Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 113

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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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113. Maintenance (4)

The assault team that had gone to the 6th Floor in the morning and returned, ate lunch and headed to the 6th Floor again.

With the assault team moving so busily, Lavenda couldn’t just sit still either!

Lavenda picked up the wet clothes the assault team had left behind.

Even after rinsing them once in the hot spring, a foul smell rose from them.

‘I need to wash them at the spring.’

There was no laundry soap, but if she scrubbed hard enough, the dirty water would come out.

Count Randy, who had been stuck like a stake in the workshop chair, stretched as if trying to catch his breath, then saw Lavenda and approached her.

“Lavenda. Are you going to the herb garden?”

“Yes.”

“Perfect timing. I have a favor to ask.”

Before making his request, Count Randy looked at the wet laundry Lavenda was carrying in both arms and immediately crafted a basket.

As he transferred the laundry into the basket, Count Randy was about to state his request.

“What’s the matter, Mark?”

Then Prince Willow butted in again.

“If it’s something I can do, please leave it to me.”

“I’m sorry, Lord Willow. This isn’t something I can ask of you.”

Count Randy looked quite troubled as he pulled out a tree branch from his subspace bag.

It was a tree branch with lush green leaves full of vitality, as if it had just been broken off from a tree.

“The favor was to plant this branch in the herb garden and water it daily. I’m sorry.”

Prince Willow was trapped in the lobby because of the curse.

Prince Willow’s smile stiffened slightly then quickly relaxed.

“Haha! That’s really something I can’t help with! But tell me anytime if there’s something I can do instead!”

“Yes, I’m sorry.”

“You have nothing to be sorry about.”

‘Water it daily?’

Lavenda’s eyes sparkled.

Originally, the herb garden belonged to the Labyrinth, so she couldn’t say she was tending it.

Even the seeds Ralph had planted just in case weren’t sprouting.

But now she had regular work that required daily watering.

Since she had to leave the lobby, there was no worry about Prince Willow taking it away from her.

“Do I just plant it in the soil and water it, Count?”

“That’s right. When you water it.”

“What kind of tree branch is that, honey? Flowers? Fruit?”

Philia, who had been bored with nothing to do, asked the Count.

Count Randy’s serious facial muscles relaxed into a soft expression.

“This is a tree branch imbued with magic power, dear.”

“It would take years for such a small sapling to grow. What are you going to do after planting it?”

“This tree grows by feeding on the surrounding magic power, so it grows quickly in environments rich with magic. I’m thinking of raising it well to use as alchemy materials or materials for Lady Serena’s magic staff.”

When Serena was mentioned, a sharp gleam appeared in Philia’s blue eyes.

“Lady Serena?”

“Yes, dear. That’s right! I was going to ask Lavenda, but would you take care of this tree instead? You just need to water it daily with the heart that it should grow well.”

“I’ll do it! I’ll do it!”

If they entrusted the tree to Countess Randy, wouldn’t the tree die from too much or too little water?

Lavenda seriously worried about the tree’s life, but the Count seemed intent on entrusting the tree’s fate to his wife.

Count Randy wrapped the magic-imbued tree branch in a handkerchief and placed it in the Countess’s delicate hands.

“I’ll craft the tree you raise into a magic staff! For Lady Serena!”

“How wonderful! I’m happy just imagining how pleased Lady Serena will be!”

“Philia!”

“Mark!”

As the lovebird couple embraced, Prince Willow, who had been hidden behind them, was revealed.

Prince Willow made a disgusted expression as if witnessing his siblings’ romantic display, then noticed Lavenda’s gaze and smiled leisurely.

***

Anger sometimes becomes an excellent driving force.

Count Randy was dumbfounded when he saw the poison stingers the assault team had brought.

“You went to catch crocodiles, so why did you bring back so many bee stingers?”

There was a whole bundle of bee stingers pulled from Labyrinth Wasp rear ends.

Olive stood on one leg and swaggered like a thug who had found grounds for a fight.

“Want to know? If you find out, you’ll want to go down and pull out bee stingers too, you know?”

“I share the same opinion as Olive.”

“Count. As I said before, sometimes it’s better not to know. Knowing even a little later would be beneficial for the Count’s mental health.”

“Agreed.”

The assault team handed over the bundle full of bee stingers to the confused Count Randy and went to skin the crocodiles.

As could be seen from the party’s clean clothing, Serena had cast purification magic until her magic power was depleted before coming to the lobby.

Thanks to that, she was too exhausted to feel like moving.

‘It’s hard.’

Serena lay on the floor and cast an empty gaze into the air.

Philia approached to offer a knee pillow, but she declined.

She wanted to empty her mind and just zone out.

After receiving insecticide as a treasure chest reward, the enraged assault team sought out nearby beehives marked on the map and launched preemptive strikes.

They destroyed beehives on sight, sprayed insecticide on bees to kill them, and pulled out their stingers.

After destroying five beehives like that, they went down to the 6th Floor and used the insecticide as air freshener.

Surprisingly, the cinnamon scent of the insecticide did a lot to mask the sewer stench, making it quite bearable.

‘Fortunately it’s the type that charges with magic stones. I almost wasted insecticide we could use in the future because I was blinded by rage.’

Normally, Serena would have coolly calmed down the rampaging assault team.

But this time, since she was the one who suffered the most as bait, she ended up giving in to anger along with them.

‘It was fun when we were massacring bees. But let’s not do this again, Serena.’

As the Princess was reflecting on herself with such empty eyes, she felt a small presence nearby.

Rolling her eyes to check, it was Grey.

Grey seemed to think the assault team’s anger and the Princess lying there with hollow eyes was his fault, so he cautiously read the mood.

“Did some problem occur during the assault?”

“We just discovered a shortcut after struggling through a difficult path with many obstacles.”

“Ah. Everyone would understandably be angry and dejected. As for purification magic-.”

“I used up all my magic power so I can’t use it.”

Serena got ahead of Grey before he could ask her to try casting magic.

“I see. I’m curious how skilled you’ve become, but I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out. How disappointing.”

“What about you, Grey. Have you finished the circuit design?”

“Of course.”

Grey pulled out a folded paper from his pocket and showed it to Serena.

“Hmm.”

“You don’t need to be that surprised. Since the equipment is lacking and I have to carve the circuit primitively, I made it as simple a structure as possible, blah blah blah.”

‘The white thing is paper, and the black things are lines.’

Since the reincarnated one’s privilege only applied to speech and not to writing, she felt like she had become illiterate for the first time since learning to read while gritting her toothless gums.

“Gasp! This is! If the Mages of Buyeo on the continent saw this circuit design, they’d burn their own designs and pluck out their eyes! Amazing!”

‘I can understand burning the designs, but why pluck out eyes. Don’t pluck them, it’s inconvenient.’

Unless you’re offering your eyeballs to a god to regress, it’s preferable to cherish them and take them to the grave.

Grey seemed to like Count Randy’s bold praise.

She smirked with only one corner of her mouth raised, uncharacteristically for a child.

“According to this blueprint, you drill holes in the magic stone, insert gold thread there, and then Your Highness casts purification magic to enchant it for completion.”

“So that’s the structure. Assuming the Count creates the gold thread through alchemy, how do we drill holes in the magic stone? Is that also possible with alchemy?”

“Haha, while the God of Gold is master of all things, alchemy isn’t omnipotent. Naturally, Grey will handle the magic stone crafting too.”

“I can’t do it because I lack magic power, you know? Wasn’t Uncle supposed to craft the magic stones?”

“I can’t do it either.”

“The Labyrinth God gave you a workshop.”

“That place only has potion-making equipment, no crafting tools. And you know I’m not good with my hands.”

Having sensitive fingertips as an alchemist and having the dexterity to craft magic stones are separate things.

“….”

“….”

A terrible silence settled between the niece(?) and uncle(?).

“I naturally thought you could do it!”

“I naturally thought Uncle would do it for me!”

The two great intellects of the lobby pointed fingers at each other, casting blame.

Who could have known that being too excellent and too smart, not doubting each other’s abilities and intelligence, would become their downfall?

“Didn’t I take charge of waterproofing the armor and shoes!”

“Then I have to drill the magic stone! Kyaaah!”

Though Count Randy made the mistake of using formal speech due to his emotions getting ahead of him, he won the blame game.

Grey quickly acknowledged defeat and screamed while clutching his head.

Just when it seemed he needed comfort, what was this?

Just as Grey had quickly acknowledged defeat, he moved quickly to rummage through the workshop storage and pulled out a magic stone.

Child leaned against an ownerless mound and sighed deeply enough to sink the ground.

“Haah, I wonder if this will drill through with my current magic power. Since my body’s a mess, I’ll have to rely on tricks. What a thing to see in my long life.”

Whether he intended to hide his identity or not.

Grey rattled off all sorts of complaints then suddenly transformed.

Child gripped the magic stone in his small hand and widened his grey eyes.

If he could put physical force into his gaze, he looked ready to crush it into powder with magic power.

From Grey’s hand, magic power thinner than hair gathered and rotated like a drill, beginning to bore a thin hole in the magic stone.

The Princess gaped in amazement at the terrifying technique Grey displayed.

It was a realm of talent that couldn’t be reached even with a lifetime of training, leaving only admiration.

She couldn’t speak for fear of breaking Grey’s concentration.

When she pointed at the child with her finger, Count Randy casually opened his mouth.

“Feel free to speak comfortably. His concentration won’t break from that much.”

“Is that something a human can do?”

“That’s why I told you. There’s much to learn from Grey.”

“Grey’s magic power manipulation is always wondrous to see.”

Even Prince Willow, who had learned both magic and swordsmanship having a Grand Mage grandfather, admired the miraculous skill Grey displayed.

“I don’t know what it is, but I can feel something incredible.”

Philia, who couldn’t use magic but was sensitive to magic power, also left a comment.

Among the people currently in the lobby, only Lavenda couldn’t sense magic power.

Lavenda seemed to feel obligated to say something and wracked her brain.

“I don’t really understand, but you’re drilling holes in the magic stone with the power called magic, right? It’s so amazing I can’t even grasp it.”

Lavenda admired while watching the hole being drilled bit by bit, slower than a worm crawling but steadily progressing.

“But do you really have to drill holes into the magic stone like that? If you’re going to insert gold thread, wouldn’t it be easier to carve the outside of the magic stone and attach it?”

“Originally, ordinary magical tools prefer the method Lavenda mentioned. However, neither Grey nor I have tried sculpting, and if magic stones are handled incorrectly, all their magic power disappears and they become ordinary pebbles. To craft the surface of a magic stone, you need a craftsman who can handle magic power and has good dexterity.”

“How about Your Highness?”

“Lord Willow? Suddenly?”

Leaving the puzzled Count Randy behind, Lavenda earnestly supplemented her words.

“W-well, I mean. Your Highness can use magic and is good at sculpting too. That’s why I mentioned it. Please forgive me since I spoke without knowing about magic.”

“Lord Willow, do you know how to sculpt?”

“Mm, it was a childhood hobby.”

Prince Willow looked at the magic circuit blueprint Grey had drawn, checked the measurements, then immediately carved the circuit diagram onto a piece of wood he had.

Count Randy’s eyes widened.

Serena was also surprised by how clean the traces left by the carving knife were.

“Do you perhaps know how to craft magic stones as well?”

“Mark, my friend. How disappointing. Do you know me so little?”

Just as Count Randy was about to apologize at Prince Willow’s words, the Prince playfully winked one eye.

“Of course I know how. I’m a child who used to play building castles with magic stones and gems. If you gathered just the magic stones I broke, you could buy a decent territory.”

Prince Willow proved his words by cleanly carving a straight line on the magic stone with the magic stone crafting carving knife that Count Randy had obtained through dubious dealings.

Though it seemed difficult as veins bulged in his neck and his eyes became bloodshot instantly, the result was excellent.

“Ooh! We’ll need to modify the design, but with this level of skill, it’s sufficient! Why didn’t you—”

“Why didn’t you say so earlier! You! Did you enjoy watching people suffer! You! This unfilial Your Highness!”

Count Randy was about to ask why he hadn’t mentioned it earlier, but Grey, who had been listening to the entire conversation even while concentrating, burst out and kicked Prince Willow’s shin.

“Ow! You and Mark finished talking between yourselves! You didn’t say anything to me so I didn’t know! Uwah! It really hurts!”

“That damn sculpting! I told you so many times to stop because you could hurt your hands, but you kept doing it secretly!”

“Swordsmanship is just as dangerous! Stop discriminating against blades! Stop kicking! It hurts!”

Was saying “well done” really that difficult?

Instead of praise, Grey was busy kicking the Prince’s shins.

Philia still couldn’t figure out Grey’s identity and rattled off strange speculations to the Mysterious Stranger.

“See? Grey really is an uncle.”

“Haha, yes. I suppose so.”

Even while listening to the Countess’s strange deduction, somehow Lavenda’s face seemed brighter to Serena’s eyes.

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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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