Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 27

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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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27. The One in a Hundred Thousand (10)

Lucas approached slowly with his sword drawn. Ralph bravely stepped into Lucas’s path.

“Stop!”

“Ha! Now even some worthless nobody dares to look down on me. Do you plan to play knight in front of a real knight?”

Lucas swung his sword as if swatting a fly. Ralph’s wooden sword blocked the knight’s blade.

Training wooden swords have iron cores to balance their weight. Though wooden on the outside, they were essentially blunt swords.

“You blocked it?”

Lucas snorted and swung his sword at Ralph repeatedly. Thwack, clack, clack, thwack.

The mocking expression disappeared from Lucas’s face. A guard blocking a knight’s sword path? It was impossible.

“Did you have something to rely on?”

Still, Ralph wasn’t at an advantage. Ralph kept retreating.

It was a fight with a predetermined outcome from the start. Even when Ralph managed to exploit an opening to attack Lucas.

“A knight in full armor is invincible on the battlefield!”

Ralph’s iron-cored wooden sword couldn’t even target the joint gaps that were supposedly plate armor’s weakness.

Serena ignored the blood flowing from her nose and cast magic. Lucas deflected the ice spike with his shield. Since the target area was obvious, there was no need to enlarge the shield like with the Minotaur.

“Ungrateful wretch, a crazy whore has no value in living. I’ll kill you all.”

“You’re the one who abandoned chivalry first!”

“I’ll play with you first before killing you.”

Lucas was right. He was toying with Ralph. Since Ralph’s attacks didn’t work, he could just ignore them and take away the wooden sword.

“Urgh!”

Ralph tried to use joint techniques that might work, but these only worked when used by knights equally armored. At minimum, the weight had to match.

The growing youth was pitifully thin compared to an adult knight.

Ralph’s face was crushed by Lucas’s gauntlet. Ralph collapsed to the floor, staggering.

This time Serena chanted a magic missile spell. The invisible mass of mana hit Lucas in the chest. Lucas didn’t even flinch.

“How stupid! This is armor!”

It was like punching an iron plate. To attack Lucas through his armor required stronger magic.

Serena hesitantly backed away. Lucas mocked her.

“Who was it that told me the trap locations over there? You’re not stupid enough to forget that, are you?”

Lucas had long since noticed that Ralph and Serena were continuously trying to drive him toward the trap locations.

‘Damn bastard.’

Serena gritted her teeth. She regretted not being able to kill that bastard Lucas in one blow.

‘What do I do? If I get caught like this, that bastard won’t kill me nicely. Should I just commit suicide?’

No matter the situation, she didn’t want to commit suicide. But considering Lucas’s one-in-a-hundred-thousand personality, jumping into a trap to die seemed better.

Whoosh!

While Serena was seriously contemplating while glancing at the traps, Lucas swung his gauntlet.

Krom, who had been invisible and thought to have fled, threw something from behind.

“Fire!”

“Spider webs? What a pathetic trick.”

What Krom threw was a bundle of spider webs scattered throughout the 2nd floor. Lucas waved his hand to shake off the webs before they caught fire. The strong spider webs stuck tight and wouldn’t come off.

Even if the web bundle on his gauntlet caught fire, the flames would quickly die out and cause no burns. But Serena cast the ignition magic as Krom requested.

The web bundle caught fire. Lucas smugly shrugged his shoulders and used his other hand to put out the fire on the webs.

“Now, what will you do next?”

Lucas took a step while sneering. Serena, who was on guard, blinked. The direction and angle Lucas walked was strange.

‘What?’

Lucas seemed to notice his own strangeness too. He contorted his face, then sniffed several times and roughly shook his gauntlet.

From Lucas’s violent actions, the burnt smell of spider webs drifted even to Serena. Smelling it, Serena immediately held her breath and widened her eyes.

‘Krom! This crazy grandmother!’

“Hold your breath!”

A familiar smell in a different sense from the mana herb. If Serena’s body was infused with the scent of mana herbs, then her father Crown Prince Kipan’s body was infused with this smell.

A smell so terrible it could appear in nightmares. The smell Serena hated most.

‘This is!’

“It’s drugs! Krom, were you a drug dealer!”

“I don’t use them, just sell them! Sorry!”

It wasn’t just any drug. It was a type of potent hallucinogenic herb that the Crown Prince, who was addicted to all kinds of drugs and immune to most, enjoyed smoking.

The drug was so potent that even brief inhalation caused severe hallucinations, auditory hallucinations, loss of direction, headaches, nausea, dizziness, and tinnitus in non-addicts.

“Drugs…?”

Even Ralph, who was being dragged along by Krom, was shocked.

“Ugh.”

Serena despised drug dealers because of her drug-addict father. The memories of being angry and sad about Krom’s death felt hollow.

“This is truly regrettable!”

After moving Ralph away from the hallucinogenic smoke, Krom aimed her spear at the staggering Lucas’s face. Even while seeing multiple objects, Lucas dodged the spear with minimal movement.

“I thought you were just an old rat who steals. But you were something filthier… a drug dealer!”

Lucas threw off his gauntlet that was still reeking of drug residue. Just swinging his arm widely made the drug effects kick in, so he covered his mouth. Sticky saliva dripped between his fingers.

“The effects wear off quickly! Hit him fast!”

When Krom thrust her spear again, Lucas swung his sword and cut the spear shaft.

“Aaaaah!”

Ralph got up with all his strength and lunged at Lucas. Serena immediately created ice on the floor. Lucas used Ralph’s attempt to knock him down to instead grab and slam him into the ground.

“Urgh!”

“Lowly thing!”

Lucas kicked the boy in the stomach and bent down to pick up the sword he had briefly dropped while grabbing Ralph. He blocked Serena’s ice arrow by enlarging his shield.

“Now!”

Krom climbed onto the bent-over Lucas’s back and choked his neck with the spear shaft. Lucas tried to pull the old woman off, but Krom clung on with all her dying strength.

“Wait, even you are in danger, Krom!”

“Hurry before the effects wear off!”

She had only one eye, the target was moving frantically, and an ally was clinging to him.

Serena moved her single eye busily and squeezed out concentration she had never once displayed in her life.

“What I desire is a merciless arrow to pierce that damn bastard’s head!”

An ice arrow smaller than a spike flew like lightning and pierced through Lucas’s left eye.

“Aaaaaaaah!”

Was it relief that it was finally over that drained her strength? The spear shaft choking Lucas’s neck loosened slightly. Lucas grabbed Krom and slammed her head-first into the ground.

There was a sound like a watermelon cracking as blood splattered.

“Krom!”

Lucas collapsed next to Krom. Serena shot another ice arrow into his head and ran to Krom.

“Urgh…”

Fortunately, Krom was alive. Half her face was crushed against the floor and blood streamed from her eyes, nose, mouth, and ears, but she was still alive.

“Are you okay, Krom?”

“Lucas… urgh, there are potions in his pocket!”

Ralph quickly crawled over and searched Lucas’s belongings. He had kept all the potions obtained in the labyrinth for himself instead of offering them to the princess.

When Serena tried to pour the potion with trembling hands, Krom stopped her with a fading voice.

“Don’t… bother…”

“Krom.”

“Would a drug… dealer… die… nicely?”

“Don’t say that, Grandmother Krom.”

“The young ones… should live… rather than… the old…”

“If you knew that, why did you deal drugs?”

“Hehe, sorry…”

When scolded by the daughter of the country’s most famous drug addict, the drug dealer chuckled. And gave no further response.

“Sob, grandmother…”

Though they hadn’t known each other long, Ralph showed tears, perhaps having grown quite fond of her while getting beaten together by Lucas.

Serena let out a long sigh and stood up.

The princess had no tears to shed for a drug dealer. That would be mocking countless victims.

“Ralph, you should drink this potion.”

“I’m… *sniff* fine.”

“Isn’t your bone broken? Drink it.”

Ralph couldn’t stand up and crawled over. Even if his bone wasn’t broken, he had sustained injuries that made movement difficult.

She had worried that a low-grade potion couldn’t heal such wounds, but fortunately when she searched through Lucas’s belongings more thoroughly, she found a mid-grade potion. Serena handed the mid-grade potion to Ralph without much hesitation.

“Save this for the Princess to use!”

“If I don’t give it to you now, who else would I give it to?”

Ralph looked up at Serena while sniffling and made a request.

“Please help me take off my armor and boots.”

Serena helped Ralph remove his equipment. Ralph applied the potion to his broken bone and drank the rest.

After finishing treatment, Ralph tried to put his brigandine back on. Serena raised her hand to stop him.

“Ralph. I have no need for a knight who uses the weak as bait, unless it’s someone who volunteers to be bait themselves.”

“I feel the same way. That’s not what a proper knight does.”

“We don’t know how much further this labyrinth extends. We don’t know when we’ll be able to get out.”

“I… know that too.”

“Still, if you’re prepared to continue being bait. If you’re prepared to do so of your own will, not by my command, then give me your sword.”

Ralph bit his lip, stood up from his spot, and picked up Lucas’s sword. He held the blade and respectfully offered the sword to Serena.

The squire knelt on one knee before the princess.

“I am the granddaughter of His Majesty Harold II, the rightful sovereign of Heuji, and the eldest daughter of His Highness Crown Prince Kipan, Grand Duchess Fackling. Will you, Ralph Hanson, strive to escape this labyrinth together with me?”

“Yes, I will.”

“Will you strive to protect the weak and follow justice?”

“Yes, I will.”

“Will you leap into danger before anyone else and strive to save others?”

“Yes, I will.”

“Then it is done. From now on, you are Sir Ralph Hanson.”

Serena tapped Ralph’s shoulders with the sword. According to local custom, she should have struck his face with the flat of the blade, but she omitted it because the sword was too heavy.

“Rise, Sir Ralph Hanson.”

Ralph received the sword from Serena and stood up briskly. Though he had become the knight he had longed to be, his expression was dark.

“Now, what do we do?”

“We’ll have to explore this floor and go down to the next level.”

Ralph didn’t ask how far down they would have to go. He too was guessing. That no one knew.

“Take all of Lucas Viren’s equipment, Sir.”

“Understood. What should we do about Grandmother Krom’s body? And Sir Lucas…?”

“Inform the people on the 1st Floor and discuss it with them. Neither the equipment nor the location is suitable…”

They lacked the location and equipment for burial, and the location wasn’t ideal for cremation either.

While Ralph was removing Lucas’s plate armor, Serena pretended to close her eyes while opening her left eye hidden by the eyepatch.

She had something else she needed to do first.

In the gacha window visible through her left eye, the gacha coins that had been 0 all along had become 1. The gacha button sparkled as if urging her to press it quickly.

‘It’s gacha time.’

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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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