Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 152

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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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152. One, Two, Three, Four (3)

 

Neet’s entire body was covered in wounds.

 

Her face was wrapped tightly in bandages stained with blood and pus like her hands, but there wasn’t a single clean spot, proving the horror beneath the bandages.

 

The flesh visible between the bandages was red from torn and cracked skin, and even her hair was gone, leaving her head bare.

 

Her mouth area was so severely torn that it looked like it was on the verge of splitting like some ghost story from her past life, and her eyes were half-closed, swollen and crusted with discharge.

 

The eyes visible through the half-open eyelids were red, as if the blood vessels in the whites had burst.

 

“Good heavens!”

 

Ralph gasped at the pitiful sight that was too painful to look at.

 

Serena and Count Randy were left speechless by the horrific appearance they couldn’t have imagined.

 

Ralph was greatly enraged but suppressed his voice out of consideration for the Number Sisters.

 

“Who, who did this? To such a small child!”

 

If the culprit were before him, he looked ready to draw his sword and deliver justice immediately.

 

Hana and Sesi trembled as they watched the angry young knight and protectively embraced their sister.

 

Duri quietly stood guard beside her sisters and growled.

 

“It, it’s not like that! Nobody hit her!”

 

“That’s right! Neet’s skin tears even when she’s just sitting still. I’m not lying.”

 

“Are you covering for the culprit now? Don’t tell me you…”

 

“No! We really never hit Neet!”

 

“I’m not lying! Neet just hurts naturally!”

 

“Grr!”

 

“Count Ralph, please calm down. The wounds are too strange to be from human violence. It could be a skin disease.”

 

When Count Randy mentioned a skin disease to calm Ralph down, Hana and Sesi cried out as if having a fit.

 

“It’s not a contagious disease!”

 

“This isn’t a lie either! It’s real!”

 

“Grr!”

 

“Calm down, and help Neet pull her cloak together.”

 

“Was it unsightly? We’re sorry!”

 

“Not because it’s unsightly, but because Neet seems uncomfortable.”

 

“Cough, thank you. Cough.”

 

Serena was about to frown but quickly forced a gentle smile.

 

‘Smile, Serena! Wounds received in childhood last a lifetime! You know this well from experience!’

 

Serena took a deep breath and squeezed her tight throat to sound as calm as possible.

 

“You’re saying she gets hurt like this just from staying still?”

 

“It, it’s true. Even when we apply medicine, her skin keeps cracking. If I’m lying, then XX.”

 

“Since when has your skin been cracking like this?”

 

“I don’t know. The caretaker said she’s been like this since birth. He said when Neet’s mother was pregnant with Neet, she was also sick and died giving birth to Neet, so he took in this cursed child for free.”

 

“For free?”

 

Serena’s eyebrows twitched at a word she absolutely couldn’t overlook.

 

Serena quickly tensed her muscles to reinforce her crumbling princess smile.

 

“Yes. The caretaker brought all of us and my sisters. Why do you ask?”

 

Hana could tell Serena was displeased but didn’t know why, so she anxiously rubbed her fingers and licked her lips with her tongue.

 

“Weren’t you all wandering the streets performing and happened to meet and travel together?”

 

“Huh? No. I did meet the caretaker while wandering, but he brought all my sisters. He bought Duri and Neet, and brought Sesi when someone said they’d abandon her if he didn’t take her.”

 

As far as Serena knew, no country on the continent permitted human trafficking.

 

Seeing Hana casually mention human trafficking and child abandonment right in front of her, she truly understood what cognitive dissonance meant.

 

‘It wasn’t a troupe of children from difficult circumstances coming together, but a group of victims gathered by a dirty adult’s schemes.’

 

Though it was awkward to say this when she was half a commoner, she had been thinking too much like a princess.

 

‘They say when a modern person goes to the Industrial Revolution era, they become a communist.’

 

Unintentionally, she had been making very optimistic assumptions.

 

That raised a question.

 

The troupe members had fallen together on the same floor, but where had the troupe’s owner gone?

 

“Where is the caretaker?”

 

At the princess’s question, Hana and Sesi opened their mouths simultaneously.

 

“I don’t know.”

 

“I don’t know. I’m not lying.”

 

If the caretaker hadn’t been nearby when they were about to be consumed by the labyrinth, they might not know his whereabouts.

 

But it was a bit strange how they answered that they didn’t know as soon as Serena finished her question.

 

‘That’s a bit odd.’

 

When Serena narrowed her eyes, Neet joined in too.

 

“It, it’s true! Cough cough!”

 

Perhaps straining her throat from suddenly speaking loudly, Neet shrugged her small shoulders and coughed.

 

Fresh blood appeared on the bandages covering the hand she used to cover her mouth.

 

“She’s even coughing up blood. This doesn’t seem like a simple skin disease.”

 

When Count Randy’s expression became serious, Hana and Sesi panicked.

 

“It’s really not a contagious disease! We all sleep together but we’re fine!”

 

“Only Neet is like this! I’m not lying!”

 

Hana suddenly started to undress to prove that Neet’s wounds weren’t contagious. Sesi followed suit.

 

“Aah! Don’t undress! I believe you!”

 

Ralph was startled and stopped Hana.

 

Serena frowned seeing the sisters’ body types revealed under their clothes.

 

‘They’re nothing but bones. Have they been trapped in the labyrinth for a long time?’

 

“Have you been trapped in the labyrinth for a long time?”

 

“I, I don’t know. We’re always hungry.”

 

“Lady Serena. We should take them to the lobby first and feed them porridge.”

 

Everyone was starving, and the youngest child was a patient with damaged skin all over her body and coughing up blood.

 

This wasn’t the time to satisfy curiosity in an unsafe location.

 

“Right. I was thinking the same thing, Count.”

 

Serena gestured for the sisters, who were still kneeling, to stand up.

 

“We’re going to leave this place, so gather anything you want to take and get ready.”

 

“Will, will you really take us?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Thank you! Thank you!”

 

Hana bowed her head several times and helped her sisters up.

 

“Sesi. Tell Duri to pull the carriage… The carriage!”

 

Hana, who had been talking to her sister, was startled and ran out of the shop.

 

“Why are you suddenly acting like that?”

 

“The carriage! We left our carriage outside but I didn’t see it when we came earlier! Huh?”

 

Hana, who had run out of the shop in surprise, looked at the carriage with a dumbfounded expression.

 

“It really wasn’t there earlier?”

 

The carriage that hadn’t been there had appeared.

 

The party members, who had memorized the 24th floor while looking for anomalies, were also surprised to see the suddenly appeared carriage.

 

“A carriage suddenly appeared!”

 

“Where did this come from?”

 

“Is this an anomaly?”

 

“No. This is our carriage. Neet opened her eyes inside the carriage.”

 

‘I guess initial equipment comes with the gacha draw.’

 

If Serena had drawn Krom through gacha, a cart would have come with him.

 

‘Unless someone like a certain person had deliberately stored it separately in a vault.’

 

While the group was puzzled by the carriage, Olive and Ying, who had gone to loot the 24th floor shops, returned.

 

The guide approached with a grin so wide her gums showed, then was startled when she saw the carriage.

 

“Whoa, what’s this carriage? Yo? This wasn’t here before!”

 

The guide’s bag and pockets were stuffed with precious metals to the point of bursting.

 

Not content with that, she had necklaces and bracelets dangling from her neck and wrists.

 

It was strange that despite all the jewelry that should have clinked noisily as she walked, there was no sound at all.

 

Ying had filled her bundle with clothes, shoes, bags and more.

 

Using her characteristic superhuman strength, she carried a mountain-sized bundle on her back, making it look like moving luggage walking by itself.

 

“It’s Hana and her siblings’ carriage.”

 

“Oh, can we load our stuff here? But where’s the horse? Yo?”

 

The Number Sisters’ carriage had no animal to pull it.

 

If there was no horse, there should at least be a donkey or mule, but there was just the carriage sitting there alone.

 

‘Did they eat it? Or did only people fall into the labyrinth?’

 

Serena was forming various hypotheses when she saw Duri heading to the front of the carriage and discarded her theories.

 

Because Duri, wearing bear hide, began lightly pulling the carriage.

 

‘Since there’s a bear, no need for a horse.’

 

“Yes, Duri unnie! Keep going straight ahead!”

 

“Uung.”

 

Crack!

 

Sesi sat on the driver’s seat and cracked a whip at Duri.

 

An older sister pulling the carriage and a younger sister whipping that sister.

 

Serena felt her common sense, which had remained intact despite dying over ten times, finally collapse.

 

Olive seemed to think Serena was watching Sesi for other reasons and explained on her own.

 

“Clumsy, right? Yo? It’s because the whip is too long. Yo. She just started using it recently.”

 

“Is that so?”

 

“Swinging it like that just makes noise but doesn’t hurt at all, and only dislocates the shoulder doing the swinging.”

 

Thanks to the bear-human who understood words better than horses, the carriage rolled to the door while weaving around the doll carriages stopped on the road.

 

But the Number Sisters had to give up the carriage they had worked so hard to obtain.

 

“What do we do!”

 

Because the carriage couldn’t pass through the door.

 

“Unfortunately, we must abandon the carriage. I’ll help carry the luggage too.”

 

“No way! It’s, it’s all our wealth!”

 

Hana and Sesi hugged the carriage while sobbing, but there was no choice.

 

Unless they disassembled the carriage, it couldn’t pass through the door.

 

“I’ll help carry the luggage, so pack the most important items first. We can come back, so don’t overdo it.”

 

“Will you really help us?”

 

“Yes.”

 

Even when Serena nodded, Hana didn’t easily believe her.

 

Hana had her sisters pack valuable items from the luggage piled high in the carriage (most appeared to be merchandise from shops on the 24th floor).

 

“Is there a big box? Put all the jewels in there and give it to Duri unnie,”

 

“No good. Duri carry this.”

 

Hana pointed to a large chest loaded in the back of the carriage for the bear-human to carry.

 

“Hana unnie, really? You want to take that thing?”

 

“We, we have to take it, don’t we? Cough cough.”

 

Neet, who had trouble taking care of herself and only packed cash, said in a trembling voice.

 

“If it’s heavy, I’ll help you carry it.”

 

Grrowl.

 

When Ralph tried to help carry the chest, Duri bared her fangs and became wary.

 

“Sir Knight~ Don’t bother trying to help and just ignore them – that’s how you help! Wanderers originally hate it when others touch their stuff!”

 

Whether it was concern about status or wariness.

 

The Number Sisters struggled but ultimately never asked the Princess’s party to help carry their luggage.

 

***

 

“Wow.”

 

“Amazing.”

 

“Uung!”

 

The Number Sisters had maintained their guard against Serena throughout, but they couldn’t help being amazed by the teleportation room.

 

The sisters exited the teleportation room with sparkling eyes.

 

“Can we leave now?”

 

“If we sell all this stuff, we’ll be rich, right? We’ll finally have a home too, right?”

 

“Shh! Someone might hear!”

 

The Number Sisters seemed to have completely cleaned out all the precious metals on the 7th floor.

 

Olive, who had heard the sisters’ entire whispered conversation, chuckled.

 

“Rich? Dream on. You think you can sell anything looking like that? You won’t get a single penny and will have everything stolen before being kicked out.”

 

“Du, Duri will protect us.”

 

“Even if you don’t get beaten up, you’ll get scammed. Do you know any fences?”

 

“Cough, no.”

 

“Tsk~ How pitiful. I’m only saying this because I feel bad for you, but if you give me just a tiny cut, I know a decent fence…”

 

“Olive. What wonderful things you teach.”

 

“Kyahaha! Thanks for the compliment! Yo!”

 

Olive, who had been walking quietly, deliberately jingled her necklaces and bracelets while dancing away with shoulder movements.

 

Ying, carrying the giant bundle of clothes, spoke with an expressionless face.

 

“It’s a reward from the labyrinth, so it’s not stolen goods. You can get fair value, so don’t be fooled.”

 

Hana and Sesi, who had been listening intently to Olive’s words, widened their eyes.

 

“She was lying?”

 

“She tried to trick us! That bitch!”

 

“Remember this. People who say they don’t see you as strangers are indeed strangers.”

 

Ying’s teaching wasn’t particularly wholesome either, but at least it didn’t encourage crime.

 

Serena wanted to teach growing teenagers and children about dreams, hope, a beautiful world, and a bright future, but for the Number Sisters’ sake, Ying’s teaching was necessary.

 

While Serena felt sorry, someone who shouldn’t have had sparkling eyes did.

 

“So people who don’t see you as strangers are really strangers! Miss Ying, that’s cool!”

 

“Count Ralph, please don’t learn this.”

 

There were only corrupt adults around.

 

Serena prayed that at least the young knight’s innocence would last as long as sterilized milk’s expiration date.

 

“You’re back, oh my!”

 

The remaining party, who always welcomed the assault team’s safe return, was shocked to see four more people.

 

“What a surprise. That’s hide, right? I thought it was a real bear.”

 

“Did the labyrinths overlap? Why is that lady wearing bear hide?”

 

The Number Sisters were equally surprised.

 

The Number Sisters blinked several times at the lobby, which was more confusing than their carriage.

 

No matter how they thought about it, the lobby’s interior was hard to understand.

 

But perhaps thinking the lobby’s chaotic interior had nothing to do with them, focus returned to their eyes.

 

“Is this the 1st floor of the labyrinth? Thank you for bringing us here! We’ll never forget this kindness!”

 

“We, we lowly ones will take our leave now. Is this the right way to say it?”

 

“Cough, yes. Cough.”

 

“Uung!”

 

The Number Sisters tried to part from the Princess’s party with smiling faces.

 

The Princess called out to the departing wanderers.

 

“Wait. I have something important to tell you, so let’s talk slowly over a meal.”

 

“Farewell!”

 

Hana threw out a greeting so fast that one might worry she’d bite her tongue, then fled toward the exit.

 

The Princess, knowing the outcome of their escape, didn’t chase the Number Sisters and received service from her maid.

 

“The Princess said she wanted to meet her sibling, roar! And when she opened the door! In a room that had been empty, there was a bear! Growl!”

 

Olive mimicked a bear while explaining to the Remaining Party how they had encountered the Number Sisters.

 

Similarly, the sound of a bear roaring could be heard from the other side of the cave.

 

Kuuuuung!

 

A moment later, the Number Sisters returned to the lobby with dejected expressions.

 

Bears could tear people apart, but apparently couldn’t tear through the debris blocking the labyrinth exit.

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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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