Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 100

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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100. Dryad (3)

Prince Willow was watching the swarm of bees with a worried expression when.

“Gasp!”

“Shh! Keep quiet. Be careful not to cross the line or disturb it.”

Taking advantage of the swarm’s confusion, he pulled Count Randy, who was nearby, into the barrier.

Count Randy, suddenly pulled in with his mouth covered, was startled like Serena, then even more shocked when he saw who had silenced him.

“Lord Willow. You’re safe-.”

“Shhh.”

Prince Willow held the princess and alchemist in both arms and whispered in their ears.

“Can you distract the bees to another direction without attacking them? Just enough time for everyone else to hide in the barrier.”

“A fairy scale powder barrier. Then…”

Smoke potions would be perfect for this situation, but they had used them all up and had none left.

Count Randy pondered alternatives and spoke in a small voice.

“Would a light orb spell work?”

“Didn’t you see me use that just now? It has little effect. Only some in the back turn to look. Isn’t there some magic that could hold the bees’ attention a bit more?”

“Hmm…”

After much thought, Count Randy quietly requested of Serena.

“Lady Serena. Could you cast fire creation magic over there? Just enough for the bees to take their eyes off the party briefly.”

“Serena? No way!”

Prince Willow, apparently not recognizing Serena, was startled but kept his voice down.

‘Use 3rd tier magic in my current state?’

Three-quarters of her mana had been consumed summoning the Goblin Rider, and she had been running on mental strength after her stamina hit rock bottom while fleeing.

It was a very difficult request, but she couldn’t refuse.

Serena nodded and created fire at the location Count Randy indicated.

Her throat seemed damaged from running, making it hard to pronounce the incantation accurately. Just when she thought it might fail, the staff she was holding helped her concentrate.

Fire ignited in empty air. Serena poured mana into it to make the flames grow.

She had prepared for mana backlash or reversal, but fortunately the magic stone on her staff supplemented her insufficient mana.

The flames grew to Serena’s satisfaction. The Labyrinth Wasps surrounding the party saw the fire and panicked, flying in various patterns.

“Fire! Is this also the work of whoever cast magic earlier? Did the princess do it? Huh? Where did the princess go?”

“The count has disappeared too!”

“Over here!”

Prince Willow and Count Randy took advantage of this opportunity to pull in the remaining companions who hadn’t entered the barrier yet.

“Aaah! The princess and count suddenly appeared!”

“Huh? You definitely weren’t here just now? And who are you?”

“Shh! Stay quiet and still for now. Be careful not to step outside the line.”

The barrier Prince Willow had made with some kind of magic powder was sized for one adult to stand comfortably or sit on the ground, or for two adults to stand.

With six adults crammed into such a barrier, it was naturally cramped.

Inside the barrier was packed tight like bean sprouts in a steamer.

They desperately tried not to bounce each other outside the barrier or touch the powder placed on the ground while pulling at each other.

Buzzzz-.

Buuuuuung.

The swarm of Labyrinth Wasps that had been focused on the fire panicked when their prey suddenly disappeared. Then they scattered to search for the vanished prey.

The Labyrinth Wasps passed near the barrier without noticing the people inside it.

Ralph sent a rescue signal as his nose tickled from the wind stirred up by a bee flying right in front of his face.

Olive, who was riding on top of the young knight using her small frame, scratched the young knight’s nose for him.

The Labyrinth Wasp that had been hovering nearby moved away. Ralph let out a sigh of relief.

“Phew.”

“It’s too early to let our guard down. Small voices are fine, so let’s find a way to escape this crisis.”

At Prince Willow’s words, Olive was the first to speak.

“Thanks for helping, but who are you, young master? How did you do this?”

It wasn’t like demanding payment after saving someone from drowning, but the guide’s rude demand to reveal his identity didn’t anger or offend the prince, who answered in an attractive voice.

“I am the 5th Prince of the Astrom Empire, Willow Paine Astra. This is a barrier made from fairy scale powder. Drawing a circle with the powder creates a barrier that hides people inside the circle. Of course, if you make loud noises or attack enemies from inside the barrier, it breaks immediately.”

“P-P-Prince?”

Following the princess, prince, and archduke, now even a prince had appeared.

At the appearance of someone an ordinary person would never meet in their lifetime, Ralph’s jaw dropped.

“I guarantee it. This is definitely Lord Willow.”

“If you’re a prince, couldn’t you make the barrier bigger? What is this?”

“I was fleeing alone, so I didn’t think the number of people would increase. I’d like to keep that in mind next time…”

Buzz.

When they heard bee sounds, the group fell silent. After the bee sounds passed, Prince Willow continued.

“I’d like to keep it in mind, but fairy scale powder is hard for even me to obtain. We’ll have to endure like this. I’m sorry.”

‘Good things are expensive.’

Fairy scale powder. Just from the name, couldn’t you tell how this item was obtained?

In this world, fairies were harder to see than gods. They were also tiny, only the size of Serena’s pinky finger.

The amount of powder you could get from plucking one fairy of that size would be very small.

To gather enough to draw a circle, it would naturally be expensive and precious.

Buzzzz.

Buuuuung.

Bees wandered around intermittently. The group lowered their voices to avoid detection and began their meeting.

***

“We need to find the stairs quickly, but the path keeps changing to block us from reaching the stairs! Anyway, the stairs are the only answer!”

Olive, riding on Ralph’s shoulders and the only one enjoying fresh air, vented her frustration.

Ying, who was embracing the group with the strong arm strength needed to draw a bowstring, nodded.

“Hmm, you seem to have grasped the current situation to some extent. Won’t you share essential information with me?”

Surprisingly, Prince Willow didn’t know this was a labyrinth.

The prince sighed upon learning that this place was currently the 5th floor of Heuji’s Labyrinth.

“I suspected as much, but it really was a labyrinth.”

“I’m glad you’re safe. Your attendant Grey will be happy too.”

“Grey… is also in the labyrinth?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t know if this is fortunate misfortune or compounded misfortune.”

The prince listened only to essential information and briefly explained what he had experienced to Serena’s group.

“There was an earthquake, and when I regained consciousness, I was already in a garden. I thought people who had collapsed might have been evacuated to the garden since inside the building was dangerous, so I wandered around and encountered a pitiful young lady.”

“Lord Willow. Don’t tell me.”

Count Randy made a disgusted expression as if he could predict the prince’s actions.

Prince Willow smiled as if he couldn’t help it.

“She was a very pitiful young lady. How could I turn away?”

Prince Willow, who had been speaking up to that point, suddenly stopped and stiffened.

Since they were pressed close together, even small changes were transmitted to everyone.

“Of course, she wasn’t as pitiful as Your Highness Serena. For this Willow, there is only Your Highness. Helping that young lady was goodwill toward helping the weak.”

‘Yet you didn’t recognize me.’

Like Seraph had been, Prince Willow also hadn’t immediately recognized Serena when she wasn’t in princess attire.

‘But he really was trying to help someone else.’

His voice was unnecessarily pleasant, making her ears tingle.

Regardless of Serena’s mixed feelings about having to hear the prince’s whispers right in her ear, Prince Willow had tried to save her despite the danger, even without knowing she was his fiancée(?).

She had to acknowledge this.

“I spoke to someone in trouble to help them, and then I fainted. When I woke up again, my body was buried in the ground.”

‘The dryad was also trying to help, after all.’

Since she had mistaken this for the Heuji Royal Palace Garden, this was also a mitigating circumstance.

“That’s when I finally realized the pitiful woman’s true identity was a monster. My body was bound not only by soil but also by the monster’s strange power, making me unable to move. I could do nothing but wait for someone to come help me. While I was waiting for a rescue team to arrive, suddenly the monster’s power binding my body weakened. I took advantage of that gap to escape, and while wandering around, I discovered you all.”

“Ah. The dryad was controlling monsters to search for us, so the main body’s power weakened.”

“Haha. So Princess Serena helped me, and thanks to that, I was able to help Princess Serena. It’s quite exquisite for a coincidence. Almost like fate.”

Prince Willow forgot the situation and winked with one eye.

Serena ignored her throat that tasted of blood from running and was tormented by the desire to pour carbonated water on him.

‘Disgusting.’

Prince Willow was too disgusting. It was even more annoying because he knew he was handsome and had a good voice and acted accordingly.

Apart from the prince’s disgusting behavior, there was important information in what he had said.

Serena focused on that part.

“Then you must know the location where the dryad’s main body is?”

“I’m sorry. I fled in such a panic that it’s difficult to answer. However, Princess Serena, I must definitely…”

“It’s fine if you don’t know.”

Serena struggled to pull out her arm and took out the magic map from her bosom, covering Prince Willow’s face with it to block his disgusting mouth. The route the prince had taken while fleeing was drawn on the map.

Olive’s round eyes became even rounder when she saw the location of the dryad’s main body.

“Whoa, it’s right near here? This bastard! It wasn’t trying to hide the stairs but to conceal its own location!”

“Let’s catch it.”

“I want to punish the dryad too~ but if we go there, we’ll get ganged up on by monsters!”

They had discovered the location of the dryad’s main body, the culprit behind this situation, but that didn’t solve the problem.

Even if they weren’t discovered by monsters while going to the dryad’s main body, monsters would swarm them while dealing with the main body.

What should they do?

Serena stared intently at the map covering the prince’s face. Staring didn’t particularly produce any good ideas.

Serena sighed and put away the map.

Prince Willow, who had surprisingly stayed quiet even when his face was used as a desk substitute, participated seriously in the meeting.

“Since it’s a powerful being from the 5th Floor, even if we could face the dryad, the battle would take a long time. Since I can’t blow away the dryad with one spell like Grandfather, it would indeed be better to find the stairs.”

“The Grand Mage would have~ cleared out all the labyrinth swarms with magic from the start anyway.”

“If it were Master, it would have been possible.”

In the end, the party’s decision was narrowing down to staying here while Olive went to find the stairs.

Serena stared at the map again, even though she knew there was no other option.

“Don’t be too afraid, Princess Serena. This Willow will stake Grandfather’s honor and definitely protect you.”

“Haha, thank you.”

‘This bastard? Of all the annoying things?’

If he’s going to stake honor, he should stake his own honor, not his grandfather’s name.

Moreover, grandfather’s honor. Wasn’t that a famous line from one of those grim reaper detectives who bring death wherever they go?

‘It’s not like he’s encouraging total annihilation.’

If only it weren’t for those walls that kept changing and blocking the path, escape would have been much easier.

The princess, who changed her target of glaring from the map to the walls, wished High Priest Hazel had been there.

‘Wait a minute.’

Serena, who had been thinking about escape, felt a subtle sensation.

It was an unfamiliar sensation she had never experienced before.

‘What the hell is this?’

Was she mistakenly feeling discomfort from being too close to people?

Or was she mistaking discomfort for awkwardness because Prince Willow was too disgusting?

Just in case, the princess opened her left eye and blinked when she saw the text that read [Summoning: 1].

Serena’s only summoned creature was the goblin rider she had summoned with the horn.

‘This guy, don’t tell me?’

Surprisingly, the goblin rider was still alive.

It had succeeded in shaking off all those labyrinth swarms.

The paths to the stairs and the formidable enemy constantly changed while the situation was crawling with monsters.

‘Isn’t this worth trying?’

For Serena, death in the labyrinth wasn’t the end but a tedious restart.

“The goblin rider is alive.”

Serena told the party about the plan she had conceived upon learning of the goblin’s survival.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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