Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 26

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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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26. The One in a Hundred Thousand Man (9)

Lucas was doing well and the Bread Tree was still intact.

Serena looked at Krom, who was grumbling that his back was better but now his shoulder hurt.

“Come here.”

Serena called Krom over, intending to check his tattoo while patting his shoulder.

“When your shoulder is stiff, it’s good to pat it like this.”

When the princess herself patted his shoulder, Krom jumped up in overwhelming gratitude.

“That’s enough!”

“You’re not young anymore, you must have many hardships.”

‘This reminds me of Grandmother.’

Tough, saying whatever he wanted, and even cunning, but Serena didn’t dislike Krom like that. He reminded her of the grandmother who raised her in her previous life, making her feel affectionate.

‘He does have tattoos.’

As Lucas said, Krom had tattoos. The number and shapes matched too.

‘Not that it matters.’

Since Lucas had killed Serena, whether Krom had a criminal record lost its importance. Serena had no intention of keeping a potential traitor who could target her life at any time in the party.

‘Who knows what might happen in the future. Bad seeds should be removed early.’

Unless his abilities were irreplaceable. Lucas’s abilities were replaceable.

Moreover, using people as bait because he wanted to be comfortable? Then why would Serena walk the dirty labyrinth path instead of the brilliant golden road?

Serena looked at Ralph. His face was a mess, swollen and bruised from Lucas’s beating. The one yellow star and two transparent stars above his head looked nice.

“Everyone’s ready, but I’m sorry. Give me a moment.”

“What’s the matter?”

“I must have been quite shocked as my mind won’t settle. I need to meditate.”

“We can’t give you long.”

“I understand. Won’t you give me the aroma incense to use during meditation? The incense Lavenda had.”

Lucas handed over an incense stick. Serena called Lavenda and Philia.

“I don’t want to show my face with the eyepatch removed, so shield me.”

“Yes. I’ll also stand with my back turned.”

“Sob sob, Serena is beautiful even with one eye missing.”

Serena lit the incense. As smoke rose, a sweet fragrance spread gently. Within it, she caught a very familiar scent.

“This is very high quality.”

“Yes, it’s really expensive. I made up my mind to buy it but…”

She had carried it around for nothing only to have Lucas take it. Lavenda was dejected. Serena promised the pitiful masseuse.

“I’ll compensate you when we get out.”

Serena removed her eyepatch and closed her eyes. She sat in a comfortable position and took deep breaths in and out.

It was time for meditation.

During meditation, one loses sense of time. When Serena finished meditating and opened her eyes, Philia immediately chattered.

“You finished faster than expected.”

The 2-hour aroma incense still had plenty left. She had meditated deeply but only about 15 minutes seemed to have passed. When she actually checked with the Bread Tree’s cooldown, about 15 minutes had indeed passed.

Lavenda extinguished the incense.

“You must have concentrated well.”

“Indeed.”

‘Having someone to kill really helped with concentration.’

Serena put on her eyepatch and lightly rubbed her divine statue.

***

Lucas took Krom to check the Central Structure. It was the same as before.

Serena looked at Ralph. Being a squire, he didn’t dare defy Lucas’s words and couldn’t make a sound even when beaten.

Still, he had pointed out Lucas’s wrongs. He had expressed his opinion that a knight shouldn’t act that way. He had agreed with Serena’s opinion to expel him. He had tried to protect the princess by offering his body.

“Ralph.”

“Yes! Huh? No? I’m not Ralph.”

“Ralph Hanson. 16 years old. You have quadruplet nephews in Kizen who aren’t even 100 days old, and you’re annoyed that your brother underestimates childcare, so you’re wearing his clothes and pretending to be a guard.”

“How, how, how, how did you know?”

“That’s not really important. The truly important matter is something else.”

Ralph, whose identity was exposed, chattered his teeth.

“Please don’t tell Count Lucas. He’ll kill me immediately. If I leave, he won’t spare my brother or family either.”

“That’s the problem with Lucas Viren. Ralph Hanson. You’re a squire training to become a knight. Answer my questions honestly.”

“Yes, yes.”

“Do you think it’s acceptable for a knight to sacrifice commoners as bait to achieve his goals?”

“No.”

“What if they’re actually not commoners but criminals who’ve been to prison twice?”

“Still no.”

“Would you stop it if you witnessed it?”

“Yes, I would.”

“But didn’t you already see Lucas taking Krom around for trap detection purposes?”

If Serena, who only stayed in the lobby, noticed it, there was no way Ralph, who went around with them, wouldn’t know. How genuinely did Lucas reveal his personality in places where the princess and countess couldn’t see?

The color drained from Ralph’s sun-tanned face. Though no one mentioned it, each time he returned to the lobby, there were more wounds on his face.

“I knew about that. But I couldn’t go against the knight… I tried to take his place when possible. Really.”

“Then, Ralph. This is the really important question.”

Krom shook his head vigorously. The ground rumbled.

“The Minotaur comes up and Lucas tries to use Krom as bait to catch the Minotaur. If you help Lucas, you can catch the Minotaur but Krom dies, and if you help Krom, you can’t catch the Minotaur and must face Lucas’s anger too. What would you do?”

“I would…”

“There’s no time. Answer quickly.”

The vibration stopped and the Minotaur stuck out its massive horned head. Lucas pushed Krom outside the pillar.

“Oh no!”

Ralph covered his mouth as he was about to shout. Serena blocked him as he tried to rush out.

“I want to help Krom. But isn’t there no way? Given Count Lucas’s temperament that I’ve observed, even you, Princess, wouldn’t be safe. What will you do, Princess?”

Instead of answering, Serena chanted the mental image she had been drawing throughout her conversation with Ralph as a spell.

What she had been hoping for all along was flames that would punish the wicked.

“Ugh!”

Flames shot up from the lantern Lucas was holding.

The lantern’s light alone couldn’t divert the Minotaur’s attention from Krom, but what about oil-fed flames blazing fiercely?

“Argh!”

He endured the flames shooting from the lantern and burning his hands, but he couldn’t endure the fierce flames and heat blazing from the oil pouch at his waist. Count Lucas finally made a loud noise.

Light and sound. With prey having both elements at a similar distance, the Minotaur charged at Lucas instead of Krom. Lucas hastily tried to throw away the lantern and oil pouch and dodge, but it was too late.

Boom!

The Minotaur and Lucas collided. This time too, Lucas enlarged his shield to face the Minotaur and bulged the veins in his neck.

“What is the meaning of this!”

“You go help Krom.”

“What about you, Princess?”

“I’m going to catch both.”

The princess gritted her teeth and visualized and materialized the complete opposite of fire. Ice was easy. She had done it often. The difficult part was the topping newly added to it.

“What I desire is a cold stake that will pierce through the enemy’s head.”

An ice stake about the length of an adult’s arm was generated above Serena’s head. The cold air emanating from the ice stake was so strong that Serena’s face felt chilly.

“Go!”

Serena shot the ice stake with all her might. The ice stake rushed toward the enemy’s head that Serena had designated.

The ice stake lodged in the Minotaur’s head. The Minotaur, which suddenly had one more horn, roared and staggered.

***

‘What the hell is she trying to do?’

Lucas frantically racked his brain.

When the princess first attacked him with fire magic, he thought the immature princess had gotten angry about using the old woman as bait and attacked without thinking.

And what about using ice arrow magic when she claimed she couldn’t use it? The princess had been deceiving him all this time.

But if she attacked the Minotaur like this, it would give Lucas an opening to strike.

‘Did the princess use me to catch the Minotaur? No, she’s not that clever.’

A stupid woman who neglected her royal duties, only indulging in pleasure and luxury.

Though she was called royalty, her father was a drug addict and her mother was a mad whore. Where would that corrupt blood go? She was even conceived at a drug orgy party.

She was only treated as a princess because the Huaim Clan’s bloodline had dried up – if other royals were still alive and well, she would have been a beggar unable to even receive royal pension.

It wasn’t just Lucas. Any proper noble would look down on the Duke and Duchess of Parkling with disdain.

Noble orange eyes? Duke Oren, Lucas’s true master, had them too. Duke Oren had them before that arrogant woman.

‘When Prince Richard ascends to the throne, those creatures will be exiled to the borderlands! One-eyed wench!’

To think he had to serve such a lowly princess and conquer the Labyrinth! The princess even resembled her mad mother and wasn’t mentally sound!

‘She claims to be chosen by a god, but I can’t believe it.’

Why would the Labyrinth God favor such a deranged woman in the first place?

The Bread Tree must surely have some trick to it. It was probably a treasure passed down in the Royal Family or Countess Randy’s doing.

‘Once this is over, I’ll need to establish the hierarchy.’

The princess seemed to think she should deal with the more dangerous Minotaur first by attacking the monster, but she underestimated Lucas.

‘Does she think I’ll keep fighting it? Not a chance!’

Push back the Minotaur to create distance and attack the princess. For Lucas, it was easier than breathing. He felt good imagining her arrogant face pleading in terror.

“Hup!”

Just then, the second ice stake attacked the Minotaur. This time it lodged in the bull monster’s shoulder. Lucas pushed hard against the Minotaur with his shield, then felt his knees give way.

‘This is!’

The floor that had been firmly supporting him was slippery. Lucas unconsciously looked away from the Minotaur to check the ground.

Thin ice had formed where Lucas was standing. Having trained properly, he quickly regained his balance and felt relieved, but only briefly.

Lucas saw an ice arrow flying toward his head and twisted his face in anger.

***

Lavenda’s aromatherapy scent wasn’t just empty words – it really was a luxury item. And luxury items in this world usually.

‘Contain magic stones or magic herbs.’

Serena caught a familiar smell from the sweet aroma. It was a scent she had smelled countless times while learning magic.

Looking at the ingredient list, it indeed contained magic herbs. The content was low, but what mattered was that it was included.

Magic stones? Philia’s pouch contained the finest quality ones. Since the other offerings were excellent, the magic herbs could be as minimal as shrimp in shrimp crackers.

‘She said I could perform rituals for the God of Magic even in the Labyrinth.’

It was a definite answer since she heard it directly from the Labyrinth God. Serena immediately performed the ritual and learned the 2nd-tier magic spell Magic Bullet. With this, she completed preparations to cast the 3rd-tier Ice Arrow.

‘It was a gamble since I couldn’t practice.’

Serena had another chance to try again. She’d have to die to retry, but still.

Fortunately, Serena succeeded with the newly learned magic on her first try. She remembered her teacher’s face, crying and telling her not to give up on the path of magic.

‘Honestly, I thought it was just flattery.’

Usually when a princess learned something, everyone around would praise her as a genius of the century. So Serena thought magic was the same. But apparently she did have talent.

“Damn it!”

Her joy was short-lived. The ice arrow missed Lucas’s head. He didn’t dodge it – Serena had aimed poorly.

“Ah, my eye.”

Having only one eye meant she needed to be careful with distance control, but she failed to do so. The Minotaur was large and easy to hit, but Count Lucas only had his small head as a target, requiring more precision.

Serena quickly ran toward where Ralph and Krom were.

Since she couldn’t finish him in one shot, Lucas would now come to kill Serena. She needed a tank to block Lucas instead of her.

“Krom! Ralph! Switch weapons!”

“We’re not running away?”

“Running away will just get us killed!”

Ralph switched weapons with the bewildered Krom. The transparent star filled with yellow color.

Now there were two 2-stars, but both had poor equipment. Their attacks wouldn’t work against the Minotaur, let alone Lucas in his plate armor.

“Get… out of the way!”

Lucas used the ice on the floor to trip the Minotaur.

He thrust his sword into the Minotaur’s mouth. When he twisted the sword sideways and pulled it out, the Minotaur’s massive body convulsed and stopped moving. Fresh blood flowed from its giant nostrils.

“It’s not too late even now, so beg for forgiveness properly.”

Lucas wiped the blood from his sword and glared at Serena hiding behind the two men.

“Bang your forehead until it bleeds and show me that lewd body while begging. Then I might consider forgiving you.”

Serena casually raised her middle finger. This was an insult in this world too.

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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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