"Hehe! Lina, no matter what, it was Sir Nalant's kind gesture. If he finds out you said that about him, I won't help you next time!" Stella laughed too. She hadn't planned to accept any gifts from the second sons. If her father hadn't insisted on sending this one, she wouldn't even have put it in her room.
But then again, Nalant might as well not have sent anything at all!
"He obviously doesn't care about you, miss! I'm not afraid!" Lina twisted her mouth and answered angrily.
Although Lina was Stella's maid, she was also the child of a noble. Her father was a bona fide baron and lord.
So while Lina was only a servant in Stella's presence, outside Tulip Castle she was still a noble young lady.
Stella smiled and shook her head, saying no more as she lowered her head to continue reading.
Seeing that her mistress had fallen silent, Lina prepared to set the perfume down. But as a girl, she instinctively pulled out the stopper before putting it away.
Pop!
As the stopper came out, Lina was about to bring the bottle to her nose for a sniff. But before she could, an unprecedented fragrance wafted toward her.
"Ah!" Lina's eyes widened, and she stared at the perfume bottle in disbelief.
"Hmm?" Stella, sitting on the sofa, caught the fragrance too and looked up in surprise.
"Miss... this... this perfume smells so good! I've never smelled anything like it!" Lina said in astonishment, holding the bottle out to Stella.
"What kind of perfume is this? It does smell lovely, but how come I've never known jasmine perfume could smell like this?"
Stella looked in amazement at the porcelain bottle, which had probably cost less than ten Copper Coins to make.
As an earl's daughter, she was naturally familiar with some of the duchy's finest perfumes. She could say for certain that the perfume in this bottle was no worse than those high-end varieties.
"Miss, it seems I misunderstood Sir Nalant! But who would've thought he'd put such precious perfume in this crude bottle?" Lina blushed, unable to believe she'd been proven wrong so quickly.
"He really is a strange second son." Stella now found herself at a loss as to what kind of person Nalant was.
If another noble second son had owned such precious perfume, he would definitely have put it in an extravagant bottle. That way, no one would have mistaken his intentions.
If Lina hadn't instinctively opened it just now, Nalant's reputation for stinginess would have been cemented.
In truth, Nalant had no idea any of this might happen. He hadn't even remembered to send Stella a gift. After all, he'd never even met her, so he had no idea whether she was beautiful or not.
When the caravan set out, Nalant had only instructed Thomas to send some gifts to his cheap old man, including the Headless Knight's ordinary battle axe and some salted fish and salt. It was his way of compensating his father for taking over the original owner's body.
"Lina! Go take a look outside. Has... Nalant's caravan left yet? If it hasn't, ask whether they have any more of this perfume!"
Stella took a deep breath through her delicate, fair nose. There was a particularly enticing note in the perfume, and she found herself rather fond of it, so she gave her personal maid an order.
"Yes, miss!"
In Tulip City, nestled at the foot of the mountain below the castle, passersby were curiously watching a peculiar caravan.
What made it peculiar?
The caravan had set up a street stall right in the middle of Tulip East City Square.
Nothing like this had ever happened in East City before. After all, the nobles and lords who lived in Tulip's East City were all prominent people. Setting up a street stall was so vulgar that no one had ever seen it done.
The strange caravan was Thomas's party.
They had already sold all the salted fish and salt along the way, but the perfume Nalant had made remained unsold.
The perfume was priced at fifty silver coins. Only the nobles of East City could afford something that expensive.
After the carriage stopped, they set the perfume out on a wooden table borrowed from Tulip Castle. Thomas put aside the dignity expected of a castle steward and smiled at the onlookers nearby. "Noble lords, ladies, and madams, come take a look! The Berick Family's precious perfume is on sale at a bargain!"
"This perfume has a jasmine scent. Just one drop will keep an entire room fragrant all day."
"And if you apply it to your body, it'll leave you smelling wonderful!"
Thomas pointed to the perfume on the table and began his polite introduction.
There were plenty of onlookers, but not a single person had come forward to take a closer look. In fact, faint laughter could be heard among the crowd.
"These people are hilarious. Not only have they set up a street stall in East City Square, they're selling such cheap perfume, too. Do you think they came from some backwater territory and don't know East City is full of nobles?"
"Exactly! Isn't that just the most ordinary perfume, the kind people spray in their halls? You can get a bottle in South City for one silver coin. If someone wore that out, they'd be laughed to death!"
Pop!
But amid the nobles' chatter, Thomas realized what the problem was and opened a bottle of perfume.
As soon as the cap came off, the scent spread through the air around them.
"Uh..." The nobles who had been laughing moments ago all froze.
"That's jasmine, but there's something else, too. Why does it smell so good?"
The nobles could no longer laugh. All of them stared at the porcelain bottle in Thomas's hand in disbelief.
"Ladies and madams, this perfume was made by the Berick Family using a special formula. It has a delightful scent. If you like it, please come forward and try some!"
Thomas had noticed the expressions on the onlookers' faces. Seizing the moment, he immediately invited them to try it.
But even now, not a single noblewoman responded.
If the perfume had been in a high-end perfume shop nearby, they would probably already have been rushing to buy it. But here, at a street stall, with everyone watching, the noble ladies and madams only glanced at one another without making a move.
"It looks like I won't be able to complete the task my lord gave me!" Seeing the crowd's reaction, Thomas's heart sank.
He had suggested that his lord sell the perfume to a perfume shop instead, but his lord had replied, "Good wine needs no bush. Perfume this good shouldn't let the shops take most of the profit."
More importantly, his lord planned to create his own brand so he could make and sell more perfume in the future.
But Thomas knew his lord had underestimated just how much the nobles living in the city cared about appearances. They were wary of even the slightest chance of being laughed at.
"Ladies and madams, only seventeen bottles of this precious, fragrant perfume remain. If you'd like to buy one, don't hesitate!"
Thomas refused to give up and continued smiling as he tried to persuade them.
The noble ladies and madams had eager looks in their eyes, but they still stood rooted to the spot.
"Only seventeen bottles? That's so few!" Just then, a slightly haughty young woman's voice came from behind the crowd.
At the sound of her voice, the ladies and young women watching all turned to look. They wanted to see who was bold enough not to care about being looked down on afterward.
Buying perfume at a street stall? If word got around... tsk, tsk!
"Ah! It's Miss Stella!"
But when everyone recognized her, they cried out in surprise. Their earlier eagerness to watch a spectacle vanished completely.
As if anyone would dare laugh at Miss Stella! Even if she really bought perfume that cost one silver coin a bottle and wore it, someone would still praise it to the skies.