Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 288

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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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288. Seraph is Blue

A situation where teacher and student had switched roles. If Seraph had become a delinquent student at this moment, Hana would have learned a good lesson.

However, the Prince of Huji had a natural talent for thievery. Seraph became a genius student, absorbing Hana’s teachings like a sponge soaking up water.

He was so fast that Krom became anxious, and Olive, who had returned from exercising, was so surprised she interrupted the lesson.

“Stop! How far are you two progressing! That’s not a place the Prince should go!”

The Guide was shocked, wondering if the Prince would advance from beginner pickpocket to intermediate pickpocket.

It was a moment that revealed Olive’s true nature – someone who often pretended not to know common sense but was actually sensible and reasonably aware of social norms.

“Huh? Isn’t it good to learn anything?”

Olive grabbed Hana’s ear and scolded her quietly.

“You fool. If that Prince learns these skills, whose pockets do you think he’ll target?”

“Duke Oren’s?”

“Ours, ours! He’ll target our pockets and the Princess’s!”

“Huh? He’s the Princess’s sibling, so why would he target the Princess’s pocket?”

Hana, who was also a thief but cherished her non-blood family dearly, couldn’t understand Olive’s words. Olive waved her hand dismissively.

“Look at this one. She’s really survival-oriented, so she’s not corrupted yet. Real ones target even family if their pockets are heavy. My pocket’s light and family’s pocket is heavy, so I’ll help lighten it, that’s the logic.”

She wanted to refute Olive, who was painting the nation’s prince as a vicious criminal, but couldn’t.

Because not only Seraph but also the priests had criminal records.

Even Seraph, who should have been angry at being insulted, pretended not to hear while fiddling with a lock.

Anyway, thanks to Olive’s intervention, teacher and student returned to their proper places.

Seraph glared at the delinquent student whose progress was sluggish, unlike his excellent self, then decided to exploit Hana’s materialism.

“Behold.”

The Prince took out the golden dagger that Hana had pickpocketed.

“If you succeed at lock picking today, I shall bestow this dagger upon you.”

Sharp focus returned to Hana’s dull eyes. Count Randy, who had spotted the dagger’s gleam from afar, approached in surprise.

“Lord Seraph. That dagger, by any chance.”

“Hmph, as expected of Count Randy. You recognize it. This is not a simple golden dagger.”

“Eh? Is it gold-plated?”

The sharp focus in Hana’s eyes dimmed. Having made a fortune at the 7th Layer Jewelry Store, a mere gold-plated dagger couldn’t move Hana.

Count Randy’s expression grew serious at Hana’s words, as she worked mainly with cash and lacked an eye for precious metals.

“Hana. This is not ordinary gold. It’s gold imbued with the power of the God of Gold.”

“Is it better than regular gold?”

“Of course. Because gold is the purest thing in the world, the shining Gold bestowed soft properties so that weak and ignorant humans could easily use gold. But gold permitted by the heavenly Gold retains its original strength, and this is exactly that gold.”

Count Randy took a deep breath, his chest swelling with emotion, and pointed at the golden dagger.

“This dagger is probably the finest among daggers without magical enchantments. Even magical daggers wouldn’t have any that could match this dagger’s cutting power and durability.”

In other words, the golden dagger Seraph had offered as a reward was a 5-star item among daggers.

Count Randy tried to dissuade the Prince from giving away a treasure worthy of being a national treasure of any decent nation as a reward for attending class well.

“Lord Seraph. Are you planning to give this treasure to Hana as a reward, knowing its value?”

“Hmph, it’s fine because I have more.”

“Are you saying you have more golden daggers? Did you obtain them from treasure chests?”

“Treasures of that level only come from deep layers.”

“Me! Correct! You got it from the Prince’s treasure room, right? That’s it! Yo!”

Seraph turned his head away as if he didn’t want to converse with a lowly criminal. But since he didn’t deny it, that was answer enough.

Olive, not knowing the importance of knee joints, knelt down with a loud thud.

“Your Highness! I also want to become a student attending Your Highness’s lessons!”

Seraph gestured for someone to remove Olive. Again, no one followed the Prince’s command, but Olive moved on her own.

Olive rolled backward to retreat, then rolled forward to kneel before Seraph again. Seraph looked disgusted at this bizarre sight.

But Hana felt threatened by Olive’s antics and asked her sibling for help.

“Duri!”

“Ung!”

Duri covered the kneeling Olive with a blanket and wrapped her up. She stuffed Olive’s protruding limbs back into the blanket with force, then lifted her up and rocked her side to side while patting.

“Uu-ung~ Uu-uu-ung~”

The melody Duri was humming was familiar to Serena’s ears too. It was the most widely spread lullaby on the continent.

“Good grief.”

In the lobby, she was in human form having shed her hide, but everyone still perceived Duri as a bear. Perhaps finding it absurd that a bear was singing a lullaby, Olive’s resistance stopped.

Hana, having eliminated her rival with her sibling’s help, smiled brightly.

“Now I’m the only student! That dagger is mine!”

“I said you have to pick the lock to get it, didn’t I?”

Seraph threw a lock to Hana. Hana took the lock and picking tools and began struggling. Count Randy spoke to Seraph, who was monitoring Hana to prevent cheating.

“Lord Seraph, by any chance, were all the gold items in the treasure room real gold? Haven’t you brought any other items?”

“I’m so curious too! Please tell us everything you remember!”

“I think I’d sleep well listening to stories the Prince tells! Yo!”

Grey joined in, and even Olive, wrapped in a blanket and held by the bear, chimed in. Seraph scrunched up his pretty face.

“Tsk. I don’t know either. I just grabbed them thinking they’d be good for throwing since they’re gold and would be soft. If I’d known beforehand, I would have grabbed other weapons.”

“Don’t say that, tell us more details—”

“I got it! I solved it!”

While Grey was pestering the Prince about whether he remembered anything else, Hana jumped up and shouted.

At the news that someone who had been struggling with one lock all day had solved it in just a few minutes, not only Seraph but even Serena doubted their ears.

“Look! I got it!”

“Did you force it open?”

“No! I used this, click, and got it!”

Hana confidently presented the dismantled lock to Seraph. Seraph checked the lock with a suspicious expression, then manipulated it and locked it again.

“I can’t believe it. Open it again.”

“Why can’t you believe it! You saw me open it!”

Hana stamped her feet in protest. At Hana’s rude behavior, Seraph’s fine eyebrows twitched.

Low, who had been looking for a chance to take Olive from Duri, kicked Hana in the back of her knees.

“Gueek!”

Hana, kicked in the knees, tumbled forward. Low grabbed Hana’s back of the head and bowed together with her.

“Oh my, sorry about that. This one’s got blood that hasn’t dried in her head, so she’s got no sense of fear.”

“If the blood in your head dries up, don’t you die?”

“Shh!”

The Mysterious Stranger grabbed Hana’s round head with his huge hand and applied pressure with his fingers. Hana let out a bizarre scream. Low whispered in the suffering Hana’s ear.

‘He’s probably asking why you’re being so insolent to Seraph.’

And Serena knew why Hana was acting strangely.

‘Seraph is blue too.’

Hana had a mysterious ability to distinguish between enemies and allies. With 100% accuracy, Hana had survived and defeated enemies by relying on this ability.

Perhaps because of this, when there was someone who appeared blue on her magical map—someone friendly who wouldn’t harm her—she quickly lowered her guard.

The problem was that Hana had lived a life far from etiquette and manners, so from others’ perspective, she seemed insolent and rude.

‘I need to teach her that when someone shows kindness first, she should also be polite and respond with kindness.’

The Princess thought of lesson plans that the pickpocket would hate to learn. At the same time, watching her sibling forgive Hana in response to Low’s apology, she thought.

‘I see. Seraph is blue to Hana.’

Low would have been white too, but it was interesting that Seraph was blue.

‘What’s the criteria? Could it be that Seraph is blue because he doesn’t see Hana as an equal person? No. No way.’

Serena denied the excessive thought. Serena’s sibling might be a hopeless prince addicted to alcohol and gambling, but he wasn’t hopeless as a human being.

Even though he joked about opening an orphanage when he saw the Number Siblings, he couldn’t even imagine abusing or starving the Number Siblings.

‘He does hit people around him, but he judges that as acceptable because it’s their role. He wouldn’t hit unrelated people.’

To Serena, whose soul was half commoner, even that seemed quite hopeless, but from this world’s perspective, it was natural behavior for royalty.

“Ta-da! I solved it!”

Hana quickly solved even the lock that Seraph had manipulated to change the opening method. Seraph, who had been watching Hana’s hands without taking his eyes off them, shouted loudly.

“If you’re this good, why couldn’t you do it earlier! Are you mocking me!”

“Aah! I did good, so why are you mad! That’s too mean!”

Seraph didn’t draw his sword from its sheath, but as he tried to swing the sheathed sword at Hana, he stopped because Hana pressed her face right up to him.

“Grrrk.”

The Prince exercised his utmost patience and returned the sheath to his waist. Then he bestowed the promised golden dagger.

“Wow, you’re really giving me a sword? Prince is the best!”

Hana’s eyes sparkled with emotion at the sharp blade and gleam of the ultimate dagger. Seraph cleared his throat, seemingly pleased with Hana’s praise.

“Ahem.”

Seraph didn’t leave Hana’s side as she examined the golden dagger. Like a dog that needed to go, he circled around in place while glancing at the bandaged child.

“Ahem.”

When Hana didn’t notice, Seraph’s throat clearing grew louder. Only then did Hana realize that the Prince’s gaze was directed at her youngest sibling.

“Do you have something to say to Neet?”

“That necromancer is your sibling, right?”

“Yes! Neet is the world’s greatest necromancer, Sesi is the world’s greatest monster tamer, and Duri is the world’s greatest bear!”

“I don’t care about some ignorant vagrant’s idea of ‘greatest.’ I heard necromancers can converse with the souls of the dead. Is that correct?”

‘Oh no.’

Serena sighed inwardly. She had thought her sibling was unusually patient with Hana’s rudeness, but now she understood why.

‘He wanted to talk to a dead person through Neet.’

And it was obvious who the deceased person Seraph wanted to speak with was.

‘Shullen!’

Serena gritted her teeth. She shouldn’t have been relieved that Pink Fungus died before meeting her sibling.

Anything could happen in the Labyrinth, and among the things that could happen in the Labyrinth was meeting a rare necromancer!

“I want to speak with the owner of that grave. Would that be possible?”

Unaware of Shullen’s betrayal, Seraph seemed troubled by his inability to reconcile with his close guard knight and wanted to speak with the deceased.

‘I have to stop this. But how do I make excuses?’

The best option would be for Neet to refuse the Prince’s request, saying it was impossible.

But Neet was just an 8-year-old child with a good memory. She was honest and kind, not the type to refuse a request with lies.

“You can talk to big brother?”

Making matters worse, Muffin, who had heard Seraph’s request to Neet, approached Neet with sparkling eyes.

Neet shrank her shoulders as she looked at the troubled Princess, the expectant Prince, and the deceased’s family member.

“Cough. Count Shullen Baker? Well, the thing is.”

“Yes. I want to speak with Shullen.”

“Uh, I don’t need to have a conversation, so could you just ask big brother if it’s okay to let his corpse rot?”

The flustered Neet gripped her staff tightly with both hands.

“I’m sorry, Your Highness. Cough. I can’t do it.”

“Why not!”

“Cough. The Knight’s soul isn’t here.”

At this completely unexpected reason, Serena blinked her one eye.

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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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