Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 36

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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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36. Sealed Door

A door pattern faintly glowing on the wall. Serena asked the labyrinth expert.

“Olive. What is this?”

“Princess, you found that? There’s only one and your eyes are so good~”

“How insolent!”

“Miss Olive! Do not insult the Princess!”

Philia and Ralph’s protests poured down on Olive, who had brought up a part of Serena’s body that should never be mentioned.

Serena raised her hand to quiet them both, then pointed to the door glowing softly in crimson.

“Found it? Isn’t it clearly visible?”

“Sorry for bringing up your eyes. But saying it’s clearly visible is a bit too much.”

Olive hopped over the treasure chest and brought her face close to the door.

“Look at these finely carved lines. I couldn’t see any of them when I first started either.”

‘What is she talking about?’

She was about to ask if it wasn’t glowing softly, but closed her mouth. Judging by Philia and Ralph pressing their faces to the wall following Olive’s finger, that light wasn’t visible to them.

“It’s a door shape! Could this actually be a door? A secret room within a secret room! How amazing!”

Ralph got excited seeing the door leading from the secret room to another secret room.

“It is a door~”

“Please open it quickly!”

Ralph urged Olive, wanting to go to another secret room within the secret room. Olive waved her hand.

“Can’t open it.”

“What? I didn’t hear you correctly?”

“This door can’t be opened. See the keyhole there?”

The hole was easier to find than the fine lines. When Ralph poked the keyhole with his finger, Olive nodded.

“Need a key. That’s how it is.”

“Can’t you pick the lock with your abilities?”

“This is a magic door with the labyrinth’s mystery applied, so it absolutely can’t be picked without the right key~”

“I see…”

The mysterious door in the secret room was a place to remember well and return to later when they obtained the key.

‘From the way it’s glowing, there seems to be something there.’

Serena tried looking at the secret door with her left eye just in case. It was pitch black and nothing was visible. It wasn’t something done with the left eye.

“Can the right key be found in the labyrinth?”

“That’s another element that drives people crazy and mad.”

Olive took a pose as if trying to turn something with her index finger, then folded her finger. It seemed like a habitual gesture.

“Would you believe me if I said there’s no guarantee that door’s key comes from this labyrinth?”

In labyrinths, there are doors like the one before the party that require keys or specific conditions to open. Labyrinth explorers collectively call such doors sealed doors.

Because they’re shut tight as if sealed, absolutely impossible to open until conditions are satisfied.

“The key isn’t in this labyrinth? What do you mean?”

“That’s a very valid question, Countess. But it’s true! The amazing and maddening news that Labyrinth A’s sealed door key can come from Labyrinth B!”

The Empire, the nation with the most labyrinths and the gangster nation at the continent’s center. A few generations ago, this Empire’s emperor had a hobby of collecting keys from labyrinths that couldn’t find their matches.

He would occasionally try his collected keys on tribute chests that wouldn’t open, waiting for the day he’d find their matches.

Then one day. The emperor happened to enter a labyrinth. Since he was already in the labyrinth, he inserted his hobby-collected keys into sealed door keyholes.

The key was a perfect match for the sealed door. It went in smoothly without any resistance and opened gently.

“The problem was that key wasn’t discovered in that particular labyrinth.”

That emperor couldn’t forget the pleasure of matching keys and waged conquest wars to obtain other nations’ labyrinths. He only stopped conquest wars because of Messa Labyrinth, so labyrinths couldn’t be excluded when discussing the Empire.

“I’m grateful they buy useless keys at high prices~ but I haven’t heard of anyone finding keys matching sealed doors since then! More often I hear about people finding conditions to open them~”

“You said doors can be opened by fulfilling other conditions besides keys? What are those conditions?”

‘Could the condition be someone who can see the door glowing?’

At Serena’s question, Olive again made an expression of going mad.

“Nobody knows that either~ Hints do come up while conquering labyrinths, but they’re at a level only someone who drank ink water could understand, so it’s maddening!”

Olive pouted her lips.

“It’s not for nothing that legends like the Crimson Key circulate. Among labyrinths declared perfectly conquered, countless ones left sealed doors unopened. Vieta’s Labyrinth probably has them too.”

Olive giggled to herself as if something was funny. Vieta’s Labyrinth must be a laughable joke topic just by mentioning its name in the labyrinth industry.

“There’s no risk of dying from pushing it, so want to try pushing?”

Olive pushed the sealed door first. It didn’t budge at all.

“Try it. If it opens, great, if not, oh well.”

Come on, come on. At Olive’s gesture, Ralph approached the sealed door with expectant eyes.

“Is Sir Knight a virgin?”

“How rude. That’s sexual harassment.”

She told him to try pushing the door, then Olive suddenly threw out an unpleasant question. When Serena intervened, the guide raised her hands as if that wasn’t her intention.

“It’s because of the conditions. I once saw a sealed door whose release condition was purity.”

“That’s a condition?”

“There are even stranger conditions. Sometimes insomnia was the condition, and there was a door only people who killed close relatives could open. Once when I touched it, it just opened. I wondered so hard what the condition could be, but it turned out!”

“What was it?”

“What could it be. Whoever guesses gets Olive’s passionate kiss!”

“Sir Ralph, ignore her and push.”

“Yes.”

Even when Ralph pushed with all his might, the door didn’t budge. Conditions like male, minor, knight were eliminated.

Philia’s delicate hands touched the door. The door still didn’t budge at all. Conditions like female, noble, married, beauty, silver hair, blue eyes were eliminated.

“Finally, Princess? Want to try? I have some expectations for the Princess. There are many conditions only the Princess fulfills. Royalty, one-eyed, unusual eye color, etcetera.”

Serena swallowed dry saliva. Not because of Olive’s words, but because she somehow had a premonition that the door would open when her hand touched it.

Evidence? The door is glowing like glow-in-the-dark paint right now, and you ask for evidence? Even if it doesn’t open, something will happen!

When Serena’s hand touched it, the soft light became intense and the fine scratches on the wall took the perfect shape of a door.

“Really? For real?”

Olive, who had hoped just maybe, gaped and looked back and forth between Serena and the door. When Serena applied light pressure with her hand, the door slid open smoothly.

Olive looked back and forth between the open door and Serena. She wasn’t acting or exaggerating but was genuinely flustered, yet seemed happy as the corners of her mouth twitched.

“Really? It’s really opening? This is my first time seeing a leader’s chamber sealed door open, is this real?”

“As expected of the Princess!”

“As expected of Lady Serena!”

Philia, who was a beat late in praising her master, sent envious glances at the young knight.

“How does this open? Does it open if you believe in the Labyrinth God? I converted, I tell you!”

Olive chattered frantically while entering the opened door ahead of Serena. As for Serena.

‘Wow, this really opened. Am I not developing protagonist syndrome?’

She had offered sacrifices to the Labyrinth God to be able to regress within the labyrinth. She was already protagonist enough, but Serena hadn’t yet realized this reality and had strange thoughts.

What good things could be inside a sealed door that required matching keys and conditions to open? Serena forgot her princess dignity and rushed inside.

“Treasure chest! Huh?”

The interior was narrow and completely empty. Serena couldn’t believe what she saw and rubbed her right eye.

The interior was narrow and completely empty. All there was was Olive clinging to the wall like a cockroach.

Olive had bloodshot eyes and was scraping the wall with a carving knife. The two people who entered later evaluated the sealed room’s interior.

“It’s completely empty.”

“There’s nothing here?”

“Guide! Don’t tell me you took what was inside?”

“Can’t you see I’m looking for it too?”

Olive who entered first must have seen the empty room too. That’s why she was scraping the walls, ceiling, and floor with her carving knife trying to find something.

‘The door was glowing but inside is empty? Is this for real?’

Her mind reeled and breath caught at this unbelievable deception.

Even when she heard she couldn’t get back her entire fortune, her jeonse deposit, she wasn’t this dumbfounded. Back then there were ominous signs, but now she was full of expectations.

“Huff, whew.”

Serena took a deep breath and examined the interior.

‘Isn’t there something only visible to my eyes?’

Trusting this, she told Olive, who was stuck to the ceiling, to move here and there as she thoroughly searched the interior. She even took off her eyepatch, but there was nothing.

‘Damn it.’

Curses that a princess should never even imagine filled her head. Great expectations lead to great disappointments. Serena gritted her teeth and tried to control her emotions. Even the royal patience breathing technique was useless this time.

Instead, what calmed Serena down was seeing the guide who was even more disappointed than herself.

The sight of her clinging to the wall like a cockroach, poking around every corner of the room with her carving knife, was both pitiful and pathetic, yet disgusting to watch.

“Olive.”

“No, this can’t be right! This is the first time I’ve seen the Sealed Door to the Leader’s Room open, not just any other sealed door! There has to be something here!”

“Stop it.”

“It’s because I don’t have proper equipment right now! If I search thoroughly, something will come out!”

“We’ve wasted too much time. Let’s go.”

“This can’t be happening! It’s a sealed door!”

“It’s only the 1st floor. At best, it would have been a slightly better healing potion.”

“This can’t be happening! My dreams and hopes! Where’s the treasure that could buy a country? Where’s the panacea that can even cure petrified humans? Where’s the exit? There should at least be an exit!”

Serena and the others were encountering a sealed door for the first time, so they were only briefly disappointed. However, Olive, whose main specialty as a Labyrinth Explorer was lock picking, couldn’t help but be greatly frustrated.

“Then why did it open in the first place! Why did it open?! If there’s nothing inside, don’t make doors! Was it made to mock me? Are you ridiculing me?”

“Miss Olive, please calm down.”

Ralph picked up Olive, who was lying on the floor throwing a tantrum, and carried her outside.

“My… dreams… and… hopes…”

Even finding a note saying ‘The adventure you gained coming this far is the true treasure!’ in a treasure chest discovered after great hardships wouldn’t feel as futile as this moment.

‘I got my hopes up for nothing.’

Serena sighed, and unable to give up her lingering attachment, took one last look around before returning to the lobby.

***

“You’re late.”

“If you were any later, we were going to come looking for you.”

When they returned to the lobby, Ying and Lavenda welcomed the group. Olive, who had been clinging to Ralph’s back with his bundle of ropes, rolled forward and landed in front of Ying.

“Zero, listen! The princess got a magic map from the 1st Floor Shiny Treasure Chest!”

“I see.”

Though they were both Labyrinth Explorers, Ying didn’t show a big reaction like Olive. She only raised her eyebrows.

“Hey~ Your reaction is too weak, isn’t it? And even more amazing news! The princess opened the Sealed Door to the Leader’s Room! I don’t know what the conditions were, but it opened wide!”

“I see.”

“Why is your reaction so boring! It’s a sealed door, you know? The Sealed Door to the Leader’s Room?”

“What came out of it?”

“That’s exactly the problem! Nothing came out!”

“No need to be surprised then.”

Olive made an annoyed expression at Ying’s indifferent reaction, having hoped for empathy from a fellow professional.

“Fine, just keep your mouth shut.”

While Olive was feeling lonely with no one to share her frustrating emotions with, Lavenda screamed with joy upon seeing what the group had brought.

“It’s underwear!”

Someone who had crossed the continent to become a big shot in the massage industry screamed and rejoiced over a few pieces of underwear as if she’d been gifted gold bars.

“After lunch, we’ll advance at full speed, so look forward to it! Yo!”

Olive gritted her teeth, determined to make up for it with the next treasure chest. Lavenda busily moved around to prepare the meal.

Serena was naturally excluded from the chores again, so she had nothing to do.

‘Maybe I should meditate.’

To handle magic power better than now and increase her magic capacity, meditation was the answer. Serena sat leaning against the mound.

Perhaps because it had grass laid over the dirt, it was softer and more comfortable to sit on than the stone floor.

Whether it was her imagination or not, magic power seemed to gather better than usual.

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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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