5
5 The Seal Is Broken-3
“As you know, the rose is a flower that has many connections to wine. There is the story that roses bloomed where the nectar of the gods was spilled, and another that Dionysus, the god of wine, poured divine wine over them, giving them their deep fragrance.”
“......”
The students listened intently. Kangto, who had approached the open window, listened along with them.
“There is also a story that roses bloomed alongside Aphrodite when she was born from the sea foam. That is why, in perfumery, the rose stands alongside jasmine as one of the two pillars of fragrance.”
It was French. Yet it still sounded completely natural to him.
“Among the various components found in the scent of roses, which would you say is the most important?”
“Phenethyl alcohol.”
Kangto muttered the answer first. He might have been clumsy when it came to actually smelling things before, but he had properly studied organic chemistry and perfumery theory.
“Phenethyl alcohol.”
The students’ answer came a moment after Kangto’s.
“Good. What you will do today is create a rose fragrance on the spot. In perfumery, the rose represents love. You are free to choose your method. Create something freely and give the people watching this class a moment of love.”
As soon as Stanislas made the announcement, the students became busy.
Making perfume on the spot and giving it as a gift.
It was exactly the sort of idea one would expect in Grasse.
The students split into two groups. One group selected roses from the large pile beside the table.
Sniff, sniff.
They put their sense of smell to work, choosing the ones with the strongest fragrance. Then they plucked the petals, put them into flasks, and boiled them.
The other group began using chemical methods.
“Reaction between acetic anhydride and formaldehyde...”
Kangto’s mind began working too. It was the so-called Prins reaction. Using that method produced a light rose fragrance. He had tried it during practical classes at school, but at the time he had been unable to smell the result. Another possible method involved using limonene.
“Wow, it really smells like a rose.”
Then.
The students’ excitement sounded like an emotion from somewhere beyond the universe to Kangto.
Those who had boiled the roses poured out the water and crushed the petals.
“Vanilla essence...”
Kangto’s enhanced sense of smell located the essence immediately. There were countless essences displayed in the cabinet beside the workbench. The one they had chosen was indeed vanilla essence.
“Wow.”
At last, the scent of roses began to bloom. It was not strong enough to shake the surrounding air, but it was more than sufficient to captivate the tourists.
“Then let us move on to the final part of today’s lesson.”
Stanislas handed blotters to the students. Then he picked up an unlabeled perfume bottle and sprayed the fragrance.
Fsssh.
The students waved their blotters. Everyone had their own standard, but usually three sprays were enough. Before long, the students had plunged into a sea of concentration. The presence of the watching tourists seemed to motivate them even more.
“......”
Kangto smelled it as well. Despite the distance, identifying the fragrance was no problem at all. Blanche truly had possessed an extraordinary sense of smell.
“Mimosa...”
The first scent he caught was mimosa. Then came henna and peppermint. After that, the smells of incense and sweet flag rushed in. Juniper, cassia, and raisins were mixed in as well.
His mind became peaceful.
There was also a mysterious, almost supernatural feeling.
He began reasoning from the ingredients and the fragrance.
What perfume could make the mind feel at ease while also creating such a mysterious sensation? Kangto traced back through the history of perfume, and an answer slowly emerged.
“Kyphi?”
A spark appeared in Kangto’s eyes. With this fragrance profile and these scents, there was a high possibility that it was kyphi. The knowledge Kangto had remembered from books had finally matched Blanche’s olfactory experience.
Kyphi was an Egyptian fragrance. It was considered one of the most mysterious fragrances in history, said to be so enduring that an ointment made 3,000 years ago could still retain its scent.
Could it be?
But this was Grasse. And the perfumer conducting the class had once been a legend.
If so, producing something resembling it would not be impossible.
His blood began to heat.
He was intensely excited.
To think all of this could actually match...
“This perfume contains more than twenty ingredients. Whoever identifies them all will be exempt from today’s practical report and receive the privilege of using my personal perfume organ for one day.”
Access to Stanislas’s personal perfume organ.
Kangto’s ears perked up at once.
But it would not be easy.
How many different smells could the human nose actually detect?
It was said that humans could distinguish one trillion different smells.
Kangto’s theoretical knowledge began lining up.
Most odor molecules were composed of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and sulfur. Among them, fragrances were generally categorized around seven basic types.
Musk.
Floral.
Camphoraceous.
Pungent.
Putrid.
Ethereal.
Peppermint-like.
Women generally possessed more sensitive senses of smell than men. In terms of age, the ability to smell reached its peak between twenty and forty.
Students training in perfumery usually practiced distinguishing more than 300 different scents. They were students with excellent senses of smell, but could they really identify everything?
“You have ten minutes.”
Stanislas gave them the time limit. The students became desperate. Some smelled their blotters three times, others five. They were practically burying their noses in them and sniffing away. Ten minutes under these circumstances passed like lightning.
Eventually, the timer rang.
“Time. Submit your answers.”
Stanislas was firm.
“Ahh.”
The sighs of the students who had fallen short of the answer grew louder. Half of them had failed to write down even ten scents. Two students had gone beyond fifteen, but each had two incorrect answers. An Italian student named Anes had written down twenty, but unfortunately, one was wrong.
“Anes, that is not bad.”
Stanislas seemed satisfied. It meant her level was already quite impressive.
“For Anes, who identified nineteen correctly, I will grant half a day of access.”
As Stanislas generously handed out the reward, Kangto raised his hand.
“Excuse me.”
One unexpected sentence in French changed the atmosphere of the laboratory. Everyone, including the tourists, turned toward Kangto.
“......?”
Stanislas’s gaze stopped on Kangto as well. He seemed to remember him.
“What is it?”
he asked.
“Can I participate even though I’m not a student?”
“You?”
“Yes.”
“Hahaha.”
Laughter erupted throughout the laboratory at Kangto’s answer. These were students nearing the end of a three-year program. Even they had not dared to attempt the test. Yet a tourist, and on top of that, an Asian...
Kangto understood why they were laughing.
The world of perfumery.
In a field where a single fragrance could bring wealth and fame, brilliant Asian perfumers were still rare.
“Are you confident you can identify them?”
Fortunately, Stanislas did not dismiss Kangto. Apparently, the memory of the rose still lingered in his mind.
“Yes.”
“All right. I’ll give you a blotter.”
“The blotter is unnecessary. I’ve already smelled the fragrance.”
“You smelled it?”
“Yes. When you sprayed it onto everyone else’s blotters earlier...”
“Listen.”
“I’ve already written down the answers as well.”
“You even have the answers?”
“If I get them right, could I take a look at your perfume organ? I don’t need a whole day. Even one hour would be enough.”
“......”
“......”
“I promise. If you get the answers right.”
“......”
The moment Stanislas received the note, lightning flashed through his eyes. The students held their breath. The reason was the unusually intense reaction from the master perfumer.
“This...”
A chill ran down Stanislas’s spine. Cold sweat even gathered on his forehead. He had already reread the note three times.
“Mimosa, peppermint, cassia, juniper, henna, incense, sweet flag, resin...”
His gaze stopped at number twenty-two, “red wine.” Kangto had written down exactly twenty-two ingredients.
The number was not the problem.
He looked toward Anes, who had correctly identified nineteen scents. She was the student he had been watching most closely. She had majored in organic chemistry in Italy and worked at a cosmetics research institute. She had enrolled for advanced perfumery training and excelled in every respect.
The one thing she had gotten wrong was musk. Mimosa and rose contained scents resembling musk. It was not a major mistake. Even an experienced perfumer could make that mistake.
But then.
Stanislas’s gaze turned toward Kangto.
Was he Chinese? Japanese? Or Korean?
What had happened at the rose farm could not have been a coincidence. No, perhaps it had simply been far too easy for this man. Otherwise, there was no way he could have produced an answer like this.
“I’m sorry, but...”
Stanislas’s voice trembled.
“Do you perhaps know the title of this fragrance as well?”
His gaze remained fixed on Kangto.
Kangto did not avoid his eyes.
“I think it is kyphi.”
“Kyphi? What is that?”
The students began murmuring. Anes and several other students stiffened. They had heard that name before.
“Kyphi?”
Stanislas’s expression changed dramatically.
“Am I wrong?”
“......”
After a brief silence, Stanislas finally managed to speak.
“No. You are exactly right.”
“......?”
This time, the students’ eyes shook in disbelief. Something impossible had happened.
“Incredible. This is my own version of kyphi, a Stanislas-style kyphi that I created after studying the references. Until now, you are the only person who has identified it correctly.”
“It is an honor.”
“The rose, and now this... Are you really not someone who works in perfumery?”
“Not yet.”
“Then would you like to identify this fragrance as well? This accord contains ten scents. Tell me what they are, and what their theme is.”
Stanislas held up another perfume.
This time, the problem was more advanced: not only identifying the fragrance profile, but also determining the theme behind it.
“I’ll try.”
As soon as he answered, the perfume was sprayed onto a scent strip.
Fsssh.
A mist finer than fog appeared. Most perfumes felt cool. That was because of the alcohol. Kangto could see the scent molecules clinging to the mist. Molecular weight was irrelevant. Chemistry was science. But perfume was not science. Just as scent itself was not science.
“Ugh.”
The students nearby wrinkled their noses first. It was not a beautiful fragrance. But in the world of perfumery, making hasty judgments was dangerous. Ambergris, which added a magical quality to fragrances, could smell like nothing more than a foul odor when smelled casually.
“Excuse me, could I see the bottle?”
Kangto made his request. Stanislas handed him the bottle.
The bottle rested in Kangto’s palm. He shook it lightly. The fragrance escaped into the air. Kangto’s sense of smell did not miss a single moment. Like a gas chromatograph analyzing a sample, his nose separated the individual components mixed into the fragrance.
Every scent was different.
It was disharmony.
It was not beautiful, so it was not a fragrance created simply for the sake of smelling pleasant.
He separated the scents one by one and searched for what they had in common.
Overall, they were all unpleasant smells.
The problem was the jasmine.
Why are you here?
That was the thought that crossed his mind.
Because of that, he began checking everything again.
“Jasmine...”
In Kangto’s limbic system and cerebral cortex, his theoretical knowledge and Blanche’s accumulated olfactory experiences came together. He focused on the jasmine. Even within it, there were unpleasant scents.
Then...
He caught the tail of the answer.
“The theme of this accord is foul odors.”
Kangto continued without hesitation.
“The accord begins with civet, followed by skatole, indole, labdanum resin, oakmoss, birch tar, cedar...”
“......”
Stanislas was left speechless by Kangto’s effortless answer.
This was an extremely difficult problem prepared as the final test for the students. Kangto had identified every single component without missing one.
Clap.
Stanislas answered with applause.
Clap, clap, clap.
The students joined him.
It was applause coming from Stanislas, the kind of man who needed no explanation for why he was applauding.
Clap, clap, clap, clap.
The tourists beside Kangto joined in with enthusiastic applause as well.
And so, Kangto’s chance to experience the perfume organ of the master perfumer and senior vice president of Aspo was secured.