Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 103

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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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103. Conquering the 5th Floor of Heuji’s Labyrinth

“Mmm.”

“Are you regaining consciousness?”

When Serena opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was Prince Willow’s face, uncomfortably close.

‘Damn, that startled me.’

Didn’t he know how scary it was to wake up with a strange man’s face so close?

Annoyed, Serena pretended it was an accident in her drowsiness and pushed the prince’s face away with her palm.

Then she felt his nose getting squashed under her palm, so she pretended to wake up and apologized.

“I’m sorry. I was startled in my confusion and was rude.”

“Not at all. I was the one being rude.”

The princess and prince exchanged clean apologies.

“This is water brewed with mana herbs.”

Serena took the cup Count Randy handed her and looked around.

Though it was an unfamiliar place, she could guess where she was from the broken tree debris in the center of the clearing and the signs of excavation around it.

‘This is where the dryad’s main body was.’

The people in the clearing were four: Serena, Count Randy, Ying, and Prince Willow.

Serena nodded her thanks to Ying, who had carried her to the clearing, then asked about the whereabouts of the others.

“Where did the others go?”

“While you were unconscious, the others went to look for stairs. They found both the stairs going up to the 4th floor and down to the 6th floor, and also discovered a sealed door nearby. They’ve identified the location of the stratum boss and went to defeat it.”

“Just the two of them?”

“We gave them attack potions.”

Then the two of them would be sufficient.

In Serena’s opinion, depending on the floor boss species, if it was a living humanoid, Olive alone would probably be enough.

‘Just sneak up and slit their throat, and it’s over.’

While she was unconscious, her party had accomplished a lot.

Serena sipped the mana herb tea, which tasted even sweeter due to her depleted mana, while frowning.

“Was I unconscious for that long?”

“The stairs were in a nearby location. The floor boss had already been defeated by Seraph and the priests, so we didn’t need to fight. The stratum boss was also close by, so they went to defeat it.”

“Hmm.”

Serena pretended to receive Count Randy’s report while opening her left eye.

The notification about defeating the stratum boss hadn’t appeared yet.

Looking at the previous notification about defeating a strong enemy, she grumbled internally.

‘The priests defeated the strong enemy and stratum boss, while we have to defeat the floor boss.’

What’s the point of getting spinner coins she won’t use or slightly lowering the dud probability?

If they defeated the floor boss and received one shop coin, accumulating them would be a great help to the party’s finances.

‘Having competitors is quite annoying. I think I understand why regressors are obsessed with monopolizing everything.’

If she monopolized by killing them, she could also get a death coin, making it double the profit, right?

As Serena was having slightly dangerous thoughts, Prince Willow bowed his head.

“Because of me, Your Highness Serena overexerted herself to the point of collapse. I’m truly ashamed.”

“How could it be Your Highness’s fault that we were affected by the monster’s ability?”

“That’s not it. Because I said there might be more people captured by the dryad, I confused everyone.”

‘What are you talking about? There were more besides those charmed and taken hostage?’

Serena put on a gentle princess smile to hear a detailed explanation.

Prince Willow also equipped his princely apologetic expression, reserved for when he truly made mistakes, and explained what happened during the battle.

‘So that’s why it took so long.’

Though she had suffered enough to contemplate death, Serena wasn’t particularly angry.

‘If people could be burned to death, we had to be thorough.’

Anyway, even if she died, she could just restart.

Re-conquering the 4th and 5th floors would be annoying, but with the information and lessons gained from this round, she could conquer them much easier and faster.

‘If I encounter Seraph, I could tie him up and take him along.’

Thinking about the alchemist’s potions that bastard brother had stolen made her furious.

Serena was careful not to show her anger and maintained her gentle princess smile.

“So that’s what happened. Human life is most precious. Your Highness and Count Randy did nothing wrong.”

Of course, she was forgiving because she could regress.

If Serena couldn’t regress, she would have grabbed them by the collar and demanded answers as soon as she heard the story. ‘Do I look like a chess piece to you?’

‘When I was going to be bait, he tried to stop me saying he’d do it instead, but once the battle started, he wasted time. Remote murder or what.’

There was a good reason why Olive had talked about treating human lives as consumables.

If Serena hadn’t been the bait, Prince Willow would have been more concerned about potential victims who might be in front of him than the life of an invisible bait.

‘I got a good look at the character of fantasy world royalty.’

When Serena magnanimously forgave them both, Count Randy felt more tormented, and Prince Willow was amazed.

“Ugh, Lady Serena. I will never make such a mistake again. Please keep this secret from my wife…”

“Your Highness Serena truly has a kind heart!”

“So. Were there people who needed to be rescued?”

“There weren’t.”

Prince Willow spoke honestly about his feelings with a dark expression.

“It’s good that no one was buried alive, but I was disappointed that there was no one buried. After wasting time and not even rescuing anyone, I have no face to show Your Highness Serena.”

‘Wow, this is the real royal way of thinking. He really treats human lives like consumables.’

To think he hoped someone would be captured by monsters just so he could be confident in front of others.

Just as Willow was amazed by Serena, Serena was amazed by Willow.

As expected, the real deal was different. A fake with high commoner content couldn’t even dare to imitate it.

“If I could share life’s journey with someone as wonderful as Your Highness Serena, it would be a great joy, but it seems impossible, which is regrettable.”

‘What’s he saying? Did he know the engagement was broken off?’

Knowing that, had he been acting so disgustingly?

As Serena was shocked by Prince Willow for different reasons, Count Randy was vigorously shaking his head from the left, outside Serena’s field of vision.

Fortunately, Serena succeeded in catching this scene just before Count Randy stopped shaking his head.

Prince Willow saw this and grinned.

‘Heu. Ji. Chen. Des. Troy. Ed. Ah, he thinks the engagement will be broken because Heuji is ruined.’

Political marriages must proceed when both parties’ interests align.

Since Heuji City was destroyed, the Kingdom of Heuji was now masterless.

Even if the Empire invaded and married Serena for legitimacy, there was no need to use the valuable card of the 5th Prince, whom the Emperor cherished.

‘You figured that out after hearing about the labyrinth’s creation? Clever bastard. No wonder the Emperor dotes on him.’

Even if Serena were the Emperor, she would have doted on such a quick-thinking child.

‘Using his brain is good, but voicing it out loud is a deduction. No, wait, it’s not.’

Serena canceled the deduction.

In the closed space of a labyrinth, informing a woman in an engagement-like relationship about the relationship’s end in advance to prevent misunderstandings? Not bad.

Prince Willow’s mistake was making judgments too early when there was insufficient information.

‘Grey sings Prince 5th’s praises to me every day, but he’s ending it himself.’

It was a tragedy caused by thinking too hard.

“I see. Grey was eagerly hoping for a child between Your Highness and me. Grey will be very sad.”

When Serena, who roughly knew Grey’s identity, said this, Prince Willow’s complexion changed.

“Grey said that?”

“Yes. Of course, I’m also very sorry that I can’t share life with someone as wonderful as Your Highness. But it seems we’re not meant to be.”

“Mark. I think there’s more I need to know.”

“I hid it because I wanted to see Willow’s surprised expression. I’m sorry.”

Count Randy sighed deeply enough to make the ground cave in and walked to a corner of the clearing with Willow.

Serena also took Ying and headed to the opposite corner.

“Ying. Did you also receive an oracle from the Deity of Darkness?”

Ying nodded.

“Could you tell me the contents of the oracle?”

“Listen to the princess.”

“I know there’s more than just that.”

Ying stared at the princess with pitch-black eyes devoid of any emotion.

The archer was about to speak when commotion arose from the exit.

“Olive’s here!”

Olive and the rest of the party entered the clearing.

Olive saw the people in the corner of the clearing and tilted her head.

“Why are the men paired with men and women with women? Hey! Hurry up and welcome me!”

“Princess! You’re awake!”

“I heard you went to defeat the stratum boss. Are either of you injured?”

“The stratum boss was a labyrinth wasp. One shot with the attack potion Count gave us and it was over!”

Olive smiled as she unpacked the spoils she had brought.

“This is the queen bee’s corpse – I thought it might be needed for alchemy so I brought it. Wow, that place was completely full of honey. The beehive all burned down but there was honey everywhere around it. I wanted to scoop up the honey but there were no containers.”

Olive showed her honey-covered finger and dipped it into Serena’s cup, stirring it around. The honey dissolved and disappeared into the lukewarm water.

“Princess, you’re tired so drink some sweet honey water!”

“I don’t need it, so you drink it.”

“I washed my hands clean!”

“I’ll yield it to Sir Ralph.”

“Really? I’ll drink it gratefully!”

The young knight, who had different hygiene standards than Serena, readily accepted and drank the tea that the princess had been drinking and Olive had stirred with her finger. Color returned to his freckled cheeks.

“It’s sweet! The honey fragrance is nice too, and it tastes good mixed with the bitter taste of the steeped herbs!”

Ralph smacked his lips as if wanting more.

“Princess, if you can get up and move, let’s quickly return to the lobby. It’s better to rest comfortably there.”

Olive urged the party without moving from the exit.

Serena followed the guide’s words while creating an escape route in advance.

“Let me say this beforehand – there’s no guarantee I can open the sealed door, and there’s no guarantee there’s a teleportation magic circle inside the sealed door.”

“Yes yes, I understand.”

Olive listened to Serena’s words half-heartedly.

The sealed door in the leader’s chamber opened easily at Serena’s touch, and the teleportation magic circle also glowed brightly, welcoming the party.

The party gathered and stood on the teleportation magic circle.

Prince Willow looked at Serena with dubious eyes, wondering if he had heard correctly from the count about the teleportation magic circle.

Serena sighed and selected the floor she wanted to move to.

The party’s current location was the 20th floor. They had somehow conquered two stratums in succession.

She was worried about how much time had passed in the lobby.

“The 4th layer was fine, but the 5th layer was too difficult. Since we defeated the stratum boss, it should be okay from now on, right?”

“Until it’s restored.”

“Ugh. The bosses restore quickly too. But this floor has so much to gain that it’s a waste to not fully conquer it…”

Beeswax, honey, poison stingers, various flowers and trees. The resources that could be gathered from the 5th layer were endless.

However, forced party dissolution was a fatal special gimmick that could lead to total annihilation.

Serena listened to Olive and Ying discussing and selected the 1st floor.

Bright light enveloped the party. When the light faded, the party had arrived at the 1st floor, 1st layer of Heuji’s Labyrinth.

The party that emerged from the teleportation room discovered Philia crouched and sleeping in a corner of the 1st floor leader’s chamber.

The face of the beautiful woman who inspired cosmic horror was gaunt, and her eyes were wet with moisture.

“Another dryad?”

Prince Willow was startled and hid behind Count Randy.

Philia woke up at that sound, blinked her eyes, and saw Serena.

Heuji Jeolmi, who had reunited with the master of her dreams, sprang up.

“Lady Serena! You took so long! I was worried!”

Philia hugged Serena while crying.

The princess stroked and comforted her maid’s smooth silver hair.

“Calm down, Philia. I’m safe. Count Randy is healthy too.”

“You’re too much too! Why were you so late?”

Philia also protested to Count Randy. Count Randy immediately bowed his head and asked for forgiveness.

“Philia. Calm down and answer. How many days have passed since I went down to the 4th layer?”

It was an important question that would determine Serena’s life or death depending on the answer.

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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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