Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 356

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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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356. The Great Escape (3)

One sad fact the party learned after overworking the princess’s brain to fight the guards.

The keys dropped by the guards were random.

What this meant was.

“Another square-shaped key.”

“We’re screwed. That’s the fourth one.”

If luck was bad, only keys of the same shape could drop repeatedly.

The sad facts didn’t end with duplicate keys.

Sad fact number two that Serena learned while continuing battles that made her brain feel like it would cramp.

Beeeeeeeep-!

The guards summoning fellow guards was also random.

When fighting the first guard, the monsters not summoning allies was beginner’s luck.

The two guards they encountered afterward summoned allies the moment they spotted the party.

Even worse, the two summoned allies immediately summoned more allies upon being summoned.

Surrounded by a total of 6 Moving Armors, the party had to hastily flee from the monster horde.

The trembling in fear that more monsters might be summoned while fleeing was a bonus.

And sad fact number three learned while being chased by 6 Moving Armors.

The prison, restructured into a labyrinth, had traps to stop escapees.

The ground beneath Serena’s feet gave way as she fled from the armors. The floor suddenly disappeared.

“Ugh!”

Startled Serena swallowed her groan.

Her mind commanded her body to move quickly, but her body wouldn’t comply.

The princess’s body fell into the trap. Serena flailed her limbs pathetically.

‘Ahhh! This can’t be happening!’

To die falling into a trap when she was born into House Huaim, which made dungeon design and trap creation a family hobby!

It was too humiliating.

‘I didn’t know about traps when it was just a prison! If I hadn’t been chased by monsters, I would have noticed the trap!’

Rather than fear of death, she was more tormented by the fact that she hadn’t noticed the trap, when someone grabbed her waist.

A strong force caught the falling princess and threw her across the trap.

While Serena rolled on the ground in confusion after being thrown, she figured out who had saved her.

Surprisingly, the one who caught and threw Serena was neither Ralph, nor Ying, nor Kara, but Nameless.

The old woman with a poor prosthetic leg who was slow and behind Serena had saved the princess who fell into the trap. Beside Nameless, Ying withdrew the hand she had extended to save the princess.

“You’re both in danger, hurry and cross over!”

It wasn’t time to feel relieved about surviving.

The 6 Moving Armors were still chasing the party, and between Nameless and Ying and the party was a trap with a gaping hole in the floor.

As could be seen from throwing Serena, Nameless was an old woman with better strength than she appeared.

But the gaping floor was a distance that required someone with intact limbs and good health like Ralph, plus regular exercise, to leap across easily.

Good strength and jumping ability were separate things. Moreover, Nameless was at a severe disadvantage with one missing leg.

Clank clank clank X 6.

Hearing the sound of Moving Armors running toward them, Ralph shouted.

“Miss Ying! If you throw Nameless, I’ll catch her!”

The kind-hearted young boy proposed a way for the old woman to cross the trap.

Ying nodded and tried to lift Nameless, while Ralph took position to catch her.

But a lizard’s front paw blocked the knight.

“Interfering. Go. Back.”

“What? What do you mean?”

“She’s telling you not to interfere and step back!”

The Undead Crone, with the intuition honed from doing bad deeds, pulled the knight and princess standing near the trap backward.

Once the area across the trap was clear, Nameless, who had been carried by Ying, bent her knee.

Serena opened her one eye wide.

‘What is she doing now? Don’t tell me she’s going to jump without even taking a running start?’

“Don’t tell me” always catches people off guard. Nameless bent her knee to gain propulsion.

The old woman leaped across the trap with one leg and landed safely on the side where the party was.

Serena and Ralph stared wide-eyed at the one-legged old woman. Krom also spat out an exclamation with a surprised expression.

“Well I’ll be. Dying and seeing things I never saw in life.”

Kara approached Nameless with a cackling laugh.

“Teacher. Leg. Okay?”

Nameless, who had frozen in her landing position, placed her hand on her knee.

“Oh my, my whole body aches.”

Though Nameless had shown movements unsuited to her age group, her hoarse voice and words perfectly matched her age.

Whether she was truly in pain, her body was stiff and wouldn’t move easily, and the hand on her knee trembled.

But the physical ability she had shown earlier was so extraordinary that it sounded like a lie.

“Nameless, that was amazing!”

“It was nothing special. The monsters will keep chasing us, so we need to run.”

Nameless swallowed her groans of pain and gritted her teeth to stand properly.

Hardships endured in youth torment the body in old age with compound interest.

Krom, having experienced it firsthand, could tell how much pain Nameless was in. The undead clicked his tongue.

“Every joint from knees and spine to fingertips must be aching terribly in every corner.”

Ying, who had lightly crossed the trap, turned around to watch the gaping floor trap.

“Sorry. I didn’t think about traps.”

“No. I’m the one who should be ashamed for not detecting such an easily discernible trap.”

A floor trap that opens when stepped on.

Serena was humiliated to have been caught by what could be called a basic trap among traps.

“Nameless, you saved me. Thank you.”

“…Be careful of traps.”

Though the old woman meant it out of concern for the princess, Serena gritted her molars. Her single orange eye filled with determination.

“From now on, I’ll find the traps. Ying. It’ll be troublesome, but please help.”

The archer silently nodded.

Ralph and Krom, who were early labyrinth companions and knew about House Huaim’s noble hobby, agreed without objection.

“Princess. Magic. Thief. Add? Much. Work.”

Kara pointed out that taking three job skills might be overambitious.

Serena ground her molars.

“The trap itself is a basic trap that’s easy to detect. I was just careless because there were no traps before the prison structure was changed.”

The princess of Heuji, who had nearly died falling into a trap, declared boldly before the party.

“I swear on the name of Huaim, I won’t be careless from now on.”

Work had been added when finding weaknesses was already difficult enough to die from.

The princess’s brain screamed, but no one, not even Serena the owner, could hear it.

Because brains don’t have mouths.

***

Clank clank X 2.

Seeing guards passing by in pairs, Serena deliberately touched the wall to activate a trap.

Giant spikes shot out from the wall, crushing the 2 guards.

One lost its glow when the spike pierced its magic circle, while the other turned its vision around searching for escapees.

Serena hid her body where the monster’s glow couldn’t reach and concentrated her senses.

“Left temple!”

“Hah!”

As soon as Serena’s words fell, Ralph’s sword pierced the monster’s helmet.

After confirming the light had disappeared from the helmet, Krom searched through the scattered armor to find the key.

“Found it! New key!”

Krom received the magic map from Serena and found the cell whose emblem matched the key.

The reason Serena, who was openly controlling by nature, entrusted this to Krom without checking was simple.

“Ugh.”

It was because controlling her surroundings had become impossible.

She had to check for traps, identify monster weaknesses, and cast necessary magic from time to time.

Right now, Serena wouldn’t have enough even with two heads.

Her brain, which had been screaming silently where no one could hear, changed its communication method from screaming to pain.

This worked properly and tormented the Princess.

Serena, who usually cursed her poor head as a rock, felt pain as if stones were actually rolling around inside her skull.

Sometimes they rolled around like pebbles, causing pain with their sharp edges, and sometimes they transformed into heavy stones that made her neck sway.

“Here’s where we can go. It would be better to go rest a bit.”

The Undead, unable to bear watching the Princess’s condition, declared a rest.

Serena shook her head while massaging her temples.

“We’ve already spent too much time and still haven’t left the South Wing. I’m worried about our companions, so we need to move quickly— ptui ptui.”

Serena, who had been speaking while grimacing without the energy to manage her expression, suddenly spat liquid that had entered through her lips into a handkerchief.

The white handkerchief turned red. Serena blocked her nose, which was streaming not just a nosebleed but a double nosebleed, with the handkerchief.

“Hiiiiik! Pr-Princess! Your nose is bleeding!”

Ralph was ten times more shocked than when he himself had been injured.

Ying handed Serena a new handkerchief.

“Rest.”

With the nosebleed flowing, she couldn’t be stubborn anymore.

Serena obediently entered the cell.

“Princess, please drink this potion.”

“Thank you.”

Even after drinking the recovery potion and applying it to her nose, the nosebleed didn’t stop easily.

It wasn’t because she was injured somewhere, but closer to her energy being twisted from overwork.

Unable to lie down because of the nosebleed, Serena leaned against the wall as the Archer praised her.

“You’re doing well.”

The Young Knight, who never missed praising others, also lauded the Princess.

“That’s right! Princess, you’re getting closer to the pattern!”

“The probability is definitely improving.”

“Princess. Magic Princess. Amazing.”

Indeed, Serena’s probability of detecting magic circle locations was steadily improving.

In the very first battle, she had a 50-50 chance and got it wrong, but now she had improved to getting it wrong only once out of four attempts.

Serena herself realized that her ability to sense magic power had become sharper.

If she maintained this state, she could strike any monster’s weakness at first glance with a 75% probability.

‘My brain will burn out and kill me before that happens.’

The protagonists in novels from her previous life would maintain such states while displaying transcendent abilities.

Serena couldn’t do that. It was humanly impossible.

‘Others collect death coins that appear when they die to buy skills and talents. I just do character draws.’

She even had doubts about whether the character draws were really random.

‘Isn’t this just called a draw when everything that comes out is actually predetermined? Is this really a draw?’

In the early days after falling into the Labyrinth, she thought it was random draws, but looking at everyone she drew afterward, she had clearly seen what would come out before drawing.

This couldn’t be called a draw.

All the people she drew who became companions were helpful for Labyrinth exploration, but knowing who the subject of the draws was made it very unsettling to say it was fine.

‘If who gets drawn is predetermined, that means we’re all dancing in the palm of the Minotaur God’s hand.’

Serena covered her eyes with the handkerchief and her bangs while observing Nameless.

Ralph tried to massage Nameless’s only remaining leg but was rejected.

Nameless, who was massaging his own leg, made eye contact with Serena.

Nameless looked away as if it were coincidental.

It was very natural, but Serena intuited.

‘He noticed my gaze from the beginning.’

How did the Old Woman, whose eyesight was so poor that she had to look closely at faces before recognizing the Princess’s eye color, notice Serena’s gaze?

Since she was already caught, Serena openly observed Nameless.

Ralph, rejected from giving a knee massage, rummaged through his bag and pulled out painkillers.

“Nameless, would you like to take or apply some painkillers?”

“I’ll decline as it would dull my senses.”

“Don’t worry about that! Count Randy’s painkillers only eliminate pain completely!”

As he recommended the medicine with a sunny smile, the Old Woman who hadn’t even revealed her name had no choice but to roll up her rags.

“I washed my hands clean, so let me apply it for…”

The Old Woman’s body revealed beneath the rags was horrific.

If the Number Siblings had traces of being beaten all over their bodies, Nameless had vivid scars that made it miraculous he was still alive.

Traces of bones being twisted, broken, and healing without returning to their proper places.

“…Should I apply it all over the leg?”

Ralph couldn’t find any part of Nameless’s leg that didn’t need painkillers.

Even to an experienced Labyrinth Adventurer’s eyes, it was so horrific that the Archer shook his head.

“He walks and runs like that? Isn’t he Undead?”

Krom suspected whether Nameless was a genuine Undead like himself.

Kara wasn’t surprised, as if he already knew.

“May I ask how you were so severely injured?”

Serena used her status as a shield to ask what no one else could.

Nameless applied painkillers only to his knees and answered in a cracked voice.

“I committed a sin and was punished.”

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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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