Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 93

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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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93. Labyrinth Garden (4)

Serena took out dried bread, fruit, and carrots she had brought as snacks from her bag.

“Bread! Lady Serena is the best!”

Muffin’s eyes welled up with tears as she eagerly chewed the hard dried bread.

Rihua also munched on carrots with a tearful expression.

“How have you been managing meals all this time?”

“We’ve been roasting chicken to eat.”

Without cooking utensils, cooking methods were limited.

Chicken for breakfast, chicken for lunch, chicken for dinner. Even snacks were chicken.

‘Is this torture?’

Serena shuddered.

To the priests who had been enduring the extreme hardship of conquering the labyrinth while subsisting on chicken, the supplies Serena provided were like heavenly food.

Even Hazel, who had been maintaining dignity as an elder and high priest, closed her eyes and savored the taste.

‘We did make a fuss over bread too. But these people are even worse.’

Was dried bread really food worth closing one’s eyes and savoring?

If they ate the soft, fluffy bread fresh from the bread tree, they’d probably cry.

Soon Serena was in no position to talk about others.

Marine had brought some honey remaining in the broken beehive debris.

Though she had satisfied her sweet tooth with fruit and eaten candy and chocolate, pure honey had a different standard of sweetness than processed foods.

Sweetness exploded in Serena’s mouth.

‘Wow, it’s sweet.’

If Serena was like this, how much more so for the priests who had only been chewing chicken?

Muffin, who loved desserts as her name suggested, shed tears, and Marine repeatedly exclaimed “delicious,” abandoning her vow of silence.

“Sob, it’s sweet. It’s delicious.”

“Delicious, delicious!”

“I can feel the earth’s blessing to my bones.”

“Since you might upset your stomach eating something delicious suddenly, please chew thoroughly.”

The honey remaining from the burst beehive was only enough for five people to taste a mouthful each.

The priests who had been smacking their lips enjoying the honey taste couldn’t give up their attachment and rummaged through the beehive debris when the honey disappeared instantly.

“Sob sob. I want to eat chocolate muffins. Those rich chocolate muffins that Lady Serena specially ordered from the royal chef that could only be tasted at the Princess’s afternoon tea parties.”

Muffin sobbed that she wanted to eat muffins.

Serena felt sorry for the priests and took out more food from her bag.

‘I wasn’t planning to take this out.’

The food Serena took from her bag was a fresh, undried pear. A large pear the size of a baby’s head, full of juice.

“Lady Serena! That is!”

“Isn’t that a pear! Since there are fruit trees, you can eat fresh fruit.”

“I’m fine, so please share it among yourselves. Don’t you need to consume nutrition evenly in the labyrinth?”

“Thank you! Thank you so much!”

“I’ll peel it.”

The priests accepted the pear without any pretense, showing how much they had wanted fresh fruit.

Marine skillfully peeled the pear and cut it into four pieces. The fact that they really divided it into four pieces when Serena yielded her portion showed how much the priests had suffered.

“This is the sweetest and most delicious pear I’ve ever eaten in my life.”

“It’s really delicious. If His Highness the Prince ate this pear, he might bend his stubbornness and join the Princess.”

“Speaking of that. Is Seraph enduring the chicken hardship?”

‘If the priests are suffering this much, is that pampered flower really holding up?’

To Serena’s question, Muffin, who knew Seraph best among the priests, answered.

“Uh. Well, you see. Lord Seraph is enduring incredibly well for him. Normally Lord Seraph would have thrown up after one bite of tough, poorly cooked chicken. But he’s eaten everything without throwing up even once.”

“Really?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Serena doubted her ears.

Her picky sibling was enduring the deprivation of the labyrinth. It was hard to believe.

“He doesn’t complain while walking either?”

“No. He always walks ahead looking for traps.”

‘Seraph? Taking the lead in dangerous situations?’

Just from hearing about it, it seemed like a different person with the same name rather than her sibling.

It also meant his anger toward Richard was that great.

“Please give me all the seeds.”

Hazel collected the remaining seeds from eating the pear and dug up one side of the clearing.

The high priest of the Earth God knelt on the ground and planted the pear seeds in a reverent posture, then covered them with soil and poured water.

“Great Earth.”

The high priest serving the earth demonstrated a miracle. Leaves sprouted from the soil, rapidly growing into a tree with flowers blooming on the branches.

“Wow.”

“It’s pretty.”

Everyone admired the white pear blossoms.

“What to do without a brush.”

Instead of admiring the flowers before her, Hazel pondered, then cut a bit of her priest robe and unraveled the thread.

She gathered the unraveled threads, tied them together, and gently touched the small white pear blossoms.

“Are you trying to pollinate?”

“Yes. Rapid growth is possible with the power bestowed by the Earth, but pollination must be done this way. Originally I shouldn’t use such miracles, but we were on the verge of malnutrition. Hahaha.”

‘Right. It was perfect for getting scurvy.’

She didn’t know if scurvy existed in this world, but the priests were in perfect condition to get sick from nutritional imbalance.

After diligently touching flowers to complete pollination, Hazel knelt before the pear tree again.

The flowers on the pear tree withered and small fruits formed. Compared to the number of flowers that bloomed, only a few fruits formed.

“The pollination didn’t work well after all.”

Hazel was disappointed by the small number of pears, while others regretted that the pear blossoms had fallen so quickly.

Anyway, Hazel obtained five large pears. When the pears were picked, the pear tree rapidly lost vitality and died from withering.

‘So that’s why she doesn’t use it often.’

The dead pear tree could be used as lumber. Marine chopped the tree base with an axe, split it into pieces good for firewood, gathered and tied them.

Both Serena and Hazel were in a state of depleted mana. While the two recovered mana through meditation, the others decided to take over the night watch.

***

“Ugh.”

Serena woke up hunching her shoulders.

‘I dozed off.’

She had fallen asleep in the middle of meditation. Everyone else was asleep, and Muffin, who had been on night watch, approached.

“Are you awake? Please sleep more.”

“I seem to have slept enough. Aren’t you tired, Miss Muffin?”

“I’m fine! Though it is a bit scary.”

The pink-haired girl who had given Serena shock and horror when first seen sat next to the Princess, perhaps bored from being awake alone.

“It’s truly surprising that Miss Muffin was chosen by the God of Decay.”

“Yes. I was shocked at first too. Uh. I would have preferred the God of Flowers or the God of Water.”

‘For a priest to say such things and be forgiven. The God of Decay is generous.’

It wasn’t that the gods of this world were indifferent to humans and tolerant of being insulted.

Just look at the Minotaur God casting curses when adventurers touched his statue.

Judging by the fact that Muffin’s body wasn’t rotting, the God of Decay was an extremely magnanimous deity.

“I heard many priests received oracles before falling into the labyrinth. Did you also receive an oracle, Miss Muffin?”

“Yes. I wasn’t a congratulatory envoy and didn’t even participate in the priests’ gathering, but I suddenly received an oracle and went to the Royal Palace to ask other priests about it.”

“Could you tell me what the God of Decay said, if possible?”

“Ugh. I’m sorry, Lady Serena. Even if it’s you, I can’t tell you what the Corruption said.”

“Knight Marin and Priest Rihua told me, but is it impossible for Miss Muffin?”

“Each god’s oracle content must be different. Those two probably had content that was okay for Lady Serena to hear, but mine… Ugh…”

Muffin pretended to tremble and shrank back.

“Was the oracle bad news?”

“It was scary content. For me, at least.”

‘Scary content, huh.’

At first glance, Muffin looked like a lovely pink-haired girl who seemed afraid of many things.

But Muffin’s true nature was that of a 5-star Monk. She was strong enough to take down most labyrinth enemies alone.

Of course, one’s martial prowess and what they find scary are separate matters.

Just like how humans have overwhelming force against cockroaches, yet still find cockroaches frightening.

“Prince Seraph has his reasons because of that heinous traitor. But why are you conquering the labyrinth, Lady Serena?”

“Me?”

“I heard you were chosen as an apostle by the Labyrinth God. Did the god command you to conquer the labyrinth?”

“I’m not participating in the conquest because I want to conquer the labyrinth either. I have unavoidable circumstances.”

A hundred thousand people are trapped. I have to save them, don’t I?

“I thought so. There’s no way Lady Serena would do such a thing.”

The noble young lady who knew well the lazy princess’s daily life nodded seriously.

As Serena and Muffin chatted quietly, people began waking up one by one.

Hazel was the first to rise and offer morning prayers.

“I’ll prepare breakfast, so please rest a little more, Priest Muffin.”

“Really?”

Serena gave the blanket she was wearing to Muffin.

Muffin covered herself with the warmly heated blanket and closed her eyes with a happy expression.

Serena got up to help Hazel prepare breakfast.

They gathered twigs and beehive debris, lit a fire, put water in a pot, and boiled dried food.

They deliberately added plenty of salt. Hazel generously added pepper to the pot.

‘Pepper?’

These people who didn’t even have salt and ate bland grilled chicken have pepper?

When Serena looked puzzled, Hazel gave a bitter smile.

“We got it from a treasure chest. The prince really has good luck with treasure chests. I’ve conquered several labyrinths myself, but this is the first conquest where so many treasure chests appeared.”

“Many treasure chests appeared?”

“Yes. Usually we’d find maybe one per floor, but in this conquest we found three or four per floor. Sometimes we discovered five or six. Did you experience the same, Princess?”

“No. We averaged one per floor.”

“Then the prince really does have good luck. Thanks to that, we’ve been able to endure and come this far.”

Serena blinked as she exposed her right eye to the steam rising from the bubbling porridge.

‘This bastard. His luck is damn good.’

I wondered how they were surviving without an alchemist or additional supplies. They were filling essential supplies with labyrinth treasure chests.

However, perhaps because the rewards were biased toward Seraph’s desires, important supplies like salt were lacking.

‘What’s the point of having pepper but no salt?’

Just in case, Serena gave Hazel a piece of rock salt she had been carrying.

The high priest’s stern face brightened with joy.

“About the oracles the priests received.”

“Yes. Did you hear from the other priests?”

“Could you tell me what kind of oracle the Earth God gave?”

“Hmm…”

Hazel pondered deeply, then suddenly asked a question.

“What do you think about death, Princess?”

“Death is death, isn’t it?”

“What do you think about death that includes not only those who live dependent on the earth, but also celestial beings who don’t depend on the earth?”

Just when I thought he was asking a philosophical question, the scope suddenly expanded.

‘Celestial beings means gods, right? Gods dying?’

As far as Serena knew, the gods of this world were the type who lived well on their own even without faith.

She had read myths about sealing gods in books, but this was the first time she’d heard of gods dying.

When Serena’s expression became serious, Hazel retracted his words with a light smile.

“Please pretend you didn’t hear what I just said. My learning is still insufficient to properly understand the great one’s words.”

Spilled water cannot be gathered again, and words spoken cannot be taken back.

But one can try to erase what they heard from memory.

Serena nodded awkwardly with a smile.

‘Let’s just simply conquer the labyrinth and be done with it. Gods dying and such is too grandiose. There are Sword Masters around, let them handle it.’

The awakened priests straightened their robes and first offered morning prayers.

The priests ate porridge with jerky and bread using silver spoons that came from treasure chests.

‘Now we just need to find the way.’

While Serena and Hazel consulted the magic map about where to go next, Rihua gazed wistfully at the spot where the pear tree had grown.

“It’s a shame the pear blossoms fell so quickly. They were so pretty.”

“Come on. You saw plenty of flowers. There are lots of flowers in this labyrinth, aren’t there?”

“Carnivorous Flowers?”

“No. There are ordinary flowers blooming too. I saw tulips near where I fell. They were blooming in abundance by color.”

Marine, wearing a necklace that read 4 hours, apparently counting sleep time as training period, immediately joined in.

“I also saw forsythia while wandering around.”

The 4 hours changed to 0.

“Now that you mention it, I think I saw plum blossoms while running away…”

Perhaps due to the labyrinth garden concept, ordinary flowers besides carnivorous ones seemed to be blooming throughout.

‘There were roses.’

The rose garden labyrinth was boring with always the same flowers blooming and identical structure.

She remembered seeing roses of the same variety as those in the rose garden while passing by.

‘I only went to the rose garden when roses were in full bloom in May, and visited other gardens normally.’

A proper gardener should cultivate a garden so the owner can see flowers in all seasons without having to move around.

But the garden caretaker, dejected by the young master’s death, didn’t transplant the roses.

So Serena had to move around to find gardens with seasonal flowers.

After growing up, she fired the incompetent gardener and hired another, so such problems didn’t occur.

‘Wait. Moving around to see flowers?’

Serena grabbed the magic map and marked where she saw roses.

“Did you see flowers too, High Priest Hazel?”

“I saw cherry blossoms. Ah! Could it be!”

The flowers the party saw were all spring flowers, but their blooming periods differed slightly from early to late spring.

When they compiled the flower information they witnessed on the magic map, a route following the blooming order was revealed.

“Here it is!”

The temporary guide determined the destination the party should head to and pointed at the map.

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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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