Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 149

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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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149. New Tips

 

The large town square at the center of District 7.

 

It was usually a meeting place crowded with people, street vendors, and those out for leisure, but now a festival had been added to the mix.

 

Beyond the basic street stalls, there were street performers like clowns and theater troupes, gambling tables that had sprung up out of nowhere, outdoor restaurants and taverns, and even cafes, creating complete chaos.

 

‘More crowded than the 1st floor lobby.’

 

At least the wooden dolls on the 24th floor had stayed still.

 

Some of the dolls on the 25th floor moved according to their outfits.

 

A doll dressed as a guard slowly patrolled the square with a spear, while a doll in clown clothes was enthusiastically juggling.

 

Child dolls were frantically running around between the other dolls, and a street musician doll was cheerfully playing the violin.

 

Serena and her party looked around the square with dazed expressions.

 

Bang! Pop-bang! Pop-pop-pop-bang!

 

Fireworks, essential to any festival, exploded with loud pops, painting the blue sky and streets with powder of every color.

 

“Ugh, this is overwhelming!”

 

“It really feels like a festival.”

 

“How are we supposed to memorize all of this? It’s impossible for me!”

 

“Agreed.”

 

They had barely managed to memorize one street, and now they had to deal with a square on top of that?

 

Even worse, the number written on the sign next to the door was utterly despairing.

 

Square 10.

 

They had to find 10 anomalies in this vast square.

 

The party members all wore gloomy expressions or furrowed their brows as they observed the square.

 

In the center of the square, a massive fountain sprayed water refreshingly.

 

Olive, who had been rolling her eyes around, pointed to a tree.

 

“Is that a bread tree?”

 

The party walked toward the bread tree for now.

 

‘There’s no bread though?’

 

The Guide had called it a bread tree, but the tree Olive pointed to had no bread on it at all.

 

Even when they looked carefully to see if there was bread hidden among the leaves, it was the same.

 

“There’s no bread, but is it really a bread tree?”

 

“Someone must have picked all the bread. You can tell it’s a bread tree even without bread because…”

 

Olive sniffed around near the bread tree.

 

Serena, Ralph, and Count Randy followed suit.

 

Even though there was no bread, the savory smell of baking bread wafted from near the tree.

 

“Bread trees give off this rich, bread-like smell.”

 

The Princess had acquired labyrinth knowledge that would serve her well.

 

“Seeing that there’s no bread left, Seraph and the priests must have passed through first.”

 

“Or it could have been other people who got swallowed by the labyrinth~”

 

Leaving some bread on the bread tree was a courtesy to others.

 

That’s what Olive and Ying had said before.

 

Looking at the bread tree made Serena curious about something, so she asked the two labyrinth explorers a question.

 

“But aren’t people each wandering through different labyrinths? If someone else picked the bread first and there’s none left on the branches, does that mean our labyrinth is overlapping with someone else’s right now?”

 

“Ah, that’s…”

 

Olive scratched her head vigorously as she explained.

 

“They are individual labyrinths, but there are things that are shared, you could say. Usually monsters and treasure chests are all separate, but things like bread trees are shared even if the labyrinths are different.”

 

For example, suppose Olive and Ying separately tackled the same floor of the labyrinth.

 

In this case, the monsters they encountered, treasure chests, labyrinth structure, etc. would likely be different, but the location of the bread tree would be the same.

 

When a bread tree has 10 loaves of bread, if Olive, who discovered the bread tree first, picks all 10 loaves, then the bread tree discovered in Ying’s labyrinth would have 0 loaves.

 

“Treasure chests with really good items work the same way. There might be treasure chests that are already empty because someone else opened them.”

 

“So not picking all the bread from bread trees is a custom among labyrinth explorers. I understand now.”

 

“Only Zero and people like that care about such things. Usually people take everything.”

 

In any case, it was true that someone who was ahead of Serena’s party, or who had started their labyrinth life on this floor after waking up, had taken all the bread from the bread tree.

 

The next place the party moved to was a cafe at the edge of the square.

 

Unlike bread, the sweet smell of pastries and subtle tea fragrance caught the party’s noses.

 

Surprisingly, all the food in the cafe was real.

 

“Wow, cake!”

 

“There are sandwiches too!”

 

“There’s a variety of tea. It would be nice if we could take some.”

 

“Even if we could, it would all disappear once we leave here. Sob sob!”

 

Items collected on the 7th floor disappear when you open the door.

 

Olive, who knew this best from experience, pretended to wipe away tears before sneakily lifting her head.

 

“Even if it disappears eventually, wouldn’t it be good to at least taste it?”

 

Olive picked up a fork and was about to take a bite of cake from the table when Ying grabbed her wrist and stopped her.

 

“Don’t.”

 

“Why? Are you worried it’s poisoned?”

 

“The guard is watching.”

 

As Ying said, the guard who had been leisurely walking around the square had stopped and was monitoring the party.

 

Even though it was a plain doll face without features, they could feel its persistent gaze, which was very unpleasant.

 

‘Creepy.’

 

Olive must have felt the same way, as she put down the fork she was holding.

 

“I won’t eat it!”

 

When Olive stepped away from the table, the guard turned its head and began walking slowly again.

 

“Damn, even though it’s a doll, it’s scary.”

 

“I find it scarier because it’s a doll.”

 

“From the doll’s perspective, it would look like a strange person is bothering innocent citizens who are enjoying tea and cake.”

 

A weirdo suddenly appearing to steal and eat cake.

 

Perfect for the guard to keep watch.

 

“It was so obvious that we got caught.”

 

The Guide thought about something, then said to the party.

 

“Everyone wait here, and if anything happens, run.”

 

“What are you going to do?”

 

“Just a moment.”

 

Olive used her small stature to disappear into the crowd in the square, then returned shortly after.

 

“What did you do?”

 

“I was curious if they couldn’t notice if I stole while hiding, so I picked a few pockets.”

 

Olive grinned as she waved a wallet and a jeweled necklace in front of the party.

 

“They don’t know about secret theft?”

 

Unlike when she had tried to openly steal cake, the doll guard hadn’t noticed Olive’s secret theft.

 

Since this was fairly important information, the party praised the Guide.

 

The party crossed the square and reached the walls and door that could only be seen up close.

 

The labyrinth compass pointed to stairs beyond the door.

 

Serena inwardly sighed and assigned areas based on her party members’ interests.

 

The Princess was assigned the cafe and nearby shops.

 

‘It would be easier if there was no time limit.’

 

Based on their experience on the 24th floor, anomalies usually took the form of something with horror elements added.

 

If there was no time limit, they could just thoroughly search the square and find anything suspicious and scary, but the time limit was the problem.

 

As Serena entered the mirror shop next to the cafe, she thought it would be nice if the anomalies were as obvious as in a game.

 

‘Right. With mirrors like this, blood would flow from the mirrors or something.’

 

The Princess who looked in the mirror trembled with horror in a different sense.

 

Because her appearance in the mirror was too terrible.

 

‘My beauty that I cultivated with the bare minimum of conscience!’

 

She had been disappointed that the man who was supposed to become her sibling’s fiancé didn’t recognize her, but it wasn’t their fault.

 

The person reflected in the mirror looked extremely tired and gaunt.

 

She could overlook the fashion disaster caused by the leather helmet made from Alligator Rius hide that matched the party and the goggles protecting her eyes.

 

Her skin had lost its luster and looked dark, her violet hair was dry and disheveled, and her already fierce impression with upturned eyes was made even more sinister and menacing by the addition of a black eyepatch.

 

‘This isn’t a princess but a bandit leader or pirate captain! Or maybe an evil witch!’

 

This second life reincarnated as a princess.

 

Even if she couldn’t become a princess who charmed animals with dance and song, the appearance she had worked so hard to cultivate in her efforts to become a princess worth the tax money had plummeted.

 

‘Sigh. It can’t be helped. There’s no point in being pretty in the labyrinth anyway.’

 

Instead, Serena removed her eyepatch.

 

She wanted to know what had happened to the spot where the god had plucked out her eye and how the prosthetic eye had been fitted.

 

Looking in the mirror, her left eye had a round prosthetic eye in place of the real one.

 

The prosthetic eyes she had seen on TV in her previous life were so sophisticated they were indistinguishable from real eyes, but the prosthetic eye the god had inserted after plucking out her eye lacked such functionality.

 

It wasn’t even shaped like an eyeball; it was just there to occupy space so the bone wouldn’t deform.

 

‘At least I don’t have to maintain it. That’s good.’

 

If it had been a real prosthetic eye, she would have had to worry about many things like periodically removing it for cleaning and taking it out when sleeping.

 

The prosthetic eye the god had inserted was convenient because she didn’t have to deal with such troublesome tasks.

 

As Serena was putting the eyepatch back on, something moved in the corner of the shop reflected in the mirror.

 

The princess was startled and turned around.

 

She had definitely seen something move, but that spot was completely empty.

 

‘Was it my imagination?’

 

Serena looked puzzled as she faced forward again, then frowned.

 

Because in the mirror, she could see a person crouching in the very spot she had just checked.

 

Serena carefully turned her head.

 

The space she saw directly with her eyes was again completely empty with no one there.

 

‘What is this? Could it be an anomaly?’

 

Serena immediately discarded that hypothesis.

 

‘This is the original, so there’s no way an anomaly would appear here. Then could it be a monster? Do I have to fight it by looking in the mirror since I can’t see it with my eyes?’

 

Calling her companions might alert the monster.

 

Serena picked up the mirror and slowly moved toward the shop door.

 

Taking the mirror outside the shop would be theft and could get her caught by the guard dolls.

 

So she put the mirror down in front of the door and was about to call the nearest party member.

 

She made eye contact with the person reflected in the mirror.

 

That person widened their eyes and rubbed them several times, then approached in Serena’s direction,

 

No. They passed by Serena and approached the shop’s glass window where the princess was reflected, banging on the glass and moving their mouth.

 

‘Save me? Is it not a monster but a person?’

 

Serena gestured toward the glass window for them to stay still, then put strength in her lower abdomen and shouted with all her might.

 

“Come here!”

 

At the princess’s single word, the party members who had been scattered memorizing the square gathered.

 

“Princess! What’s the matter, gasp!”

 

Ralph, who had been closest to Serena, came running at full speed but was startled when he saw the person reflected in the glass.

 

“Is, is that a person?”

 

“I don’t know either, so I called everyone.”

 

“Damn, what is this now? It can’t be an anomaly.”

 

The person reflected in the mirror and glass moved their mouth more actively when they saw the group appear.

 

“Save me, help me. There are more people. Something like that, right?”

 

“It must be someone trapped in the labyrinth!”

 

“I think so too. They seem to be in a labyrinth that’s the same as ours but different, and the mirror is indirectly revealing their existence.”

 

The person who had been earnestly banging on the glass window suddenly stopped and looked back with a terrified expression.

 

Though Serena couldn’t see it, it seemed like a monster or threatening presence had appeared.

 

“They look in danger! We need to save them quickly!”

 

“How? That person is in a different labyrinth from ours, even though it’s similar.”

 

Serena also wanted to save the person in crisis, but there was no other way.

 

The princess slightly closed her right eye and opened her left eye.

 

She hoped it might give her some hint, and indeed a new notification window appeared.

 

[Tip. People on the same floor have a high probability of being drawn.]

 

‘Drawing? Will this really work?’

 

She hadn’t planned to draw a new person, but she couldn’t ignore someone in crisis right before her eyes.

 

Serena inwardly sighed and pressed the draw button.

 

Click.

 

‘Did it work?’

 

But nothing happened.

 

The person the princess had drawn was still reflected with an urgent expression, banging on the glass window, but no physical form was visible.

 

‘You told me to draw them!’

 

Just as the princess was getting indignant and about to protest.

 

The person reflected in the glass window left their spot, unable to stay any longer.

 

The moment they opened the shop door with hurried steps.

 

“Ahhh!”

 

“Gasp! That’s the person from just now!”

 

The person who had only been reflected in the glass and mirror appeared with physical form in front of the princess.

 

“A, a person?”

 

The person Serena had saved from crisis through drawing seemed unable to believe that people had suddenly appeared before their eyes, frozen and only blinking.

 

Bang!

 

Then, hearing the sound of a door opening roughly, they ran behind the group and hid.

 

“It’s a monster!”

 

A wooden doll dressed as a guard came out of the shop and pointed a spear at the group.

 

‘I didn’t draw a monster though.’

 

Serena frowned and was about to shout combat preparations when she saw the wooden dolls in the square all turning their heads at once and changed her words.

 

“Retreat! Everyone retreat!”

 

The party hurriedly left the square with the rescued person and fled to the door.

 

Fortunately, the wooden dolls didn’t chase them to the room and stopped their pursuit.

 

“Huff huff, that was startling. When all the dolls turned their heads at once. It was so scary.”

 

“I’m going to have nightmares about dolls.”

 

They had escaped the monsters’ pursuit and caught their breath, so there was one thing left to do.

 

Serena asked the newly drawn person in a stern voice.

 

“Who are you?”

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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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