Conveniently, the streets that led to the statue happened to go through the leisure district. I hadn’t expected it to be so crowded. I knew this was a busy city, but surely it wasn’t this busy?

“During testing days, people from all over the country come to take part,” my mother said. “Business booms during these days. Lots of customers. The inns are booked to the last room.”

Erenol and I excitedly stared at the colorful bulbs lining the lamp posts. There were wide sidewalks that extended twenty to thirty steps from the stores. The roads were lined with burnished brown trees that had recently begun to breathe in the life of spring. I was reminded of the classic, romantic Paris roads, especially on winter days. The season was still cool as we had just entered spring. I found the weather particularly refreshing, even under the harsh sun. The spirit of winter was not truly gone.

I took a deep breath when we passed by a stall. There was a guy grilling barbeque sticks on the counter. The smell of it was appetizing! Seeing the smoke rise and the oil sizzle, my mouth practically flooded.

I felt Eren’s hand tighten around mine. I looked at my companion and found her just as tempted as me.

“Come on, you two.” Hellenia laughed. We went to the stall. I jumped excitedly on the balls of my toes and Eren mirrored my excitement. “Would you give us three of your classics please?” She handed over some coins.

“Three classics coming right up.” The man accepted the payment and began preparing the order.

We didn’t have to wait long. Three sticks of steaming, glazed meat were handed to my mother. She offered them to us, letting us pick before taking the last one for herself. I wanted to let go of Eren’s hand to eat mine but she wouldn’t. I didn’t know what she was afraid of, but I didn’t insist on it and settled with eating with one hand. It’s not like I needed two. It would’ve been easier, though.

We resumed walking, munching on our barbeques. I enjoyed the savory flavor of it and Eren seemed to think the same.

“Look at you two,” Hellenia said. She took out a handkerchief and wiped off our lips. “Go easy on that. You might choke.”

We didn’t listen. We continued gnawing until there was nothing left. We carried our sticks until the next garbage bin came up on the path.

As we stopped and threw the sticks away, a scent drifted to my nose, causing me to halt as I tried to pinpoint where it was coming from.

My sudden pause made Eren look at me curiously as I turned around, looking for the specific place. “Do you smell that?” I asked.

“Which smell?” she asked, wiping her lip.

“It smells like—” I sniffed “—I don’t know. Roses?” I continued looking around, peeking at the many stores from under my hood. When I saw where it was coming from, I dragged Eren to a shop called ‘Scents and Papers.’

“Evyionne! Eren!” my mother exclaimed. “Dear goodness, you two. Wait a moment!”

A bell resounded as we pushed through the green glass door. The moment we entered, the scent assaulted my nose. “Ooh…strong,” I said, breathing through my fingers. I moved further into the room, taking in the antiquated chandelier lighting and the racks of essential oils pushed to the corner. In the other half of the room were books in towering shelves. They tapered to the ceiling so high, it almost seemed as though they were going to fall over.

“What is this place?” I heard Eren say.

“I like it,” I said, brightening up. If there was something that could perfectly sum up my past life as a whole, it really was this—Scents and Papers.

My mother grabbed our shoulders. “Oh, goodness. Don’t run away like that.”

“Customers!” a muffled voice yelled from the back.

A man came out from a door behind the counter. He had bright red hair and hazel eyes set in pale skin. He had rolled up sleeves and dust on his shoulders. Judging by the sheen of sweat on his forehead, he must’ve been doing a taxing job in there.

“How may I help you?” he asked.

“Can we look around?” I said, looking at him.

“Oh, then, feel free! Feel free!” He motioned at the cramped room and stepped aside to let us through. “We don’t get a lot of people.”

“You should consider cleaning up the front of your shop, then. A clearer and less chaotic place attracts a lot more customers,” Hellenia suggested. “But it seems these two didn’t care one bit about the mess.”

The redheaded man chuckled. “Well, I am guilty as charged. This shop was left to me by my father. I know not one thing about running a business...” he trailed off. “I was doing just that, really—cleaning. And this is my first day. Thank you for dropping by.”

“Excuse me, mister,” I said, tugging on his pant leg. “What’s that smell? I smelled it all the way down the street.”

“Thi—um... I accidentally spilled a bottle during my cleanup and the whole thing has bathed my carpet right here. I’m ashamed of my clumsiness.” He scratched his head. “I guess it was very potent since you smelled it from outside and trust me when I say my nose is already hurting.” He chuckled and restlessly tapped on the counter as he scratched his head. “It’s one of the mixes that my father had done when he was still alive. He called it Midsummer.”

“Mm.” I nodded approvingly. It did remind me of the outdoors—fresh and zesty. But I felt like something was wrong with the notes. The sweetness was a little too strong and somewhat disturbed the balance of the entire scent.

“Girls, be careful not to break anything. Don’t touch anything, please,” my mother said.

“I’ll help and assist. Not to worry, madam,” the shopkeeper said.

I looked at the racks of essential oils and sighed softly. With my mother’s advice in mind, I kept a distance from the shelves and looked around. This reminded me of the cellar in my past life. Instead of filling it with wine, my mother—my previous life’s mother—invested in these oils and relied on them to make a living. We lived on top of the shop as well. She made custom scents for customers and mixed some more for a line she released yearly. It was a small store and many of the locals really loved it. They either bought those little incense pots or the reed sticks to help diffuse the scents in their homes. I occasionally lit up some for our house as well.

“Do you know this stuff?” Eren asked, blinking owlishly as she looked around.

“I read some books.” How could I say this had something to do with my past life?

“Liar,” she whispered to me. “I know a liar when I see one.”

I gave her the eye. “I can say that again.”

I began looking through their collection. Even then, Eren didn’t let go of my hand.

Damn this girl. I was glad I’d made a new friend, but she was wearing me out and my poor palms were already sweating so hard.

I wanted scents similar to Bulgarian roses and other essences, but I realized that my knowledge of this world’s terminologies when it came to plants in general fell a little short. I had wanted to simply state the names of the oils I decided on getting but he might not know them. Bulgarian wasn’t a concept in this place. Bulgaria wasn’t in this realm at all.

I stared at their towering collection and I gave up. “Where are your scents for roses?” I asked. “Do you have a stock on…like, scent for pink roses? Like, uh…something like…” I tried to recall the name, lips squirming. I know Mistress Kora said the name of that stuff, sometime ago. “Alendalian roses?”

“Ah. Alendulian you mean,” he supported.

“Yeah!”

He gave me a questioning glance. “I may have what you may be looking for,” he said, reaching up to a shelf and lowering a small bottle of an amber liquid. “Careful, though.” Seeming hesitant to give me a fragile bottle, seeing as I only reached his waist, he uncapped it for me with a pop and let me smell it.

“Definitely Bulgarian roses—at least something similar,” I muttered. This one had a unique quality that set it apart from Bulgarian roses, but it was close. “Mama.” I looked at my mother. “Can I have this?”

“What are you going to use it for?” Hellenia inquired, eyes widened.

“You’ll know when we get back. I promise I won’t let it go to waste!”

She gazed at me pointedly and doubtingly. “Evyionne…”

“Mama, I won’t ask for anything else. It’s my birthday soon, right?”

Hearing the word ‘birthday,’ she ceded and nodded at the shopkeeper. “One bottle please.”

I jumped excitedly. “Can I have…five more?”