Chapter 460
Chapter 460
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 460
Chapter Title: Amelia's Perfume Business
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1.
Amelia and Siwoo, who had risen at the crack of dawn, checked out of the hotel and returned to Gehenna.
Sophia, whom they had contacted in advance, was waiting for them at the immigration office.
A witch who pulled off her unnaturally violet hair with effortless grace.
While Amelia stepped away briefly to meet with the director, Siwoo had a chance to chat with Sophia.
"Siwoo the caretaker... no, that's not right anymore, is it? Guess I've been calling you that for so long it's second nature."
"Call me whatever feels right."
"Ahem. Well then, Siwoo. How was the trip?"
"It was fun."
In truth, Sophia carried a debt of gratitude in her heart toward Siwoo.
Her intentions had been good, but she had let Amelia's clumsiness slide anyway, and it had ended up causing him serious harm.
Aware of that, she always felt a pang of guilt whenever she faced him.
But as someone who claimed to be Amelia's close friend, there was one question she simply had to ask.
"Yeah? How so?"
"Ah..."
To Siwoo, Sophia was a woman with a seductive edge, much like her voluptuous figure.
Catching the subtle glint in her eyes, he caught the true intent behind her question.
"Uh, nothing happened."
"Phew, just as I thought."
Sophia nodded knowingly, as if she'd seen it coming.
Whatever her motives, Siwoo had plenty of questions for Sophia.
She seemed more savvy about the ways of the world than most witches, and he figured she'd give straighter answers than the person involved.
With Amelia away for the moment, now was his chance.
"More importantly, I had a question about Amelia's compensation fee. She mentioned selling perfume..."
"I've got it all set up already."
Siwoo's reason for bringing it up was to segue into asking, 'Can she really pay it off in ten years with that?'
But Sophia's reply was far too casual.
As if his concerns weren't even worth entertaining.
"I've prepared the manufacturing gear, the workshop, and even the shop. The store's tucked away in a corner of Malkuth Gallery, but it shouldn't be an issue. Materials are on order... and I've lined up customers through the salon."
Sophia rummaged around and pulled out a stack of documents.
They were impressively thick at a glance.
"Th-this... is all the customer list?"
"Yep, more precisely, the reservation ledger. They'll head straight to the shop later. I focused on the deep-pocketed witches and filled it generously. Inquiries are still pouring in, so I'll sort them as they come and forward them to the store."
Siwoo felt a little dazed.
He and Amelia had been away for less than two full days.
In that short span, she'd secured reservations from hundreds of witches, by the look of it.
"That's incredible."
As Siwoo marveled at her resourcefulness, Sophia shrugged and handed him the ledger.
"Even if you'd handled the recruiting, you could've pulled in this many."
"It's just perfume, though?"
He'd vaguely known Amelia's perfumes were popular among witches.
Indeed, even the notoriously picky Flora Arabesque had done a complete one-eighty the moment she received the Perfume of Fatigue, going so far as to make Siwoo a set of clothes.
"Just perfume? Perfume is fashion. Even witches deep in magical research are mostly noble young ladies at heart who love dolling themselves up. Present company included. Amelia's perfumes are renowned for their exquisite scents alone, magic effects aside."
Sophia explained with a proud expression, as if bragging about her own protégé.
"Thing is, Amelia hardly ever made any unless I nagged her into it. Supply was always woefully short compared to demand."
"But now, Gehenna's finest perfumer, Merigold, is offering custom commissions. Who'd pass up a chance like that?"
It made sense on the surface, but something still felt off.
"To pay off that debt, she'll need to churn out massive quantities... Won't the rarity drop and tank the prices?"
Limited-edition items didn't fetch premiums for nothing.
Amelia had trickled them out like beans in a drought, which justified the high prices so far—but if it scaled to hundreds or thousands of bottles...
"I get what you're worried about. But you're off base."
Sophia lit a cigarette, chuckling fondly at Siwoo's earnest concern for Amelia.
"I told you—custom orders. At the very least, you won't have the nightmare of bumping into someone wearing the exact same necklace and gown at a ball."
"Fair point."
"Plus, Amelia's perfumes have a shelf life of centuries. Time won't degrade the scent in storage."
Only then did Siwoo realize he was still judging witches through a human lens.
Witches didn't age.
They could live for centuries if they wished.
Even if supply briefly matched demand, in the long run, scarcity would return.
"Luxury goods in the modern world are priced by brand prestige, but witches judge the product on its merits."
"Like fine art."
"Exactly. That's why every name on this ledger wants as many bottles as they can get."
"They're also betting Amelia won't produce more for a good long while after clearing her debt. So... a few months of hard work, and it'll all be paid off?"
"Hold on. A few months?"
There was a saying: even in a small market, cornering the top spot could make you rich.
In Gehenna, overflowing with luxury-loving witches, it wasn't strange for Amelia, queen of perfumery, to rake in a fortune.
But clearing a debt in the hundreds of billions in mere months? That math...
"Curious about the price of Amelia's perfumes, huh?"
"Yeah. Haven't been this curious in ages."
Sophia reached into her bosom and produced something.
A pretty little blue vial, about the size of her thumb.
He recalled seeing a few of them on Amelia's office desk back in the day.
"This is the 0.5 fl. oz size Amelia used to sell occasionally. Daily use lasts a couple months... They all went to auction, so no fixed price, but they typically traded for around 20 pounds of gold."
"Pardon?"
"The custom bottles I ordered this time are 2.5 fl. oz each, and bespoke to boot. Factor in premiums for special ingredients, and... hmm, at least 100 pounds minimum, I'd say?"
Escaping Gehenna might've been easier than he'd thought.
If he'd swiped some perfume from her office and handed it to a smuggler, she might've snuck him out...
"Who knows? If Amelia had opened her perfume shop ages ago, she might've raked in as much cash as Flora's tailoring house."
As Sophia speculated leisurely, the sight of a certain money-printing machine named Amelia came strolling from afar.
Might've been his imagination, but a radiant golden halo shimmered behind her shoulders, like sunlight off a pile of coins.
Eighty million won per bottle...
Somewhere, he could almost hear Sharon pounding the ground in regret.
2.
Siwoo made it clear to Amelia that he intended to help with the perfume production.
It wasn't mere pity for her predicament—he fully recognized his deep involvement in the incident that had saddled her with such massive compensation in the first place.
Amelia, thrilled at the prospect of more time with Siwoo, headed off to the workshop Sophia had arranged.
She'd always made her perfumes using a small setup attached to the research annex, but mass production demanded proper facilities.
Sophia had covered all the costs: land purchase, construction, and fabricating the machinery.
Siwoo's jaw dropped at the sight of the workshop towering on an empty plot about five kilometers from Malkuth Gallery in Lenormand Town.
It was nearly the size of a soccer field.
Even accounting for magic and its prefab simplicity, erecting something this massive in so short a time was insane.
"Workshop" conjured images of something quaint, but this was unequivocally a factory.
And as for other impressions...
"This... definitely warrants demolition."
"...Yeah."
This was it.
Evidently slapped together for speed alone, the exterior was downright shabby.
It looked just like a wooden parcel logistics warehouse plunked down in an open field.
For the record, Sophia had received a demolition notice from city hall the moment construction wrapped.
However, with a three-year grace period from warning to enforcement, it was a clever exploit of Gehenna's lax regulations.
"Let's head inside first."
"Right."
Siwoo and Amelia stepped into the building.
No sooner had they entered than they were enveloped in warm, dry air—as if the structure were zoned by floors.
But what truly threw him was how cavernously empty the echoing space was.
Apart from about twenty copper distillation rigs and a few tools stacked in one corner, it was barren.
The wooden crates piled up numbered maybe a few hundred at most.
Barely occupying a tenth of the available space.
Siwoo had braced for an industrialized setup based on the outside, so the emptiness caught him off guard.
"We make the perfume here?"
Amelia shook her head.
"No, just the essential oils."
"Essential oils... what's that?"
"The fragrances that give perfume its scent. Perfume is made by blending various essential oils into high-purity alcohol."
Siwoo's question had been more along the lines of why the place needed to be so huge for perfume-making.
Amelia gave a more foundational answer, then added,
"My master left me some, but I expect we'll run short on the popular ones."
"Got it."
Amelia hadn't given a precise explanation.
But Siwoo wouldn't have to wait long to figure out exactly why they needed this much indoor space.
"Anyone there? Please sign for your delivery!"
"Delivery?"
"Looks like the roses are here."
Amelia signed for the laborer sweating buckets at the entrance.
Peering past her out the door, Siwoo spotted the covered wagon bed packed to the brim with stemless red roses.
The sheer volume could've stripped the twin estate's gardens bare.
But Siwoo's astonishment didn't stop there.
As the thick rose scent, potent even from afar, intoxicated the air, his eyes caught sight of it.
Dozens of wagons stretched in a procession all the way to the horizon, heading straight for the workshop.