Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 14

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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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14. Heuji’s Dungeon 1st Floor (3)

The undead labyrinth rat legion swarmed toward Serena’s party.

The sight of dozens of rats gathered together was already disgusting and revolting, but when the undead attribute was added on top, the effect was tremendous.

Aaahhh!

The party’s mental fortitude plummeted vertically. It dropped like the price of coins that Serena had bought out of curiosity, only to lose her emergency funds.

“Get away, get away!”

Everyone was frantically busy shaking off the undead labyrinth rats that were biting their bodies or crawling up on them.

But all they managed to do was jump in place or flail their limbs like inflatable dolls.

While the party wasted time, the labyrinth rat swarm steadily bit at exposed body parts like fingers and faces.

Squeeeak―!

The Labyrinth Rat Leader, who had been silently watching its subordinates ravage Serena’s party, let out another loud cry.

Serena was startled by that sound and snapped out of her panic state. Until then, she had been crying and shaking off rats biting her fingers just like everyone else.

Having regained her senses, Serena saw more rats being summoned from empty corners. New recruits were being added to the undead labyrinth rat legion.

Serena swatted away a rat that had crawled up to her face and was biting her nose, then stomped hard on the rats that kept getting stepped on and kicked no matter how she walked.

“Everyone snap out of it! We need to catch the leader first!”

“Understood!”

“Yes!”

“Eek!”

Hanson and Lavenda came to their senses at Serena’s sharp command. Krom just attacked the rats around him without responding. He still seemed mentally confused.

“Krom! You snap out of it too! We need to catch the leader first!”

“Got it!”

Krom tore off a rat hanging from his ear and crushed its neck bones. Even with its neck bones broken, the undead labyrinth rat still flailed its limbs and bared its sharp teeth.

“It’s not dying even with broken neck bones!”

Lavenda was horrified at the sight.

“You have to immobilize undead or attack the summoner!”

“In our village, we drove them into pits and set them on fire!”

There are many types of zombies in the world. Walking zombies, running zombies, enhanced zombies, zombies that can romance better than humans, parasite-made zombies, drug-made zombies, zombies from bad grave sites, zombies awakened by hell gates opening, and so on.

The fiction from her previous life had truly many and diverse types of zombies with different extermination methods, but there was one common trait that people preferred and became fixed.

They become powerless when you blow off their heads.

Unfortunately, the undead in this world didn’t become powerless even when their heads were blown off. They all moved through mystical power.

Instead, they had the weakness of all becoming powerless if you defeated the summoner.

“Ugh, get away!”

Hanson swung his spear hard and kicked at rats, but couldn’t overcome the numerical advantage of the labyrinth rat legion.

“Waaah, Lady Serena!”

Rats had penetrated into Philia’s hair, which was as glossy as a hair essence commercial, and were burrowing inside. Philia writhed as if nothing could be more horrifying.

Serena helped remove the rats and stomped on them multiple times with her shoes, crushing all the bones in their bodies into pieces.

“It’s too dangerous here. Let’s get out of here.”

Philia grabbed Serena and headed toward the door. Serena also desperately wanted to run away, but it was common knowledge in the industry that when doors automatically closed, they were usually locked.

You could enter freely, but leaving was another matter.

“Sob. The door won’t budge. Then! I’ll protect you.”

Philia pulled Serena into her arms, claiming she would protect her. Her heart was in the right place, but Serena figured if she was going to get bitten by rats anyway, she’d rather stomp at least one to death.

“Let go! I can’t see ahead!”

“Waaah. It’s so scary! Please save me!”

When Serena pushed her away, Philia tightened her arms around her master and screamed. Her vision was blocked and her ears hurt too.

“You need to snap out of it too!”

A slightly dim and clueless but pretty and loyal maid. Even after falling into the labyrinth, she was still clueless, but since she prioritized her master’s safety over her own, Serena couldn’t get angry.

“Philia! Instead of trying to protect me with your slender body, catching rats is how you help me. Got it?”

“Yes!”

“Even just one is fine, so catch one and break its leg bones so it can’t move. You can crush them completely too.”

“I understand! I’ll work hard!”

Philia nodded with a determined expression. She was covered in scratches and her hair was disheveled, but she was still beautiful.

While Serena and Philia were tap dancing by the door, frantically stomping on rats, Hanson, Krom, and Lavenda tried to approach the leader rat.

It wasn’t easy. The rat swarm rushed toward whoever was closest to the leader rat. When someone else tried to approach during that time, the leader rat didn’t stay still either. It either dodged or attacked.

“It’s dangerous if you get bitten!”

If bitten by the leader rat’s teeth, the bitten area would be severed as if cut by shears. No one had been bitten yet, but everyone expected the same thing.

“Try stabbing well with the spear! What are you keeping the spear for! Making soup?”

At times like this, they needed to attack the leader rat well with the spear, but Hanson’s spear work was utterly useless.

“Kyaaah, Lady Serena!”

Hanson made a troubled expression at the screams coming from behind him. He seemed to make some decision and extended his hand to Krom.

“Give me the sword.”

“Someone who can’t even use a spear wants a sword?”

“I’m better with swords.”

There’s a saying in the world: a hundred days for spears, a thousand days for swords, ten thousand days for swords. These are the training periods for each weapon. A hundred days is enough for spears, but swords take ten thousand days.

While swords are the symbol of weapons, there’s a reason soldiers carry spears. Spears are that much easier to learn and advantageous weapons in combat.

But he wants to abandon the spear and take up a sword? A sword that takes ten thousand days?

Krom was flustered by words that went against even the common sense of an uneducated merchant.

“This is just a wooden sword anyway?”

Should he humor this young man’s ridiculous bluffing or not? While Krom hesitated, Hanson moved his hands. Krom had his wooden sword taken and received the spear.

“I’ve never stabbed with a spear before!”

Hanson gripped the wooden sword, swung it to strike rats, then put strength into his lower body.

“As expected, I prefer swords!”

With those words, Hanson shot forward. The rat swarm rushed toward Hanson, but he didn’t stop. He was going to attack the leader rat while carrying the rat swarm on his body.

It was a brave sight that couldn’t be found in Hanson’s previous behavior. Krom was impressed.

“If he was going to do that crazy stuff, couldn’t he have charged with the spear too?”

“It’s probably a matter of confidence.”

To make a charging attack while taking hits, confidence must support your heart. Because he was more confident with swords than spears, he absolutely needed the sword.

Hanson moved nimbly while carrying the entire undead rat legion on his body. The leader rat dodged sideways from the wooden sword aiming for its head. That was Hanson’s plan.

The wooden sword falling from top to bottom naturally moved horizontally and struck the leader rat’s cheek. If it had been a real sword instead of a wooden one, it would have left a deep cut.

Hans’s attack didn’t stop there. He retrieved the wooden sword and thrust it deep into the leader rat’s snout. The tip of the wooden sword pierced through the leader rat’s neck and came out the back.

If it were a living animal, it would have died instantly, but what they were facing was undead. The leader rat tried to close its snout to bite through the wooden sword.

Hanson pulled out the sword faster than the leader rat could close its snout and struck its head. Black, sticky blood from death splattered and the sound of breaking bones was loud.

The leader rat’s eyeball popped out and flew through the air. Serena, who had been staring blankly at the trajectory of the falling murky eyeball in amazement at Hanson’s performance, belatedly came to her senses.

“This isn’t the time to be watching!”

Serena stepped forward herself, stomped on the rats swarming around the leader rat, and kicked the leader rat. The others also quickly came to their senses and attacked the leader rat with their respective weapons.

Lavenda used all her strength to pound the leader rat and break its bones, while Krom diligently stabbed with his spear to separate the tattered parts from the torso.

The rat tail that had been wriggling even after its head was flattened trembled briefly before losing strength and falling to the floor.

Finally, the party had defeated the Labyrinth Rat Leader.

With the leader rat’s second death, the remaining undead labyrinth rat legion disappeared.

They vanished without a trace, leaving no corpses, making one wonder if it had been a hallucination, but the wounds scattered across the party’s bodies proved they had been real entities.

“The rats disappeared! We won!”

“The door is open too! Look, Lady Serena!”

“It’s really dead, right? Right?”

The battle was over. The party that had struggled while sweating profusely was celebrating when Hanson clenched both fists and cheered.

“Aaahhh!”

Suddenly, one might expect criticism for such behavior, but no one did that. Hadn’t he made the greatest contribution in this battle? Hans had the right to cheer.

“I didn’t know you could fight so well! Why did you mess around with the spear?”

“Guard, you were really amazing!”

“When we get out of here, I’ll call Heuji City’s best blacksmith to make you a sword!”

“Hanson, your contribution was great. You really fought well.”

Though not entirely reliable, Hanson was the only combat-capable member they had to depend on. Countless praises poured down on him.

Hanson grinned widely, showing his teeth, then fidgeted with his fingers.

“Actually, I have something to confess to all of you.”

“Confess?”

“I’m actually not from the City Guard.”

“Then are you from the Keisen Security Force?”

Serena asked if he was a soldier from the hometown he had initially mentioned. She never thought he would have impersonated a soldier.

Impersonating a soldier? That’s a death sentence. The more hierarchical a society, the harsher it is on those who impersonate public authority.

‘Maybe the City Guard was too busy so they brought in nearby security personnel.’

She was trying to reason it out favorably, but Hanson shook his head.

“I’m not a soldier either.”

“What?”

“You’re saying you’re not actually a soldier?”

“Impersonating a soldier is punishable by death, isn’t it, Lady Serena?”

“It’s not like that! I had no ill intentions! My brother is a City Guard soldier!”

“Did your brother overwork himself so you decided to fill in for him?”

During the founding festival period, the Heuji City Guard reportedly worked extreme shifts day and night without breaks. Perhaps his younger brother stepped up to help with the work?

“Actually…”

The truth that emerged from Hanson’s mouth was as follows:

Han Son Han Son was actually his brother’s name. Serena silently mourned the fact that Han Son Han Son was a real existing name.

The soldier impersonator’s name was Ralph Hanson.

Ralph Hanson’s brother, Han Son Han Son, worked as a guard in Heuji City when he met his destined partner, married, and started a family.

“You said there’s a nephew who’s not even 100 days old.”

“Yes. He’s incredibly cute. But.”

A hint of melancholy mixed into Ralph’s eyes.

“They’re quadruplets.”

“Oh my.”

Groans escaped from everyone’s mouths. With quadruplets, that was more than justified.

Fortunately, Ralph’s sister-in-law gave birth to the quadruplets safely and remained healthy herself. However, raising quadruplets is war—a total war requiring full mobilization.

Having carried quadruplets in her womb, even though she was healthy, Ralph’s sister-in-law’s physical condition wasn’t normal. The doctor recommended she rest as long as possible.

Ralph’s parents naturally helped, and Ralph’s sister-in-law’s in-laws also came to assist. Ralph? He was naturally drafted into the childcare war.

With help from grandparents and uncle, the quadruplet childcare war seemed to proceed smoothly enough.

However.

“Mother hurt her back while holding one of the nephews.”

Dark clouds gathered over the peaceful Han Son family.

“The in-laws are older than mother, and they overexerted themselves—one of them strained the ligaments in their wrist.”

The children were growing, but suddenly two fewer people were available to work.

“Fortunately, the Royal Family and Lord gave congratulatory money so we could hire help, but they commute to work. When there were no helpers, the remaining family members had to make the effort. The nephews are adorable, but it was really exhausting. More tiring than squire training.”

“Squire?”

“I’m serving as a squire under Lord Haro of Keisen Domain. I took leave because of my nephews, but this isn’t leave… Honestly, I wanted to return to the palace and receive training.”

‘So he was receiving knight training. No wonder he was skilled with a sword.’

Quadruplet childcare that was harder than harsh squire training. It was damn exhausting and difficult, but seeing his nephews’ smiling faces made all the hardship disappear. Ralph was working hard at childcare and household duties when.

“But that bastard brother of mine said the guard work was so busy and difficult he felt like dying, so watching kids would be better! Right in front of my sister-in-law.”

“That bastard.”

That was exactly what Serena wanted to say.

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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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