Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 154

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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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154. Pest Control (2)

 

Bedbugs! Bedbugs have appeared!

 

Lavenda screamed loud enough to shake the lobby.

 

“Emergency! A Class 1 disaster has occurred!”

 

“Wh-what’s happening? Is it monsters?”

 

People rushed inside the partition wall in shock. Serena quickly wrapped Neet’s body with a cloak.

 

Lavenda’s eyes blazed fiercely as she pointed at the Numeral Sisters.

 

“These kids have bedbugs on them! We need to incinerate all their luggage and clothes!”

 

Bedbugs. Parasites that suck human blood.

 

Their bites are 100 times itchier than mosquito bites.

 

Most importantly, they’re difficult to exterminate.

 

There was a reason for the saying “burning down the house to catch bedbugs.”

 

At the mention of those terrifying bedbugs invading the lobby, goosebumps rose all over Serena’s body.

 

Various parts of her body started feeling itchy for no reason. The hand that had grabbed Neet’s cloak felt particularly ticklish.

 

“Goodness. What’s all the fuss over just bedbugs?”

 

“Just? Just bedbugs?”

 

Lavenda shuddered as if the mere thought was horrifying.

 

“This is the first time I’ve seen Lavenda act so emotional.”

 

“When parasites like bedbugs or fleas are discovered, Vieta closes establishments for a month for pest control. I heard that if they’re found again during re-inspection, it’s a three-month closure. Especially since Lavenda’s clientele were nobles, wouldn’t she be more sensitive about hygiene?”

 

“Ah, I see. Bedbugs are definitely problematic.”

 

Vieta, the continent’s premier tourist city.

 

Since it also served as a trading port, all the continent’s parasites and infectious diseases gathered and mixed together.

 

Therefore, Vieta’s citizens paid special attention to preventing infectious diseases, parasites, and pest control.

 

For Lavenda, who was born in such a Vieta and learned massage there, discovering parasites meant immediate business closure and shop shutdown.

 

Though there was no shop of Lavenda’s in the lobby, hygiene was even more important in this confined space.

 

“You all take off your clothes quickly! Everyone else, don’t come near! No approaching within a 2-meter radius! Anyone who had contact with these kids, take off your clothes too!”

 

Lavenda hesitated to push the wounded Neet into the hot spring, so she first pushed the healthy Hana and Sesi toward the hot spring.

 

“Don’t pull on the clothes! They’ll tear!”

 

“You have to pay money to undress me!”

 

“Quickly, quickly take them off! Duri, you too!”

 

Lavenda’s lavender eyes shook roughly as she saw the bear hide that Duri was wearing.

 

“Can we burn that hide?”

 

“Uuuuung!”

 

“First, you take off the hide too.”

 

“Uung!”

 

Duri, who had been sitting docilely like a well-fed bear, bared his fangs and growled when Lavenda tried to remove the hide.

 

Perhaps understanding Olive’s instruction to listen well to Lavenda, he wasn’t rough, but his refusal was clear.

 

“Wait! We’ll wash ourselves! Don’t look!”

 

“No way! Kids like you say you’ll wash but only splash water on your faces! You need to take off all your clothes including underwear and wash your hair at least ten times even if we can’t shave it bald… Kyaaaah!”

 

Lavenda, who had been driving the Numeral Sisters toward the hot spring with blazing eyes, screamed again.

 

People who had stayed 2 meters away as Lavenda instructed, fearing the bedbugs might spread, rushed over again.

 

“What’s wrong?”

 

“Th-these kids!”

 

Lavenda despaired as if nothing could be more horrifying than this.

 

“They have fleas too!”

 

Bedbugs and fleas.

 

Upon hearing the names of parasites, Olive scratched her head as if her body felt itchy for no reason.

 

“Don’t they have lice too? My body feels itchy. Damn, I didn’t catch them, did I?”

 

“Men, close your eyes or step back! You kids, take off your clothes quickly!”

 

“Uung!”

 

Lavenda was roughly undressing Duri’s dress when she dropped the clothes in shock.

 

She had seen something that shouldn’t be there between Duri’s legs.

 

“You were a boy?”

 

At this surprising news, Serena’s single eye turned toward the bear-human.

 

‘I thought he was tall and big-boned, but he was actually a boy?’

 

Since the bear hide caught attention and covered most of his face, she had thought he was a girl because he wore a skirt.

 

‘Sesi and Neet call him sister too.’

 

“Is your body male but your heart female, something like that?”

 

“No! Duri doesn’t know about such things.”

 

“Then why do they call you sister?”

 

“The caretaker said the troupe’s concept was pretty girls and made me wear a skirt.”

 

“It’s not Duri’s fault! Duri is a bear so he doesn’t know about such things! They didn’t even give him food saying he shouldn’t develop muscles!”

 

Not giving food to a growing child who eats well like a bear.

 

At this pitiful story, the expressions of people in the lobby darkened.

 

That was brief.

 

Lavenda rolled up her sleeves.

 

“You’re okay with seeing each other naked, right? Duri, take everything off except underwear. Neet can’t get in the water right now, so burn all the clothes from your luggage!”

 

“Cough! Th-the luggage!”

 

“Don’t think it’s wasteful and burn it all! That campfire never goes out, so burn it all at once!”

 

Currently, Serena and her party were trapped in the lobby.

 

If lice, bedbugs, and fleas spread and infectious diseases broke out, it would be no ordinary disaster.

 

‘Just burning the Numeral Sisters’ luggage won’t solve this. There’s a possibility they’ve already spread to the assault team members.’

 

Serena had been scratching her inexplicably itchy body ever since bedbugs were mentioned.

 

‘Maybe even to me.’

 

The princess trembled, turning pale with horror.

 

Conquering the labyrinth with bedbugs.

 

It was truly a novel kind of hell.

 

‘We can’t drag this out. We need to root it out completely. Isn’t there something good?’

 

Since the labyrinth’s products reflected people’s desires, it would likely sell something like a bug repellent that could drive away insects within a certain distance.

 

As Serena was about to search for a repellent in her left eye’s world, she remembered that she already had a similar item without needing to purchase one.

 

‘Right, the insecticide. It was effective, should I try using it?’

 

The princess took out the insecticide she had obtained on the 5th Floor.

 

It was an amazing insecticide that was harmless to humans but instantly effective on bugs.

 

“Lavenda. How about trying this insecticide?”

 

“Huh? Wouldn’t it be bad for the kids’ skin?”

 

“It’s already been tested to be harmless to humans.”

 

Right after obtaining the insecticide, even when she had sprayed it everywhere in anger, Serena and the assault team hadn’t coughed even once.

 

‘There were no skin problems either, so it should be fine.’

 

“Right, we had that! Lavenda, that’s safe even if it touches skin.”

 

“The question is whether this works on bedbugs and fleas too.”

 

Serena sprayed the insecticide on Duri’s bear hide as a test.

 

“Achoo!”

 

Duri sneezed repeatedly at the strong cinnamon scent.

 

The insecticide’s power showed immediately this time too.

 

Small bugs that had been hiding in the thick bear fur covering the bear hide crawled out and died.

 

The amount was enough to fill a basin, with only slight exaggeration.

 

“Hiiaaaauuugh!”

 

Lavenda let out a bizarre scream, shocked by the number of bugs that had been hiding in the bear hide.

 

“It’s quite effective.”

 

Serena held out the insecticide to Lavenda.

 

“I’ll leave the parasite extermination to Miss Lavenda.”

 

“Yes.”

 

Lavenda nodded with the vigor of a soldier giving a salute and took the insecticide.

 

“Miss Lavenda, it’ll be quite disgusting to look at, wouldn’t it be better if I did it, Your Highness Serena?”

 

“Setting aside Duri, they’re all girls, so it’s better for Miss Lavenda to handle it.”

 

“Just leave it to me.”

 

Lavenda clenched her fist and mercilessly sprayed insecticide on the Numeral Sisters (actually siblings).

 

“Die! Die! Dieee! Go extinct!”

 

“Aaaaah! It smells weird!”

 

“I don’t like this kind of perfume!”

 

“Woong!”

 

It seemed Neet would be excluded from the insecticide shower because of the wounds all over her body.

 

“Hmm, this much should be fine to spray. Sister Lavenda.”

 

With Grey’s permission, who seemed to know something about Neet’s condition, she was able to enjoy the insecticide shower along with her sisters.

 

Every time Lavenda sprayed the insecticide, small bugs fell in droves from the siblings’ bodies, clothes, and hair.

 

When Lavenda felt she had caught enough parasites, she drove Hana and Sesi toward the hot spring.

 

“Miss Olive, Miss Ying! Please teach these kids how to wash properly and supervise them too!”

 

“Got it~”

 

Instead of complaining or giving Lavenda trouble, Olive moved immediately.

 

No matter how bothersome, she couldn’t ignore bedbugs and fleas.

 

“Duri, you come here and take off that hide! I can’t spray insecticide on your hair if you’re wearing that!”

 

Lavenda sprayed insecticide on the bear hide as if avenging her parents’ enemy.

 

“Woong!”

 

Duri couldn’t overcome the Mysterious Stranger’s momentum and eventually took off the bear hide.

 

Serena slightly raised her eyebrows upon finally seeing Duri’s face.

 

‘Oh, an innocent beauty.’

 

Jet-black hair like the bear hide fur she had been wearing, and moist black eyes reminiscent of a baby bear.

 

Looking at just her face, Duri appeared to be an innocent beautiful girl.

 

‘The Caretaker wasn’t talking nonsense about the beautiful girl concept.’

 

Her dark, shining eyes were especially pretty.

 

It was like looking at puppy or baby bear eyes.

 

“Woooong.”

 

Duri, stripped of her hide, cried sadly like a baby bear looking for its mother.

 

“I’ll give it back if you wash.”

 

“Woong.”

 

“I’ll give you honey too if you wash completely. You know honey, right?”

 

“Woong!”

 

Lavenda generously sprayed insecticide on Duri’s hair and drove her to the hot spring.

 

Next, she thoroughly sprayed insecticide all over Neet, who couldn’t enter the hot spring because of her wounds.

 

“Now it’s time to deal with the luggage you brought.”

 

“Cough! I’ll do the luggage! I’ll spray it myself!”

 

The more destitute a wanderer, the stronger their attachment to their belongings.

 

Even without going that far, anyone would feel bad if a stranger they just met wanted to rummage through their luggage and burn it.

 

Lavenda thought for a moment, then handed the insecticide to Neet.

 

“I’ll supervise from the side.”

 

“Cough, yes.”

 

Neet carefully sprayed insecticide on the luggage.

 

As Lavenda said, clothes and fabric items were burned in the campfire, and luggage that couldn’t be burned was doused with insecticide.

 

The siblings had more items they’d gathered from the 7th Floor than things they originally carried.

 

Neet, who had been carefully spraying insecticide, stopped in front of a chest large enough for a person to fit inside.

 

“Open this too and spray insecticide inside.”

 

“Cough, just spraying the outside is fine!”

 

“What are you talking about? Bedbugs hide so well in small cracks. You need to open it and properly disinfect inside the chest too.”

 

“It’s really fine! Cough!”

 

Whether the contents of the chest were important to the siblings, Neet firmly refused.

 

“Don’t touch it!”

 

“It’s ours!”

 

“Woong!”

 

Hana, Duri, and Sesi, who were scrubbing off grime in the hot spring, looked ready to jump out naked, so Serena gestured for the insecticide.

 

“Now, watch this.”

 

Serena removed the straw attached to the side of the spray bottle and inserted it into the nozzle.

 

“This way, we can spray insecticide through the cracks of the chest.”

 

“Cough, thank you!”

 

Neet smiled brightly with her wounded face and sprayed insecticide through the chest’s cracks.

 

The first round of disinfection ended with turning the entire lobby upside down and spraying insecticide.

 

“You can’t let your guard down just because it’s finished. We need to spray insecticide once more tomorrow…”

 

The Mysterious Stranger rolled her eyes and drilled into the group that the war against bedbugs wasn’t over yet.

 

“Hmph.”

 

Lavenda brought honey to Duri, who was sadly watching the bear hide that had been washed in hot spring water and hung near the campfire to dry.

 

Behind Duri, who was eating honey with a sad expression, the now-clean Hana and Sesi knelt before Grey.

 

“Can our Neet be cured?”

 

“Please heal her!”

 

“Grey, if you have any guesses, speak up quickly. I’m curious too.”

 

What kind of disease could torment a child like this?

 

Even knowing that everyone’s attention was focused on him, Grey deliberately took his time.

 

“Hmm.”

 

“Speak quickly.”

 

When the impatient Princess urged him, the Old Man opened his mouth.

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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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