Chapter 10
“Ugh.”
Serena woke with a groan. She felt like she’d slept deeply, but it was still bright around her. The light Serena had created was illuminating the lobby.
‘Since the spell lasts about six hours…’
She’d cast the light spell when returning to the lobby. After that, catching rats, cooking, and eating probably took about an hour or two. That left about four to five hours.
‘I didn’t sleep long.’
It seemed she hadn’t used her precious rest time well, and she clicked her tongue. She’d expected it since having that strange lucid dream, but actually experiencing it was annoying.
‘The fire went out.’
The lobby was slightly cool, and perhaps due to the lack of fuel, the fire had gone out.
“Hm?”
Somehow, there was a sweet scent. It mixed with a fragrance she’d smelled before. As she sniffed around to find the source of the scent, it immediately dissipated.
‘Could this be why I had that lucid dream?’
The dissipating scent was somewhat similar to the incense she burned during meditation. Maybe that’s why she’d dreamed of that strange person.
Come to think of it, the foggy atmosphere in the dream was also similar to what she’d seen during successful meditation sessions.
Serena looked around for the source of the scent but found nothing unusual.
‘Was I imagining it? I should take over watch duty from whoever’s on it.’
While she slept, someone had covered her with a cloak. She folded it and slowly stood up.
Only Serena, as the princess, had been given a blanket to sleep on. Everyone else had curled up and slept on the bare floor.
‘I told them to keep their cloaks on.’
Serena spread the folded cloak back out and laid it over Philia, who was curled up, sleeping with her delicate body bundled.
‘Philia’s asleep, and Lavenda’s sleeping next to her. Chrome is sleeping by his cart. Is Hanson awake?’
Hanson was sitting in the passage to the corridor, blocking it with his legs. His small, brimmed helmet tilted forward, hiding his face.
She had a good guess, but just in case, Serena crept toward Hanson. She carefully lifted his helmet with her finger and saw his freckled face, eyes closed, sleeping soundly.
‘For heaven’s sake.’
How could not a single person be awake in this situation?
‘They must be tired.’
It was absurd, but at the same time, understandable. Since Serena was in the same boat, she couldn’t blame them for sleeping.
‘He really looks young.’
Hanson had a youthful face. Even more so with his sleeping face, he looked truly young.
‘If he’s a guard, he must be an adult. Did he get hired this year? He’s the same age as me?’
Serena had always been told she was a mature and adult-like princess. Not because of her mental age, but because her slightly sharp eyes and seductive features were far from youthful.
‘They say if you look old early, you age late. But that’s only with good maintenance. Ah.’
She hadn’t washed her face before going to sleep last night. She hadn’t been able to wash at all. Suddenly, an unpleasant sensation of her entire body itching and bugs crawling over her washed over her.
“Ugh.”
Serena tried to use magic to create ice but stopped. This spell was for drinking water—she shouldn’t waste it on washing.
Her orange eyes glanced at the fountain. After intense internal conflict, Serena filled a bucket with water from the fountain.
‘Surely it won’t kill me.’
The party had already eaten rat meat washed with this fountain water. It was probably fine.
‘When I get out of here, I need to learn purification magic, cleaning magic, or hygiene magic.’
She’d heard it never hurts to learn, but having given up on theoretical-only magic, she felt the loss keenly. If she’d learned all those spells, Serena would have received applause from everyone, hearing “Princess is the best! A genius mage!”
At least she would have been clean.
A long-dormant desire to learn flared up. Serena took the bucket to the cave and washed her face. Even with just water and no soap, she felt considerably refreshed.
‘I want to wash my whole body too.’
She should have ignored Philia’s urging and bathed properly yesterday. Serena regretted her past choices over and over.
‘No. If I had, I might have fallen here naked.’
Though her body was sticky, she’d at least fallen with clothes on and shoes on—that was something. Serena wet her handkerchief with water and wiped the areas she could reach.
“Serena.”
Philia woke up and approached. It was unexpected.
‘I thought she’d be the last one up.’
Lavenda, Chrome, and Hanson had fought rats, and Serena had used magic and led the party. Philia had done nothing yesterday, but Serena had thought she’d be the most tired.
‘I’ve been reincarnated. She’s a real hothouse flower.’
Serena had expected Philia to fall asleep like a fainting spell and not wake unless someone woke her, but Philia woke on her own. Serena was proud, thinking she had survival instincts.
That pride vanished at Philia’s frail plea.
“I need to use the bathroom.”
Philia whimpered pitifully.
‘So that’s why she woke up alone.’
Philia’s bladder or bowels must have reached their limit and woken her. This was also a type of survival instinct, but somewhat pathetic.
‘Not that I’m in a position to think she’s pathetic.’
Actually, Serena’s bladder was also approaching its limit.
‘Now that I’m aware of it, I really need to go.’
Serena scouted for a suitable place to use as a bathroom. She ruled out the mausoleum-or-labyrinth area because she didn’t know if the water drained properly. The only option left was the cave.
‘Chrome dressed the rats here. We might have to eat more rats, so somewhere away from here.’
Looking for a spot away from where the rats were dressed, she walked and walked and reached the place where she’d woken up yesterday. Serena tapped the floor with the tip of her shoe. It was covered with a shallow layer of dirt and moss, but underneath was solid stone.
‘Is there anywhere I can dig?’
“Do your business here. I’ll shield you.”
“Here?”
Philia was shocked by Serena’s words.
‘One more word and I’ll hit her.’
Fortunately, Philia realized her situation faster than usual. Indeed, crisis makes people grow.
“You’re right. That’s the royal mausoleum, so there’s nowhere else to go. I’m sorry, Serena.”
‘That too.’
Whether it was a mausoleum or a labyrinth, if there was a suitable place to use as a bathroom, Serena would have used it without hesitation.
‘Ancestors, you’d rather a descendant survive than die of urine poisoning.’
Serena spread her cloak to shield Philia. Philia hesitated, but unable to withstand the pressure on her bladder, she crouched down.
“Hic, honey.”
Philia, quite distraught, called for her husband while relieving herself. Amid the sound of a clear stream of water, Serena heard footsteps and turned around.
“I also…”
Lavenda approached with an embarrassed expression. Chrome, who had apparently woken up too, came carrying a shovel (slightly larger than a trowel).
“Oh, you should have said something. I would have helped.”
Chrome poked around the cave with the shovel. It was all rock.
“This place is solid rock. I’ll cover it with some dirt.”
Chrome gathered dirt and moss from the floor with the shovel and covered the spot. Philia’s beautiful face was teary.
“I’m sorry.”
“We’ll need to get out today.”
They could do this a few times, but as time passed, it would become impossible. Serena agreed with Chrome and gritted her teeth as she crouched down.
How did it come to this, after being reincarnated as a princess? A tear or two escaped her eyes.
***
Even after Serena’s spell ended, the lobby was bright. Serena thought for a moment and quickly found the answer.
“It seems the lighting here is synced with the outside time.”
“What does that mean?”
“I think it means it’s bright now because it’s morning, and it was dark last night because it was night.”
“Aha!”
“I think the princess is right!”
For breakfast, the party shared Chrome’s dried provisions and the jerky Hanson had brought as a snack. The amount was small, barely enough for a taste.
‘I’ll starve to death before I have to worry about bathroom problems again.’
After a day had passed, a wave of despair washed over them. Serena shook her head.
‘Positive thinking! The goal is escape!’
“Does anyone have paper and writing utensils? The paths are getting complicated, so we need to draw a map or at least mark the forks.”
“I have a notebook and pen.”
Lavenda pulled out a notebook. It was a thick, leather-bound notebook. She didn’t hand it over immediately but hesitated for a moment.
“Let me just use the bathroom first.”
“Eh? Now?”
Lavenda hurriedly ran to the cave and returned shortly after. It wasn’t that she really needed the bathroom—it seemed she had written something in the notebook that others shouldn’t see.
“I’m sorry. I had customer information written in it.”
“That’s fine.”
It was a blessing that she carried paper and pens with her.
“Anyone with drawing talent or knowledge of map-making. Hmm, I’ll do it.”
She’d asked in case someone had talent, but everyone was busy avoiding Serena’s eyes. Serena took the pen herself.
It reminded her of her past life, drawing maps on graph paper while playing classic games. Being bad with directions and locations, how miserable she’d been when games lacked maps.
‘I’ll start from the bottom center of the paper.’
Sometimes the paths twisted so much that she needed paper extending past the starting point, requiring her to tape pieces together. The princess hoped her ancestors hadn’t been so malicious.
Serena roughly drew the paths the party had walked yesterday and stood up.
“Let’s go finish the path we started yesterday.”
***
As it had been when they returned to the lobby yesterday, the distance the party had walked wasn’t that great.
They moved quickly, only being cautious of giant rats—or Labyrinth rats—and soon arrived. It was the second fork that had made the party stop.
“Which way should we go?”
Though there were five people, the decision naturally fell to Serena. Serena swallowed dryly.
If this were a game, Serena would have taken the leftmost path first for convenience of memory.
Even if it turned out to be a bad path full of traps and monsters, she would have laughed it off and returned to the fork.
Sadly, this was reality, and the party’s time was short. They couldn’t walk through a path full of monsters and traps laughing, “Haha, level up!”
‘I can’t just say the luckiest person should go first, either.’
Even if she said to decide by luck, Serena would have to decide. Having been reincarnated as a princess, wasn’t she the luckiest among them?
‘Aaargh! What were the structures of other mausoleums like? In game dungeons, which path is usually the shortest?’
While maintaining her royal dignity outwardly, inwardly she racked her brains and deliberated. Finally, Serena chose the first path to take.
“Let’s go down the middle path.”
They’d chosen the middle path at the first fork, so this time too—the middle!
Hanson led the way, with Serena following behind. The walking order was the same as yesterday. Since Serena wasn’t searching for traps as meticulously as yesterday, their pace was faster.
In less than ten minutes, the party reached the end of the middle path.
At the end of that path, an unexpected object awaited them—something no one had anticipated.
“The path is blocked! Found a chest!”
“Why is there a chest here?”
“There’s a wooden chest right in the middle.”
“That’s a treasure chest. This really is a Labyrinth after all!”
An ordinary wooden chest sat squarely in the center of the dead end. It was about the size of a paper box for apples in her past life.
“How dare you! It could be a mausoleum item!”
“Even if they buried valuables with the royals, that chest isn’t it.”
“It’s a Labyrinth! It must be a Labyrinth!”
“Calm down. It could be a trap.”
Hanson used the tip of his long spear to poke the wooden chest, the nearby floor, and the walls. Nothing happened.
Hanson gathered a bit more courage and opened the wooden chest with his spear tip. Still nothing happened.
Hanson walked over to the wooden chest and peered inside. He pulled out a small glass bottle. The liquid inside the transparent bottle was red.
“This is what’s inside!”
A potion. Anyone could see it was a potion.
‘Damn.’
Serena pressed her forehead as soon as she saw the potion. She deeply regretted having to deliver bad news to the party.
“This place is indeed a Labyrinth, not a mausoleum.”
“Uwaah!”
Even though her opinion had proven true, Lavenda burst into tears instead of rejoicing.
Unable to hide her complicated feelings, Serena looked up at the sky. She wanted to see the sky, but the frustrating stone ceiling blocked it from her view.
‘I couldn’t figure out the genre, and it turns out to be a Labyrinth-clearance story.’
Serena slowly closed her eyes. The darkness felt just like the future that awaited her and her party.
It was bleak.
