Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 177

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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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177. Vault Robbing is Fun

The 24th floor of the 7th layer of Heuji’s Labyrinth still bore traces of Olive’s rampage everywhere.

Some dolls remained exactly as she remembered them, while others wore only underwear.

Some dolls were completely naked. The dolls’ crotches were smooth just as the Guide had said.

Serena opened the wallet of a nearby doll just in case. It was completely empty, only dust flying out.

“The clothes have been restored, but the money hasn’t been restored yet.”

“The jewelry seems to be the same. What a shame.”

The two expressed disappointment at the restoration speed and entered the shop that seemed likely to have the most abundant vault.

It was a shop that sold precious metal jewelry.

The shop was completely empty because Olive had swept through it.

Not only the product displays but even the counter was clean without a single shiny object.

The vault that should have been securely placed in the back of the shop was now in the center of the store. It seemed the Guide had dragged it out to open it.

“It really is a password input type vault.”

Looking at the vault that required turning dials to match a seven-digit password, Serena sighed.

‘How am I supposed to know the password?’

Her brow furrowed involuntarily. The Princess smoothed her brow with her fingers to prevent wrinkles and looked around.

‘If this were a game, there would be hints nearby, but this isn’t a game.’

Even the genius alchemist seemed at a loss trying to deduce the password without hints.

Count Randy, who had been crouching in front of the vault, stood up.

“I have no idea.”

“That’s obvious.”

“Just in case, I should search the staff dolls. They might have written the password in a notebook or ledger.”

Serena was about to say who would boldly write down a vault password when memories from her past life came to mind and she closed her mouth.

‘I did write computer passwords on post-it notes and stick them next to the monitor.’

Even with strict monitoring of employee access for security, people would open doors without hesitation when someone said they forgot their ID card today. That was security.

Just as human desires are endless and people repeat the same mistakes, human complacency is endless and the world runs more haphazardly than one thinks.

“Oh, what about that painting?”

The alchemist’s gaze, who had stood up to investigate the counter and staff dolls, fixed on a painting hanging on the wall.

“Do you know that painting?”

“I thought so before, but I think I’ve seen it somewhere.”

The painting was an ordinary landscape.

Though well-painted, to Serena’s eyes, which had developed refined taste living as a princess, it looked like a painting that was merely technically well-executed.

‘Good craftsmanship but lacking artistry and originality.’

Count Randy, who had suggested searching the staff dolls himself, was now observing the painting hanging on the shop wall.

‘There might be hints in the painting.’

Serena personally searched through the staff doll at the counter. A notebook came out from the doll’s clothes.

The Princess’s hand that opened the notebook went to the back of her neck.

[Vault Password: 7777777]

“This is way too lazy!”

“What’s wrong? Oh my, this is the password!”

Normally he would have praised the Princess, but even Count Randy fell silent upon seeing the password, unable to speak.

“W-well, we found it, so isn’t that good enough?”

Count Randy crouched in front of the vault again and entered the password.

The heavy vault door opened, revealing its contents.

“Money and gold bars. Silver bars.”

“There are also uncut gemstones that need processing.”

The vault contained a large amount of Labyrinth coins, gold and silver bars smaller than what Count Randy had obtained from treasure chests, and small pouches containing uncut gemstones that needed processing.

“Can we buy magic stones with this?”

“Barely enough to buy one.”

“There’s less in the vault than I expected.”

Despite the lax security, the amount of Labyrinth coins in the vault was less than expected.

‘Or is this normal? How would I know what kind of sales a shop like this makes?’

A commoner in her past life, a princess in her reincarnation.

Serena had lived at both extremes and didn’t know how the middle class lived.

She had heard in class that 1 gold was the monthly living expense for an ordinary family of four, but even this seemed unbelievable.

‘How can I trust statistics provided by nobles? They probably calculated it like bus fare being 80 won, right? How dare you! A commoner wanting new clothes! You should only buy clothes once a year! Like that.’

The genius alchemist was equally ignorant about ordinary shop sales.

How would a princess and an alchemist, who weren’t tax collectors, know the sales of a jewelry shop whose main customers were the nouveau riche?

The Princess and the Imperial Count tilted their heads at the smaller-than-expected reward while diligently collecting the vault contents.

The next place they headed to was a smaller precious metals shop right next door.

The hint for this vault’s password was on the calendar. The shop owner’s child’s birthday was the password.

“Fortunately, it’s easier than expected.”

“Indeed.”

The second shop’s vault yielded five times more Labyrinth coins than the first shop’s vault.

The amount of gold and silver bars was also 1.5 times more.

“I guess this place is set to have better business.”

As Serena smiled and swept the Labyrinth coins into her subspace bag, Count Randy suddenly stood up.

“Ah!”

“What’s wrong?”

“I remembered!”

“What?”

“That painting! That’s not a painting, it’s a vault!”

“What?”

The two hurriedly swept up the vault contents and returned to the first shop.

“Yes, this painting! This isn’t a painting but a vault installed on the wall disguised as a frame. There was a trading company that sold such vaults among those dealing with Landriole Workshop. I remember clearly because it was recommended!”

Count Randy spoke rapidly in excitement and touched the picture frame.

The frame didn’t move and seemed stuck to the wall, not budging at all.

“Look at this. Isn’t the frame stuck tight to the wall? If you knock on the wall, only this part sounds different. They dug into the wall, installed the vault, and disguised the vault door as a picture frame.”

“Oh, then how do we open it?”

“…”

The alchemist, who had been speaking rapidly in excitement, fell silent.

“Count?”

“Th-that is.”

Count Randy seemed embarrassed by his excitement and couldn’t look directly at the Princess, avoiding her gaze.

“You press the painting, but the area you need to press is set by the owner when installing the vault…”

In other words, he didn’t know now.

Serena shrugged her shoulders.

“Let’s look for hints.”

“Yes, we should.”

The two searched through all the dolls in the shop but couldn’t find any significant hints.

They also investigated the shop drawers, walls, and floor, but it was the same.

A considerable amount of time had passed subjectively, but there were no results. The Princess pondered.

‘Wouldn’t it be better to open other vaults in this time?’

If the shop were intact, she would search properly, but after Olive had turned it upside down and it was crudely restored, it was unclear whether there were hints or not.

Serena looked around the shop interior that the Guide had turned upside down and thought.

It was a mess with cut wire mesh and broken glass from taking out jewelry.

‘If there were just crime scene tape and human outline drawings here, it would be a complete crime scene.’

Since everything had been swept away, it was indeed a crime scene.

‘What color was crime scene tape again? I’ve forgotten everything. Were body outlines white or yellow?’

Investigating traces at a crime scene is a tradition of horror games and mystery games.

‘When opening safes or locked doors, if there were no hints, you had to use tools. Sprinkling chalk or pencil powder on the number pad-.’

Thinking up to that point, Serena glared at the painting.

‘Could it be here too?’

There was nothing to lose by trying. Serena called Count Randy.

“Count, do you happen to have chalk?”

“Here it is. Where will you use it, ah!”

Count Randy immediately understood the Princess’s intention without any explanation and took out chalk to make powder.

The Count sprinkled chalk powder on the painting and blew on it to remove the excess powder.

Powder remained on part of the painting.

“I thought it wouldn’t work since dolls don’t have oil on their hands, but it does.”

“Haha, I also thought we had nothing to lose.”

The painting needed to be pressed 3 times. With not many possible combinations, the safe opened in an instant.

The Princess and alchemist’s mouths fell open as they opened the safe door disguised as a picture frame.

“Ooh! This really was a safe!”

The safe contained large processed gemstones, gold and silver bars in amounts ten times what they found in the first safe, and pouches of gold coins.

Expensive jewelry was stored separately in cases.

“So there were few gold coins because they were all collected here.”

“I’ll take care of the gems and jewelry.”

Count Randy carefully wrapped the large gemstones and finished accessories in soft cloth or kept them in cases as he put them in his spatial bag to prevent damage.

Serena counted the gold coins beside him. The alchemist smiled with satisfaction after confirming the total amount.

“With this much, we can buy about 4 high-grade magic stones.”

“We could buy up to 3 herbs, right? How many magic stones do you expect?”

“Well, I hope we can keep buying them.”

It was frustrating to have money but not be able to buy things, but high-grade magic stones were originally that kind of item. Even with money, you couldn’t obtain them if you lacked political power.

At least Count Randy and Serena had both wealth and power, making it easier to obtain them.

Vending machines that sold items as long as you had money were more generous than those outside the labyrinth.

“If the vending machine worked outside the labyrinth too, it would be amazing.”

“If only the exit would open, it would be amazing enough even if it only worked in the labyrinth.”

Serena and Count Randy chatted amicably, slightly excited.

“This is our first time robbing a safe, but aren’t we doing well?”

“Indeed we are.”

With only Count Randy present, Serena felt at ease and showed her emotions as she laughed.

‘Olive always bragged about proving she had the makings of a thief. Even I, with royal blood, have talent for thievery?’

Come to think of it, her sibling Seraph had higher aptitude as a thief than as a prince.

‘Maybe I too…’

Serena suspected that she herself might have higher aptitude as a thief than as a mage or princess.

Huaim’s ancestors were heroes among heroes who defeated monsters, founded a nation, and even married gods to pass divine blood to their descendants, so why was one of the four remaining descendants a delinquent, two were good at thievery, and the remaining one was a drug addict?

‘Nothing lasts forever. After a thousand years, the hero’s blood has thinned.’

As Serena nodded to herself in arbitrary understanding, Count Randy called her.

“Lady Serena.”

The laughter disappeared from his voice that had been tinged with mirth, and it trembled slightly.

“The sky is strange.”

Serena looked up at the sky.

The blue sky with occasional white clouds drifting by looked slightly darker.

“Count.”

“Yes.”

“I’m not sure if it’s just my imagination, but doesn’t the sky look a bit dark?”

“It’s not your imagination. Look over there.”

Serena followed Count Randy’s gaze to the western sky.

Part of the western sky was yellow and red.

Since they had stayed on the 24th Floor for a long time, sunset wouldn’t be strange, but on the 24th Floor, it was strange.

“Is time flowing now?”

“I don’t know. When I came here with Grey before, we stayed much longer than now, but it remained daytime.”

Serena checked the street sign number just in case.

‘It’s still 7th Street, right?’

Though she couldn’t understand why time had started flowing, it was dangerous to stay like this.

“We should go to the 25th Floor and rejoin the others.”

“Yes, let’s do that.”

Serena and Count Randy headed toward the 25th Floor of Heuji’s Labyrinth with quick steps.

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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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