Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 124

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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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124. Sewers (3)

“Hehe.”

Olive’s condition was strange. Ralph was frightened when he saw the guide’s bizarre smile.

“O-Olive is acting strange.”

“You saw it? Hehehe, you saw it!”

“Olive. What’s wrong? Don’t tell me it’s because of the poison gas you inhaled earlier?”

Could the poison gas have contained components that affected people’s minds?

Even Ying’s expressionless face loosened slightly as she aimed her crossbow at Olive with wary eyes.

As soon as Olive saw the bolt aimed at her, she erased her bizarre expression.

“Geez, you people are so serious! I was just joking around! Yo!”

“What, it was just a joke?”

Serena, who had been contemplating whether they’d have to die if the guide lost her mind, felt relieved.

Count Randy didn’t drop his suspicion and asked Olive various questions.

“How many of these do you see? Do you happen to hear voices in your ears telling you to attack people?”

“Ah, really! I said it was a joke! Yo!”

Olive protested to her overly serious party members and pointed to the wall hole Serena had mentioned.

“Actually, I knew from the beginning that we could go through there! But like I said, I’m the type who eats the tasty stuff first and avoids the unappetizing stuff if possible! Yo!”

“Olive. That means…”

“You knew that was a path but deliberately hid it? Because you didn’t want to go?”

A guide hiding a path from her companions?

It was such a delinquent thought that the sincere young boy couldn’t even imagine it.

“Hmph!”

Olive snorted and crossed her arms.

It was a typical posture people took when defending themselves or protecting themselves from their conversation partners.

“But! When there’s still a path we can walk on, why would we need to crawl through that dirty, narrow path? I was going to tell you after we tried all the walkable paths! If there was no way forward even then! Yo!”

“Olive. What are we supposed to do if the guide hides paths?”

At the Princess’s reproach, the guide made another excuse.

“I wasn’t planning to hide it till the end. Yo. I was going to tell you if we couldn’t break through the poison gas area or if it took too long. And!”

Olive’s eyes flashed as she pointed at the archer.

“Zero noticed too but didn’t say anything! Yo! I’m not the only one! Yo!”

At this ugly excuse, the party’s gaze toward the guide turned cold.

“Ying doesn’t talk much originally.”

“She’s not the guide either.”

“Olive. This incident has somewhat diminished the trust I had in you.”

“Waaah! No no! Don’t reduce Princess’s affection points!”

Olive couldn’t bring herself to roll around on the sewer floor, so she waved her arms while standing.

When no one showed sympathy, she hunched her small body and pretended to cry pitifully.

“Sniff! But! Olive is the guide, so she has to lead even in that dirty path.”

‘That’s true.’

The hole in the wall was sized for adults to crawl through.

If they crawled through a hole where sewage flowed down, the person in front would inevitably have to face the dirty water head-on.

‘Even if trash floated down, it would stick to the person in front. Ugh, really disgusting.’

Just imagining it was dirty and nauseating.

Serena scratched her goosebump-covered arms.

“That would be horrible.”

When the Princess sympathized with her feelings, Olive’s expression brightened.

“Hmm. It can’t be helped. Lady Serena, I think it would be better to go back and craft equipment to protect Olive’s face.”

“No, Count Randy. There’s no need for that.”

“Pardon?”

Understanding Olive’s feelings and stopping exploration were separate matters.

Serena took out the horn attached to her waist.

“We can just put someone else in front.”

Buuuuuu-.

The Princess blew the horn vigorously. About one-third of her mana drained out as an ordinary goblin was summoned.

Kieek!

“This goblin will lead the way.”

Kieek!

The goblin hopped as if telling its summoner to just give the command.

***

A dirty, narrow hole where sewage flowed.

The walls were slippery, stinking, and filthy with strange mold and sludge accumulated on them.

Their noses, which had been numbed while wandering the 21st Layer, regained sensation as they approached the sewage and sludge, crying out in pain.

A narrow, dirty path where adults had to crawl on all fours or belly-crawl to advance.

What tormented Olive most on this path was none other than.

“Waaah. I don’t want to go while looking at the goblin’s butt!”

The dizzying(?) rear view of the goblin leading the way.

Every time the goblin wearing an unidentifiable leather skirt moved, the short skirt swayed, slightly exposing the goblin’s buttocks.

Tears of regret flowed from Olive’s eyes.

“I should have just taken the front myself. I don’t want to see goblin butt!”

Getting trash and sewage splashed in the face head-on vs. moving while appreciating the goblin’s dizzying rear view.

Olive said the former was better while continuing to voice her suffering.

“If I’m going to look at a butt anyway, I prefer humans! Among humans, I prefer handsome men and beautiful women! If possible, I want to see the Countess’s butt!”

“Olive! Do you want to become my enemy?”

“How dare you insult my maid. That’s 2 additional lashes.”

“Waaah!”

Olive rubbed her forehead, pretending it hurt even though she hadn’t been hit yet.

Ralph, following behind Olive, didn’t dare raise his head when the butt talk came up and advanced while only looking at the ground.

“I’m not looking at Olive’s butt! Don’t worry!”

“Fufu, you can look at big sister’s butt though?”

“Gasp!”

“Don’t be shy and look properly. Yo!”

“How dare you tease my knight. That’s 2 additional lashes.”

“Waaah~ That’s not it, I meant he should look ahead properly since it’s dangerous to only look at the ground. Yo.”

Olive hastily changed her words.

“Why do you think I’m whining while appreciating goblin butt? Because I have to look. So Knight, don’t worry about it and look ahead. Yo.”

“Ah! Understood!”

Ralph was startled and stared ahead with a serious expression.

Serena, who had been looking only at the ground because she didn’t want to see Count Randy’s buttocks, also felt a pang and raised her head.

“Hieek! Cockroach!”

The dirty sewers were full of bugs that gathered in filthy places.

Serena exercised all her patience, crushing bugs as she passed and thought.

‘Seraph must have passed through here too, right?’

It was hard to believe that Seraph, who was naturally sensitive and fastidious, had endured and passed through the 6th Floor.

‘But there are priests there, so it would be easier to travel than for us.’

Still, dirty was dirty.

Serena found something she definitely wanted to ask when she met her sibling.

Did you want to kill Richard so badly that you’d crawl through this sewage?

‘In the labyrinth, even if I kill Richard, it’ll just be back to square one.’

As a result of carefully crawling through the hole to prevent the sewage and garbage splashing on her face from getting in her eyes every time the person in front lifted their foot.

“It’s the end! There’s a drop here, so everyone be careful coming down! Yo!”

Serena and the party arrived at a walkable path after passing through the hole.

Olive, who exited the hole after the goblin, helped Ralph down, and Ralph helped Count Randy and Serena descend.

Olive confirmed that all party members had exited the hole and stretched her shoulders.

“Wow~ It’s been a while since I crawled~ My shoulders and back will be sore tomorrow.”

The group’s appearance was a mess from crawling on the dirty floor while getting splashed with filthy water.

The party quickly washed only their faces and hands, then rinsed their noses, mouths, and around their eyes with purified water.

“Princess and Count, you might not be able to lift your arms or head tomorrow, so work hard to loosen your muscles. Yo. Make sure to get a massage from Miss Potpourri when you return.”

“Understood.”

The price for using muscles not normally used would be terrible.

Serena nodded, sensing the pain that would come in the future.

“Still, it’s fortunate that the path didn’t get narrower or have crossroads. Yo. There used to be a floor that felt like a natural cave with complex paths and many sections where you had to crawl.”

Olive shared her experiences while stretching diligently.

“Everyone’s a labyrinth explorer, so crawling on dirt was fine. The problem was when we took the wrong path. Since we couldn’t turn around, we had to crawl backwards. That was really hellish. Yo.”

“That’s terrifying.”

But the experienced guide had even more frightening stories left.

“The path even got so narrow that one explorer got stuck in the hole. We tried to pull him out somehow with ropes, but the cave was too narrow and bumpy…”

Gasp. Ralph drew in a sharp breath.

“H-how did it end?”

“He got stuck in the hole, begged for help, and died. They say people die when their blood clots from being stuck in tight spaces for too long. I learned that then too. Yo.”

“Gasp. That’s such a scary and sad story.”

“After that, they say a skeleton appears crawling through caves crying for help~ I haven’t seen it myself though~”

“Gasp! It’s unfair enough that he died, but to become undead too!”

Ralph was on the verge of hyperventilating.

The poor young knight made a tearful face and asked Count Randy and Ying to hold his hand while sleeping.

“Knight! Why don’t you ask me?”

“Miss Olive would probably imitate ghosts on purpose.”

“Haha! You know me well!”

‘If I’m unlucky, crawling backwards in prone position.’

Serena shuddered at a different part than the undead story.

‘Please, anything but crawling backwards!’

The princess prayed and prayed again to the Labyrinth God.

***

The party’s appearance after crawling through the hole was a mess.

Only their shoes were waterproof and clean except for some mud, while the rest looked terrible as if they had been inside a well-rotted garbage bin in midsummer.

Serena looked down at her own clean shoes and thought.

‘If we were going to crawl anyway, why did we make waterproof shoes?’

Perhaps others had similar doubts, as Olive said exactly what the princess was thinking.

“Everything got wet anyway~ If I knew this would happen, I wouldn’t have bothered making shoes~”

“No! They’re good because the floor isn’t slippery!”

“That’s true though~”

“Waterproof shoes are useful. The alligator leather is sturdy too, so think of it as getting good shoes.”

“That’s true~ Yo.”

Since Count Randy seemed slightly sad, she mentioned the shoes’ usefulness, and Serena unfolded the map she had kept safely in her pocket.

Since they had twisted and turned through the hole before coming out, they needed to confirm where they were.

“Yes! Just as I thought! Yo!”

Olive was pleased that the location matched what she had guessed from looking at the map.

The party’s current location was behind the path blocked by poison gas.

They had bypassed the poison gas area through the hole.

“Then when we return to the stairs, we’ll have to go through that hole again.”

“Ta-da! Olive presents magic!”

Olive hopped around and pressed firmly on a certain part of the wall.

“Magic that makes poison gas disappear!”

The 6th floor’s poison gas was originally invisible, so it was impossible to tell if it really disappeared, but the guide’s ability guaranteed the poison gas’s elimination.

“The poison gas section is quite long too, you know? What should we do? Yo? Should we go to the end of the path, or examine the poison gas section first?”

The guide asked for the opinion of the princess, who was the party leader.

Serena answered without hesitation.

“We can check here when returning to the stairs, so let’s go to the end of the path.”

“Yes!”

Serena and the party walked through the dirty sewers, defeating labyrinth alligators that appeared at regular intervals.

“The current is getting faster. Everyone be careful. Yo.”

The sewer floor wasn’t flat but had steps, with the center being the deepest.

Olive warned the group to walk on the highest path while being cautious of the suddenly accelerating current.

The farther they got from the stairs, the more sewage there was, the deeper it became, and the faster the current flowed.

When they could no longer avoid the sewage even on the highest floor, the group discovered a roughly falling sewage waterfall.

“There’s no path.”

The sewer floor was cut off, and dirty sewage carrying garbage fell with considerable force, though not majestically.

“It’s a dead end. Let’s just examine the poison gas section and head back.”

“Yes, that would be best. We should make knee and elbow guards in preparation for traveling through the hole.”

There was plenty of alligator leather in stock.

The group leisurely retraced their steps back the way they came.

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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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