Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 333

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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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333. Special Meal

The guard brought food once more. Serena tried to figure out the guard’s patrol cycle by counting numbers in her head, but it was useless.

The guard’s patrol cycle was irregular. Serena didn’t know if this was because she couldn’t count the numbers properly or if time passed randomly because this was a labyrinth.

After the guard brought food, he passed by their cells twice. Then suddenly the cell became dark.

“Whoa.”

Ralph, who had been counting numbers in his head like Serena, jumped up in surprise. He raised his shield so he could attack enemies or protect the princess at any time.

“Calm down. The corridor has also gone dark. Think of it as nightfall.”

Since this was a prison, it would be more accurate to say the lights went out.

Anyway, night had come. Ralph spread a blanket over the straw mat in the cell.

“Princess, please sleep. I will stand guard.”

“One day should be fine. Since it’s the first day, it would be good to stay alert.”

“Understood. Still, if you get tired, please get some rest.”

Since there was nothing to do while awake, Serena began meditating.

She was pleased with her steadily increasing mana when she heard Ralph’s surprised voice.

“Huh.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Look at the guard.”

With the light gone, the entire prison had become dark. While the cell was dimly lit by moonlight, the corridor was pitch black.

In that darkness, the guard’s eyes glowed like lights. Not only that. The range of his eyebeams – that is, the guard’s field of vision – was clearly visible.

‘If you enter that range, it’s failure.’

If they were to escape, how about attempting it at night when the eyebeam range was clearly visible?

Someone skilled at measuring space could see the eyebeam range at night and avoid it well during the day, but Serena wasn’t confident she could do that.

‘Olive could probably do it.’

Clank clank. The guard moved away, illuminating the corridor with his dark red eyebeams.

“We probably returned to our cell because we entered that eyebeam range.”

Serena shared the information that the 12th Floor’s gimmick was stealth.

The knight was thinking about the guard’s eyebeam range when he snapped his fingers.

“Then we need to sneak attack from behind the guard! Or how about covering his eyes with cloth?”

“Well. Even if his eyes are covered, it might still count as being caught. It’s best to avoid the guard entirely.”

“Still, that’s fortunate. His eyesight must be poor – the range was narrower than expected.”

“The corridor is straight with nowhere to hide, so it would be troublesome if we were spotted from far away.”

As Ralph said, the guard’s vision was limited to about 6 or 7 steps ahead.

Serena recalled expert gameplay videos of stealth games where players would stick close behind enemy NPCs and toy with them.

‘I wonder if he wouldn’t notice if I stuck behind him and followed?’

After recalling the dazzling techniques of expert players, she soon dismissed the thought.

‘Stop it. How could I do in reality what I couldn’t even do in games?’

That kind of thing was the exclusive domain of expert players who knew all the NPC artificial intelligence, behavior patterns, and map structures.

Serena could attempt it infinitely, so it might become possible if she worked hard at it.

‘But I need to get to the next floor before that.’

After the guard made his fourth patrol since the prison lights went out, the prison became bright again.

‘Dinner at 6 PM, lights out at 9 PM. Let’s think of it as midnight, 3 AM, 6 AM.’

Though there was a big difference from the time they felt, Serena assumed for convenience that the guard patrolled at 3-hour intervals.

The guard patrolling at 6 AM pushed a wooden plate containing food under the barred door, just like yesterday.

Though she had no intention of eating food given by monsters, Serena was startled when she naturally checked the food in the bowl.

“It’s steak!”

The young knight was also surprised and picked up the bowl containing steak.

‘This is a prison, but they’re serving steak?’

Serena was flustered and double-checked the food they received yesterday.

The white porridge, which she hadn’t eaten but had only poked at with a wooden spoon while examining its contents, had cooled and hardened.

‘Yesterday they properly gave porridge for lunch and dinner. But today they’re serving steak from breakfast?’

The steak was even large and looked very appetizing. It would be gracious enough to give just steak, but it came with friends too.

There was a white lump, and looking closely, it was mashed boiled potatoes. And next to the mashed potatoes.

“It’s cake!”

There was also a slice of something that was modest but clearly cake.

“Wow, maybe they only give porridge for lunch and dinner but serve good food for breakfast!”

“That’s unlikely.”

She was already tired from not sleeping, and seeing the steak gave her a headache.

‘This is clearly a special meal. Why are they suddenly serving a special meal from breakfast?’

Even in real prisons, they would give special meals to prisoners on special days like royalty’s birthdays.

‘Is today the Labyrinth God’s birthday? No, that can’t be.’

Reality avoidance ends here. Serena figured out the identity of this special breakfast.

“It’s a death row inmate’s last meal!”

“Death row! Are you serious?”

The knight, who had been savoring the fragrant smell of the special meal with his mouth full of saliva, opened his mouth in surprise. The pooled saliva dripped out.

“I’m sorry for constantly changing my mind, Count Ralph. We need to escape right now.”

Yesterday she said to wait since it seemed like it would be a long battle, and now she’s saying they need to leave immediately.

Though he could reasonably complain about the princess’s constantly changing plans, Ralph once again followed the princess’s will.

Serena hurriedly pushed the blanket through the bars. Ralph, being more experienced the second time, destroyed the door using just the right amount of force.

Having looked around everything when they passed through before, Serena and Ralph crossed the corridor without getting distracted.

They hid in the blind spot created by the corner and glared at the guard standing watch in front of the door.

“When he’s looking elsewhere, I’ll smash his head.”

Ralph whispered quietly. There was no guarantee this monster also had a magic circle inside its helmet.

But thinking that smashing the head would also block the eyebeams, Serena agreed with Ralph’s plan.

As before, the lightning arrow paralyzed the guard. Ralph deliberately struck and crushed the helmet with his shield.

The helmet crumpled like a ping-pong ball. As the eye holes were dented, the range of the eyebeams also decreased.

Serena took that opportunity to locate where the magic circle was.

‘Here it is!’

The magic circle that moved the armor was drawn on the shin area.

This eliminated her hope that ‘how convenient and nice it would be if all the magic circles were in the helmets.’

‘How petty.’

When Serena destroyed the magic circle, the helmet that had been clanking and moving to capture the party in its eyebeam range stopped.

“Should I open the door?”

If the guard who left on patrol returned and caught sight of them, it would be automatic return to cells.

Ralph, feeling urgent, tried to open the iron door. Serena shook her head so fast her brain seemed to rattle.

“Wait. There might be a guard behind the door too.”

“Then what do we do? Won’t we be caught immediately if we open the door?”

“That shouldn’t be the case. Wait a moment.”

Serena wrote a mana explosion spell on magic paper and infused it with mana.

“Open the door just a little and throw this through the gap. When I cast the magic, while the guard is distracted by the explosion, we’ll launch a surprise attack—”

Creak.

While Serena was earnestly explaining the plan to Ralph, the iron door suddenly opened. The princess and knight immediately entered the eyebeam range of the guard who opened the door.

Serena’s eyes widened as if they would pop out.

‘Why now of all times!’

Beep beep beep beep! Beep beep beep beep! Beep beep beep beep!

Whistle sounds rang out from the helmet of the guard who discovered the escaped prisoners. It wasn’t just once but multiple times simultaneously, making it very noisy.

Red light flashed throughout the prison and Serena and Ralph returned to their cell.

‘Aaaah!’

Serena was frustrated seeing the giant X mark added to the wall. Ralph drooped his shoulders dejectedly and made a sad face.

“We were caught immediately. Was our fighting too noisy?”

“That’s not it.”

Serena screamed inwardly and clutched her head while outwardly calmly explaining what she had seen.

“Didn’t you see? The guards who opened the door weren’t just one, but several, and there was one guard standing beside the door.”

“Now that you mention it, there were multiple overlapping glints of eyes and I heard the whistle sound several times.”

“Right. And while all those guards were approaching the door, we didn’t hear their footsteps. It wasn’t because the sound of us fighting was loud, but it seems we had bad luck.”

Of all times, it had to coincide with when the guards were coming. Even if luck wasn’t on their side, it really wasn’t on their side.

And here a new question arose.

Why were those guards trying to open the door and come in?

Clank clank.

As if wanting to provide that answer, the sound of monsters’ footsteps echoed in the corridor. Not just one, but several.

Ralph gritted his teeth and enlarged his shield. Serena scribbled an electric arrow spell on magic paper while praying.

‘Pass by. Just pass by.’

How nice would it be if they just passed by like when patrolling?

But unfortunately, the guards’ feet stopped in front of the cell where Serena and Ralph were. Their purpose for coming here was obvious.

‘Is it really execution?!’

She’d rather die from being beaten by the Undead than be executed.

Clank. One of the guards opened the barred door with a key. Serena fairly distributed the prepared electric arrows to the guards.

“No one can execute me!”

“Hyaaah!”

Ralph pushed the group of guards who were paralyzed after being hit by electric arrows. The guards tumbled backward in a heap.

Serena and Ralph stepped on the guards and went outside the cell. The helmets of the guards who had come to take them both turned in the same direction all at once.

Peeeeeee-!

Again a loud whistle sound filled the corridor. Red light flashed and Serena and Ralph returned to the cell they had barely stepped one foot out of.

Another giant X was added to the wall, making three total.

Serena couldn’t hold back and burst with frustration.

“We can’t even be caught by these guys? That’s too much!”

“Princess! The wall is glowing!”

This damn labyrinth didn’t even give them time to get angry leisurely.

As Ralph said, the wall was glowing, or more precisely, the X marks on the wall were glowing. An ominous light like the monsters’ eyes filled the cell.

‘It was three strikes!’

Serena, who was cursing inwardly, felt an discomfort she had never experienced in both her past and present life.

First, her hands were tied behind her back. Being tied up was uncomfortable in itself, but that was the smallest discomfort.

Serena was kneeling with her upper body also bent down. The posture was uncomfortable so she tried to straighten her back, but something like a board blocked her. Her neck was caught in something and she couldn’t move her body.

‘No way.’

An ominous premonition ran down Serena’s spine. It was cold and eerie as if ice picks had been stabbed into her neck and head.

The Princess gritted her teeth and carefully opened her eyes. She saw dirt ground and wooden flooring instead of the stone floor of the prison.

With her neck caught in the wooden board, it was impossible to look up. Instead, it was possible to turn her head and look to the side.

Serena made eye contact with Ralph, who was fixed to the guillotine and had turned pale white.

The righteous and innocent Knight was too frightened to make a sound and only moved his mouth.

Princess.

Whether the words that would follow were ‘please save me’ or ‘please run away,’ there was no way for Serena to know.

Swoosh.

The Princess and Knight’s heads rolled on the ground.

“That’s too much!”

As soon as Serena opened her eyes, she grabbed the Deity by the collar.

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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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