【ユリアナの九識真如の都】Chapter 3: Nose-Consciousness – The Forbidden Fragrance

What Juliana noticed was the scent of seasons.

——"Seasons" was a concept nearly extinct in the Empire.

In the Axiom Empire, air, temperature, and fragrance were all under “odorless control." What permeated public spaces was a substance called “olfactory stabilizer"—a synthetic refreshing compound. All citizens were mandated to possess no “personal scent."

That’s precisely why——Juliana immediately recognized it as “abnormal."

Sweet, faintly burnt, a fragrance that was neither flower nor smoke. It violently stirred something deep in her memory.

Images from her childhood flooded her mind. Evenings spent with her father around a campfire in the suburban wilderness. The scent of warm pastries her mother brought. The unique aroma of burning wood——

Why had it suddenly appeared? The fragrance emerged from nowhere, rose faintly to her nostrils, then vanished.

The white dog appeared again, carrying something in its mouth. It was an ancient aromatic vessel—a now-obsolete “device for preserving and reproducing scents."

The moment the vessel’s lid was removed, memories exploded like a blast wave.

The scent of campfire. Rain-soaked earth. The fragrance of flowers that bloomed in grandmother’s garden. The smell of blood. The odor of burnt iron. And the memory of a burning city——

Juliana collapsed on the spot. The moment her nose-consciousness was liberated, memories and emotions were released all at once, blowing away the barriers of consciousness.

She was in a dream. There, scents flowed as colors, and emotions mingled with the air. Someone was crying. Someone was embracing. Someone was saying goodbye.

Fragrant memories connected in fragments, beginning to weave “truth."

A voice spoke. It was Johannes. Even in the dream, his presence was certainly there.

The next day, Juliana infiltrated the underground sealed botanical garden. Following the trail of fragrant memories——seeking traces of where “nature" once existed.

In the crumbling glass greenhouse, there was the smell of decayed soil. Within it, just the faintest remaining “scent of life." ——It was the fragrance of mimosa.

That fragrance spreading to her nostrils triggered vivid images. The white coat her mother wore. The small mimosa branch pinned to her chest. It was the last glimpse of her mother she saw before the exile.

The fragrance brought her certainty. This memory was not fabricated. Scent cannot be processed. That was “truth," and “connection."

Juliana breathed in gently. The Empire’s forbidden “world of fragrance," as if it were life itself.

At that moment, her nose-consciousness was completely opened.