Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 60

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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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60. Seraph (3)

There were five people collapsed around the campfire. One of them was Serena’s sibling, Grand Duke Seraph Parkling Huaim.

“D-did Duke Oren kill them?”

“There are no external wounds for that to be the case. It seems they ate something wrong.”

All the dead had traces of foam and vomit around their mouths. Serena stared blankly at the scene of five corpses when someone suddenly touched her body, startling her.

“Princess, pull yourself together.”

“Huh? Oh, yes. I should.”

After following the traces so diligently, she had discovered her sibling’s corpse. It didn’t feel real yet, so she wasn’t even sad. She was just a bit surprised.

Olive forcibly made Serena sit down and left to examine the bodies like the others.

“This person is Prince Seraph…”

“That’s right. He was the same age as Sir Ralph…”

Platinum hair slightly darker than Richard’s and clear, beautiful eyes like high-purity amethyst. Prince Seraph had been a remarkable beautiful young man. He rivaled Philia, the greatest beauty of Huji.

The prince’s beauty remained even after death. Count Randy sorrowfully closed the deceased’s eyes.

“Except for the prince, they’re all women. This blue-haired one has an axe and sword, and this person in a dress looks like a noble lady?”

“She’s the daughter of Count Baker, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Huji.”

“Yes. This pink-haired lady is Lady Baker. And this middle-aged woman is…”

“It’s the holy symbol of the Earth God. I’m certain because there’s a priest who often comes to our village.”

“A priest of the Earth God. Then we have the blue-haired one and the white-haired one left.”

While examining the axe the blue-haired woman was carrying, Olive discovered an emblem carved on the axe handle.

“It’s the holy symbol of the Fire God. A priest or holy knight of the Fire God? Then the last remaining one is the white-haired lady…? Don’t tell me this person is also a priest?”

She thought it was an old person because of the white hair, but looking at the face, she was young. Even accounting for death, the excessively pale skin was peculiar, but unlike the others, there were no belongings to deduce her identity.

“Light.”

“Have you switched from darkness to light now, Zero?”

“What nonsense!”

Ying became emotionally shaken, which was rare, and pointed at the white-haired woman’s corpse.

“Light.”

“You mean a priest of the Light God? How do you know when there’s no holy symbol?”

“Darkness and light are contradictory relations that cannot coexist yet cannot exist independently. Darkness covers light, and light burns darkness. The world is created through their unbalanced yet balanced harmony, and”

“I get it, that’s enough.”

Mind-numbing talk flowed smoothly from the archer’s mouth. Olive immediately covered Ying’s mouth, but Ying didn’t stop talking.

“Though the world is thus a sacred collaboration between darkness and light, the servants of light spread fabrications that light alone created the world, trying to erase the existence of darkness. Light is innocent, but the servants of light are very cunning and wicked creatures.”

“What are you talking about. You must have a lot of grudges against the Order of Light, but that’s not what’s important right now.”

Olive put her hands on her hips and scolded Ying.

“Why did they die. That’s what we need to find out.”

“They all have foam and vomit traces around their mouths. It’s certain they ate something wrong.”

“There are four priests, but none of them knew detoxification magic or purification magic?”

“I think they ate this.”

Ralph picked up a half-burned piece while searching through the campfire. It was a mushroom with a slightly charred exterior and bite marks.

“This is a mushroom I saw yesterday while washing meat. Could this be the cause?”

“This is!”

“What is it, Count? What? Is it?”

Count Randy was shocked to see the half-eaten mushroom.

“This is a red-spotted death cap mushroom. It’s not poisonous when eaten raw, but becomes toxic when cooked over fire – a terrifying poisonous mushroom that causes instant death within 20 minutes with just one bite. Unfortunately, when grilled over fire, it closely resembles the delicious red-dot mushroom, causing victims every year.”

“Ah… how terrible.”

Thanks to Count Randy’s knowledge, the cause of death for the five people was revealed. It was a vivid demonstration of the fact that eating mushrooms with half-baked knowledge can be fatal.

The party members glanced at the princess, who remained calm despite discovering her sibling’s corpse, while laying the bodies properly.

They needed to transport them to the tomb in the 1st floor lobby for burial.

Are you crazy, how can we carry corpses from here to there.

If I empty my subspace bag, I can move two bodies.

The alchemist’s bag contains things more precious than gold, how can we throw that away, and so on.

The party was so engrossed in their heated debate over the five corpses that they failed to notice the princess getting up and walking unsteadily.

“Right. We should take the prince with us. I acknowledge that. Rather than taking things out of the bag and carrying them around inconveniently, the knight should carry the prince on his back. Huh? Where’s the princess?”

When the party noticed the princess’s absence, Serena was already standing at the edge of the cliff.

“Lady Serena!”

“Princess, it’s dangerous!”

‘I really hate death by falling.’

Serena stared down at the view showing only clouds with vacant eyes, then threw herself off.

***

As expected from the cliff’s height, only after experiencing the terror of falling to a sickening degree could she collide with the ground. Serena writhed in the terrible pain of her entire body shattering.

Even though she was dead, phantom pain remained, making her teeth grind from the agony. Rather, because consciousness remained even after death, the pain seemed to continue.

The god with crimson eyes was beside Serena again this time. She had been dazed ever since discovering her sibling’s corpse, but dying cleared her head a little.

“Does Richard also regress after dying?”

“That’s right.”

“This isn’t his first time, is it?”

Instead of answering, the Minotaur God smiled faintly. It was a smile of affirmation.

“What about Seraph? Does Seraph also regress when he dies?”

“That child has nothing to offer as sacrifice.”

Something Richard and Serena could offer as sacrifice that Seraph didn’t have.

‘Orange eyes.’

Hearing about sacrifice reminded her of the pain when her eye was gouged out, and her hand instinctively moved to her left eye. While caressing her eyepatch, Serena resolved another curiosity.

The time to converse with the god after death was short, so she had to ask the urgent things first.

“If I die by Richard’s hand, will the regression end?”

“No.”

“What about the opposite?”

“That’s right.”

This relieved her worry about the regression being cut off by dying at Richard’s hands.

‘Then couldn’t I just leave the labyrinth conquest to Sword Master Richard and save Seraph to hold out on the 1st floor?’

As the brief audience time ended and Serena was about to wake up, the Minotaur God spoke.

“But be careful. When that child reaches the final floor of the labyrinth, you will die.”

‘What?’

Serena’s eyes widened at the death sentence that came out of nowhere without foreshadowing. She wanted to ask for more details, but when she blinked, she was in the 1st floor lobby.

Serena was standing in front of the ugly statue with crimson eyes.

“Honey, take care of yourself. Please look after Lady Serena.”

“You be careful too, dear. I’ll definitely protect Lady Serena.”

The farewell between Count Randy and his wife, which she remembered hearing, was exchanged. The party urged the princess who was standing blankly in front of the statue.

“Princess! Aren’t you going? Yo?”

“Did the Minotaur God perhaps give you a revelation?”

A revelation? She did receive one. A death sentence that she would die when Richard reached the end of the labyrinth.

‘What should I do?’

Her body still ached as if shattered, and her head throbbed as if broken. Death, Richard, sacrifice, orange eyes, Seraph, poisonous mushrooms, falling.

The keywords floating in her mind caused dizziness on top of the headache.

‘First, Seraph. Something I can do.’

Having died several times already, the death sentence wasn’t that shocking. Rather, she had to save her sibling who died from eating poisonous mushrooms first.

‘I’ll ask about my death next time.’

To save her sibling, she had to meet him before he ate the poisonous mushrooms. To do that, she needed to reach the target location more quickly.

Fortunately, Serena had a way to shorten travel time.

For easy time reduction, Serena lied without even moistening her lips.

“That’s right. Just as Sir Ralph said, the Minotaur God has given me a revelation!”

“Gasp, really?”

“What what. What kind of revelation?”

“Lady Serena! You’ve communicated with the god again!”

“Do you really receive revelations? I’m so curious, Your Highness!”

The Princess unfolded the magic map. The paper showed a map of the 3rd Layer that the party had not yet visited.

“Prince Seraph is in this place. The Minotaur God, moved by my concern for my younger brother, has graciously revealed my brother’s location!”

Waaah! The Minotaur God has given the Princess information about the 3rd Layer!

The lobby became as noisy as if a festival had begun. People seemed to want to enjoy this situation a bit longer, but there was no time to waste like this.

Serena left the lobby with quick steps.

***

They used the teleportation magic circle in the 1st Floor Captain’s Room to go down to the 5th Floor. From the 5th Floor, it was quick to reach the stairs leading down to the 3rd Layer.

Upon reaching the 3rd Layer and passing through a somewhat long stalactite cave, cliffs, wind, and a vast sky greeted the party. Though they had heard about it beforehand, Ralph opened his mouth in surprise when real mountains and sky appeared.

“Wow, it’s really the sky.”

Olive and Count Randy were surprised in a different way.

“It’s really just as the Princess said.”

“Lady Serena, this is truly amazing!”

“The monsters that appear are Labyrinth Condors and Labyrinth Bats, and the strong enemy is the Labyrinth Deer. It climbs cliffs like a mountain goat and moves freely around this layer, so be careful. Also, the strong enemy uses a fear that suddenly causes weakness in parts of the body. It’s best to be cautious when walking on cliffs.”

The other monsters besides the strong enemy weren’t difficult to deal with, so she omitted their explanation. Olive and Ralph’s eyes sparkled brightly as they nodded enthusiastically.

“Yes yes. Everything the Princess says is right. We believe you!”

“Yes! We’ll be careful!”

Serena pointed precisely at the location where Seraph was on the magic map in Olive’s hands.

“The peak where I expect Seraph to be is this place. I want to get there as quickly as possible.”

“Hmm~”

No matter how excellent the magic map was, it was still flat. Though it could be viewed in 3D structure, it was nothing compared to looking around once.

Fortunately, the starting point of the 3rd Layer was among the higher peaks that jutted out sharply throughout the 3rd Layer. Olive compared it with the map while looking around, then quickly deduced the optimal route.

“Like this, turn here, and go this way should work.”

Olive kindly explained by drawing the route with her finger on the magic map so the party wouldn’t get confused. The movement was much shorter than when they first came to the 3rd Layer and twisted the route midway to look for Seraph.

“Wow, even though we’ve never been there, having a map makes it so convenient and nice. Princess, you said it was an exception last time, but how can you surprise us like this again~”

The magic map even had interior cave maps drawn that couldn’t be understood by looking down from high places. It was embarrassingly superior compared to when she only told them about the stairs when they went to catch frogs.

Olive muttered in a dreamy voice like someone who had fallen in love.

“I can’t explore the Labyrinth without the Princess anymore. Take responsibility.”

“Stop talking nonsense and let’s go.”

“Aww. But I’m serious.”

The route Olive newly planned had the same beginning as before. They couldn’t escape the swaying bridge that swayed dizzyingly in all directions – up, down, left, right, and diagonally.

A swaying bridge made of rotting ropes and broken, decaying wooden planks. The symbol drawn on the map was indeed a bridge, but could this really be called a bridge?

While the group harbored doubts, Olive, their guide, grabbed the rope and crossed the bridge first. Just like before, Ralph took off his armor, entrusted it to Count Randy, and followed across.

Serena received leather gloves from Count Randy, put them on, and took a deep breath. The wind was calm, so it seemed it would be fine for a while.

‘It’s a bridge I’ve crossed once before. I just need to go.’

Serena gripped the rope tightly and carefully crossed the swaying bridge. Last time she had stepped on the bridge too vigorously, only increasing the vibrations. This time she would step gently, moving without swaying even if it was a bit slower!

Perhaps the Princess moving so slowly looked like good prey. This time too, a Labyrinth Condor targeted Serena and dove down.

“Princess, it’s dangerous!”

Serena wasn’t frightened because she trusted Ying. Indeed, Ying’s arrow hit the Labyrinth Condor’s body. The condor crashed down while still diving. It left Serena a big gift as it departed.

Splat.

A warm, almost hot, foul-smelling, sticky, lumpy viscous liquid poured over Serena. Being large, the amount was also substantial.

The Princess, who had suddenly been hit with bird droppings – practically drenched in them – couldn’t bring herself to scream and twisted her whole body.

Though she wanted to curse at heaven and earth and scream, Serena endured it.

‘That deer bastard seemed to come after hearing my scream.’

No matter how much the difficulty had increased, how could they encounter the strong enemy so easily and quickly in this vast 3rd Layer?

The strong enemy had approached after hearing Serena’s scream, and the group had also mistaken the deer’s cry for a human voice and went looking, so they met right in the middle.

So she endured it. Serena gathered all her patience from this life and her previous life and endured.

Even when her hands holding the rope became slippery because of the bird droppings, she endured. Even when she had to smell the awful, disgusting odor with every breath, she endured.

It absolutely wasn’t because she felt bird droppings would enter her mouth if she opened it.

The Princess, who had been struck not by lightning from a clear sky but by a droppings bolt, safely crossed the swaying bridge. Olive, who had cheerfully mocked the Princess when she was hit by bat droppings, couldn’t laugh seeing the Princess who had taken a droppings shower.

“Looking at the map, there’s a place where water flows in the cave. Let’s go together. I’ll help you wash. Okay.”

Serena nodded like the party’s taciturn archer.

“Don’t open your eyes since droppings might get in. Hold my hand, that’s right.”

Relying on Olive’s kindness, which was gentler than ever, Serena was able to safely rinse her hair and wipe her hands and face inside the cave.

‘Sigh. Is this right.’

Without soap, washing only with water didn’t remove the smell. She couldn’t undress to bathe or do laundry, so it felt more unpleasant than when she wore clothes without properly wiping off grease.

This discomfort warned Serena. Though she shouldn’t think this way, having already died once and returned.

‘This feels ominous.’

She had a bad feeling.

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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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