Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 150

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

150. One, Two, Three, Four (1)

 

“Who are you?”

 

Serena asked in a dignified voice while observing the newly summoned person.

 

First, the gender was female.

 

Her build was small like Olive’s, and while her face had some flesh on it, her body was thin with slender bones visible at her wrists and ankles that showed outside her clothes.

 

‘She has the type of constitution where only her face is chubby. Her body is so thin yet her cheeks are plump.’

 

Her age was hard to determine due to her small build and plump cheeks.

 

‘An adult? Or a minor?’

 

Her plump cheeks made her look around Ralph’s age, but she could be older or younger.

 

‘It’s hard to gauge commoners’ ages.’

 

For convenience, let’s call her a girl.

 

The girl had dark brown hair and brown eyes, and while her plump cheeks gave her a cute impression, she wasn’t particularly pretty.

 

Her eyes, nose, mouth, and ears were in their proper places in the right number and seemed to fulfill their roles, but her light eyebrows and low nose bridge made her overall impression vague.

 

Her impression was so faint that she would disappear from memory even after talking and turning away.

 

The clothes she wore were old and worn.

 

Her shabby appearance combined with her vague impression made her look somewhat pitiful.

 

The girl looked at the party with a dazed expression, as if shocked and stunned.

 

“R-really?”

 

Her way of speaking was somewhat peculiar.

 

The girl contorted her face and suddenly bowed.

 

“Sir Knight!”

 

She was addressing the knight, not the princess.

 

“P-please save my siblings! Please save them!”

 

After finishing her bow, the girl crawled on the ground and grabbed Ralph’s shoes, clinging to them.

 

Ralph was flustered and didn’t know what to do.

 

“Please let go!”

 

“Please save them!”

 

“I’ll help you, so please let go! And you should ask the Princess, not me!”

 

“Princess?”

 

The girl’s brown eyes quickly scanned the party.

 

After examining the entire party, the girl forced a laugh.

 

“Hahaha, Sir Knight jokes well! Where is there a Princess here?”

 

If it had been the previous Serena, she would have gotten angry and stepped forward at the girl’s words.

 

But Serena, who had seen her reflection in the mirror, didn’t get angry and forgave the ignorant girl.

 

‘Ralph is the only one wearing metal armor and a metal helmet, so she thinks Ralph has the highest status.’

 

Currently, all party members except Ralph were equipped with crocodile leather helmets.

 

Since they were helmets made from the hide of floor bosses beyond the 20th floor, they were more valuable than the basic helmets of capital guards.

 

But since the girl wasn’t a monster or armor expert, she valued the metal helmet more highly.

 

The armor worn by the young knight was the plate armor of the Royal Knights, which was both practical and artistic, making it look cool.

 

Anyway, she needed to make it known that the leadership of this party belonged to the Princess, not Ralph.

 

In such situations, the Princess must never step forward directly.

 

Those around her should proclaim the Princess’s status instead.

 

If Philia had been there, she would have immediately shouted ‘How impudent!’, but unfortunately Philia wasn’t here now.

 

As a substitute, she was about to signal Count Randy when a voice erupted from an unexpected place.

 

“How impudent! Saying there’s no Princess here! Can’t your stupid eyes see this person standing right here!”

 

The guide stepped in front of Serena and scolded the girl.

 

The girl made a tearful face and shrank her shoulders.

 

“Wh-who is she? Is she famous?”

 

“This person is none other than the Heujibuji Kingdom’s!”

 

“Leave out the ‘buji’.”

 

“The precious jewel of the Heuji Kingdom!”

 

“I’m not precious either.”

 

“The only granddaughter of His Majesty the King and the eldest daughter of His Highness the Crown Prince! The sister of that unlucky prince! She is the Princess! She’s also an apostle of the Minotaur God! A lowly thing like you couldn’t even see her in a passing procession, so lower your eyes!”

 

After finishing her words, Olive held her stomach and laughed.

 

“Hahaha! I’ve always wanted to try that once!”

 

Though there were many errors, the vocabulary was crude, and even the intention was insolent, the effect was definite.

 

The girl knelt before Serena instead of Ralph and bowed her head.

 

“Oh my! Your Highness! This lowly one has committed a mortal sin! Please spare me! Please save my siblings!”

 

“Before that, tell me who you are, in detail and without lies.”

 

The girl shed tears as she revealed her identity.

 

“I am Hana. I make a living performing tricks with my siblings Duri, Sesi, and Neet.”

 

Serena frowned, wondering if the girl claiming her name was Hana was joking.

 

‘Playing around with children’s names?’

 

“How dare you play word games in front of the Princess!”

 

Again, the guide stepped forward and shouted loudly.

 

Her slightly prim expression seemed to be imitating Philia.

 

“I-it’s not a joke, it’s real! We’re all wanderers and orphans, so we don’t have proper names! We’re called that according to the order we joined the troupe!”

 

If Hana’s words were true, it was understandable naming.

 

Serena nodded to urge her to continue the explanation.

 

“We heard there was a big festival in Heuji, so we made up our minds and took a boat to Heuji City.”

 

Fortunately, they earned money well.

 

They earned enough to recover their travel expenses and have some left over.

 

That day too, she was performing tricks with her siblings as usual when suddenly the ground shook.

 

She held her siblings and trembled, then lost consciousness and when she opened her eyes, she was in the square where they had been performing.

 

Hana soon realized that the place where she opened her eyes wasn’t the real square.

 

She was trembling in shock at the sight of the many people having disappeared and wooden dolls replacing them.

 

“Fortunately, all my siblings were nearby. Neet, the youngest, is smart and suggested this might be a labyrinth.”

 

Neet was really clever and had even conquered 7th Street, she said.

 

However.

 

“When we went up the stairs, there was a human-sized fly blocking the way, so we couldn’t go up.”

 

‘Not a crocodile?’

 

If Hana’s words were true, the fly might be the stratum boss of the 6th floor.

 

Serena made sure to remember the information about the fly monster.

 

“The stairs going down were the same. When we went down, there were lots of books. The books were flying around trying to hit us, so we ran away immediately.”

 

“You’re saying you conquered the square?”

 

“Neet is really smart.”

 

Fly monsters above, book monsters below.

 

Hana and her siblings were trapped on the 7th floor with nowhere to go.

 

Fortunately, the monsters on the conquered 24th and 25th floors didn’t attack Hana and her siblings unless they did something strange.

 

Hana and her siblings decided to hide on the 24th floor where at least the dolls didn’t move.

 

They secured a hiding place, but the problem was food.

 

The food Hana and her siblings had brought quickly ran out.

 

Hana prepared herself for the wooden dolls’ attacks and picked bread from the bread tree.

 

Fortunately, the wooden dolls didn’t attack even when she touched the bread tree’s bread.

 

Hana and her siblings survived day by day drinking water from the fountain and carefully eating bread from the bread tree.

 

Then one day.

 

“All the bread hanging on the tree disappeared.”

 

Someone who had reached the 25th floor had taken all the bread from the bread tree.

 

Still feeling resentful when recalling it, Hana sniffled.

 

“We managed to get by with bread we picked earlier, but we were so hungry. Thinking we’d all die at this rate, I stole food from the cafe.”

 

‘So that’s how they got chased by monsters.’

 

It was a sad story that was perfect for evoking sympathy from listeners.

 

Indeed, Ralph’s eyes blazed with the flames of justice after hearing the story.

 

“This is terrible! We must hurry and rescue Hana’s siblings!”

 

“Will you really save them?”

 

Now that we’ve met them, what choice do we have.

 

‘We have to save them.’

 

Aside from rescuing them, Serena was very displeased with this situation.

 

It wasn’t that she was unhappy about Hana and her siblings consuming their scarce resources.

 

‘What if they die because they met me?’

 

The Princess didn’t like that meeting her would determine the life and death of Hana and her siblings.

 

What this meant was:

 

Serena had formed a hypothesis about the gacha system.

 

The hypothesis was that until Serena observed them, the life and death of people consumed by the labyrinth was tilted toward ‘life’.

 

In the past, Serena had worried about whether people were dying in real-time and if she should draw people in advance.

 

But even after the Princess had been trapped in the labyrinth for over a month and nearly two months, the roughly written “100,000 people” in the gacha hadn’t decreased.

 

Moreover, all the people Serena had drawn or encountered in the labyrinth were in a state of having entered the labyrinth not long ago.

 

Serena combined these two clues to form her hypothesis.

 

‘For me to draw people, they have to be alive, right? What if the Labyrinth God set time to flow slowly for people so I could draw them?’

 

The Labyrinth God was omnipotent within the labyrinth.

 

Since hitting some crystals changed day and night, it could easily slow down time for people wandering in their respective labyrinths.

 

If this hypothesis was true, Hana and her siblings had a higher chance of dying because Serena had recognized them.

 

‘They’d have a higher chance of survival if they never encountered me or weren’t drawn by me.’

 

Even though over 10 death coins had accumulated, there was this reason why the Princess hadn’t drawn people.

 

‘I didn’t want to draw anyone unless they were combat personnel.’

 

But since we’ve met, what choice do we have. Let’s think of this as fate and save them.

 

The Princess swallowed a sigh and asked Hana.

 

“Where are your siblings?”

 

“They’re hiding in the shopping district. Oh my, sir! Princess! Please save my siblings! This place is too scary!”

 

“I understand, so stop crying and guide us.”

 

“Yes.”

 

Hana hurriedly walked toward the 24th floor.

 

“Wait! Do floors that have already been cleared not need to be re-cleared?”

 

“I don’t know what you mean, but it was only strange at first, and after finding everything, it was fine.”

 

This meant that floors that had been cleared once wouldn’t have their anomalies reappear even if searched again.

 

Serena was genuinely relieved.

 

Even in this situation, Hana didn’t forget the bag containing sandwiches stolen from the cafe.

 

Olive giggled as she informed Hana about the fate of the sandwiches she had taken.

 

“Those disappear when you cross the door~”

 

“What? They don’t disappear.”

 

“What?”

 

“I got unlucky and caught by the cops this time. But I kept stealing and eating. They don’t disappear.”

 

The Guide protested at this unbelievable story.

 

“What are you talking about! All the jewels I took disappeared!”

 

Hana chuckled as if she understood.

 

“Ah~ jewels. I took some at first too and they disappeared.”

 

“Right? They disappear!”

 

“But things you take after finding all the strange stuff don’t disappear.”

 

“What!”

 

Olive was shocked like someone struck by lightning.

 

The Guide flapped her arms like wings.

 

“Then! Since we cleared the 24th floor, everything we take from the 24th floor stays?”

 

Olive grinned from ear to ear.

 

“I wondered why~ there were no treasure chests~ The entire floor was a treasure chest!”

 

The shops on the 24th and 25th floors – clothing stores, jewelry stores, mirror shops, cafes – don’t sell items that help with labyrinth exploration.

 

But they sold expensive precious metals, more clothes were always better, and among the dolls were armed dolls, so there was much to gain.

 

“Now we don’t have to worry about clothes and shoes, Serena. We can drink proper tea too!”

 

“This floor was worth all the hard work!”

 

As if their despair at seeing the town square was ancient history, the party’s morale soared.

 

When they opened the door and entered the room, the sandwiches didn’t disappear as Hana had said.

 

Though they hadn’t cleared the 25th floor yet, they had finished clearing the 24th floor.

 

The party members’ lips curved skyward thinking about the items they could obtain from the 24th floor.

 

“Calm down. Rescuing Hana’s siblings comes first.”

 

“Of course! Human life is the priority!”

 

“Eh~ seems like it’d be fine if I skip out? Right?”

 

Olive followed Hana while unable to take her eyes off the jewelry store.

 

Hana entered a shop and pointed to a warehouse door inside the store.

 

“My siblings are waiting here.”

 

Hana didn’t open the door immediately but knocked on it in a steady rhythm. It seemed to be a signal arranged with her siblings.

 

They waited for the door to open but there was no response.

 

After waiting a moment, Hana opened the door with trembling hands.

 

Inside what appeared to be the store’s warehouse, only stacked goods were visible – no people could be seen.

 

“Th-they’re all gone!”

 

Shocked and terrified, Hana dropped the bag containing the sandwiches.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————