Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 339

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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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339. Visitation

Murder.

It wasn’t particularly surprising since it was expected content. Ralph also understood with an “Ah, that?”

The surprised ones were the alchemist and the imperial knight.

They were shocked by the fact that the princess and young knight had killed someone without them knowing.

“Se, se, se, Serena-nim. Do you have any idea? Do you know too, my lady?”

“Seeing the count’s reaction, it seems like something the count doesn’t know about either. I dare to ask what circumstances there were. This is absolutely not an intention to oppose Her Highness the Grand Princess’s judgment. It’s to understand the labyrinth’s gimmick. If murder is a crime, I should also be imprisoned and sentenced to death, but it’s strange that I’m in this free state.”

“Ah, that’s right! It is strange!”

“It’s certain that I killed someone.”

“I have no complaints about Serena-nim’s judgment! I know better than anyone except my lady and Seraph-nim that Serena-nim isn’t someone who would kill people for no reason.”

The two quickly calmed down even after Serena revealed the truth. It was based on their belief and trust that Serena and Ralph wouldn’t have killed innocent people without reason.

“Count Lucas Birun, who we reported as killed by the Minotaur, a powerful enemy of the 2nd layer, was actually killed by us.”

“There was a reason it had to be done! Count Birun was a villain who didn’t know knightly honor! He didn’t protect the weak but instead tried to use the weak as bait to survive, and he even tried to harm the princess who scolded him for this!”

Ralph sincerely defended Serena.

Even without his active excuses, Count Randy and Count Alpha were both on Serena’s side, so the two imperial citizens quickly accepted it.

“How dare he threaten Serena-nim. He deserved to die.”

“As one who received knighthood, instead of risking his life to protect a member of the family he swore loyalty to, he prioritized his own safety. He’s unqualified to be a knight.”

To truly assess the situation fairly, they should also listen to Lucas Birun’s words as he cried in the lobby.

But this world was a medieval fantasy world, and it wasn’t fair either.

Also, the dead originally have no voice.

This was true even if there were necromancers who could hear the voices of the dead.

Serena put aside her recollections of that one-in-a-million man and revealed the doubt she had been harboring.

“Since we fought a life-or-death battle, being sentenced to death for that doesn’t make sense.”

“That’s right! Count Birun was the first to abandon his knightly oath!”

The alchemist stroked his chin at the two death row inmates’ reaction.

“This doesn’t seem like a real prison, but rather one that ignores all those points and focuses only on the results that occurred. The standards also seem to only deal with what happened in this labyrinth. For reference, Olive received a 5-year prison sentence for habitual theft, and Ying received a 7-year prison sentence for habitual assault.”

Olive wasn’t surprising since they had seen her in the 3rd district cell. But it was unexpected that Ying received as much as 7 years for habitual assault.

‘Ying never hit anyone though?’

Ralph also found it strange and asked before Serena.

“What? Ying-ssi isn’t someone who uses violence!”

“I agree. But it seems they judged that as assault.”

“What was it?”

Count Randy took his hand off his chin and flicked his middle finger in the air.

Seeing the alchemist pretending to flick someone’s forehead, Serena was so absurd she forgot her dignity and opened her mouth.

“That’s just a forehead flick! Judging a forehead flick as assault! That’s unreasonable!”

“That said, Ying’s forehead flicks were quite strong. They probably hurt more than when Serena-nim seriously hit Olive. If hit repeatedly, it would have cracked skulls.”

Hearing that, there was nothing more to say. Serena and Ralph both closed their mouths.

“Actually, when I was first rescued by Her Highness the Grand Princess and reunited with Lord Willow. My emotions ran high and I forgot my place, almost assaulting His Highness relying on our friendship. I barely held back, but if I had been swept up in emotions and committed assault then, I would have been imprisoned in a cell too. I think I did well to restrain myself.”

Count Alpha shook his head while recalling when he had dragged the prince into the restroom.

‘He didn’t hit him then? His patience is remarkable.’

“Right. I’m also reassured that Count Alpha is with the count. But how did you know about Olive and Ying’s imprisonment days?”

“Have you two already had visitations?”

‘Well, that’s probably not it.’

Serena internally disagreed after hearing innocent Ralph’s words.

‘We’re death row inmates but didn’t know we’d be executed in a week. Olive and Ying probably don’t know their prison terms either.’

How did Count Randy and Count Alpha know this high-level information that the parties themselves didn’t know?

The reason was more absurd than expected.

“It’s written outside.”

“Written?”

“Yes. The criminals currently imprisoned in the prison, sorry, Serena-nim! This damn mouth!”

Instead of Count Randy who was busy hitting his own lips, Count Alpha continued.

“A list is openly posted at the entrance of the prison, this building. We also learned about Her Highness the Grand Princess and Count Hanson’s execution date by seeing that.”

“To tell you an even more surprising fact. The stairs going down to the next floor are next to the main gate in the prison wall, that is, next to the front gate. As long as you’re not imprisoned, you can pass through comfortably without a floor boss.”

Serena furrowed her brow.

“That means… those who haven’t committed crimes can just pass through the 12th floor?”

“Yes. Actually, we came here without being hindered by monsters and applied for visitation and special meals.”

“We should have known sooner, but we’re sorry the visitation application was late.”

Count Alpha groaned and bowed his head. Wondering what this meant, Serena looked at Count Randy, and the alchemist was also suffering and bowing his head.

“Since only we two remained, thinking of avoiding battle, we hid around avoiding monsters. We thought entering through the front gate would naturally be impossible and tried to climb over the prison wall.”

“Wasn’t it blocked by the labyrinth’s mystery?”

“No! The wall was open so we could climb over! But there were too many monsters, so we had to climb back over the wall we had climbed and go back outside.”

Even though the lack of forces wasn’t his fault, Count Randy was distressed. The count continued explaining what happened afterward.

“No matter how much we circled around the wall, we couldn’t see other people, and frustrated, we were discovered by a monster patrolling around the wall. But the monster didn’t attack us even after seeing us. Finding this strange, we approached the monster guarding the front gate, and likewise, it didn’t attack.”

“Knowing it was a monster that didn’t attack first, we carefully approached the front gate, but even when we stepped on the front gate threshold, the monster didn’t attack. Thanks to that, we entered inside the wall and headed to the prison building, learning that Her Highness the Grand Princess and others were imprisoned and that visitation was possible.”

“But by then too much time had passed and the visitation hours were over. It was regrettable, but we applied for special meals at least, and we’re sorry for causing unnecessary misunderstanding.”

For the two free people, it was a simple thought of ‘They’ll be happy if we give them special meals, right? I hope they eat deliciously,’ but it made the two prisoners locked in cells harbor the misunderstanding of ‘Why are they suddenly giving us steak? Could it be today?’

Thanks to that, Serena died twice. Communication was this important.

Rustle rustle rustle. There was an hourglass in the visitation room indicating visitation time. The amount of sand was gradually decreasing.

Serena moved her mouth busily.

“It seems like the 12th floor is a floor where unimprisoned companions help imprisoned companions escape by assisting their jailbreak. We’re imprisoned in the deepest place.”

Serena took out the magic map and showed it to the two free people.

When Count Randy’s hand extended through the bars touched the magic map, a map of outside the prison was created.

The prison structure seen on the map was as follows. Inside a huge oval-shaped high wall, a total of 5 square buildings were erected.

Each building was connected by corridors with roofs and walls, four buildings were arranged in the north, south, east, and west around a central courtyard in the middle, and one building was directly attached to the western building.

Of these two consecutively arranged buildings, the building on the left was the building where the four were currently located.

It seemed like administrative facilities matching the prison concept, such as the visitation room and prison office, were gathered in one building.

For the central courtyard surrounded by four buildings, only the center of the map was detailed. Serena swallowed dry saliva seeing the guillotine drawn in the center of the courtyard.

‘We moved through the southern building corridor when coming here.’

Serena named the prison buildings for easy reference. District 1 where death row inmates were imprisoned was the East Wing, District 2 which was a slightly better-equipped imprisonment area was the South Wing, District 3 where Olive was imprisoned was the West Wing.

And the building with the visitation room was the Main Building, and the remaining building of unknown contents was the North Wing.

The stairs were very close to the main building. Although there were no guards in the visitation room, Serena remembered the saying that walls have ears and wrote what she wanted to say on paper.

-How about escaping from here?

The alchemist shook his head with a regretful expression. He was about to write on paper, so Serena took away the pen telling him to just speak quietly.

“I’ve been trying to use medicine to melt the bars or break the stones, but it doesn’t work. It’s blocked by the labyrinth’s mystery.”

‘Oh no.’

Proving that the genius alchemist wasn’t just a false reputation, Count Randy had already tried but was blocked.

Serena was genuinely disappointed and tried other things for the jailbreak.

“Seeing that paper can go back and forth, it seems possible to exchange items.”

It was smuggling.

“Have you used up all the potions that melt stone and iron?”

“I’m sorry. There was only one bottle. The other potions also don’t have names written on them, so it would be dangerous for Serena-nim to use them, so the only thing I can give you is potions… Ugh, I’m sorry.”

There was almost no sand left in the hourglass.

“At least give me a dagger.”

Serena received a dagger from the distressed alchemist and handed over the magic map. Since they would visit Olive and Ying too, it was good to gather map information.

“I’ll also lend Count Hanson a sword.”

Count Alpha handed through the bars an ordinary sword he carried as a backup weapon.

Ralph excitedly received the sword and was putting it on his waist when he opened his eyes wide and asked.

“We shouldn’t be caught by the guards, right?”

“That’s probably the case.”

Ralph tried to hide the sword, but there was no space to conceal a sword on a knight’s body clad in full armor.

Trickle trickle trickle. Sand flowed down. Serena wiggled her finger.

“I’ll hide it on my body.”

Serena turned her back to Ralph. Ralph slipped the longsword smoothly inside the Princess’s clothes.

Serena secured the sword with bandages and let down her hair to cover the sword hilt.

“Does it show?”

“It shows more than expected.”

In a real prison, this disguise would have extended her sentence for insubordination.

Though all three were worried, Serena decided to proceed as is.

“It’s a chance to test the guard’s intelligence.”

“That’s true. If this doesn’t get caught, we can smuggle in weapons. Ah!”

Count Randy, who had been frowning with worry for the Princess, snapped his fingers.

“I forgot to mention, I confirmed that the confiscated weapons are stored in the main storehouse. It seems they return them upon release.”

“Are both my swords safe?”

“They’re safe.”

“Thank goodness~”

Ralph, who cherished the light sword obtained from the labyrinth like a nephew, smiled brightly.

Serena was also relieved to hear the weapons were safe, while simultaneously grumbling.

‘It’s not even a real prison, yet they only focus on weird details.’

Trickle trickle trickle. As soon as all the sand in the hourglass fell, a guard opened the visitation room door and entered.

Serena stood stiffly, tense. Would the guard see through the deception that was plainly visible, or would they fall for it?

Since it would be too cruel to postpone the answer to the next chapter, the answer was revealed immediately.

Clank. The guard connected chains to both their shackles and turned around.

Serena cheered inwardly.

‘Hahaha! Stupid armor!’

“Hehe.”

Ralph also laughed aloud, pleased to have a weapon. The two were dragged out of the visitation room by the guard holding their chains.

Beyond the bars, two people shouted with desperate voices.

“We will definitely rescue you!”

Six days until execution. A life-or-death prison break had begun.

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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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