Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 64

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

64. Ocean Sunfish

The very first time, he died of poisoning. Seeing not only my sibling but the entire party wiped out, I was so dumbfounded I didn’t even know I should be sad.

The second time, he died from falling. Walking recklessly on the narrow path at night, he was startled by a labyrinth bat that jumped out from a cliff crevice and fell to his death.

The third time, he was crushed to death by labyrinth deer teeth. He was making noise like he did in the royal palace and properly drew the aggro of a strong enemy.

The fourth time, Serena killed him. There’s no room for excuses.

The fifth time, he was killed by a stalactite. The stalactites hanging densely from the stalactite cave ceiling did look dangerous, but I never thought he’d actually die from being hit by one.

The sixth time was drowning. No, was it poisoning? The cause of death isn’t clear. I only confirmed that the corpse stuck in the bat guano pit had blonde hair. Instead, my sibling’s sword was planted like a tombstone in front of the guano pit. It was definitely my sibling.

When you find someone dead on the road, it’s human decency to give them a proper burial, but a corpse stuck in excrement was too much to pull out, so they probably just stuck the sword there. That must be it.

The seventh time was death from blood loss. Whether he was attacked by the stratum boss vampire bat, I found a corpse that had been sucked dry of blood.

Serena fell silent before her sibling’s corpse that had shriveled up after having all its bodily fluids sucked out.

“….”

“Princess….”

No one could speak to Serena. Because they knew that no words of comfort could truly comfort someone who had lost family.

“Sigh.”

Serena exhaled and gestured to Ying.

“Ying. Kill me in one blow.”

“What? Lady Serena! What are you saying?”

“Princess, you mustn’t do that!”

There was one advantage of Ying that Serena had discovered after coming to the 3rd layer.

Even when she made the strange request to be killed, Ying didn’t ask for reasons and immediately complied. The faithful servant of darkness was truly loyal, never going against the darkness that commanded her to follow the princess’s words.

Though puzzled, Ying quickly slit Serena’s throat with a dagger before the party members could interfere.

As soon as Serena saw the crimson eyes, she asked.

“Cough, cough. Does such a thing as destined death exist? Is my sibling destined to die today?”

Was there a schedule written in this world’s death god’s planner that read “Seraph’s death today”? Without that, she couldn’t understand her sibling’s repeated deaths.

When it got to the point of dying by falling into excrement, it reminded her of those horror movie series about inescapable death.

“No such thing exists.”

“Then why does my sibling keep dying?”

“Lack of skill and bad luck, I suppose.”

“Aaaahhh!”

‘This damn flower trash!’

Serena screamed wildly before the god and tore at her hair.

After exhausting herself with rage and coming to her senses, people’s stares were piercing. Even Lavenda and Philia, who had grown accustomed to Serena’s eccentric behavior, looked frightened.

Though equally frightened, Lavenda and Philia’s fear was of different kinds.

Philia, worried about her master, approached immediately when Serena seemed to regain her reason.

“Lady Serena, are you alright? Did you receive another divine revelation? Are revelations that difficult? You look so tormented.”

“Aunt, what just happened was more like a fit or seizure than a revelation. Ugh!”

Philia mercilessly jabbed her loose-lipped nephew’s ribs just as her master used to do to her.

Shocked by this first-time assault in his life, Grey couldn’t continue speaking and fled.

Serena slowly caught her breath.

‘I’m currently in the lobby of the 1st floor of Heuji’s Labyrinth. Right after quickly spilling information about needing to find Seraph on the 3rd layer and about randomly encountering Richard because I was tired of explaining it multiple times, and updating the regression point.’

To others, it must have looked like she suddenly screamed and went wild after revealing the shocking information that Duke Oren was a Sword Master.

‘The intervals between my eccentric episodes are getting shorter too.’

Stopping right before the strategy to learn magic. Then suddenly bringing up talk about my sibling and cousin after claiming to receive a revelation, followed by another episode.

‘I need to pull myself together.’

Even though Serena had firmly established her position as the food provider and the sole teleportation magic circle user, the possibility of people thinking of someone mentally unstable who keeps repeating eccentric behavior as the party leader was low.

Serena eventually lay down on the ground.

“I didn’t realize it, but as Grey said, there seems to be a backlash from hastily learning magic. My head is dizzy and my stomach burns.”

“That’s what it was! Please lie down comfortably! I’ll keep watch for you.”

“I’m sorry when we’re all prepared, but would you all go to the 3rd layer and find my sibling?”

Serena handed the magic map to Olive. Olive readily agreed without suspecting the prince’s existence on the increasingly detailed magic map that grew more precise with each of the princess’s deaths.

Serena lay straight on the spot Philia had prepared and closed her eyes.

From repeatedly confirming her sibling’s death and immediately dying to repeat the 3rd layer strategy, both her body and mind were extremely tired. On top of that, having to deal with Richard who appeared from time to time made it even worse.

Even without trying to close her eyes, her eyelids naturally shut. In a drowsy state, Serena organized the information gained from dying seven times.

‘Why does this flower trash keep dying? Was he actually a flower ocean sunfish instead of flower trash?’

Serena recalled the ocean sunfish raising game she had played enthusiastically in her previous life. The ocean sunfish in the game died for all sorts of bizarre reasons.

Though she wasn’t deliberately collecting death scenes like in that game, her sibling’s causes of death were varied.

Perhaps the god who was the ancestor of House Huaim was the god of ocean sunfish or sudden death.

Serena was merely a mortal and had no way of knowing the cause of her sibling’s repeated deaths. Serena organized other information.

‘This bastard travels alone during the day and joins his companions from evening.’

After analyzing seven total deaths, Seraph traveled alone during the day and joined four priests around sunset to travel together.

She couldn’t tell if this was a chance encounter after initially traveling alone, or if they had fallen into the labyrinth together but separated due to the flower trash causing trouble before reuniting.

Anyway, according to Serena’s analysis, 80% of the reasons Seraph died were because he traveled alone.

‘If he doesn’t have the ability to protect himself, why does he keep wandering around alone? How arrogant. Doesn’t he know this is a labyrinth?’

If he traveled with the other four, his chances of dying would decrease, so why did he travel alone? Serena couldn’t understand it at all.

If Seraph found out that Serena was suffering like this because of him, what would he say?

‘He’d probably say “Who asked you to save me?” Damn bastard.’

Imagining that arrogant voice, posture, and expression suddenly raised her blood pressure and woke her from sleep.

Seeing the princess who seemed to be sleeping suddenly sit up, Philia, Lavenda, and Grey stopped their movements in surprise.

“I should meditate.”

“Rest a bit more.”

“That’s a good idea, Your Highness. I’ll correct your meditation method for you. I have a meditation technique I learned from Grandfather.”

Serena handed Grey, who kept trying to stick close, over to Philia and closed her eyes.

It was strange how her mind was complicated but mana gathered well.

***

The party that went to the 3rd layer didn’t return even after a day passed. With the precedent of the 2nd layer, it felt slightly ominous, but she decided to trust and wait.

The next morning, a welcome notification window appeared in her left eye’s world.

[You have discovered stairs leading to the next floor. 5 shop coins have been awarded.]

For layers like the 3rd layer where multiple floors were combined, it seemed shop coins were awarded in bulk when stairs to the next layer were discovered.

‘I was worried they’d only give 1 coin just because the floors were combined.’

I was secretly anxious, but I was happy to receive 5 shop coins.

Though the notification confirmed the party’s safety, there was still no way to know her sibling’s fate. Serena anxiously waited for the party’s return.

In the slightly late evening, with the shortest guide in the lead, Ralph, Count Randy, and Ying returned safely. Everyone was tired but returned unharmed without injuries.

However, they couldn’t bring back the sibling Serena had been waiting for.

‘He died again.’

Serena sighed before receiving the report.

“Lady Serena. Lord Seraph is.”

Count Randy seemed troubled as he chose his words, as if bringing up a difficult topic to his superior. Serena forced a smile to make it easier for him to speak.

“Speak comfortably.”

‘How did he die this time.’

If he died this time, it would already be the eighth death.

At this point, it wouldn’t be strange if something like “Seraph Death Scene Collection” appeared in Serena’s left eye world.

“I truly made every effort, but.”

“Yes.”

“I couldn’t persuade Lord Seraph. I’m truly sorry for failing to bring the prince back.”

“I see. It would be difficult to bring back a corpse when you have to climb cliffs. And you couldn’t use teleportation magic circles without me there.”

“What?”

“What did you say?”

Naturally, she thought Seraph would be dead, but Count Randy’s words were strange. Count Randy also couldn’t understand the princess’s words and looked puzzled.

“Didn’t Seraph die?”

“He seemed quite excited, but he looked healthy.”

“Did he fall, get stuck in a dung pit, get pierced by stalactites? What about poisonous mushrooms?”

“Ah, there are red-spotted mushrooms in the cave that could be confused with red dot mushrooms, so I did warn Lord Seraph and his party. Since he has priests of earth, light, fire, and even decay with him, he should be fine for a while.”

“Having four priests is one thing, but how are they all beautiful with different personalities? When I first saw our knight, I teased him saying it must be nice being the only man, but the prince really has a harem party. Yo.”

Olive grinned, saying she envied the prince. Serena felt dizzy and took a deep breath.

“Seraph is fine?”

“Yes. He said he would chase after Duke Oren. I tried to persuade him to join up with you first since you were on the 1st floor, but it was futile. I’m sorry.”

“Count, you did your best! The priests also tried to persuade the prince, but his will was too strong.”

Serena had no intention of blaming anyone, but Ralph defended Count Randy. Rather than hearing about the flower trash’s stubbornness, Serena was curious about something else.

‘The flower trash is alive? But every time I saw him, he was dead?’

“When and where did you meet Seraph?”

“Right, what the princess told us was a bit wrong. We wanted to find the prince quickly, so we took a shortcut and went fast. Yo.”

Olive took out a magic map for a simple explanation. The guide drew the shortest route from the starting point to the peak where Seraph was.

One straight line. It was a direct path.

“Did you fly through the sky?”

“We attached ropes to hooks and crossed over. Yo.”

“What about the floor bosses?”

“We tactfully moved quickly when they weren’t looking. Yo. Wow, the count was brave. He was doing well, shouting his wife’s name.”

Olive laughed heartily while patting Count Randy’s back. The count attributed all the credit to his master again.

“We went to look for him, but the prince wasn’t there? Then we felt signs of people and went toward this bridge, and the prince was surrounded by four beauties, fighting. Yo. The prince insisted on chasing after Duke Orange, so the blue-haired priest got angry and tried to cut the bridge pillar with an axe, but we intervened and stopped it. Yo. Did the Labyrinth God anticipate the bridge would break and inform the princess?”

To summarize, by using the ultra-high-speed shortcut they couldn’t attempt when Serena was with them, they met Seraph before he separated from the priest party and saw that he was perfectly alive.

Cold sweat ran down Serena’s back after hearing the report.

‘Could it be… did I kill him?’

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————