Primordial Villain With A Slave Harem - Chapter 1464 Into the Lab

Chapter 1464  Into the Lab

Kaelira hid a small smile behind her teacup.

Aurora, who had been vibrating with impatience through this entire exchange, finally slammed both palms on the table.

“Now can I show them?!”

Thistle clicked her tongue. “What impatient youth…”

“Granny!!” Aurora pouted.

The old gnome sighed, her small shoulders rising and falling in exaggerated resignation as she began collecting the teacups with deliberate, unhurried movements. “Okay, okay… Go if you must…”

Her lower lip pushed out as she stacked the saucers.

“Nobody ever finishes the tea in this household…” she mumbled to herself, shuffling toward the sink with the tray. “I steep it for sixty minutes. Sixty! And they gulp half a cup and run off to play with their potions…”

Aurora was already at the far door. “We’ll come back for more later, I promise!”

“That’s what you said yesterday!” Granny Thistle called after them, but the words carried more fondness than complaint.

Aurora led them down another set of stairs, these ones wider and reinforced with iron bolts driven into the stone at uneven intervals. The air grew warmer with each step. A low, persistent hum vibrated through the walls, accompanied by the irregular clinking of glass, the hiss of pressurized steam, and what sounded disturbingly like something alive gurgling inside a closed container.

The door at the bottom was already open.

Quinlan stepped through and stopped.

The lab was chaos given architecture.

It sprawled outward in every direction with no regard for symmetry, logic, or basic safety. Glass tubing ran along the ceiling in loops that doubled back on themselves before plunging into flasks suspended at heights that required ladders — ladders that were themselves bolted to rotating platforms, because apparently the stations needed to move. Shelves climbed every wall from floor to ceiling, packed so densely with jars, vials, bundled herbs, dried organs, mineral clusters, and labeled containers that the wood bowed visibly under the collective weight. In the middle of it all, moving between three separate workstations with the frantic energy of a man trying to win five arguments at once, was Thindlebrim.

His hands never stopped. He stirred one cauldron with his left hand while his right adjusted the flame beneath a second. His foot kicked a bellows that fed air into a glass distillation column. He muttered to himself in a constant stream, eyes darting between measurements, colors, and consistencies with the kind of focus that bordered on mania.

No, it probably was just straight-up mania.

A flask on the far table began to rattle.

Without looking, Thindlebrim grabbed a pinch of blue powder from a pouch on his belt and flicked it across the room. It landed in the flask’s opening with absurd precision. The rattling stopped.

“Thindlebrim!” Aurora called.

“Not now!” the gnome barked without turning.

“It’s important!”

“Everything’s important! That’s why I’m doing seven things!” He whipped around to glare at her, then noticed Quinlan standing in the doorway. “Hm.” Thindlebrim pointed a crooked finger at him. “Your bodily fluids have kept me awake for three nights. I hope you’re satisfied.”

“…” As Nyxara’s heartfelt laughter rang in his head once again, Quinlan’s expression turned dark. “No, I’m really not. I prefer if you don’t study my sperm without my consent.”

The gnome had already turned back to his cauldrons. “Consent is the enemy of science. Stop whining.”

“Thindlebrim didn’t touch the substance, just helped me with some guidance in the process…” Aurora pleaded before adding, “I apologize, I just wanted to surprise you…” He couldn’t help but see how sincere Aurora was. Having a gnome dude study his sperm felt weird, but Aurora was right. He shouldn’t be pouting here… Aurora was working hard for his benefit, while Thindlebrim, the greatest alchemist in Thalorind’s history, seemingly went out of his way to help his lover.

“Okay, let’s see what you found,” Quinlan smiled. Aurora instantly beamed in return and grabbed Quinlan again and pulled them past Thindlebrim’s domain toward a sectioned-off area near the back of the lab. A heavy curtain separated it from the main workspace, and when Aurora swept it aside, the contrast was immediately obvious.

Her station was smaller, cleaner, and organized with a precision that reflected someone who had to fight for every inch of space and made the most of what she had. Glass apparatus lined a single long table in neat rows, each one labeled in Aurora’s careful handwriting. Notebooks were stacked by date. Reagents were sorted by type and potency.

It was modest compared to the sprawling insanity behind them, but the quality of the equipment was evident. Every piece was well-maintained, every surface wiped clean between uses.

Aurora crossed to a small wooden rack near the center of the table and plucked something from it with two fingers.

A single pill. Deep crimson at its core, wrapped in a translucent shell.

She turned around, eyes bright, excited.

“Kaelira, open up!”

And she flicked the tablet straight at the elf’s face.

Kaelira’s hand came up and caught it an inch from her lips. Her mouth stayed firmly shut, despite Aurora’s words. Her eyes narrowed into slits as she brought the pill down to examine it between her fingers, turning it slowly.

Aurora’s face fell. “You don’t trust me?!”

“Will this turn me into a chicken or something?” Kaelira asked, squinting at the pill’s translucent casing as if searching for evidence of poultry-related enchantments.

“?!?!” Aurora recoiled as if she’d been physically struck. “Of course not!! I would never! What kind of alchemist do you take me for?! I spent many sleepless nights perfecting that formula! And you think I’d waste Quinlan’s precious seed turning you into livestock?!”

Aurora clasped her hands together. “Please. I promise on my honor as an alchemist. No chickens. I need your help to finish my surprise for Quin…”

Kaelira looked up from the pill to Aurora’s face. She studied her for a long, skeptical moment while the alchemist fidgeted under the scrutiny.

Then the elf sighed.

She placed the pill on her tongue with visible reluctance and swallowed.

A beat passed.

Then her eyes went wide.

Her posture straightened sharply, shoulders pulling back as if yanked by invisible strings.

Her breath caught.

“M-my lord- I mean, Quinlan… this is…”