Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 206

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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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206. A Book That Doesn’t Belong

The library was similar to other libraries, except that general user access was prohibited.

Perhaps because of Count Randy’s words about rare books being stored in the closed-stack shelves, her gaze kept drifting to the books.

‘Are the books a bit thick?’

Rare books are often old books, and old books are large and thick due to the underdeveloped papermaking technology and printing techniques of the past.

Serena looked at the books thick enough to be used as weapons and recalled a joke from her previous life.

‘What was it? You shouldn’t fight with law students? Books aren’t weapons, but it hurts when you hit someone with the corner of a law book.’

The thickness and size naturally brought to mind the baseless joke that circulated in society.

-Shall we take an overall look? Yo?

At Olive’s suggestion, Count Randy pointed to the bookshelf near the door.

-Then I’d like to check starting from here.

As soon as the guide’s permission was given, Count Randy quickly approached the bookshelf and pulled out a book.

The book the alchemist pulled out was one of the books burned by foxfire.

Count Randy opened the book from the middle. Blank pages with only page numbers appeared.

The Count checked other pages too. They were all blank.

The main text of the thick old book, hundreds of pages long, had all its letters consumed, leaving only blank pages except for the title page.

From a book lover’s perspective, it was an indescribable disaster.

Count Randy seemed severely shocked mentally as he roughly closed the book and pressed his temples.

-I’m on the Shadow Tiger’s side. Book-Eating Foxes shouldn’t exist. They should all be banished from this world.

The Count expressed deep regret toward the malicious spirits that had their own world but came to ruin precious books in another world.

Serena calmed the Count, worried he might make a mistake in his excitement.

-Don’t get too excited. This is a labyrinth, isn’t it? The Book-Eating Foxes and all these books are fake.

-I apologize. When the foxes were eating, it was fascinating that they only consumed real information, but seeing the blank books directly made me emotional.

He said the foxes’ eating scene was so fascinating that he didn’t realize the knowledge and information in the books were being consumed, but seeing the blank books made him angry.

Serena understood the Count’s anger.

‘That’s understandable. It would be one thing if they actually burned or tore up the books, but it’s annoying that they just make all the ink disappear.’

Serena clicked her tongue inwardly and put the book, which had suddenly become an old book-shaped notebook, back on the shelf.

***

The library was quite spacious and stored many books, but it had one characteristic.

‘The books are arranged in alphabetical order.’

Since they only needed to check the titles written on the book spines, the party scanned the bookshelves in alphabetical order looking for misplaced books.

Gasp! That’s an alchemy book!

Hmm. Ancient Warrior’s Muscle Training Methods.

Wow! That’s a limited edition of my favorite novel!

101 Ways to Open Sealed Doors in Labyrinths?

Darkness.

There were books that tempted party members here and there. Fortunately, since everyone had different interests, they could quickly rescue the enchanted party member.

‘How to Overcome Drug Addiction.’

The Princess smiled bitterly at the book title that entered the center of her vision.

The labyrinth seemed to think Serena would be enchanted by such a topic, but that was absolutely wrong.

‘I don’t need that anymore.’

She wasn’t sure about Seraph, but Serena had given up on her father long ago. A mere book like this couldn’t enchant Serena.

The party endured the temptation of books and checked all the bookshelves.

Count Alpha punished the Mimics disguised as bookshelves, the hideous Labyrinth Rats crawling on the floor fell to the Knight’s sword, and the utterly detestable Labyrinth Books with their strong general attacks that hit everyone also fell scattering pages under the Archer and Guide’s attacks.

Serena fitted Labyrinth Book paper into the writing board Count Randy had made for her, waiting for a chance to cast magic.

Unfortunately, the Princess never got a chance to cast magic.

And more unfortunately, the group hit a dead end.

-There are no misplaced books? Yo?

They had thoroughly scanned all the bookshelves, but there were no misplaced books.

This library didn’t categorize by subject but arranged everything alphabetically, so misplaced books should have been easy to find.

They investigated places other than bookshelves, but there were no other paths or stairs.

The party gathered in one place and put their heads together.

-Didn’t we miss something by looking incorrectly?

Everyone shook their heads at Ralph’s opinion. This time they didn’t split the party for investigation but moved together as all six members.

The probability that all six members saw incorrectly was very low. At least one person should have found it.

‘What is it? Do we need to look for something else?’

But the library only contained books and bookshelves. The Guide had investigated the walls, floor, and even the ceiling, but found nothing special.

Even when Serena looked around the library with her left eye just in case, it was the same. No secret doors or sealed doors were visible.

Wondering if there might be hints in the bookshelf arrangement, she used the magic map to understand the library’s structure, but this also revealed nothing special.

Even with six people putting their heads together and racking their brains, they couldn’t find anything promising.

-We’ve been investigating for quite a while. How about taking a break and having a meal?

Unable to find a breakthrough either way, Count Alpha suggested a rest.

Since racking their brains while starving in the library wouldn’t change anything, the party agreed to the Imperial Knight’s suggestion.

‘If I supply sugar to my brain, it should work better.’

After eating, Serena dampened a towel with water and wiped her face.

Being constantly surrounded by books had made her hands and face rough from dust.

Instead of returning to the library, the party sprawled on the lounge sofas to rest.

Their bodies were comfortable, but their minds were focused on finding a way to the stairs, so they weren’t really at ease.

‘In the end, it’s about books.’

A misplaced book. They just needed to find that, but what exactly was the criterion?

Count Randy, who had been stroking his chin with a serious expression, scribbled on paper with a pen, perhaps to organize his thoughts.

“In the end, it’s books. We need to think about books.”

“Who doesn’t know that? Yo? We don’t know the criterion~”

“First, it’s not by subject. Not alphabetical either. Not by author. Obviously not by cover design, and not by publication date either.”

Count Randy decided to write down all the possibilities that came to mind, repeatedly writing and erasing words in illegible handwriting.

Then suddenly his eyes lit up.

“Rare books? Could this be it? Do we need to find ordinary books that don’t belong in those closed-stack shelves?”

It was a plausible hypothesis, but there was a problem.

“What is your criterion for rare books, Count?”

“Huh? Obviously books containing precious knowledge, wouldn’t it be?”

“I don’t need that stuff, I prefer expensive books? Yo?”

A book with gold and jewel crafting on the cover versus a diary written by someone a thousand years ago.

If asked which was more precious, the answer would vary depending on one’s values.

Without knowing the criteria for precious versus non-precious books, Count Randy’s guess was difficult to verify.

“The Princess is right. I don’t know much about books, but all the books there looked precious to me! Especially!”

Ralph looked up at the 29th floor with eyes dripping with regret.

“I was really surprised to see the limited edition of ‘The Wandering Knight Does Not Smile.’ The Wandering Knight series is really interesting! It’s an adventure story about a taciturn and rough nameless knight who wanders around the continent slaying monsters and saving people, but actually the protagonist, the nameless knight, had a sad past, and the nameless knight’s family was-.”

Ralph was chuckling and rambling about what seemed to be his favorite novel when Ying suddenly stood up.

Ralph was startled and hunched his shoulders.

“Ah, sorry. I almost said something important.”

The Young Knight lowered his eyebrows and apologized to the Archer with sad eyes.

Ying shook her head slightly and said briefly.

“Found it.”

Ying signaled the party to follow her and immediately started climbing the stairs.

‘Did she figure something out?’

The party hurriedly grabbed their bags and followed Ying, who was climbing the stairs with big strides.

Tall with long legs. With long strides to match, the archer arrived at the 29th floor library and walked straight to the bookshelf containing books starting with ‘ㅂ’ without a moment’s hesitation.

Ying scanned the bookshelf with her characteristic deep, dark eyes, then stopped in front of it as if she had found what she was looking for.

‘Isn’t that the book Ralph just mentioned?’

The Wandering Knight’s Adventure Limited Edition. A limited edition for true fans of the series, combining all 10 previously published volumes into a single book.

Ying placed her hand on such a limited edition novel and pulled the book out without hesitation.

Rumble rumble rumble—.

The library shook loudly as stairs appeared outside the archive room.

[You have discovered stairs leading to the next floor. Shop 1 coin has been awarded.]

The dead end had been opened!

The party looked at the stairs and grinned with their mouths agape. Olive patted Ying’s back as if praising her for doing well.

Smack smack!

The force was quite strong, as if intending to scold her for acting without explanation. The archer’s tall body was pushed forward.

The archer handed the large, thick novel to the Young Knight.

The Young Knight received the limited edition of his favorite novel with slightly sad eyes.

He seemed disheartened that his favorite book wasn’t a precious book.

Serena was about to ask how she knew the answer, but Count Randy was faster. The Count thrust a paper with his terrible handwriting in front of Ying’s face.

-How did you know?

Ying glared at the terrible handwriting with her deep, dark eyes, barely managed to interpret it, then wrote her answer in beautiful penmanship.

-Novels are not books.

The handwriting was truly beautiful, but the content was outrageous.

Serena was genuinely shocked.

Novels are not books. Even Duke Pein, the ultimate conservative among conservatives, would be astounded by such an answer, and all the party members looked at Ying in shock.

All the party members seemed to feel a psychological distance from Ying and tried to increase the physical distance as well.

Seeing the party backing away from her with hesitant steps, Ying slightly frowned.

-It’s not my opinion. I heard it from a librarian long ago.

Still, the increased distance didn’t shrink. Ying narrowed her eyes, sighed, and added an excuse.

-Novels focus on entertainment, so they shouldn’t be placed in libraries, which are halls of learning. There were many librarians who argued that way in the past. And among all the books here, that’s the only novel.

When Ralph talked about his favorite novel’s limited edition, she remembered that among countless books, there was only one novel, so she knew the answer.

‘Whoever it was, what an incredibly unpleasant librarian.’

Serena was certain that the librarian who made such rude and arrogant remarks was older than Grey in the lobby.

-Now that you mention it. I did hear that some venerable libraries were late to collect novels.

-Why? Novels are fun and beneficial!

-Why else? Like some Grand Mage somewhere, being petty about young people having fun~

It was obviously content insulting the Empire’s Grand Mage, so Count Alpha’s sharp eyebrows twitched.

-It’s not like that. Libraries operate for the public good. Since budgets are limited, they prioritize purchasing books with high academic value over entertainment-focused books.

-But in the end, they’re still old-fashioned, right?

-Exactly! Fun novels give readers dreams and hope!

Count Randy, who had suddenly become old-fashioned like a master, was flustered. Thinking it was harsh to call a man in his twenties old-fashioned, Serena threw him a lifeline.

-That was in the old days. Right?

Count Randy nodded vigorously. Ying, who had walked over to close the distance since the group wouldn’t restore it, also nodded.

-Anyway, thanks to Ying, we can go upstairs. Thank you.

Serena praised the archer and turned toward the stairs.

‘Is the next floor the last floor of the 8th Layer?’

She wanted to quickly escape this stuffy library and go to a layer where she could speak comfortably.

Everyone seemed to have similar thoughts to the Princess, as their pace toward the stairs was fast.

Mew.

The party’s steps stopped at the cute and adorable sound.

It was a Book-Eating Fox. A cute fox fully armed with red fur and golden yellow fur came trotting out from between the bookshelves. With each step, the fluffy fur of its large ears and plump tail swayed like clouds.

‘Did it shake off the Shadow Tiger?’

They said spirits had no substance, and indeed it had no shadow.

The Book-Eating Fox primly blocked the group’s path, then suddenly bared its teeth and made a sharp sound.

Kak!

‘Is it an attack?’

As the party prepared for battle, the fox made one loud sound and then disappeared between the bookshelves, swishing its multi-split tail.

‘It didn’t intend to fight?’

-Looks like it found out we reported it, huh?

-It must have shaken off the Shadow Tiger. With no shadow, escaping would have been easy.

-It’s a shame it should be caught and punished.

Count Randy seemed disappointed, hoping the book destroyer more terrifying than bookworms would be caught by the librarian.

-Should we report it again?

-We don’t know where it is now. Let’s ignore it and go.

The fox had gone “Kak!” once at the party and ran away, but it was a foreign species that could even shake off Shadow Tigers.

The party returned to the lounge to check their equipment and physical condition.

‘Mana is stable, and my body doesn’t hurt anywhere.’

Just in case, she checked for curses using Grey’s method, and everyone was clean.

“Fortunately, it didn’t cast any curses.”

“Spirits dislike violence like fairies do. Even if they’re mischievous, they probably had no intention of attacking.”

‘So “Kak” was an insult.’

It deliberately ate only precious books to enjoy people’s suffering emotions, but wouldn’t actually hit them.

What a strange personality. Serena could never understand it.

‘This is why I couldn’t learn spirit magic.’

Serena climbed the stairs, hoping never to encounter the fox again.

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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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