The decor in Freya's room was completely different from what Iver had expected.
He had assumed that Freya, as an alchemist, would be an extremely meticulous person. Not to mention that, aside from serving as a residence, this villa was also used as a research institute... Perhaps everything inside would be spotless, with everything neatly arranged.
But upon entering, he did indeed sense an atmosphere belonging to a researcher. However, it had nothing to do with being neat and orderly.
A single bed stood in the corner of the room. In front of it was a desk piled with books, documents, and reports. The blanket on the bed had not been folded at all; it had merely been thrown aside.
There was no stool in front of the desk. One could even see the mark left by someone's backside on the bed.
In contrast to the tiny living area, an enormous five-tiered shelf occupied an entire wall of the room. The left side was filled with books and documents, while the right side was crowded with bottles and jars. The bottom tier held several wooden crates, some open and some closed, making it look like a storeroom.
And in the very center of the room stood two enormous metal devices.
One was copper-colored and appeared to be related to liquids, because a huge transparent spherical vessel stood behind it. The vessel was empty at the moment, but the whole thing had a distinctly steampunk technological feel. The other was a long, silver-white metal table, like a kitchen counter, covered with all kinds of devices running automatically. It looked extremely modern.
Iver even saw three round-mouthed crucibles in one corner of the long table, which resembled a modern laboratory bench. Their shells were an impure black, made of something like smooth