Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 186

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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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186. A Disciple Respects Their Master

‘I must protect Lady Serena!’

While reluctantly accompanying Duke Oren, her already queasy stomach began to ache as if melting upon hearing news of Stollen’s betrayal.

Countess Nex ignored the stomach pain and pressed her fire-spewing hand against Duke Oren’s face.

‘I can only use a little mana and couldn’t cast the spell properly, but this much fire should be enough!’

She probably couldn’t kill Duke Oren. She wasn’t prepared enough for that.

But since she aimed properly at his face, it should deal some damage.

‘Eyelids have thin skin. If the heat transfers, his eyes will be injured. Then I can buy some time.’

The flames escaped Countess Nex’s control and burned her own hand as well.

It hurt 100 times, 1000 times more than her queasy stomach, but the Countess didn’t withdraw the fire.

As if rewarding Countess Nex’s self-sacrificing spirit, Olive, who had finished assessing the situation, shouted.

“Attack for now!”

Even if the opponent was a legendary Sword Master, could he endure having his face seared with fire?

Here, it was better to kill the enemy while they were confused rather than run away.

Words and actions must always be consistent.

The Guide threw a dagger while shouting to attack, and the Archer fired a pre-loaded bolt.

Count Alpha swung his fearsome double-edged axe in place of Ralph, who couldn’t move as he had to protect Serena and Count Randy.

The dagger flying toward Duke Oren was deflected by another dagger that flew in from the side.

“You can’t ignore me!”

Pigtail, who had thrown the dagger, announced her presence with a cheerful voice.

Crash!

Count Alpha’s double-edged axe was blocked by the Heuji Royal Knight’s shield. Pink hair emerged from behind the shield.

“If you want to face His Grace the Duke, you’ll have to get past me first!”

“Grrrk! Stollen Baker! You pathetic fool! Huh?”

Countess Nex was suffering from the pain in her hand and stomach while shouting the betrayer knight’s name when she was startled.

Duke Oren’s hand had grasped the Countess’s wrist that was spewing fire.

The traitorous rebel gently held Countess Nex’s slender wrist so it wouldn’t break, then carefully removed the mage’s hand from his face with controlled strength.

It was an unbelievably calm movement for someone whose face had just been burning with fire.

Richard drew the sword at his waist.

Countess Nex expected the sword to cut her and closed her eyes, but the Heuji Royal Family’s treasured sword blocked a bolt instead of human flesh.

Richard blocked all of the Archer’s rapidly fired bolts with a calm face, despite the crossbow not being automatic.

That’s right.

A calm face.

Richard’s face was clean without a single trace of being singed by flames.

Even his pale eyelashes were pristine as if they had never touched fire.

“How, how are you unharmed?”

Countess Nex was shocked and shook off Richard’s hand holding her wrist, stepping backward.

Richard let the Countess go more easily than expected.

“I definitely used magic though?”

Countess Nex looked back and forth in shock between her own hand, which was partially blackened and partially red and swollen with blisters everywhere, and Richard’s face without a single burned hair.

“Countess. This isn’t the time for that. Let me treat you first.”

Serena took out a high-grade potion and poured it on the Countess’s hand. The red parts healed from the burns, but the blackened parts didn’t heal even with the high-grade potion.

“How, how is this possible? Why are you unharmed?”

The Countess was so surprised she seemed to forget the pain in her hand, only repeating “how is this possible?”

Pigtail also seemed unable to understand the situation and just readied her weapon instead of fighting in earnest. Stollen wasn’t surprised and only frowned.

“Well.”

Richard always ignored what anyone other than Serena said, but perhaps because Countess Nex had directly called herself a comrade, Duke Oren’s lips moved.

“At some point, I stopped burning easily.”

Though the preparation was insufficient, it was a flame created with the royal mage’s best effort. The flame was intense enough to blacken even the mage’s own hand.

Countess Nex couldn’t take her eyes off Richard’s clean face.

“Did you receive… divine protection or something?”

Richard burst into hearty laughter.

“Haha. That might be it. If you see the same scene over 100 times, they might grant protection out of boredom.”

The hearty laughter, humble for his status, gradually transformed into mockery.

“The mercy given by the great ones above is truly dazzling.”

Though he praised the gods with his mouth, Richard’s expression was one of ridicule.

Everyone was shocked by the blasphemy that would be hard to hear even as a drunkard’s rambling in a world where gods actually existed.

Then, the betrayer knight drew his sword and approached Serena and Countess Nex.

“Did you see? The protection given by the great ones above to Heuji’s rightful ruler.”

‘Why is he acting like this? Didn’t he see Richard just mock the gods? Is his brain modifying information or something?’

Serena focused on the traitor Stollen rather than Richard, whose words would diminish her fighting spirit if she understood them out of pity.

It was also actually dangerous since Stollen was drawing his sword and approaching.

“One who dared attack their lord. I shall execute you.”

Stollen tried to attack Countess Nex. Countess Nex trembled with betrayal even more severely than Serena.

“Stollen! Not anyone else, but you, you, you’re drawing your sword against me?”

As Ralph and Count Alpha quickly positioned themselves to protect the two ladies, an unexpected sword touched Stollen’s neck.

The pink-haired betrayer knight was flustered seeing the sharp blade touching his neck.

“Your Grace the Duke?”

“Don’t attack my comrade.”

Serena wanted to ignore Richard if possible, but this matter was impossible to ignore, so she asked back.

“Comrade?”

Hadn’t Countess Nex just enthusiastically seared Richard’s face while burning her own hand?

Had his brain developed holes from dying so many times?

Richard smiled kindly. It was completely different from when he mocked the gods.

“Shouldn’t we overlook a comrade’s betrayal a few times?”

“What nonsense are you spouting? How can someone who betrays be a comrade?”

She was so dumbfounded that her thoughts came straight out of her mouth. Richard shyly smiled at Serena’s rebuke and shrugged his shoulders.

“Right? Strange. I think the protagonists in adventure tales I read as a child overlooked their comrades’ betrayals.”

“I am not that traitor’s comrade!”

Countess Nex desperately denied it, not wanting to be misunderstood.

“We only met in the labyrinth and traveled together! I didn’t even know His Majesty had passed away until just now! I don’t know about Stollen’s betrayal either! Ugh!”

Countess Nex clutched her solar plexus with her uninjured hand and suffered. Serena comforted her master whose mental strength had been too severely depleted in a short time.

“I know. I also know that the Countess attacked the traitor with self-sacrificing resolve. Don’t worry.”

Serena sent Countess Nex behind the sofa and faced Richard directly while screaming internally.

The Princess’s right eye and the Duke’s left eye. The noble orange eyes of the Heuji Royal Family clashed.

“You heard, right? I’m taking Countess Nex with me, so you can get lost now.”

Since words alone seemed insufficient, she also threw the paper she had kept in her pocket to show through action.

Richard looked at the paper with ‘get lost’ written in his cousin’s handwriting and chuckled.

Then he lowered his eyebrows and made a pitiful expression.

“That won’t do. Countess Nex is someone I dra—”

Richard was about to say ‘drew’ but changed the word when he saw Serena’s eyebrows twitch uncomfortably.

“She’s my comrade that I chose.”

‘This bastard also did the person drawing.’

Richard could use all the divine protection Serena received from the Labyrinth God.

Everything including the teleportation room, person drawing and shop, and even the regression that returned him to the point when he touched the statue upon death.

“That Imperial Prince who’s your fiancé candidate wasn’t bad either, but he seemed too unlucky.”

Richard mentioned the Imperial sunfish, then looked at the frail middle-aged lady trembling behind Serena.

“Countess Nex, was it? She’s your magic tutor, right? Since she can talk about you and use magic, I really want to make her my comrade.”

‘This is dangerous.’

Serena clicked her tongue inwardly.

‘Richard is more persistent than I thought.’

The usual Richard would have given up the moment Serena said ‘Countess Nex is my person.’

But that Richard was being stubborn.

Whether Serena allowed it or not, regardless of his own intentions, wasn’t he ready to forcibly take Countess Nex away?

‘I can’t stop him with force, so I need to persuade him with words. What should I say to convince that madman?’

Usually Richard would give up immediately when Serena said she didn’t like something, so no other persuasion methods came to mind.

“Your Grace! You mustn’t! The Countess intends to kill you!”

Shullen shouted something. Both Serena and Richard ignored the traitorous knight.

Serena emphasized once more that she didn’t like it.

“I’m going to make Countess Nex my companion. Why don’t you take those people who follow you around because they like you and get lost?”

“Those people aren’t my companions. I want companions too.”

Richard spoke in a coaxing tone, like an adult telling a young sibling that toys should be shared and played with together.

It was so irritating that Serena ground her teeth.

‘How do I drive him away? Countess Nex is vulnerable to stress – if she travels with him, her stomach will dissolve and she’ll die.’

The Princess looked back worriedly at her magic tutor, who had lived on stomach medicine throughout teaching her magic and increased her stomach medicine dosage when the magic lessons were interrupted.

Countess Nex was in a pitiful state, her usually neatly pinned-up hair disheveled and tangled as she treated the wounds on her hands.

Countess Nex sent Serena a desperate look. It was a pleading gaze asking her not to abandon her.

The Countess was vulnerable to stress and always had unkempt clothing due to being absorbed in magical research, but having suffered in the labyrinth, she looked even more shabby today.

Gone was the simple dress fitted to her thin frame, replaced by loose clothes that didn’t fit at all and shoes sized by wearing multiple pairs of socks. None of these were Countess Nex’s original belongings.

‘Did she change clothes on the 7th floor?’

Her master, already gaunt with no flesh on her bones, had somehow become even more impoverished-looking after whatever hardships she’d endured in the labyrinth.

Serena changed her approach like a true reincarnated person.

To persuade someone being unreasonable, simple is best.

“Countess Nex is a proper noblewoman of good character, enough to serve as my magic tutor. It would be difficult for her to travel with men without other female companions. Even if relatives travel together, a nephew who points a sword at his aunt is worse than a stranger.”

Richard seemed not to have expected this kind of persuasion, as he opened his one eye wide.

“Certainly. That would be uncomfortable. Actually, we stopped by the 7th floor because of Countess Nex’s clothes. I see. It must have been very uncomfortable.”

Pointing out gender had a better effect than Serena had expected.

Though indifferent to others, he seemed to intend to show consideration for those he took as companions, as Richard recalled and apologized for the rudeness he had shown Countess Nex.

“You must have been uncomfortable in ways I didn’t realize. I’m sorry, Countess.”

Serena looked at her cousin like he was a monster – he wouldn’t apologize for beheading the king, but he apologized for making her uncomfortable while wandering the labyrinth.

Richard felt more terrifying than any monster they’d encountered in the labyrinth.

“Are you convinced? Then get lost now.”

At the Princess’s order to leave, Richard showed his regret and reluctance without hiding it.

“Do you know the library rules, Serena?”

“I’m not hearing it from you. Get lost.”

“Oh my. Do you know how to generate the stairs to the next floor?”

“Take that traitor with you too. I’m sick of looking at him.”

“Princess, shouldn’t you listen to what he just said? Hmm?”

“Get lost.”

Serena’s dictionary had no words for drug addicts and dealers, and now negotiations with traitorous rebels were newly excluded. Despite the repeated orders to leave, Richard didn’t easily step away and looked at Serena.

‘Right. I had something to ask when I met him.’

“Let me ask just one thing.”

“What are you curious about, Serena?”

Richard brightened up. Serena calmed her furious insides and asked coldly.

“Did you know a labyrinth would be created in Heuji City?”

If he answered that he knew, how should she be angry?

Contrary to the Princess’s worry, Richard answered immediately.

“No. I didn’t know.”

Though she shouldn’t, Serena felt slightly relieved.

She felt comforted that her slightly strange but affectionate cousin wasn’t quite the worst kind of human.

But as if it was too early to feel relieved, Richard continued speaking.

“I did know that a 10th-grade labyrinth would be created somewhere on the continent. It was my wish, you see.”

“What?”

“What did you say?”

“10th-grade? Not 8th-grade?”

“That’s impossible! The Imperial Mesa’s labyrinth is 9th-grade!”

“So 9th-grade wasn’t the end!”

While everyone in the lounge doubted their own ears, Richard smiled bitterly with a genuinely troubled expression.

“I had no idea a 10th-grade labyrinth would be created in Heuji City. It wasn’t intentional. Please forgive me.”

As always, her head became more complicated after getting Richard’s answer than before asking the question.

“What did you just say? You… made a wish?”

“Those who reach the final floor of a labyrinth can make a wish to the gods.”

Richard shrugged his shoulders.

“Though reaching the true final floor requires the Crimson Key.”

Richard was the first to mention the Crimson Key, whose existence had been uncertain.

One corner of Richard’s mouth, the very image of an elegant nobleman, twisted upward crookedly.

“The labyrinth’s final floor that can only be reached with the Crimson Key, and the labyrinth created in Heuji City. Aren’t they both the will of the great one who dwells in heaven?”

If before it was mockery, this time it was anger, hostility, and killing intent.

Flames of rage surged in Richard’s single orange eye.

The anger that burned more fiercely than the flames Countess Nex had created was extinguished as if the air had been cut off when it turned toward Serena.

Duke Oren sent his precious cousin an affectionate gaze full of love.

“Though we made a bet, 10th-grade labyrinths are very dangerous. Seraph is worried about you too, so wait in the safe lobby.”

Richard pressed into Serena’s hand the paper she had thrown at him.

The firelight illuminated the paper, revealing the words her brother had erased beneath the scribbled lines.

‘It’s dangerous. Get lost.’

The one who had wandered the royal palace with the sword that beheaded grandfather, intending to behead his cousin as well, said he too worried about Serena like the words written and erased on this paper.

Serena couldn’t understand Richard at all. Richard didn’t seek his cousin’s understanding and threw himself between the bookshelves.

“I’m the guide!”

The pigtailed girl followed Richard, and the pink-haired traitorous knight said something similar to his chosen master with a distorted face.

“As His Grace said, the labyrinth is dangerous. Lady Serena should remain in the lobby. I’ll send Lord Seraph to the lobby as soon as I find him.”

Shullen, though a traitor, spoke his master’s name, bowed to Serena, then disappeared between the bookshelves.

True to their word about knowing the way, the three didn’t return to the lounge.

Those remaining in the lounge asked questions no one could answer.

“10th-grade?”

They couldn’t force labyrinth exploration with the party in a state of confusion and delirium.

Serena grasped her nearly snapping reason and commanded.

“Exploration ends here. We return to the lobby.”

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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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