add a fixative to make the scent last longer, to harmonize the scent through maturation, and to remove unnecessary scents, but Amelia shortens the series of processes with magic.

This is how a magical perfume that does not change its scent even after hundreds of years was created.

“It’s done. As an additional magical effect, an increase in vitality has been added. Please try it.”

Sharon, who had been admiring Amelia’s dazzling touch, came to her senses and nodded.
Amelia grabbed Sharon’s wrist, who was awkwardly trying to avoid apologizing, and lightly dropped a drop of perfume on it.

“I’m going to accelerate the progression of the scent through magic so you can see the entire note.”
“…Yes.”

Sharon felt a little uneasy at Amelia’s seemingly nonchalant attitude.
But the moment she closed her eyes and inhaled the scent, she shook off her distracting thoughts and a fantasy unfolded.

The place was an orchard.
The time was the border between late summer and autumn.

A girl, Sharon, reached out her hand to a heavy branch hanging over a sunset hill, and in her hand was a fresh green apple that seemed to have just been harvested.
As soon as she opened her mouth and carefully bit into the apple, it had already turned into an orange.

It was not just refreshing, but rather thick.
The juice of the orange she had bitten into trickled down her chin and into her cleavage, feeling like it was buried in the scent of the innocent girl’s flesh.

The fresh scent of the fruit had already turned into a powdery vanilla scent with a hint of sensuality.

It was not a vanilla scent that harshly numbed the head.
It was a soft, fluffy feeling that seemed to melt away just by touching the tip of the tongue, like a lightly whipped cream.

The vanilla scent, which gently enveloped Sharon’s entire body like the sweetness of a first kiss, changed again into a lightly diluted caramel syrup and melted all over her body.

From the innocent Sharon who knew nothing, to opening her eyes to a fresh love, to becoming a woman of a man after a first kiss that felt like walking in a dream.
The entire narrative of soaking in that sweetness was all melted into it.

“I named the perfume ‘Jusqu’à ce qu’une fille devienne une femme’.”

Its meaning is until a girl becomes a woman.

She thought it was just a scent, but to think it could express this much.
Sharon felt a thrill close to emotion and rubbed the goosebumps that had risen on her arm.

She had forgotten everything, even the fact that she had just bickered with Amelia and said harsh words to her.
Sharon showered her with honest praise, filled with admiration for the artist.

“It’s amazing, I love it. How can there be such a perfume?”
“I’m glad you like it.”

Siwoo transferred the perfume into a vial and neatly packaged it in a box.
Amelia was organizing the bottles as if her work was done, and Sharon was hesitating as she looked at her.

First of all, she wanted to apologize for her mistake, and in many ways, she wanted to have a conversation…
It wasn’t the right atmosphere to bring it up.

Then, Siwoo, holding a clipboard, suddenly interrupted.

“Sharon.”
“Uh, yeah?”
“But you… are you okay?”

Siwoo only hinted at the nuance so that Amelia wouldn’t hear, lest Sharon’s pride be hurt.
He was probably worried about her financial situation.

From their first meeting, Sharon had only shown a miserable side of herself in front of Siwoo, so it was understandable.
Even though she was sick of poverty, it was not something to be ashamed of or to be ashamed of.

Moreover, since she had started teaching the twins, she had accumulated quite a bit of money.

“Of course, I’ve paid off all my debts and I have a job now.”
“Really? Then just sign here.”

Sharon, who had reassured Siwoo with her chest puffed out, looked at the bill on the clipboard with a relaxed smile.
And she was so surprised that her heart almost jumped out of her mouth.

One bottle of perfume, 2.5 fl.oz.

First of all, the cost of the perfume for testing, which had been used to verify her taste, was charged to Sharon as a matter of course.
The basic preparation cost was added, the special ingredient cost was added, and the custom perfumery service cost was added.
The cost of the very pretty vial was added, and the cost of the separately granted magical effect was added.
The total amount, including 8.5% value-added tax, was.

“G, gold coins 122.2 pounds…?”

She had heard rumors that her special perfume was expensive.
Even so, Sharon had thought that she could roughly settle it for around 10 gold coins.

Of course, 10 gold coins was not a small amount for Sharon to invest in a bottle of perfume.

However, she knew that Amelia had done a lot for Siwoo, regardless of her dislike for her, and she did not want her to be struggling with debt like herself.
Therefore, she had decided to willingly buy the perfume, even if it was not a big help.

But the amount on the bill was close to 100 million won in her previous life.

It was enough money to buy five more dresses that Sharon had ambitiously tailored for the first time in her life.
She stared at Amelia with wide eyes at the shocking cost, which was more than 12 times her expected budget.

How could this be!
Was she taking revenge in this way for her mistake earlier?

But Amelia was organizing her perfumery equipment without even looking at Sharon, and the person who had handed her the clipboard was none other than Siwoo.
There was no way he would rip her off like the smugglers at the current world contact point.

Sharon was teaching Odile and Odette and receiving support from the Geminai Count’s family.
However, the tuition fees were offset by the repayment of her existing debt, so only the cost of maintaining her dignity and research assistance were going into Sharon’s pocket.

Those two subsidies alone were not a small amount, but it was a very tight budget for Sharon, who had to spend all kinds of jewels just to research magic.
Her household accounts were spinning around in her head.
This expenditure was so painful that it would disrupt her research for at least a few months.

She wasn’t a difficult customer, and she couldn’t ask for a refund now.
Her pride was too high to ask for a discount.
Sharon held the pen with trembling hands and looked at Siwoo with a tearful expression.

“C, can I pay in installments…?”

In the end, she paid in 12 monthly installments.
After a brief greeting, Sharon, who was leaving with the box containing the perfume held preciously in her arms, looked very heavy on her shoulders.