Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 342

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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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342. Do You Have Experience with Prison Breaks?

“They can’t all be dead! It’s all lies!”

Ralph couldn’t accept reality.

The knight demanded that the princess he fanatically worshipped deny reality, requesting a dreamlike reality where everyone was actually alive and the princess had a plan.

But this was reality, and Serena had no plan from the beginning.

She did have a plan, but it wasn’t a plan for this round.

The princess hadn’t made plans for the current Ralph, Olive, Ying, the Count, and Count Alpha.

She had gathered information for a party that was both past and future.

Using the party for the party’s sake. It was a betrayal only a regressor could commit.

“Why aren’t you saying anything? Why, why did Miss Olive and the Count and Count Alpha… die so absurdly…”

The remaining blood vessels in the knight’s eyes burst. The young boy was extremely agitated, his whites turning red.

If the three had died fighting monsters or caught in labyrinth traps, Ralph wouldn’t have been this angry.

But the three had been executed. They might have fought fiercely before execution, but Ralph hadn’t seen it.

Excitement quickly turned to rage.

“Aaaaargh!”

Ralph charged at a nearby guard with his shield raised. Ying managed to grab Ralph just before his attack succeeded.

The knight’s anger shifted from the monsters to the companion who had stopped him.

“Why! Why didn’t you help the three! Why didn’t you use this power when you have it!”

Though greatly agitated, Ralph maintained a thread of reason.

Ralph grabbed Ying’s collar and shook her while tears streamed down his face.

“…”

Ying said nothing. Ralph clenched his fist gripping her clothes and trembled all over.

“Miss Ying said it herself. To cherish companions. That parties help each other. But. But why didn’t you help the party! Why!”

Watching Ralph cry and rage was painful for Serena too.

The fact that everything could be undone was what sustained Serena.

‘Let’s end this soon.’

As Serena tried to stop Ralph, a button fell off, unable to withstand the knight’s grip.

Ying’s front opened, exposing some skin. Up to her neck was white as marble, like ivory, but the parts covered by clothes were black.

The black bandages wrapped around her left arm extended up to her upper chest.

If Serena could see it, there was no way Ralph, who was grabbing her collar from the front, could have missed it. Ralph loosened his grip in surprise.

“Are you injured?”

The kind-hearted knight saw the black bandages and immediately thought of injury. Ying remained silent as always.

The noticeably expanded black bandages. And the way the archer had helped the princess and knight escape.

With such clear cause and effect, one would be a fool not to notice.

Serena asked carefully.

“Ying. Are those bandages the reason you can’t use your power?”

“…”

Never had silence so perfectly meant affirmation.

“Is that it? I’m sorry. I blamed Miss Ying without knowing such things.”

Though excited and enraged by the unbearable reality of his companions’ execution, his fundamental nature hadn’t changed.

Ralph withdrew from Ying and cooled his anger alone.

Serena recalled what Ying had said, sometimes seriously, sometimes jokingly.

‘She said she sealed a beast that blasphemed against the gods.’

She had been uncertain due to Ying’s unpredictable attitude, but it seemed certain she had sealed something dangerous.

‘She’s using all her divine power to seal the beast. That’s why she doesn’t use divine magic.’

Not saving the party despite having power. This too wasn’t Ying’s true intention.

In fact, Ying had used her hidden power to help the party when they were in real danger.

When fleeing from the undead horde, when hiding from the Shadow Tiger. Even when Ralph obtained that strange shield.

‘Ugh, let’s skip that one.’

Knowing the reason Ying hid her power, Serena could imagine how much Ying had agonized before deciding to rescue her and Ralph.

‘With execution approaching and no one coming, she had no choice but to act.’

If Ying hadn’t used her power, Serena and Ralph would have been executed.

Since Ying received a prison sentence, once again the party was wiped out except for Ying. Just as it had always been.

The reason she earned the nickname “Zero’s Ying” for surviving alone became naturally clear.

‘From the position of sealing a dangerous monster, she can’t die, so she survived using divine magic. Probably saving Ralph and me was also… No, let’s stop thinking about this.’

Without the darkness’s command, wouldn’t the archer have let the princess and knight die?

Such a thought occurred to her, but she erased it from her mind as it was a negative hypothesis that would make her doubt her companion and break party harmony.

Anyway, with the party cut in half, what Serena had to do was decided.

Serena passed by Ralph, who was hanging his head, shoulders shaking as tears dripped down, and approached Ying.

“Ying. Kill me.”

Ying, who swiftly and accurately carried out the princess’s commands, raised one eyebrow in question.

The reason for hesitation was different from when she had spent years alone in the lobby due to Serena’s command.

‘She used even the power meant for sealing to rescue me, and now I’m asking her to kill me. She must be dumbfounded.’

“I’m sorry I can’t explain. But please.”

Ying, who had been hesitating, seemed to make up her mind and placed her right hand on Serena’s forehead.

Serena, who had been waiting for a dagger to cut her throat, was puzzled but soon realized.

‘Right. We don’t have weapons.’

Then how was Ying planning to kill Serena by placing her hand on her forehead?

‘She could break my neck with one hand. Surely not a flick, right?’

A flick versus a broken neck. Which would be a less painful way to die? As she pondered this, the world suddenly went dark.

Serena thought she might have closed her eyes from fatigue and opened them. A god with crimson eyes wearing robes stood before Serena.

‘Am I dead? When? How?’

Serena was surprised and felt around her body. There’s usually phantom pain right after death, but there was none this time.

The world had darkened, and it felt like she had closed her eyes for about a second subjectively, but actually felt refreshed as if she had slept soundly for 8 hours.

‘Did she use the power of darkness?’

She thought that if Ying could kill so painlessly, she should have done so from the start.

Then Serena understood why Ying couldn’t do that.

‘This is also using power after all. This time we had no weapons, and since she used a lot of power anyway, she gave me extra service.’

She was curious about what the darkness of heaven and the faithful servant of darkness were thinking and scheming, but there was something more urgent.

The princess asked the god with crimson eyes who was looking at her kindly, though his face wasn’t visible.

“Do you like games?”

“I once tried to become a god of games.”

She had planned to say that she sensed a malicious developer who felt joy watching players suffer, but an unexpected answer came back.

‘You could choose what kind of god to become?’

Children are influenced by their parents.

It’s common for children raised in scholarly families to become scholars, and children from artistic families to show talent in art.

In this world where gods actually exist in heaven, it was common for gods to be influenced by their parents too.

For example, there was a forest god among the children of the earth, and sea and lake gods among the children of the water god.

She had vaguely thought that domains were determined from birth, but that wasn’t the case.

‘So you could choose.’

According to the High Priest of Darkness, the Minotaur God was a child of the gods of time and space.

Born as a child of two gods who, judging by their names alone, governed many things, the Minotaur God would have had endless choices.

‘Then why did you become the Minotaur God instead of becoming a game god and spreading fun games in this world!’

It was blasphemous enough to deserve instant death, so she only thought it, but the god read her thoughts and answered.

“I was told that games already have gods called creators, so new gods aren’t needed.”

From a gamer’s perspective, it wasn’t wrong, but it wasn’t a thought someone from this world would have.

‘Who said such things to a god?’

The god must have read this question too, but didn’t answer.

When the princess blinked her single eye, the ugly divine statue filled her vision.

“Princess! Please put one on my forehead too!”

Since she had conveyed the fact that parties would be forcibly disbanded on the 12th floor and saved again, the 1st group assault team was waiting for the Princess to attach magic magnets.

‘I shouldn’t have saved.’

The 12th floor’s gimmick wasn’t forced disbandment but automatic imprisonment.

‘Tch.’

Serena clicked her tongue inwardly. She disliked patterns becoming fixed, but this time it couldn’t be helped.

The Princess held her forehead and staggered, then knelt before the statue again.

“Ah, my head. The Labyrinth is granting me new wisdom.”

“Huh, what’s wrong?”

“Olive. Don’t be too pleased. It means this is a dangerous enough floor for the great Labyrinth to provide additional information.”

“Really? When the Princess looked unwell in the lobby, our conquests went smoothly? So when the Princess looks gloomy, I actually feel good—”

The guide who was speaking noticed the Countess’s terrifying gaze and quickly continued.

“—not! When the Princess was full of motivation, that was fine too.”

“Serena, it’s dangerous so you shouldn’t go.”

Philia supported her master who was complaining of a fake headache.

Serena desperately wanted to do that too, but they were short on manpower.

‘If I drop out, Ralph has to drop out too. Since we can’t include the Number Siblings, we’d only be adding Low.’

They couldn’t remove the mage and knight to add a guide who doubled as a ranged dealer.

‘Should I remove Ralph and add Low instead?’

Rather than watching the increasingly worn-down Young Knight, solitary confinement would be better for Serena’s mental state.

As the Princess leaned on her friend’s shoulder, grimacing while organizing the party, Olive came into view.

It was unexpected that Olive, who seemed like she would succeed in escaping prison alone and survive, had been caught and executed.

‘I don’t know which came first – the Count and Count Alpha dying, or Olive dying.’

It was possible that all three had moved together and been executed.

Since she had been staring at Olive while thinking, the thief reacted as if her own feet were tingling.

“Why?”

Serena took the opportunity to speak to Olive since she had reacted.

“Do you have experience escaping from prison?”

It wouldn’t be strange if Olive had a record of escaping from the Empire’s most notorious prison.

But Olive showed an unexpected reaction. She waved both hands and jumped up.

“No way! How could you think that of me! This Olive would never go to prison!”

“Oh! So you actually had a thorough law-abiding spirit?”

“Bro, get it together. What Olive is saying is that she doesn’t get caught, so she doesn’t go to prison.”

“Kyaruru!”

When Count Randy offered a favorable interpretation for Olive in their friendship that transcended social status, Grey coldly delivered a reality check.

Olive winked triumphantly and laughed merrily.

“Getting caught and going to the slammer is for amateurs. This Olive has never been caught even once!”

“How proud.”

“Prison is sooo scary. A small and delicate person like Olive couldn’t survive in prison, so I worked sooo hard not to go in!”

If you grabbed any passerby and asked, a hundred out of a hundred would say the Labyrinth was scarier than prison.

The people in the lobby clicked their tongues at the guide’s disgusting behavior.

Only Low, who was smitten, blushed at his scalp while looking at Olive.

Olive winked at Low, her only fan, then returned to her duties as a guide.

“The Princess bringing up prison talk means the 12th floor is a prison, right?”

“Right. And you’re imprisoned according to the crimes you’ve committed in this Labyrinth.”

“Aha. So that’s what forced party disbandment meant.”

“The mysterious Labyrinth must have been frustrated that we misinterpreted the information it graciously provided and made countermeasures. So it gave additional information to Her Highness the Princess.”

The intelligent Priest dared to speculate about the deity’s intentions.

Serena let it slide since it was a favorable interpretation for her.

“What happens to people who haven’t committed crimes?”

“They won’t be imprisoned and can go straight to the next floor.”

“Then that’s great! We can skip a floor!”

Count Randy was delighted and pleased. Ralph was happy too.

Under Huji’s laws, Ralph Hanson was innocent, so it was a natural reaction.

‘But the Labyrinth’s prison sentences people to death for murder.’

“If it were a floor you could be so careless about, the Minotaur God wouldn’t have given me advance warning. Isn’t that right, Olive?”

“Uwah, Princess. Calling me out here is too mean.”

Caught red-handed, Olive fidgeted with her fingers then pursed her lips.

She seemed to be reviewing the crimes she had committed. After finishing her recollection, the guide winked again.

“If you don’t get caught, that’s all that matters, right?”

“The judgment isn’t made by me, but by the prison. The standards will probably be strict. And Count Ralph and I are also in danger.”

“What? You mean you and the Princess?”

“Why would the Princess and the knight be— Aha. Ah~ha~”

Ralph, who considered the incident with Lucas perfectly justified self-defense, didn’t understand, while Olive, who was extremely perceptive, quickly recalled what happened when they first joined the lobby and smiled mysteriously.

“Oh, wait! Could it be because of Sir Biron? That’s strange! That’s unfair!”

Ralph also remembered the one-in-a-million man and immediately appealed against the Labyrinth prison’s judgment.

Serena agreed, but there was something she had to do first.

“Sir Biron – that’s the Huji royal knight who died to the Minotaur on the 2nd floor, right? The one who kept crying so you couldn’t talk to him. Why him?”

The experienced, intelligent, and perceptive Old Man asked for the reason with ghostly intuition.

The Princess, who had lied about Sir Biron’s final moments, clutched her head inwardly.

‘Maybe I should have been honest instead of lying. But back then Seraph and the priests were there too, so it was difficult to tell the truth.’

As Serena pondered what to do, Olive blinked her round eyes rapidly.

It was a gesture showing her goodwill – if the Princess found it difficult to make excuses, she would tell appropriate lies herself.

The guide’s consideration was truly appreciated. Thanks to that, Serena gained the courage to speak honestly.

‘Right. He drew his sword first.’

“Actually.”

Serena briefly but truthfully revealed the bad blood between the initial lobby members and Lucas Biron.

As expected, everyone showed favorable reactions toward the Princess and knight.

“I don’t think that was the fault of Lady Serena and Count Ralph.”

“I agree with Lord Willow’s words. He trampled on a knight’s honor. He’s unqualified to be a knight.”

“The Princess did nothing wrong!”

“Yeah!”

“We’re all on the Princess’s side!”

“Cough cough. That’s right.”

The Number Siblings were pleased to have something in common with the magic Princess they admired and actively defended Serena.

“It wasn’t murder but appropriate punishment. But you’re saying the 12th floor will judge it as murder? Hmm.”

“Serena, it’s dangerous so you shouldn’t go. Send someone else.”

“Since they said these kids killed the leader, I’ll go.”

The maid didn’t disappoint the Princess’s expectations. Serena shook her head.

“No. I have to go. And if I’m going, two is better than one, so I want to take Count Ralph too.”

“Even if it’s certain death, I’ll follow the Princess!”

The Young Knight, with his anxiety, fear, and resentment completely gone, shone with clear white eyes.

Serena smiled bitterly.

“Hmm~ Then it would be good to have a prison expert~ I’m too excellent to have prison experience~ and the directionally-challenged kids have been too lucky so far~”

“We also don’t have any because we’re capable!”

“Right!”

“Yeah!”

A prison expert. There should be at least one in the lobby where thieves made up as high a proportion as nobles, but as Olive said, because they were competent or lucky, or perhaps too petty as criminals, there was no one with prison experience.

Here, ‘people’ only referred to living people. If dead people were included, there was someone in the lobby who had been to prison twice.

Serena had heard in her previous life that you could learn something even from stones stuck in distant mountains and five-year-old children.

The Princess asked a question to the Undead, a two-time offender and evil merchant.

“Krom. Have you ever broken out of prison before?”

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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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