Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 190

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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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190. Reading is Fun (1)

Today’s vending machine product was hardtack. Since it wasn’t worth purchasing, she saved her Labyrinth Coins.

Assault Team 1 of the Labyrinth of Heuji moved to the 8th Layer’s 26th floor, where they had fought once yesterday but hadn’t advanced a single step.

Everyone hoped that the method Countess Nex had taught them would work well.

The 8th Floor Resting Area they arrived at again had almost all traces of yesterday’s battle erased.

The signboard they had pulled from the fireplace was back in the fireplace, burning together with the firewood.

‘Did the written usage rules perhaps change?’

Holding onto a slim hope, she pulled out the signboard with a poker, but the usage rules displayed on the signboard were identical to what she had seen before.

‘How petty.’

The Princess clicked her tongue inwardly.

Count Randy was about to lose himself again looking at the endless waves of books, then closed his eyes tightly and shook his head as if trying to regain his senses.

The Count, having regained his reason, opened his mouth.

“According to Countess Nex’s words, among these bookshelves there should be a book with incorrect classification or arrangement rules. We just need to find it.”

“But there are too many bookshelves.”

The always brave and steadfast Young Knight was unusually passive. He seemed intimidated by the infinite bookshelves.

“That’s fine. Because if you walk past a few bookshelves, you come back to the lounge.”

Olive walked between the bookshelves and returned to her original position.

“If you pass about two bookshelves, you return to the lounge, right? So just the two bookshelves close to the lounge. We only need to search exactly those.”

According to the Guide’s words, the number of bookshelves to investigate was drastically reduced. The Party’s expressions brightened.

Olive’s expression, who had spoken, was also bright.

She had found the anomaly on the 7th Floor, so finding a book stuck in a bookshelf would be a piece of cake, but she didn’t say so for fear of jinxing it.

“Then we can split up and search.”

“Zero. Search together next to Count. I’ll be next to Princess!”

The Guide was about to stick next to the Princess to protect the slow mage and alchemist from surprise attacks by Labyrinth Books disguised as books, but suddenly changed her words.

“No. I’ll take Count. Zero takes Princess.”

Serena, who had expected Olive to naturally stick by her side, was flustered when the Guide suddenly changed the arrangement.

As if noticing such doubts, Olive let out a long sigh.

“I like Princess too~ but Count looks like his eyes will roll back when he sees books. I need to watch him from the side.”

Count Randy couldn’t definitively say no, even as empty words, and nodded his head.

“Please do.”

Having assigned a Guide to monitor the person requiring attention, the Princess finally gave instructions to the Party.

“Everyone keep the usage rules in mind.”

Library usage rule number 1. Please be quiet in the library.

The stacks were a library, not a lounge, so they had to be quiet. Rule number 2, prohibiting book damage, went without saying.

Rule number 3, presumed to be that only borrowed books could be taken out, also required caution since some libraries prohibited bringing books to the lounge.

“If it’s not a misplaced book, it would be better not to touch it at all.”

“Yes, we’ll keep that in mind.”

The Party decided to investigate starting from the bookshelf directly visible from the stairs, proceeding clockwise.

Serena examined the first bookshelf while being wary of surprise attacks from Labyrinth Books.

The first bookshelf was an ordinary, unremarkable bookshelf at first glance. Serena read the titles written on the book spines to understand the classification criteria.

‘The Strange and Amazing Adventure Story of How I, a Good Person, Was Shipwrecked and Drifted to an Unknown Uninhabited Island Where I Lived Alone for Over Ten Years Until Miraculously Being Rescued by a Passing Merchant Ship, But When an Epidemic Broke Out on the Ship, I Used Medicinal Herbs Obtained from the Uninhabited Island to Treat It and Became Praised as a Great Physician.’

Serena just blinked silently.

‘Is that title length for real? It’s worse than the web novels I read in my past life.’

She wondered if they had collected only books with long titles, but the book next to it had a normal title.

‘So-and-so’s Castaway Record. Normal. Did they collect only adventure stories or castaway records here?’

The medieval fantasy world Serena had reincarnated into had many unexplored and undiscovered regions untouched by human feet.

‘Because there are monsters. Gods sometimes change the environment or terrain too.’

Perhaps because of this, there were people who made adventure and exploration their profession.

Why else would Labyrinth Explorers have ‘Labyrinth’ in front instead of just being adventurers? It was because there were separate adventurers who actively adventured in non-labyrinth areas.

These people wrote and published books to fund their adventures and explorations or to gain fame.

The first bookshelf seemed to collect only that type of book, but here a problem arose.

‘Just from the titles, I can’t tell if they’re novels or real adventure records.’

If adventurers were popular, naturally there would be demand for novels based on adventures too.

Just from the titles written on the spines, she couldn’t distinguish between them. How was she supposed to find an adventure novel mixed in among adventure records?

‘It might be possible if it were a famous book, but…’

Her past self, who had avoided adventure records during her protagonist complex phase, thinking “why read other people’s travel records when I’m going to travel anyway,” seemed pathetic.

‘You normally read travel guides before traveling! Why did I do that!’

This was all because in her past life she had no money and only traveled through monitors, never taking real trips.

Serena gritted her teeth hard and glared at the book spines. Fortunately, the arrangement rule was simple.

‘It’s by author name.’

The books were tightly packed according to the arrangement rules. Serena made a note that there might be books with non-fiction content among these and moved to the next bookshelf.

As Serena approached the second bookshelf, one book stirred.

Thunk!

Ying stabbed the stirring book spine with her dagger. The book couldn’t escape and trembled, then lost strength and went limp.

Just as blood drains from skin when a living thing dies, the title and author written on the spine to disguise it as a book disappeared.

The Archer pulled out the dead Labyrinth Book, tore out the text pages, then tried to throw the cover on the floor.

Serena hurriedly waved her hand to stop her.

Ying silently stared at the Princess. To communicate with the Taciturn Archer, one had to read her expressions well.

Seeing the Archer’s questioning look, Serena took out paper and pen from her bag to have a written conversation with the Archer.

-You can’t throw trash anywhere in a library.

Originally, you shouldn’t throw trash anywhere. You should throw it in a trash can, or if there’s no trash can, take it home yourself. That’s the courtesy of a civilized person.

-I was rude from being in the Labyrinth too long.

In the Labyrinth, due to its restorative power, even if you throw away trash, it disappears cleanly over time.

The Labyrinth Explorer, who had developed the habit of carelessly throwing away useless items while exploring such labyrinths, honestly admitted her mistake.

Serena raised one eyebrow looking at Ying’s handwriting.

‘She writes well.’

Ying’s handwriting was very classical and elegant while simultaneously ornate.

It was the kind of handwriting someone would use who had considered others would see it from the first time they held a pen.

‘She writes better than Seraph.’

That’s right. It had a similar feel to Seraph’s handwriting, who was destined to become king and had been required to have dignified handwriting from the time he learned letters.

‘Come to think of it, her speaking casually to me doesn’t feel awkward either.’

Though Olive had been scolded by Philia for being somewhat rude and felt wronged, Ying had been speaking casually to Serena from the moment they first met.

But Philia hadn’t pointed out the Archer’s rudeness, and Serena had comfortably let it pass.

‘I felt it was natural.’

The Archer’s attitude was confident, but separately from that, Ying’s atmosphere was familiar.

As if.

‘Like royalty from another country.’

When she overlaid royalty onto Ying’s classical and elegant appearance, it fit perfectly like a painting.

Serena wrote, wondering if her suspicion might be correct.

‘Is Ying perhaps royalty?’

When she held up the paper with the question to the Archer, who was being wary of potentially hidden Labyrinth Books, the Archer slightly furrowed her brow.

The Archer’s dark eyes, having read the question, wavered slightly. From the slight upturn of her lips, she didn’t seem to be in a bad mood.

Ying grabbed the paper, lightly scribbled a few characters, and returned it to Serena.

Serena frowned after reading the response.

‘Blood can’t be hidden, can it?’

It was a sentence full of pride in royal bloodline, unlike Ying, so Serena was flustered.

‘This kind of thing would suit Seraph better. Like, “Hmph, did you notice the nobility of my bloodline? Indeed, blood cannot be hidden,” while saying that.’

Why would royalty be working as a Labyrinth Explorer?

‘Did their kingdom fall?’

Recently it had quieted down, but the Hegemon Empire in the central continent had conquered the central continent with its powerful military force.

Some families maintained their royal houses by surrendering to the Empire and becoming vassal states, while others resisted to the end and had bounties placed on even their descendants.

Serena considered the possibility that Ying might be a descendant of such a royal family, then vigorously erased the thought with a mental eraser.

‘Is it because of religion?’

Religion could make even the royalty of prosperous nations flee their palaces and struggle in labyrinths.

There was no need to look to fantasy worlds – even in Serena’s previous life, there had been a saint who climbed over palace walls.

Her single eye was glaring at the book spines, but the princess’s mind was busy with other thoughts when she caught sight of a moving object. It was the archer’s bandaged hand.

‘Did she find a labyrinth book? Or the wrong book?’

Serena read the title of the book the archer’s bandaged hand was reaching for and immediately grabbed the archer’s hand, clinging to it.

‘Deep and Dark Fantasy Tales of the Continent? She’s just entranced by the title!’

Indeed, when her hand was caught, the archer came to her senses and apologized.

-Sorry. Seeing the title made me want to read it without realizing it.

They said books enchant people in labyrinths where books appear – Olive’s words were exactly right.

‘Wait. If it’s enough to enchant Ying, isn’t that dangerous?’

Ying was an excellent labyrinth explorer and possessed strong mental fortitude that could deflect most mental attacks with an expressionless face.

For such a Ying to unconsciously try to pull out a book?

Serena felt an ominous premonition and left the bookshelf with the archer to check on the other party members.

‘This can’t be!’

Not only Count Randy, whom she was most worried about, but also Olive, who had volunteered to monitor the count, was leaning against a bookshelf reading a book.

Ralph and Count Alpha were the same.

Ralph was crouched in front of a bookshelf with his face buried in it as if he might dive into the book.

Count Alpha, for reasons unknown, was holding a book in each hand and doing arm exercises using the books as dumbbells.

‘They’re all enchanted!’

Serena grabbed the back of her neck and gestured to the archer.

Ying quietly moved around, punching each party member once and taking away their books.

“Huh!”

“Shh.”

The archer must have hit them hard, as everyone gathered in the lounge rubbing the spots where they were struck.

Olive in particular had a bruise on her forehead and looked tearful, probably because her head hurt from being hit.

“I’m sorry. I saw a new release of a book series I’d been waiting for, so without realizing it…”

Ralph bowed his head, saying he couldn’t resist because it was a new release in a novel series he’d been eagerly awaiting.

“If it’s a new release, what publication date is written on it?”

Serena asked about the publication date, wondering if she might be able to tell how much time had passed outside the labyrinth.

Ralph flipped through the book and returned with a confused expression.

“The publication date is blank. And.”

“And?”

“There were also later volumes in the series. All the way to the conclusion.”

The young knight’s face, which had been excited when reading the book, turned pale.

“Isn’t it possible the author recently published all the way to the conclusion?”

“No. They were coming out one volume per year, but there were five more volumes. All with blank publication dates.”

Books that come out one per year, with five more volumes. Even calculating simply, that’s 5 years.

Could it be that 5 years had passed outside the labyrinth? While the young knight hesitated, unable to bring himself to ask the question, the archer stepped forward.

“It’s common.”

“Pardon?”

“She probably means it’s common for books published in the future to appear in labyrinths.”

“Is that so?”

“There’s no guarantee they’re really books from the future. It’s easy to just change the cover and title to look plausible. To properly verify, you’d have to read the contents, but that would be the trap to lure people in.”

“I think the Princess is right!”

A smile returned to the young knight’s face.

Count Alpha, perhaps embarrassed about being enchanted by books, blushed his gorgeously beautiful face.

“I have no excuse. The book title said ‘A Book That Weighs Exactly 50 Kilograms,’ so out of curiosity about whether it really was…”

He said he had picked it up just to test the weight, wondering if an ordinary book could really weigh 50 kilograms, but it seemed to actually weigh close to 50 kilograms, so he found himself unconsciously using it like dumbbells.

“Even though I only held it in my hands without opening the book, I couldn’t stop.”

In her previous life, some philosopher’s book sold like hotcakes because it weighed exactly 1 kilogram and was used as a weight, and now in this reincarnated world, a knight was using a 50-kilogram book as dumbbells.

‘Should I buy him some dumbbells?’

While the princess listened to the two knights’ apologies, the alchemist and guide were busy blaming each other.

“Ugh. Olive! I told you to keep a good watch!”

“Count, you’re the one! You were enchanted the moment you saw it! I got curious about how interesting it was and got enchanted too while looking! It’s not my fault!”

Surprisingly, the book they had both been reading was the same one.

“In Search of the Lost Golden Statue?”

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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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