Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 131

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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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131. Sewage Diving (1)

That’s impossible. He’s not the Labyrinth God, so how could he know?

Such words should have been spoken, but no one said anything like that.

In fact, Richard’s sudden eccentric behavior before the labyrinth was created could have been a coincidence.

However, his calm demeanor without surprise even when swallowed by the labyrinth, combined with his mysterious past actions, planted a seed of ‘what if’ in people’s minds.

‘The Crimson Key.’

The legendary master key said to be able to open all sealed doors and sealed treasure chests in labyrinths.

Richard had put up the legendary Crimson Key as the prize for the Grand Martial Arts Tournament he was in charge of, drawing labyrinth explorers from across the continent to Huji.

What if Richard knew a labyrinth would open in Hujihen during the National Foundation Day and deliberately drew in labyrinth explorers?

‘No. This can’t be right. He was doing fine on his own, so there’s no reason he’d need to gather labyrinth explorers.’

There was no benefit Richard could see from labyrinth explorers gathering in Huji.

Rather, Serena was the beneficiary.

‘Without Olive and Ying, conquering the labyrinth would have been ten times harder.’

“We’re back. Whoa, why does everyone look so serious? Did something happen?”

Cluck?

Ralph, who returned to the lobby with Lavenda, was startled to see the adults with serious expressions.

The Chicken Golem cried along for no reason since Ralph was surprised.

“We were discussing the possibility that Duke Oren knew in advance that a labyrinth would appear in Hujihen.”

“What? How could that be possible? If he knew in advance, he should have naturally informed everyone and evacuated the people, shouldn’t he? Not just the royalty and nobles, but tens of thousands of Hujihen citizens’ lives were at stake.”

Ralph spoke with righteous and proper thoughts, then made a tearful expression.

“Could it be that Duke Oren is that evil of a person?”

If this had been before Richard killed Grandfather, Serena would have answered that he was a strange guy but not a villain.

Now that Richard had killed Grandfather, even Serena wasn’t sure.

‘I really don’t understand anything.’

Serena knew Richard, who was indifferent to everyone but kinder to children than adults.

She also knew Richard who would rescue baby birds that had fallen from their nests and put them back.

She thought he just didn’t express himself well due to harsh experiences, but was fundamentally good and gentle at heart.

She thought he was at least more suitable to be the King of Huji than her drug-addicted father and worthless sibling.

‘I thought he wasn’t the type of person who would just ignore whether 100,000 people lived or died.’

But what if Serena had misjudged?

When Richard dealt with Grandfather, his single orange eye always held affection.

However, Richard had killed that very grandfather he seemed to cherish so dearly.

‘Ah! I don’t understand anything! How am I supposed to know what that bastard is thinking! I don’t even know what’s in Philia’s head, and she’s the closest to me!’

You may know ten fathoms of water, but not one fathom of a person’s heart.

Serena recalled this eternal truth and waved her hand dismissively.

“Enough. There are many suspicious points, but since there’s no concrete evidence, let’s end this discussion.”

“Yes, understood.”

Perhaps tired of the serious conversation, the Guide stretched.

“Hmm~ Only one thing has become certain. That the newcomer who appeared like a comet was Duke Oren.”

Olive tilted her head.

“Was the Crimson Key he put up as the tournament prize obtained from an 8th-Level Dungeon? Yo?”

“The Crimson Key itself might have been fake, Olive sis.”

Olive glared disgustedly at the old-young person who called her sister so familiarly.

But she didn’t refuse the conversation.

“What was he trying to do by gathering labyrinth explorers? Yo?”

“Enough. I said to end this discussion since nothing is certain.”

“Ah! Yes, sorry yo!”

Olive quickly apologized and went to Lavenda to act spoiled.

Rather than lacking awareness that she was older, it seemed like she wanted to live comfortably by using her small stature and youthful appearance.

“Miss Potpourri! I saw something terrible in the labyrinth! Heal me!”

“Did you see some hideous monster?”

“I saw the hideous parts of a hideous monster! Ah! Even when I close my eyes, that terrible sight comes to mind!”

“Oh my. Shall I press some acupoints that are good for forgetting bad memories?”

“If you’ve seen something unsightly, the standard is to purify it by looking at something beautiful. How about gazing at Countess Randy’s face?”

“Eh, I don’t want to yo. I was going to ask Miss Potpourri for a lap pillow yo.”

Peck! Peck! Peck!

The Chicken Golem pecked the Guide here and there as if claiming Lavenda’s embrace was its own.

“Hey! That stings! Ah! Stop it!”

Peck! Peck!

“Ugh! If only you didn’t lay golden eggs, I’d wring your neck!”

“Haha, it seems Chicken doesn’t like you.”

Peck!

The Chicken Golem also pecked Prince Willow who was laughing at the Guide.

“Oh my! Chicken, you shouldn’t do that. Miss Olive, please lie down here. I’ll give you a massage.”

“Awesome!”

There was briefly an incident where the Prince intruded between the Guide and the masseuse, but it ended quickly when Count Randy called the Prince to make tools.

The others also scattered to find their own tasks.

Serena, who had nothing to do, sat in a chair and fell into contemplation.

‘Next time I unluckily meet Richard, I’ll have something to ask him.’

There was no guarantee she’d get a proper answer just by asking, but anyway, she now had something to say other than ‘Get lost, Richard.’

‘When Olive’s massage is over, I should ask for one too.’

After crawling through the narrow holes in the sewers, her shoulders, neck muscles, shoulder blade area, and elbows were all silently weeping.

Tomorrow would be even more painful, so she needed to soothe them in advance with a professional masseuse’s touch.

The Princess, who was waiting for her turn like that, dozed off in the surprisingly comfortable chair and ended up really falling asleep.

“Mmph.”

The next day, she tasted hell.

Her back, shoulders, neck, and arms that hadn’t received massage rebelled against their owner.

The Princess was helplessly defeated by the muscle revolution and raised the white flag.

But the muscles did not forgive their owner who had ignored their silent weeping.

“Oh no. You were sleeping so soundly that I didn’t wake you, but I should have if I knew this would happen.”

Philia stamped her feet seeing her master who couldn’t even hold up her neck.

“I’m sorry, Lady Serena. Once we leave the labyrinth, I will definitely research muscle pain medicine!”

While Count Randy loudly apologized into the Princess’s ear, Lavenda brought a cloth soaked in warm spring water.

“Now, everyone please step aside.”

Lavenda skillfully turned Serena over by herself.

Serena groaned in pain even when her body was moved by another’s strength.

The warm cloth covered the Princess’s back.

Lavenda climbed on top of the Princess, did breathing exercises, and cracked her finger joints.

Crack, crack.

Since her face was buried in a makeshift pillow with holes while lying face down, only hearing the sounds made it twice as scary.

Lavenda removed the cloth that had already cooled and replaced it with a warm one.

“I’m sorry to say this, but… you used muscles you don’t normally use, and in that stimulated state, you slept in an uncomfortable position without properly calming them down… They’ve hardened like stone. It will hurt a lot, but please bear with it a little.”

Lavenda must have her reasons for everything.

Was this karma for watching people suffer from various wrestling techniques?

Finally, Serena’s turn had come.

“Hup.”

Serena felt her nose tingle as she relaxed her body as much as possible to reduce the pain.

She could feel the masseuse’s hands, rougher than before even with oil applied, touch her, and then strong force twisted Serena’s neck.

“KYAAAAAAAH!”

Serena forgot the dignity and majesty of a princess and cried like a Labyrinth Deer.

***

Lavenda’s massage was painful but definitely effective.

Even the slightest movement of her neck had brought terrible pain, but after the massage, it was reduced to bearable discomfort.

‘As expected, Lavenda always has everything figured out.’

The foreign masseuse’s skills were undeniable.

She hadn’t been scouted from the eastern edge of the continent to the western edge based on skill alone for nothing.

The assault team set foot once again on the 21st Floor of the 6th Layer of Heuji’s Labyrinth.

In the dark, damp, foul-smelling, unpleasant and filthy space, the party had to find the stairs leading to the next floor.

Still, it was better than yesterday. They had equipped the goggles obtained from the treasure chest.

“The smell is still terrible, but it’s nice that my eyes feel comfortable!”

“It’s good that my eyes don’t sting anymore~”

The filthy environment of the 6th Layer had apparently been affecting their eyes as well, since it was much easier to keep their eyes open than yesterday.

Ying also raised her thumb in approval.

The goggles weren’t the only equipment that had changed.

Considering they would have to continue crawling and creeping forward, Count Randy had crafted knee and elbow guards.

The exterior was made of sturdy Labyrinth Alligator leather, while the interior was padded with soft cloth.

“Then let’s set off to find the stairs!”

At the Guide’s earnest request, no goblins were summoned.

Olive actively entered the holes to guide the party, as if she had never hidden the path at all.

“This one’s a dud.”

The first hole was a dud.

After crawling earnestly, they reached a room with a treasure chest, but it turned out to be a mimic instead of a chest.

After crawling back to the main path and entering the second hole.

“This one’s a dud too.”

It was an even worse dud than the first.

The first hole had opened into a room at the end, making it easy to change direction, but the second hole was simply blocked off.

‘Crawling backwards, seriously.’

“Everyone be careful! Yo!”

The experienced Guide had warned them in advance that such situations could occur, and in preparation, the second most experienced archer had taken the rear of the party.

Nevertheless, trying to move backwards while crawling was torturous.

Unable to see behind them, even controlling their crawling speed was difficult.

“Ugh.”

“I’m sorry, Lady Serena!”

Among the party members, Serena was the slowest.

Needless to say, Olive and Ying were fast, Ralph was accustomed to crawling, and Count Randy was surprisingly good at crawling, claiming he had learned from his Master.

As a result, even when Count Randy tried to move slowly backwards, he would step on the Princess’s hands or kick her face.

“Are you alright?”

“I’m fine.”

“Princess! Even if it’s hard, don’t rest and keep moving quickly! Yo! If we encounter monsters in such an uncomfortable position, we’ll all die!”

If there were such small passages, there was a possibility that monsters capable of moving freely in narrow spaces might appear.

Serena managed to escape the hole after much effort, spitting out the dirty water that had entered her mouth along with her saliva.

“Ugh.”

“Are you really alright? Please rinse your mouth with this.”

After similar incidents repeated a couple more times, instead of finding another hole to enter, the Guide began staring intently at the map.

“Hmm.”

“What’s wrong, Miss Olive?”

“Hmm.”

Olive returned the magic map to the Princess and spoke to the party members who were stretching.

“I think we need to go back toward the waterfall. Yo.”

“You mean the waterfall at the end of the path?”

Olive twisted her sewage-soaked hair.

“We keep crawling around but aren’t getting anywhere. It would be better to check there first.”

“But wasn’t the path cut off there?”

“Princess, you don’t know much about labyrinths, do you? Yo?”

Olive wagged her index finger while emphasizing the irrationality of labyrinths once again.

“There’s no guarantee that stairs will look like stairs. Yo.”

“You mean.”

“That waterfall is the path to move to the next floor?”

‘But I didn’t get a coin?’

Serena quickly closed her right eye and opened her left eye.

Even searching through past notifications, there was no alert about discovering the 21st Floor stairs.

After checking the world through her left eye, she spread out the magic map.

The map also showed only a waterfall, not stairs.

“The map only shows it as a waterfall too. Isn’t it just that the path is cut off?”

“I’ll explain as we go~”

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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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