City of Witches

Chapter 461: Perfume (2)

0% 1.

After more than a hundred wagons came and went.

The once-desolate warehouse was now overflowing with roses.

It was filled to the brim with the vibrant red roses, so much so that it would probably be quicker to weigh them than to count them.

After hours of deliveries, the white cloth spread on the floor was buried under a massive mound of roses.

Without magic, it would probably take three days just to bring all these roses inside.

Siwoo picked up one of the lush flowers, its petals were thick and relatively heavy.

“How many roses are there...?”

“There are around twenty thousands per wagon, so...”

“Over five million in total...”

Considering that it was winter—off-season for roses—the fact that they could harvest five million of them without any hurdle like this was just absurd.

But, then again...

This was THE City of Witches, Gehenna.

They cultivated flowers all-year in Spirit Mountain’s gardens due to them being necessities for various alchemical and magical experiments. After all, they were powerful vessels of life energy.

Still, that didn’t stop Siwoo to wonder if they had stripped an entire hillside garden bare to gather this many roses.

“Do we really need this many?”

Siwoo asked as he tossed the rose in his hand back to the towering heap.

No matter how he looked at it, this amount of roses felt excessive.

He even worried that Amelia had miscalculated and ordered way too many of them.

Considering her status as a 23rd-ranked grand witch, it was unlikely for her to mess up basic math, but due to her clumsiness in the past, he couldn’t help but be worried about that.

“Distilling ten thousand roses could only get you a drop of essential oil.”

“Just a single drop?”

“Mm. To be exact, 1 ml of it.”

Siwoo, who felt reassured by how expensive her perfumes were, suddenly began to worry about how much it would cost to produce them.

Amelia didn’t use synthetic fragrances like most perfurmer but instead relied on natural essential oils extracted from raw materials.

Amused by his shocked expression, or she was just happy to explain something she knew well...

Amelia let out a bright smile as she tugged his hand.

“I’ll teach you how to extract it too, Siwoo. I’m sure you’ll love it.”

She then led him to a massive distillation apparatus made entirely of copper.

Three towering cylinders—each much taller than Siwoo—stood side by side, connected by long pipes to form a continuous distillation system.

Everything was made of copper, and apparently, these copper stills were the highest quality distillation equipment one could get.

The bad thing was that they were really difficult to maintain.

Although, he gotta admit that it felt oddly out of place in Gehenna.

Because it seemed more suited to be in a steampunk world than here.

Standing in front of the giant machine, Amelia began checking its condition, adjusting valves here and there.

Then, she brought a box from the corner using telekinesis.

Inside the box was a large glass bottle, big enough to hold dozens of liters.

“Are those mana water?”

“Yes.”

Mana water was an incredibly expensive commodity.

And now that he saw piles of boxes filled with it—all to make Amelia’s perfume—Siwoo finally understood why her perfumes were priced that high.

With such luxurious ingredients packed into every bottle, the high price tag made perfect sense.

“There are many methods for extracting fragrances, like enfleurage, maceration, expression, and solvent extraction, but I personally use distillation.”

As she explained, she poured mana water in a steady stream into the first tank.

Of course, the massive tank couldn’t be filled with just one container of mana water. In fact, even after Siwoo helped her pour in a total of 20 containers, it was only about halfway full.

Peering inside, Siwoo noticed various magical devices embedded within the tank.

Since mana water didn’t normally vaporize or solidify with heat, the fact that they’d be using them for distillation meant that there were magic circles inscribed inside the tank for the process.

Next, they began filling the second tank completely with roses.

Siwoo had always thought that his telekinesis had improved significantly than before, but he was still nowhere near Amelia’s level of mastery.

Thousands of roses floated gracefully into the tank, neatly arranging themselves until it was packed to the brim.

After sealing the lid on the tank full of roses, Amelia continued her explanation.

“First, we heat the mana water in the first tank to vaporize it. The steam will flow through the pipes into the second tank.”

She traced a pipe bent in a ‘ㄱ’ shape with her finger as she explained.

“When the steam enters the second tank, it’s going to pass through the roses. During this process, it’ll absorb the flowers’ fragrance as it moves.

“During this time, if we adjust the pressure with the valves, we can control the temperature of the steam. High pressure creates hotter steam, resulting in a sweet and soft rose scent, while lower pressure creates cooler steam, giving the fragrance a livelier, more vibrant profile.”

“Wow, that’s amazing.”

“Isn’t it? After that, the vapor that forms in the second tank will rise to the top and flow into the third tank. As it passes through the cooling pipes, it’ll condense back to liquid.

“The liquid will then separate into oil and mana water to create the fragrance. Then, the separated mana water will be recycled back into the first tank.”

This setup reminded Siwoo of something between a boiler and a coffee machine.

As Amelia adjusted the valves, a rich floral scent began to fill the room.

“Today, it’s roses. Tomorrow, it’ll be jasmine.”

“It seems like you’ll be busy for a while.”

“Yes.”

Now that he found out that the mana water was reusable, he felt a little relieved about the raw materials’ costs.

After that, the pair finished setting up the distiller and began boiling the roses.

From Amelia’s brief explanation, he thought the process would be as simple as simmering bone to make a broth, but it was actually a far more intricate process than that.

Amelia had to meticulously adjust the temperature and pressure, constantly checking the gauges, tightening the valves, or releasing excess steam through nozzles.

Meanwhile, Siwoo’s job could, at best, be described as that of a conveyor belt.

He had to remove the roses that had been fully processed from the second tank and replace them with fresh roses.

“Siwoo.”

While he was busy moving between the distillation machines, Amelia waved him to come over.

As he did, he saw her crouching near the final tank, peering into an exposed glass tube.

“Come here, will you?”

Inside was oil extracted from tens of thousands of roses.

After going through the cooling and separation processes, the pure essential oil had crystallized and was dripping out, one drop at a time.

He crouched beside Amelia, watching as the tiny bottle gradually filled with the essential oil.

“The scent... It’s incredible...”

“Isn’t it?”

Amelia let out a warm smile as she stared at Siwoo, clearly pleased by his reaction.

Each drop of oil created ripples, releasing a thick, heavy floral scent that filled the air, as if they were swimming through a sea of blossoms.

But this moment of calmness didn’t last long.

If this had been a relaxed perfume-making session, they could’ve leisurely watched the essential oil collect and enjoyed the serene atmosphere.

But, this was a factory-level perfume production, they had no room for such indulgence.

After a brief break, the pair worked tirelessly for what felt like 24 hours—not even exaggerating—to extract just under 1 liter of essential oil.

2.

To extract a different type of essential oil from the same still, they had to reset it first, which involved filling it with mana water and heating it for hours.

This step was crucial to prevent the scent from mixing with each other.

Also, just as machines needed downtime, so did the people operating them.

So, after 32 hours of extracting rose oil, the pair finally took their first real break.

For that, they went to the perfume shop that Sophia built in the Malkuth Gallery.

It was a four-story building tucked away in an inconspicuous corner of the bustling gallery, so hidden that it would make one wonder, ‘Is there really a shop in a place like this?’.

The building was four stories tall, but it was squeezed tightly between others, making it look narrow and compact. But since it had Gehenna’s characteristic beautiful architecture, it exuded a charming and cozy atmosphere

However, the atmosphere changed completely once they stepped inside.

Floors made of marble, so sleek and polished that one could practically see other people’s underwear through them, and sturdy and elegant display counters crafted from rosewood.

Small but exquisite chandeliers that held a dazzling display of flickering candles.

If there were a smallest palace in the world, it probably looked like this.

The crowning touch to the lavish interior was the rows of empty bottles adorning the shelves.

Those bottles, lined neatly, reflecting the flickering candlelight, looked valuable even when empty.

The intricate glasswork rivaled porcelain in beauty, and the precious metals and gemstones decorating the bottles were undoubtedly genuine.

Behind the counter, hidden by curtains, there was a staircase leading up to the second and third floors, open for exploration.

If the first floor resembled a boutique for noblewomen, the second and third floors exuded a familiar atmosphere.

It was because they were almost identical to the research building Amelia used when she worked at the Academy.

The essential oil Amelia had painstakingly extracted only amounted to about a bottle of milk, but there were thousands of bottles of oils here, from large ones like that to small ampoules, containing all sorts of fragrances.

Apparently, these were the oils that she inherited from her master that she had told him before.

After that, they went up the fourth floor, which served as living quarters.

Perhaps because the upper floors were private floors, they weren’t as luxurious as the first floor.

This space, for instance, was just a simple one-room setup with wooden floors and walls, a bed, a bathroom, and a sofa.

Siwoo immediately plopped down on the sofa.

“You worked hard today. Thank you, Siwoo.”

“It’s nothing. You worked way harder than me, Ms. Amelia.”

Honestly, what Siwoo had done was just repetitive labor.

Taking out flowers, filling them in, repeat.

Sometimes, he’d head to the flower pile in the storage area to flip the roses at the bottom so they wouldn’t get crushed.

If he were to do this without magic, this amount of work would be unbearable for him, but now it felt like he was just doing boring assembly line tasks.

Still, the overly repetitive nature of the job was mentally draining.

Meanwhile, Amelia had been tirelessly moving between the distillers, checking the gauges, tightening and loosening the valves, and replacing the coolant, barely stopping for even a moment.

The surprising thing here was that there wasn’t even a hint of exhaustion on Amelia’s face.

Then again, she was practically a master when it came to tasks that required repetition and patience.

That kind of determination was probably the reason why she managed to go on with her independent magic research for over ten years.

“This was my job in the first place.”

“Your work is mine too, Ms. Amelia.”

He answered casually, prompting a smile and surprised look from Amelia.

That was when Siwoo realized that they had spent a whole day together without having a proper conversation.

They had been too busy.

“Even if you don’t mean it, it makes me happy.”

When Amelia touched her cheek and sincerely expressed her joy, it hit Siwoo so hard that he became momentarily speechless.

Then, he awkwardly replied.

“I mean it, you know...?”

“Then I guess I can feel even happier.”

Their bodies were completely infused with the scent of roses.

Smell was the quickest sense to become desensitized to stimulation.

It wasn’t until they left the workshop, thick with the aroma of roses, and moved to the lodging that they noticed how strongly the floral scent clung to them.

“...”

“...”

People always said that scent had a big impact on the atmosphere.

In the small room filled with a lovely yet sultry fragrance, the two silently gazed at each other.

If there was such a thing as natural attraction, then this was probably it.

Noticing Amelia’s gaze linger on his lips, Siwoo instinctively leaned in, closing the distance that had gradually shrunk over the past few days.

Amelia rose on her toes slightly, wrapping her arms around Siwoo’s waist

As if under a spell, they naturally leaned closer, their lips about to meet.

-Knock knock knock

But, the knocking sound shattered the moment between them.