Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 18

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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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18. The One in a Hundred Thousand (1)

“You there, guard!”

“Halt! Who goes there!”

Normally, she would have stopped Philia. However, Serena’s condition wasn’t good right now.

She had definitely died. After dying, she watched the remaining party members die and saw Heuji City get swallowed by the labyrinth.

‘What was all that? Did I see things?’

It was far too vivid to be a hallucination.

‘Then what? Did I regress?’

The memory and pain of having her eye forcibly plucked out was clear. In her empty left eye socket, a prosthetic and artificial eye filled the space instead of the eye Serena was born with.

‘Regression? Really?’

The world spun around her. It would take time to collect herself. At the very least, she wished they wouldn’t make such a racket around her.

“How dare you! This is Grand Duchess Pakling, the only granddaughter of His Majesty Harold II and eldest daughter of His Highness Crown Prince Kipan! Show proper respect!”

“I have committed a mortal sin!”

“A princess? Really?”

“Her Highness is in critical condition, so hurry and fetch a doctor!”

“We don’t even know where we are, and suddenly you want us to find a doctor.”

“There are people! Please help us!”

The three of them were already frantic, and now Lavenda came running over, adding one more to the chaos.

‘Ugh, so noisy.’

The commotion around her made her dizziness worse. Serena gestured for them to shut up. Philia made an even bigger fuss.

“Lady Serena! Are you alright? Does your head hurt? Quickly! Prepare a place for her to lie down!”

“Oh my, Princess, Countess? Is the Princess injured?”

“It seems so! Quickly call a doctor or priest!”

“Should I bring a cart?”

“Everyone calm down! In disaster evacuation situations, follow my instructions!”

The four of them chattering was as loud as souls wailing in the labyrinth. Serena finally couldn’t stand it and shouted.

“You’re all too loud! Be quiet!”

At the princess’s command, everyone shut their mouths. Only one person, Countess Randy, covered her mouth and whispered softly.

“Her Highness the Crown Princess was also sensitive to surrounding noise… Could it be…?”

“It’s not that, so you be quiet too!”

“Yes!”

‘Phew, good. Now it’s quiet.’

Serena shooed away the clingy Philia and sat on the edge of the fountain. Suddenly everything came rushing at her like a flood—no, this was bigger than a flood. It came crashing down like a burst dam, and she couldn’t collect her thoughts.

‘I definitely died. And I met a higher being. When I said I wanted to help the people trapped in the labyrinth because I felt sorry for them, it plucked out my eye.’

Serena touched around her left eye. The texture of the leather eyepatch felt both unfamiliar and familiar.

Serena slowly removed the eyepatch. She squeezed both eyes shut and then opened them. Only her right eye illuminated the world.

‘It would be nice if there was a mirror.’

An artificial eye filled the space in her empty left socket. Though she couldn’t see it, the sensation of something being there was both strange and familiar.

‘I heard that without an eye, the bone structure gradually deforms. That’s why they put in artificial eyes or prosthetics.’

As Serena kept touching around her left eye, Philia slowly approached.

“Lady Serena, please don’t be too heartbroken.”

“Heartbroken?”

To Philia, it must have looked like her master was sad about having only one eye.

‘That’s strange.’

If this was the Philia that Serena knew, she should be crying and making a fuss about her master suddenly missing an eye. But Philia was treating Serena normally.

Since Philia had approached, Serena asked her.

“Philia.”

“Yes.”

“Since when have I been one-eyed?”

“Lady Serena…”

Philia trailed off with a pitying expression before answering.

“Ever since His Highness the Crown Prince accidentally struck your face.”

“In my memory, I had both eyes intact.”

‘Though I have plenty of memories of being hit by father.’

It was common for a drug addict to beat his family while high. After getting hit a few times, Serena had stopped approaching him.

“*Sob* Lady Serena. You’re badly hurt, aren’t you? A doctor needs to see you quickly.”

Philia cried pitifully while embracing Serena. Serena leaned her face against Philia’s soft, warm chest and tried to understand the situation.

‘The people are the same. Philia, Lavenda, Ralph, Krom.’

The people gathered in the lobby were identical to Serena’s memory.

‘Wait a minute.’

Serena was startled as she recalled memories of having both eyes intact. Something was coming to mind.

Serena definitely had both eyes intact. Such a person had suddenly lost one eye. Since the window to the world had suddenly become half, her body should have been unable to adapt.

But Serena’s body was fine, as if only half the window had been open from the beginning.

“Philia, you really don’t remember? I was never one-eyed. The one-eyed one is Richard.”

“Duke Oren? Yes. Everyone praises how both of you are handsome and beautiful even with your eyes covered.”

“So the one-eyed one isn’t me, it’s Richard…”

Recalling her annoyingly handsome cousin’s appearance made her head hurt even more.

‘Ah, damn it. I like having fun the most.’

Trying to use her brain when she never intended to use it her whole life was truly exhausting.

‘If I really regressed, then the god… it must be a god, right?’

It must be something god-like.

‘I guess it changed people’s memories for me. Or maybe I’m really crazy.’

To immediately believe she had regressed, her mother’s existence bothered her.

Serena’s mother suffered from severe madness. Perhaps because of that, even when something supernatural happened, it was hard to accept the facts at face value.

‘Doesn’t schizophrenia onset around my age?’

The deceased Crown Princess was also normal at Serena’s age. She heard that the madness began when she married and became pregnant with Serena, then gradually worsened.

‘Can I meet that being again? It seems to have some connection with that statue.’

Serena glared at the ugly statue with crimson eyes. Only her glaring eye stung.

Feeling like she was overworking her only eye, she closed it and opened her left eye to massage it, when she saw something.

‘What is it?’

Serena was surprised and opened her right eye. Then whatever she had seen disappeared. Serena closed her right eye again and opened her left eye.

“What the hell.”

The princess was shocked enough to curse out loud.

When she opened her left eye that couldn’t reflect anything, she saw something absolutely unbelievable.

“A gacha?”

Without fancy decorations or character illustrations. A gacha window more modest than most indie games flickered in the air.

“Is this real?”

When Serena thought about wanting to touch the gacha window, a finger-shaped cursor appeared above it.

“Haha.”

That wasn’t all.

[Your first draw is provided for free.]

Such a notification message flew by like an announcement. The notification window disappeared when Serena thought about wanting to dismiss it. The finger-shaped cursor settled on the gacha button.

As if emphasizing the first free draw, the gacha button’s color was different from before. It glowed golden.

“No way, really.”

Serena was so dumbfounded that she closed both eyes. Then the gacha window disappeared.

“Why is she acting like that?”

“I think she hit her head.”

“How dare you! Quickly fetch a doctor!”

“We’re sorry. We don’t know where this place is either.”

She could understand how suddenly getting angry, constantly muttering to herself, and laughing while staring into space must look to them.

Due to her mother’s situation and other matters, she usually paid special attention to her behavior, but this time she couldn’t help it.

Serena took a deep breath and opened only her left eye again. The gacha window had returned.

First draw free, a sparkling golden gacha button. It was still there.

‘Since it says it’s free. Let me try pressing it.’

There was no explanation of what exactly she would be drawing, but it said it was free, didn’t it? Surely enemies or misfortune wouldn’t come out.

When Serena thought about drawing, a finger-shaped cursor pressed the gacha button. The button that had been shining golden for the first free draw returned to ordinary gray.

There were no flashy effects, music, or explanations of what she had drawn. None of the presentations that should be essential in any game with gacha were there.

‘What? Is this just an illusion? Am I really following mother?’

What if Serena had actually been one-eyed from the beginning and had never met a higher being presumed to be a god? What if all of this was Serena’s dream or fantasy, and she was actually lying in a hospital bed?

As if to ease Serena’s worries, something unexpected happened.

“Princess, Count Randy’s wife! Are you safe!”

A knight in plate armor and surcoat came running breathlessly into the lobby. He wasn’t wearing a helmet because so many people came and went through the Royal Palace that faces needed to be checked.

A knight. He existed in Serena’s memory, but at the same time didn’t.

Someone who had escorted the princess until just before falling into the labyrinth, but whom she hadn’t seen since the earthquake.

Count Lucas Birun prostrated himself before Serena.

“Are you alright?”

Instead of answering, Serena put strength in her lower abdomen and shouted.

“Status window!”

***

“Status window! King status window! System! Options! Stats! Skills! Map! Map! Save! Load!”

“Sob sob.”

“What else is there… Ah, right! Save! Return! Affection! Character dictionary! Vocabulary! Settings! Notebook!”

“Sob sob sob.”

Suddenly an earthquake had occurred, and when she woke up, she was in an unfamiliar place. She had thought it was fortunate that she could at least be with her beloved master, but her master’s condition was strange.

She kept shouting strange words and winking at empty space. It was even more bizarre because she was opening the eye that couldn’t be seen.

Philia wept pitifully. Everyone earnestly comforted Huji’s greatest beauty, who was steeped in sorrow.

“She must have temporarily fallen into a state of confusion from shock.”

“She’ll get better after sleeping.”

“She’ll be fine!”

Just as Philia was about to gain strength from everyone’s comfort.

“Shop! Store! Huh? Right! That’s it! I knew there would be more! That’s how it should be!”

Serena closed her eyes and pointed at empty space. Philia shed pearl-like tears drop by drop.

“Count Randy’s wife, please calm down a little. Do you know what happened?”

“Sob, I don’t know. We were traveling by carriage when an earthquake occurred, and I fell together with Lady Serena…”

When Philia couldn’t calm down at all, Lucas stepped forward.

“Then please stay by the Princess’s side for a moment, Count’s wife.”

Lucas politely escorted Philia to the fountain. Philia quietly pressed her body against her master, but her master, distracted by something invisible, pushed Philia away as if she were bothersome.

“Sob.”

Philia dabbed her tears with a handkerchief while waiting for Serena to calm down. The Crown Princess’s condition hadn’t always been bad either – it alternated between good and bad.

If she waited, Serena would calm down enough to have a conversation. She should stay still until then.

Philia watched Lucas and the other people with tear-filled eyes.

Lucas gathered the people and lined them up in a row.

“Guard. State your name and affiliation.”

“Loyalty! I, I’m Han Son Han Son! I belong to Huji Chen Guard Unit, 7th District!”

“Next. Old woman!”

“It’s Krom. I sell sculptures and toys.”

“Next!”

“I’m Lavenda Puri. I came from Vieta.”

“Vieta? Are you a foreigner?”

“Yes.”

“Can you prove your identity?”

“I have a passport!”

Lavenda hurriedly pulled out her passport. Lucas examined the passport she offered and returned it.

“Next question. Does anyone know where this place is?”

“Don’t know.”

“Answer in the order you stated your names. Guard first.”

“Yes! I don’t know!”

“Don’t know!”

“I don’t know!”

Everyone said they had felt an earthquake and woken up in this unknown location, but Lucas kept asking the same things repeatedly.

With the repeated questions, the backs and necks of the people standing in line became straighter, and they could be seen growing increasingly tense.

Philia blinked her watery blue eyes and thought.

‘He’s a bit high-handed.’

If Serena had seen this, she would have exclaimed whether that was just “a bit,” but Philia didn’t know.

Huji’s greatest beauty lowered her long eyelashes and just waited for her master to quickly come to her senses.

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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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