Chapter 24- Festival

Lanie's POV:

"Lanie!"

I smiled wryly when I heard Leonel's high pitched voice. She's from my department and my partner here in our booth.

"I'm both excited and nervous!" she exclaimed and put the box on the table. "This is the last batch for our display." She added and put the self made perfumes on the glass shelves.

Today is the first day of Festival and in any minute, Saint Augustine will welcome everyone for the Outsider's Day.

Like what Leo said, we need to secure the spot for the most selling department. 

"Harmony really smells good, and this Curiousity too," Leonel smelled the perfume Wilemna made.

My hand's a bit cold as I picked one of harmony's. "Can I have this one?" 

I asked.

Leonel just looked at me. "Sure. Leo said we can have one of those. It's our product, so we can have each of it."

I put the perfume on my uniform's pocket then helped her on our displays.

Chemistry Department has four booths. The first and the huge one is in front of the main gate with the other department's booths. I was assigned here also. The second is in the western side of the Academy, the third one in the eastern side and the last one was placed at the backside of the Academy.

"Team!"

We all turned to our Department's President.

"In any minute, Saint Augustine will be open to everyone. I want to remind everyone our goal, our main purpose which is to help the charities. Of course, this is also our way to let everyone know that here in Saint Augustine, we can produce a high quality perfumes." He said with a firm voice.

"We can do this, Team!" Mika, our Vice-President agreed. "Let's do our very best!"

"Chemistry Department, fighting! Let's do this, we got this!" Gregor cheered.

We shouted that again and cheered each other.

We heard the intercom echoed, and soon enough, we heard Yvan's voice.

"Everyone, congratulations for being here with me. Thank you for all the job well done. I'm here because all of you are here. So, let's start celebrationg our festival, our anniversary! Everyone, Saint Augustine's Outsiders Day just began!"

I heard noises, claps and such. The atmosphere became light but I sensed something heavy and I became tense.

"We're now open." I heard someone from my department.

I saw the group of people walking towards the Academy. Some pass us by while others stop by when they smell the perfume we put on our decorations, even the scented candles we lit made others stop and  look to our products.

I chose to fix and adjust the displays while waiting for a customer.

"Refreshing."

I plastered a smile on my face and turned to my first customer.

She's on her mid-fourties, a bit chubby and she has a lot of jewelries on her body. Her neck is full gold and her bag is a Louis Vitton.

Her eyes are on the testers. 

"Good Morning, Ma'am!" I greeted her happily.

"This is so insane," she said dramatically. She sprayed the perfume which I made into a scent strip and smelled it. "Curiousity. The name itself is so insane, full of stories to tell, same with it's scent," she added while looking at me.

I vowed a bit, "Thank you for the honest review, Ma'am."

Her brow arched. She picked three bottles of Curiousity and handed it to me. I wrapped the bottles quickly.

"Thank you again." I thanked her as I handed her change.

She just shrugged her shoulder then turned her back on me. She went to other booths.

"That's a Punzalan." A voice in my back said.

I turned and saw Gregor. 

"Punzalan? Do you know her?"

He tilted his head. "One of the known families here in Hespheria. You should know her. You know, in this town, it's like a crime if you're ignorant of those kind of household." He said then returned to his post.

I ignored him and chose to pay attention to our displays. There are lot of people who came and buy some of our products. Some just asked me questions then promised to come back.

"Miss?"

"Yes? May I help you?" I smiled.

I'm a bit amused why this guest were wrapped by all black clothes with a black cap and a mask. He's wearing a thick jacket too. I failed seeing his face because of his long wavy hair and mustache. He's also wearing an square eye glasses that almost cover his entire face.

It's hot and I don't know why he looks like he's cold.

"May I help you?" I asked again. Despite of his weird looks, he is still a customer. Our customer.

His gaze shifted to our displays. He carefully picked the bottle with a red liquid inside.

"It's Abyss, Sir." I informed him the perfume's name. Abyss means hell and I don't understand why Leo chose that name for his own perfume.

My customer's forehead wrinkled as he looked at the perfume. He looks intrigued with it's name.

He sprayed some to a scent strip then fanned it to him. He closed his eyes while smelling the perfume.

"A depth." He opened his eyes. "Now, I understand it."

"Huh?" I don't get him. Understand what?

He shook his head and pointed the shelves where Abyss are. "Give me three of those. Oh, make it seven."

I quickly do what he wanted before he change his mind. Abyss is quite expensive and buying seven of Abyss means more income. 

I handed him the paper bag with the perfumes and thanked him.

I stared to the tester bottle of Abyss. 

I'm a bit curious to Abyss. I never had the chance to smell it when Leo made this. Leo never asked me to critique Abyss. One more thing, this perfume is quite expensive and I don't know why its color is bloody red. 

I sprayed some on the scent strip and smelled it. Maybe this is why I'm curious, I can't really smell it's scent in a first try. I sprayed the perfume again and tried smelling it again.

I also closed my eyes and focused on it's scent. When you first smell it, it was like an ordinary perfume but after that, a rare smell from it will attack your nose.

It smeels blood.

But the smell of blood won't stay long, its scent immediately change to summer. A very hot summer like hell.

I got goosebumps. I got a feeling that someone is staring at me. Someone is observing me. 

I took a deep breaths as I calmed myself.

I turned to my sorrounding and try finding who's giving me this creepy feeling. There are lot of people here, and all of them are strangers to me.

True to my sense, few meters away from me, I saw a man looking at me. The all black man with a mustache, my last customer who bought seven bottles of Abyss.

He's looking directly at me. He smirked when he saw me looking at his direction. He nod then turned his back. He wants me to follow him.

"Wait!" I shouted but due to our distance, he didn't hear me.

I left my post and run towards him. But he got mixed with other people and I can't even saw his shadow.

"Excuse me!" I excused myself as I'm trying to chase the mustache man. 

I almost got squeezed when a hand pulled me out.

"What are you doing here?" Yshmael asked me, "You should stay on your department booths."

"I'm just looking for a friend. He got mixed with the people here." I lied.

His brow arched. "Go back to your booth now. It's one of Outsider's Day rule."

I want to go and find the mustache man but I heard how Yshmael used authority on his voice. He's still the President of Student Council and I can't disobey him. I groaned and try to reason out.

"Just give me a few minutes. I just need to look for my friend, I need to tell him something important."

He crossed his arms. "I did not know that you have a lot of friends here. And who's that friend? Care to tell me?"

I amiled akwardly. "You didn't know him."

He leveled his eyes with mine. "Then, I'm sure that friend of yours know me. Tell me his name so I can invite him to the Student Council's office and punish him for breaking the rule for this day. No students allowed outside their department booths for the whole Outsider day, have you forgotten that?" Yshmael said emphasizingly that so called rule.

I pouted. I don't think he'll hear me out or give me a few minutes to find that man.

"Return to your assigned post or I'll give your department a demerits of sales?" He challenged me, smirking.

I sighed. I don't have a choice but to walked out and return to our booth.

I glanced once more but I failed to see the mustache man. I'm literally dragging my feet towards our booth.

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