Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 193

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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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193. Beware of Traps (2)

The guide led the party out of the library and crouched down in the corridor.

Count Randy watched with a serious expression as party members rummaged through their bags for food, then hastily wrote his concerns on paper.

-It would be better to postpone the meal or eat in the lounge.

Olive, who barely managed to decipher the terrible handwriting, asked.

-Can’t we eat in the corridor? There are no books here.

Count Randy started to scribble quickly on paper again, but feeling the silent pressure from the party member’s gaze, he carefully wrote slowly.

-Usually we don’t eat in corridors either. The entire facility can prohibit eating, so the lounge is safer.

-Ugh, how annoying.

-I’m fine. It would be better to finish exploring this floor first before eating!

-No, Count Hanson. We must eat our meals on time.

The Imperial Knight actively expressed his opinion that in the labyrinth where regular living was difficult, at least meals should be kept regular.

In fact, going back down to the 26th floor and coming back up was so easy for labyrinth adventurers and knights that it would be embarrassing to call it a post-meal walk.

-I’m getting hungry too. It would be better to eat before our concentration wavers. Let’s go to the lounge.

Serena actively suggested going to the lounge, not wanting to hold back the party.

Wouldn’t it be good to get used to balancing by going back and forth on the bookshelf path?

As mentioned again, going to the lounge was so easy it didn’t even qualify as a post-meal walk.

Since the princess, who was the only problem, said it was fine, the guide didn’t object further and hopped down to the 26th floor like a goat.

Serena also reached the 26th floor safely with Ying’s help, her legs trembling.

The Heuji’s Labyrinth 1st Group attack team ate seasoned condor meat sandwiches with water.

Perhaps because the seasoning was so strong that eating with just water was bland, the guide kept glancing at the teapot.

“To drink tea or not to drink tea~ That is the question~”

“Shouldn’t we avoid touching it?”

“Well, that’s the thing~”

Olive opened her eyes drowsily.

“When something’s sitting out in the open like that, it’s one of two things. Either it’s okay to eat, or you’re screwed if you eat it.”

“It would be better not to touch it.”

“That’s why I’m just looking at it.”

The cookies packed with chocolate chips looked delicious, and the steaming hot teapot gave off a refreshing, cooling fragrance.

‘It’s mint tea. It looks delicious.’

Mint and chocolate cookies. A delicious combination.

Serena said she was fine, but she savored the taste of the fried egg that was only in her sandwich.

‘Fried egg. The taste of power.’

She was chewing carefully to avoid indigestion when Olive, who had finished her meal in an instant, called out to the princess.

“Is that twig-like viscount your magic teacher, Princess?”

“That’s right.”

“And the pink-haired knight is the prince’s guard knight who betrayed him?”

Since it was an unwelcome topic, Serena didn’t open her mouth and only nodded.

“But the viscount and the traitor knight are aunt and nephew? Wow, complicated, so complicated.”

Count Randy was about to point out the guide’s rudeness when Count Alpha was faster.

“Olive. Please refrain from rude behavior.”

“It’s not rude, I’m just confirming facts.”

“Daring to mention a traitor who betrayed Her Highness in front of Her Royal Highness is itself discourteous and rude.”

“Oh, is that so? Sorry! I didn’t know because I’m uneducated!”

“Olive.”

“I’m sorry! I was wrong!”

Olive, who had been sarcastic to the Imperial Knight, immediately knelt down and prostrated herself in apology when Serena called her name.

Serena considered giving her another flick on the forehead, but seeing the guide’s forehead already turned purple, she let it pass.

However, she couldn’t hold back the sigh that came out and let out a short one.

“Sigh.”

“Your feelings must be quite complicated.”

Count Randy comforted the princess. Serena sighed more and shook her head.

“I’m fine.”

What Serena was truly worried about was something else.

“I’m more worried about Seraph than myself. He’ll definitely be hurt.”

It would be terrible if he heard about the betrayal through someone else, and it would be even worse if he encountered Richard’s party and saw the traitor knight directly.

‘Why on earth did he betray us?’

The Baker Count family was a major force in the Crown Prince’s faction, and his younger sister Muffin was a candidate to be Seraph’s fiancée.

Did the pink mold and Seraph have a bad relationship? Not really. From Serena’s perspective, Stollen had a better relationship with Seraph than Muffin did.

‘Or not? Was there some quarrel I didn’t know about?’

Since Serena had no reason to know about her brother’s friendships, there might have been some grudge the princess was unaware of.

But following someone while knowing they killed their grandfather was truly incomprehensible.

‘I can’t guess the reason for the betrayal, so I’m almost ready to believe Ralph’s absurd theory.’

A cowardly pink mold, or a loyal knight enduring disgrace.

Boom-!

Serena, lost in thought, was startled by the sudden explosion sound.

Everyone else was equally shocked.

“What? What was that?”

“There was an explosion sound!”

“The explosion came from above.”

“Everyone stay here! If anything happens, run to the stairs! Zero!”

Olive was about to go upstairs with Ying to assess the situation when she smelled the stench of gunpowder and blood coming down from above and froze.

‘It’s here!’

The entire party froze like herbivores hearing a tiger’s roar.

They needed to run immediately, but their bodies wouldn’t move as their minds wanted.

Their joints felt powerless as if the bones had come loose, and their upper and lower teeth clattered rapidly against each other.

Three eyes of a beast that emerged from the shadows moved irregularly and reached the party on the lower floor.

A chill that started from the spine spread throughout the body. Serena opened her single eye wide in frustration.

‘We didn’t trigger it! We were eating in the lounge!’

Sniff sniff. The monster, whose form rippled like black ink mixed in water, used its nose from who knows where to smell, then poured down to the floor.

It had entered the shadows.

‘So this is how I die.’

The shadow tiger could move between shadows.

It would appear from shadows close to the party without even roaring and slaughter the group.

Serena trembled in fear, but no matter how long she waited, the shadow tiger didn’t appear.

The party, paralyzed with terror, exchanged glances and slowly began to move as they were freed from the paralysis.

“Did that bastard leave?”

“It seems to have left. I can’t smell it.”

“It’s gone.”

At the archer’s brief words, the party relaxed and sat down on the spot.

“We did well to eat in the lounge.”

Olive rambled that it was thanks to the princess and count’s foresight. Perhaps quite shaken, she muttered random things.

“If we had eaten upstairs, we would have become tiger food. Among us, the Black Knight would be the most delicious. The right mix of muscle and fat would make him tasty. The least tasty person would be.”

Olive’s round eyes quickly scanned the group, then stopped when they reached the alchemist.

“Hmm. Tasteless.”

“I also have a good ratio of fat and muscle, so I would be delicious!”

“Really? Your flesh seems too meager compared to your bones, so it would be annoying to pick off. Ah! Brain-eating monsters would like you!”

The conversation topic was a bit scary, but thanks to the guide and alchemist’s silly bickering, the party completely relaxed.

“Zero and I will go check, so stay here quietly.”

The two labyrinth explorers climbed up to the 27th floor as swiftly as the Labyrinth Deer that roamed the 3rd Layer.

“What on earth was that?”

“I don’t know either.”

The remaining four were theorizing about the identity of the explosion in the lounge when Olive returned.

“No tigers around, so come up for now.”

Serena forcibly calmed her heart that was pounding like it would burst and went up to the 27th floor.

The epicenter of the explosion was the library where the group had been looking for misplaced books before their meal.

There was a smell of gunpowder and the scent of burning wood, leather, and books, as if something had exploded.

And several bookshelves were empty. She thought they had fallen or broken due to the explosion, but that wasn’t it.

-Look at these guys. Isn’t it funny?

Olive raised the corners of her mouth and pointed at the library wall. The missing bookshelves were there.

The bookshelves were showing their backs instead of their fronts where books were shelved.

To put it simply.

-They’re cowering with their heads buried against the wall.

All the moved bookshelves were Mimics.

The Mimics, frightened by the Imperial Knight’s prowess, had pressed against the wall to hide their weak fronts from view.

-Then was that explosion just now a Mimic self-destructing?

The flies and maggots on the 6th Floor self-destruct when things go wrong. At Ralph’s question, Olive’s smile grew even wider.

-That’s even more interesting.

The Guide walked lightly to the blast site and grabbed at thin air.

-Do you see this?

Nothing was visible. Serena squinted and turned her head, changing angles.

When she changed angles, she could see an extremely thin thread.

It was thinner than human hair, so fine that she never would have noticed it if the Guide hadn’t pointed it out.

-A thread?

-Correct, Princess. Someone set up a trap here. The target was the Mimics, as you can see.

-If it was aimed at monsters, then it’s not a labyrinth trap?

-It’s human work. This guy has quite the temperament. There’s malice here. Malice.

Olive’s raised smile showed no signs of falling. Her mouth was smiling but her eyes weren’t, cold instead.

Count Alpha made a serious expression as he wrote.

-A labyrinth explorer named High Sol is following the traitor. Is this his doing?

-Well. Little Radish was good at setting traps too, but this one is very spiteful. If I’d known he had such a spiteful side, I would have gotten to know little Radish better.

The Guide explained the trap’s structure for party members who weren’t familiar with traps.

Serena, who could read traps, half-heartedly looked at Olive’s enthusiastic explanation in her notebook while investigating the spent trap on her own.

As the Guide said, it was a very wicked trap filled with malice. Serena immediately thought of one person.

The Princess wrote the culprit’s name on the paper where the Guide was earnestly explaining the malice contained in the trap.

-It’s Seraph.

-Why would the Prince?

-The trap installer is Seraph.

Even after hearing the answer twice, Olive seemed unable to understand the situation and wrote a third question.

-The Prince set this up?

-Did I not mention it? Our House of Huaim actively encourages trap installation, creation, and dungeon design.

Perhaps because they’d died so much on the 3rd Layer, she was confused about whether she’d told the party about her family’s quirks or not.

Since it wasn’t particularly important information, Serena took this opportunity to inform them again.

-Seraph’s hobby is trap creation and installation. He became listless after falling into gambling, but it seems his skills haven’t died.

-Princess. This goes beyond dead skills – it’s overflowing with malice and talent. That Prince was peculiar, but this is really his work?

-It’s definitely Seraph’s work. Seraph likes to trigger traps using terrain and the target’s survival instincts.

Though her sibling’s trap-making skills had improved dramatically while she wasn’t watching, Serena’s eyes, having observed Seraph’s trap-making history from the beginning, couldn’t be fooled.

‘Like a fish in water.’

He was freely installing deadly traps targeting monsters that he couldn’t use against people.

She could easily imagine her sibling’s delighted face.

-What kind of prince is good at pickpocketing, stealing, and trap installation?

Seeing Olive’s scrawled words that seemed not just bewildered but absurd, Count Alpha was displeased.

-Olive. I’ve said this many times, but you’re being too rude.

-No, this isn’t mocking or teasing, I’m genuinely dumbfounded.

The Guide’s eyes, which had been furrowing her brow, became sharp.

-Wait a minute. Don’t tell me the High Priest’s warning about being careful of traps wasn’t about labyrinth traps but traps made by the Prince?

The Princess gazed at a distant, nonexistent mountain and nodded with a heavy heart.

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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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