Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 168

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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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168. The Prince’s Request (2)

“I have an urgent request for Your Highness Serena.”

Prince Willow stood before Serena with a determined expression.

‘A request from the prince? What could it be? Maybe asking me to break a curse with divine power or something like that?’

All sorts of possibilities ran through Serena’s mind, but no matter how much she thought about it, she wouldn’t know what it was without hearing the answer.

“What is it? Do we need to move somewhere else?”

Since Prince Willow couldn’t leave the lobby due to his curse, in such cases, everyone except the Princess and the Prince would have to move.

“It’s fine if others hear this.”

“I see. Then speak. I’ll decide after hearing the details.”

“Lord Willow, what kind of request are you going to make? Squawk.”

“Hey! Don’t butt into your master’s conversation!”

Grey approached the prince as if asking what he was doing without telling him, but was caught by Philia.

“Your Highness Serena, you were appointed as an apostle by the Labyrinth God and can summon whoever you want from the labyrinth, right?”

“There seems to be some misunderstanding. It’s not summoning, but if there’s a connection, I can make labyrinths overlap. Luck has to follow too.”

Serena calmly lied.

‘If I don’t do this, everyone will get noisy asking me to summon people they want.’

Just look at the request Prince Willow was about to make.

‘He wants me to summon a specific person for him.’

She could roughly guess what kind of person he wanted to summon.

‘Obviously it’s his escort knight.’

“I have someone I’d like to meet, relying on that luck.”

“Who is it?”

“It’s the knight who escorted me from the Empire to Heuji.”

‘There you go. So obvious.’

The prince’s request didn’t deviate from Serena’s expectations.

This meant Serena’s response was already decided.

‘Of course I’ll refuse. Adding one more person doubles the things to worry about, and an Imperial with military power?’

Even if the party lacked military strength, this was the type she didn’t want to recruit.

Currently, there were three Imperials residing in the lobby: Count Randy, Grey, and Prince Willow.

Olive and the Number Siblings were also technically Imperial on paper, but they had no self-awareness of it and no loyalty to the state or royalty, so they were excluded.

Grey, who was young and lacked magical power, and the cursed prince couldn’t greatly participate in labyrinth conquest.

Asking to summon an escort knight just to somehow get involved in conquering Heuji’s Labyrinth.

It was a request with obvious ulterior motives that Serena had no reason to grant.

“Hmm.”

Serena didn’t bother hiding her intention to refuse the request and showed her displeasure.

“It’s not simply luck, but multiple coincidences must overlap. Are you planning to resent me for refusing an impossible request?”

“That’s not it! I brought it up because the possibility of meeting seems high! The knight’s name is Sirius!”

Prince Willow spoke rapidly like rap, perhaps worried he wouldn’t be able to say more if he was rejected.

Perhaps due to pronunciation correction training from childhood, his speech was fast but his pronunciation was crystal clear.

‘Sirius? If his surname is Black and he’s a black-haired handsome man, I might want to see him.’

“It’s Sir Sirius Alpha.”

Unfortunately, it wasn’t Black.

“After hearing Neet’s story, I concluded that if you’re close in distance right before falling into the labyrinth, there’s a high probability of falling into the same labyrinth and same floor.”

“Mm, that’s probably the case.”

“That’s why I dared to make this request. I saw Sir Sirius up close right before falling into the labyrinth.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I reported that I witnessed a group of knights right before falling into the labyrinth. Sir Sirius was also in that group of knights then. He probably joined up with the Heuji Royal Knights while searching for me around Heuji Royal Palace.”

‘Then since the knights are sticking together, wouldn’t he be safe?’

Assuming the one-in-a-hundred-thousand man Lucas was the disgrace of the Heuji Royal Knights, the minimum rank for royal knights was 3-star.

That was strong enough to protect his own life and his comrades’ lives against monsters, unless it was a very deep floor.

It was military power not worth worrying much about, but Prince Willow’s face showed urgency.

Prince Willow couldn’t bring himself to lick his lips but anxiously rubbed his fingers.

The prince’s pupils trembled slightly.

“Do you not trust your escort knight’s military power?”

“That’s not it. Actually, Sir Sirius saw me right before falling into the labyrinth. So he separated from the group he was traveling with. Perhaps.”

Prince Willow confessed the truth as if this fact had been tormenting him all along.

“Perhaps he fell into the labyrinth alone because of me. Even if he’s lucky enough to join up with other knights, he might act alone to find me. Sir Sirius is the type of person who would do that. He has a very rigid personality.”

“If it’s Sirius hyung, he’d definitely do that.”

Grey nodded and agreed with the prince’s words.

The acting of unconditionally adding ‘hyung’ or ‘noona’ to older people, believing it would make him look younger, was somewhat amusing.

“I trust Sir Sirius’s skills, so he should be fine for now. He’ll be holding out well. That’s why I want to find him quickly! Because!”

Prince Willow filled his blue-gray eyes with moisture and shouted in an unnecessarily pleasant voice to gain sympathy.

“Lady Alpha and the unborn child in her womb are desperately waiting for daddy to come home!”

The prince’s sweet voice seemed to stir people’s hearts as sighs could be heard from various places.

“Oh my.”

“Going on an overseas business trip while leaving behind a pregnant wife.”

“It’s because of me. Sir Sirius isn’t even my escort knight, but he followed me all the way to Heuji just because we’re close, leaving his wife and unborn child behind. If something happens to Sir Sirius, I…”

Prince Willow gritted his teeth and his eyes glistened with tears.

“I won’t have the face to meet Lady Alpha and the child who will be born, or perhaps has already been born!”

Prince Willow’s voice and attitude were emotionally excessive rather than rich, but perhaps due to his excellent facial acting and voice, it wasn’t cringeworthy or awkward.

“I can’t make a child who hasn’t even been born yet fatherless! Ah! Why such tragedy!”

Sighs continued from the surroundings, but the Princess wasn’t fooled.

Serena crossed her arms and looked at the prince pathetically.

‘It’s your fault.’

Wasn’t it because the escort target was wandering around alone that the escort knight was in danger?

‘Even when I ran away because I didn’t want to work, I took care of my knight!’

The knight she happened to take was Lucas, the one-in-a-hundred-thousand, so she sometimes regretted not taking her usual escort knight instead of a random passing knight.

‘I don’t like the background story either. It’s not like he’s setting up death flags.’

A newlywed pregnant wife? A suddenly arranged business trip and a disaster that occurred there?

‘And a knight with a rigid personality? Perfect for dying while saving others.’

Setting up death flags one after another before even meeting.

Serena really didn’t want to meet Sir Sirius.

Though the surname was different, even the name was ominous.

‘Rather, not encountering me might make time stop or flow slowly for that guy, increasing his survival probability.’

People who didn’t know Serena’s hypothesis were making a fuss about quickly rescuing Sir Alpha.

“Sir Alpha must be on the 5th floor!”

“Lady Serena, we were running low on medicinal herbs and poisonous plants, so we needed to go to the 5th floor anyway. How about going there while we’re at it?”

Not to mention Ralph, Count Randy subtly took the prince’s side while reading his wife’s and Serena’s expressions.

“Coo, we’re all out of honey too! Duri ate it all.”

Ralph and Lavenda seemed worried that the unborn child of the Alpha family might lose their father, stepping forward as if it were their own concern.

“Oh, Lady Lavenda!”

Prince Willow’s eyes glistened with tears, grateful that Lavenda was taking his side.

“Sir Sirius is a promising knight highly regarded in the Empire. He’ll be of great help in conquering the labyrinth.”

“That’s right, Sirius hyung is incredibly strong!”

Serena couldn’t hide her reluctant expression.

‘Being strong makes me dislike it more. He’s not my sword.’

What’s the point of drawing a strong sword when it’s someone else’s sword?

‘This damn gacha system really sucks. How is it that even though I summoned them, they don’t follow my orders?’

In novels she read in her previous life, summoned beings showed excessive loyalty, worried about even a hair on the summoner being hurt, and created flower paths using enemy blood as fertilizer.

Serena’s reality was harsh beyond measure, and far from blood fertilizer, she had to constantly worry about being stabbed by the sword of someone she had barely managed to recruit.

Though she found it quite disagreeable, she couldn’t outright refuse a request from an imperial prince who had even sold his emotions to make it.

Serena sighed and nodded her head.

“I’ll ask the god for now, but don’t get your hopes up.”

“I express my gratitude! Thank you so much, Your Highness Serena!”

Perhaps his worry for the knight wasn’t empty words, as the prince’s face brightened with color and he kept bowing his head repeatedly.

“Tell me about Sir Sirius Alpha in detail.”

Since she had decided to attempt it anyway, Serena thought she should show sincerity and quietly listened to information about this person called Sirius Alpha.

Sirius Alpha was, to put it simply, like Philia was to Serena for the prince.

‘A friend he’s played with since childhood.’

The fact that Sirius was 2 years older than the prince was also similar to Serena and Philia’s relationship.

‘If I think of Philia wandering the labyrinth alone, I’d be worried too. I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night.’

Thinking this way, Serena’s heart softened.

The Princess moved toward the teleportation room, leaving behind her maid’s whining sounds, and asked Count Randy.

“Count, do you know Sir Alpha well?”

“I’m acquainted with him in passing, but I don’t know him well. Actually, Lord Willow treats me kindly because he has a sociable personality, but we didn’t interact frequently. I was busy with research. Lord Willow would visit me occasionally.”

Though it was a short sentence, the Guide who instantly grasped the underlying situation raised one corner of her mouth.

“Oh, this is that thing. The prince got super jealous so he visited often, and dropped hints but Count-nim didn’t catch on at all.”

“Jealous? What are you talking about, Olive?”

“Ah~ never mind if you don’t know.”

Mark Landriole, the genius alchemist that the Empire boasts of and the continent envies.

There are even rumors that the imperial emperor favors him more than most princes.

An older brother figure who receives recognition from both his grandfather who is stingy with praise and his father who is the continent’s greatest authority figure. And he’s only 4 years older.

Count Randy just hadn’t noticed, but he was the perfect target for admiration or jealousy.

“You really had no idea. They say couples grow to resemble each other. You must have had similar personalities from the start~”

The group moved to the 5th floor along with Count Randy, who would show question marks even when told directly.

The 5th floor of Heuji’s Labyrinth, where the scent of grass and flowers was always fresh no matter when you visited.

Though the magic stone embedded in Serena’s staff was emitting fresh air, it still couldn’t compete with the air filled with the energy of vegetation.

Count Randy spread out his magic map, confirmed the locations where the desired plants were, and planned their route.

Since the honey was near the teleportation room, they decided to collect it last.

The first place they visited was the Central Garden’s flower clock.

Count Randy carefully collected flowers that were gorgeous and beautiful while simultaneously harboring deadly poison.

“This flower exists in our lord’s palace too, but it was a poisonous plant. I didn’t know.”

“There are many poisonous plants among the flowers grown in gardens. That’s why you must be careful not to eat the flowers, fruits, leaves, or water from flower vases. There have actually been people who died of poisoning after drinking water from flower vases because they found it troublesome to fetch water.”

“Even without poison, they probably would have died from food poisoning anyway.”

The next plant the alchemist was picking was a poisonous herb that could cause hives just from touching it, so the group had to wait quietly.

Ralph seemed curious about how pretty flowers could harbor poison and asked various questions.

“Is it possible to build poison resistance by eating small amounts of weak poison gradually?”

‘Oh ho.’

Serena’s ears perked up with interest.

However, soon the alchemist’s exasperated voice dimmed the young knight’s bright, sparkling eyes.

“When antidotes exist, why would you do such a foolish thing?”

“I see. I’m sorry for asking a strange question.”

“Count-nim, why are you crushing the knight’s spirit like that?”

“It’s because young people who read heroic tales and adventure stories somewhere occasionally come in after eating poison. Some poisons never allow resistance to develop, and anyway, it’s dangerous so you must never try it.”

The alchemist in a certain novel Serena had read in her previous life fed poison to someone he liked, claiming he would help them build poison resistance.

That had left a strange impression on her, making her worry that Count Randy, being the same type of alchemist, might also feed poison to Philia, but fortunately Count Randy was a sensible alchemist.

Philia would be able to cleanly drink antidotes without needing to painstakingly build poison resistance.

‘Is this the difference between someone who can’t even confess his feelings and a married man who’s already wed?’

Serena pretended to admire the flower clock while looking around and narrowed her eyes.

‘Why isn’t anyone here?’

The Princess had pressed the draw button as soon as she arrived at the 5th floor.

Quite some time had passed, but there was no sign of people, let alone monsters.

‘Since I drew from the central garden, they shouldn’t be in other gardens. Are they captured by dryads and buried in the ground?’

The dryads’ habitat was also included in the collection route.

She was thinking she should look carefully in the soil when they entered the open field with enemies, when Olive, who had been playing by picking non-poisonous flowers, suddenly spoke up.

“Why don’t you stop being so obvious about watching and just come out?”

Ying silently aimed her crossbow at the empty thicket.

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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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