Chapter 50 I Will Make the New Rules

Second-floor hall of the Red Rose Brothel.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

The shrill whistle of arrows tearing through the air was exceptionally harsh within the brothel's extravagant hall.

The place that was once opulent and designed for unrestrained indulgence, debauchery, and sensual pleasures had now transformed into a Shura battlefield reeking of slaughter.

Berger stood with his back against the wall, nocking an arrow and drawing his bow. The iron arrows he shot out like shooting stars pierced right through the heads of brawny thugs with fierce-looking faces, bringing forth a burst of filthy gore.

His movements were as fluid as flowing water and completely devoid of the slightest hesitation, as if he were not shooting down his own kind, but rather beasts fleeing for their lives.

It was not as if no one wanted to resist, but in front of this cold hunter, their resistance was far too feeble.

Three robust enforcers lunged forward together in a rage, brandishing sharp blades, but before they could even reach Berger, one was shot straight through the eyeball, another was pinned through the throat, and the third turned to flee in terror only to be pierced through the rear, collapsing to the ground with a shrill, miserable wail.

"I forgot, when shooting someone turning their back to flee, you don't need to aim at that particular spot."

The young man, executing his first execution of his own race, tapped his forehead, a trace of regret flashing across his still slightly tender face.

Rather than pitying the thug's suffering, it was because, in his view, any enemy who could make his benevolent and kind lord this angry was a villain who deserved to die a thousand deaths, even after tasting every torture method in the world.

He was merely regretting that iron arrow, which was worth quite a few copper thors.... Now it could not be salvaged and reused.

Sighing, Berger pulled the blood-soaked arrows out of the corpses strewn across the floor and placed them back into his empty quiver.

Although he had shot down quite a few enforcers here, the Red Rose, being the largest brothel in Ore Town, definitely kept more than just this small number of thugs, meaning new enemies could rush in at any moment.

What was more.... Even living in Fruit Basket Village, he had heard of the renowned Lord Hawke. It was said that he had once single-handedly slaughtered the former brothel and underground gang in Ore Town.

On that day, the stench of blood and corpses spread throughout the entire Ore Town, yet Lord Hawke, who had committed such slaughter, was never wanted by the guards. From then on, his fierce reputation spread across all of Ore Town, enough to stop a crying child and chill the hearts of adults.

Thinking of this, a glimmer of caution flashed in Berger's eyes.

He could die here, but he must never let his lord suffer the slightest harm.

Click.

At that moment, the door to a certain room suddenly swung open.

Swish!

With his nerves strained to the limit, Berger reacted reflexively and shot an arrow in that direction.

Emerging from the room was a lavishly dressed middle-aged man, who looked in terror at the incoming arrow.

The arrow struck the middle-aged man squarely in the forehead, yet it dropped to the floor with a thud as if it had struck an invisible barrier.

Unjust Protection.

"Wait, I'm not with this brothel, I'm just a customer here for fun!" the middle-aged man said with a panicked expression.

Above his head, a professional blessing quickly materialized—"Merchant of Lies."

"Spare me, I'll give you all the money I have on me."

While pleading, the merchant frantically pulled out a large handful of silvery coins from his pockets.

Yet Berger hesitated for less than half a second before rapidly nocking and drawing his bow once more, pulling with such force that the bowstring was stretched taut like a full moon.

"Slaughter everyone in the brothel except the whores!" He firmly remembered his lord's command, and his lord's command was absolute.

Besides, if this man's professional blessing had been Merchant of Honesty, he might have hesitated a bit longer and considered whether to ask his lord, but as for the words of a merchant of lies..... Heh.

Swish, swish!

Faced with the incoming arrows, the merchant panicked and tried to flee.

But the speed of the arrows was simply too fast!

The first arrow once more struck what seemed like an invisible barrier and dropped to the floor with a thud.

The second arrow firmly pinned the merchant's throat, bursting out from the back of his neck.

Blood gushed out along the shaft, forming a fine mist of blood in the air.

"No.... No, no."

The merchant's pupils dilated abruptly, his hands instinctively reaching out to grab the fatal arrow, but his fingers merely swiped weakly through the air before finally dropping limp.

Thud.

His body crashed heavily to the ground.

"Had I known, I would have agreed to go flower-viewing with my wife today instead of coming to the brothel...."

This was the merchant's final thought, after which he expired with wide-open eyes.

Tramp, tramp, tramp.

Before Berger could even relax, heavy footsteps echoed from the stairs not far away.

A tall, robust figure walked up holding a sword.

Swish!

Without a moment's hesitation, Berger swiftly loosed an arrow at the approaching figure.

Clang!

To Berger's astonishment, the man sliced the flying arrow in half with a single sword strike.

"Nice archery," the man said indifferently.

Only then did Berger clearly see the newcomer's appearance: he stood about one meter ninety, half a head taller than Berger himself.

His body was knotted with muscles, his arms thicker than an ordinary person's thighs, resembling a moving iron tower.

The longsword in his hand was over a meter long, its blade as wide as a palm. He looked to be around forty years old, with numerous scars on his face and body bearing testament to his many battle achievements.

Without a doubt, this was a battle-hardened warrior.

"Hawke?" Berger asked vigilantly.

He needed to confirm the newcomer's identity to better prepare for battle.

"It seems you know me." Hawke looked Berger up and down with interest.

He truly hadn't expected that the person causing trouble in his territory would actually be a youth who still looked somewhat green.... If one ignored the corpses littering the floor.

"That pair of eyes... You're a hunter who advanced by consuming the Hawk-Eye Potion, aren't you? Truly rare, to think anyone would still choose such a mad-dog profession."

Hawke looked at the hawk-sharp eyes of the youth before him and sighed.

Berger's heart grew even more guarded; the opponent was able to see through his profession at a single glance, looking nothing at all like a mere local boss in a town.

"Who's behind you!"

Berger cried out in faux alarm, while instantly nocking an arrow and aiming it at Hawke's head.

Clang!

Hawke's gaze did not waver in the slightest, nor did he turn around to look, simply cleaving the incoming arrow apart with a clang.

"Kid, those little tricks of yours, I stopped using ages ago."

Hawke's face was full of disdain, yet the look in his eyes as he gazed at Berger held a few more shades of appreciation.

Vicious enough, decisive enough, and yet so young.

Moreover, hunters were renowned for their formidable assassination capabilities. If he could introduce this youth to his lord and bring him under their banner, it would not be a bad thing after all.

After all, as the years caught up with him, he had increasingly felt unequal to the task; his lord needed a new, young hunting hound.

"If I'm not mistaken, the reason you came to slaughter my territory is so you could open a new brothel and dominate Ore Town just like I did, right?"

A smile squeezed onto Hawke's ferocious face as he asked.

Berger kept his face cold and offered no reply, his hawk eyes fixed intently on the other, attempting to find any opening to launch an attack.

"If you want, I can actually hand this brothel over to you."

"I killed so many of your subordinates and you still want to let me go?" Berger asked, puzzled.

"Hah, a bunch of trash who only know how to play with women. Good riddance, saves me the trouble of feeding them," Hawke snorted coldly.

In his estimation, all those killed waste-bins added together were not worth a single finger of the youth before him.

"As long as you're willing to follow me to see my lord and swear allegiance to him, I will give you this brothel...."

"Courting death!"

Before Hawke could finish speaking, he saw the enraged Berger frantically nocking arrows, sending sharp shafts flying like venomous snakes toward Hawke's heart, throat, eyes.... and other fatal spots.

"Is this guy crazy from taking up the hunter profession?"

Bang, bang, bang!

Hawke slightly frowned, wielding the greatsword in his hands with great momentum, whirling it like a spinning shield to intercept and deflect all incoming arrows.

The furious Berger prepared to continue shooting, but as he pulled back on empty air, he instantly realized that the arrows in his quiver were depleted.

He had collected a total of nine arrows from the corpses for reuse, used three to kill the merchant, and the remaining six had all been spent in the recent fight.

"Now that you're out of arrows, can you sit down and talk properly?" Hawke said in a deep voice.

He was a middle-aged man in his forties with a certain measure of decorum; had it been his youth, he would have fought the youth before him to the death long ago.

"Slaughter you."

Berger drew the iron sword from his waist and vanished in a flash, charging toward Hawke at extreme speed.

"Stubborn to the end. In that case, I'll beat you into submission!"

A hint of ruthlessness surfaced in Hawke's eyes, and the next moment he also transformed into a stream of light with his sword, rushing forward to meet his opponent.

Clang, clang, clang!

A rapid succession of metallic clashes, sounding like rain pattering on banana leaves, resounded through the brothel hall.

The massive greatsword was wielded by Hawke with effortless ease, as flexible as a finger, while Berger was hardly inferior; though his swordplay lacked formal structure, it thoroughly embodied the three principles of fast, accurate, and ruthless, relentlessly targeting his opponent's vulnerabilities like a viper.

The center of their clash seemed to transform into a storm of blades. Everything in the hall—paintings, tapestries, chairs—was shredded into countless pieces the moment it was swept into the edge of the storm.

"Kid, do you know who my lord is?"

After several exchanges of blows, Hawke stepped back from the brawl and panted.

Given the average life expectancy of this world, his age could already be considered middle-aged to elderly, so naturally his stamina could not compare to Berger, who was still in his youth.

Berger kept a cold face without replying, merely adjusting his breathing rapidly to recover his stamina.

"....After seeing this, you should understand!"

Above Hawke's head, a line of emerald-green text gradually materialized—Knight.

In this world, knights only swore fealty to nobles, which meant...

"My lord is a noble!"

As he spoke, a look of profound pride filled the fierce man's face.

Yet what puzzled him was that the youth before him did not show the shock he had expected, nor did he obediently follow him back; instead, his face remained cold without the slightest wavering.

Tramp, tramp, tramp.

At that moment, Xia Mingyu walked down the third-floor stairs accompanied by the rescued prostitutes.

"There are knights in brothels too?" he asked in astonishment, looking at Hawke opposite him.

Hawke: "......"

"Ahhh, I'm going to kill you!"

The man, who had remained unflustered no matter how Berger attacked him, suddenly turned into a raging bull, his face contorted as he gripped his greatsword and lunged fiercely at Xia Mingyu.

Swish!

Seeing this, Berger immediately intercepted him.

Boom!

The moment the longsword collided with the greatsword, it produced a thunderous crash.

"Such immense strength..."

Berger clenched his teeth. Hunters who advanced via the Hawk-Eye Potion were not known for physical strength, and blocking this heavy blow left both of his arms slightly numb.

"I'll help you."

"Water, freeze, impact..."

Seeing this, Xia Mingyu rapidly sketched out magic runes.

"Wait a moment, my lord, please let me fight him alone."

"Faced with merely an enemy of the same rank, how could I let you partake in combat?"

Berger replied swiftly while parrying Hawke's onslaught.

"Very well."

Xia Mingyu slightly slowed down the pace of his rune-drawing with a hint of helplessness.

As the boss, he was willing to properly indulge the performance desires of an exceptional employee.

Of course, the moment Berger got injured, he would still cast magic instantly.

Bang!

Berger leaped backward to create distance, then gripped his longsword tightly, his hawk-like gaze fixed intently on Hawke.

He decided to utilize the ability he had gained upon advancing to hunter.

He hadn't used it earlier because he knew that ability consumed an immense amount of stamina, meaning it could only be used as a finishing move.

"Hoo..."

Seeing this, Hawke also took a deep breath, the muscles on his massive arms swelling rapidly as blood vessels bulged like withered tree vines.

Heavy Sword—this was the ability he gained upon advancing to knight, which could substantially boost the physical strength in his arms.

"Die!"

Hawke gripped his greatsword with both hands, crazily hacking horizontally toward the quietly standing Berger.

The massive sword tore through the air, the resulting gale overturning surrounding tables and chairs, while the crystal chandelier on the ceiling teetered precariously in the wind.

Without a doubt, if this blow landed solidly, it would undoubtedly cleave Berger cleanly in two.

"Sensory Enhancement."

Berger muttered inwardly, and the next instant, everything around him seemed to slow down.

The whistling of the blade tearing through the air, the falling chandelier, the blood seeping from the corpses beneath his feet, the intent to kill in Hawke's eyes, the worry on his lord's face..... The information gathered by his five senses was magnified dozens of times in an instant, flooding into his mind where it was rapidly processed to extract useful information.

Just as the greatsword was about to touch him, Berger moved swiftly.

Thud.

He leaped lightly like a dragonfly skimming the water, landing right on the edge of the horizontally swung greatsword.

Then, with another leap and an aerial spin, his longsword pierced through Hawke's heart at an unbelievable angle like a fluttering butterfly.

"Guh..."

Hawke looked in shock at the longsword piercing his chest, his hands loosening weakly from the greatsword before he collapsed to his knees with a thud.

"Why... Why did you come to attack us?" Hawke endured the piercing pain and questioned Xia Mingyu.

From the dialogue between Xia Mingyu and Berger just a moment ago, he had already realized that this imposing black-haired youth was undoubtedly a noble, and his status was very likely even loftier than his own lord's.

"To save the people behind me," Xia Mingyu said indifferently, standing before the prostitutes.

"Just for this?" Hawke was utterly shocked.

He could have guessed it was to seize the brothel, or perhaps a blood feud, but he never, ever imagined it was to save these filthy prostitutes!

"How absurd... Do you know how many brothels and prostitutes there are across the entire continent? Do you think you can save them one by one!"

"The law of the jungle is the rule of this world. You actually stick your neck out for these weaklings—do you really think you can break this rule..."

Hawke questioned with lingering resentment, feeling himself terribly unlucky to have fallen into the hands of a naive noble scion.

Tramp, tramp, tramp.

Xia Mingyu walked step by step right up to Hawke, prompting Berger to swiftly pull out the longsword embedded in the man's chest.

Transcendents possessed vitality far tougher than ordinary people, and he had to account for the possibility of a dying counterattack harming his lord.

Xia Mingyu extended his hand toward Berger expressionlessly.

Hesitating for a moment, the youth handed the blood-smeared longsword over to his lord.

"I am the rule," Xia Mingyu stated calmly.

Like a gentleman, he doffed his black top hat, revealing the exceptionally long string of emerald-green text hovering above his head.

"1,400,000,000...... One billion four hundred million!"

As if forgetting his imminent demise, the man who had committed countless sins had his entire face twitching wildly out of extreme shock.

However, Xia Mingyu did not give him much time; gripping the sword with both hands, he exerted all his strength and brought it down heavily.

The man's head was instantly split in two like a watermelon.

As his consciousness dissipated, past memories surged forth like a revolving lantern.

Learning swordsmanship in his youth, serving the eldest son of the lord, believing he could achieve a fine tale akin to stories of *The Prince and the Knight*.

His lord caught committing adultery and cleaved to death by his younger brother, getting himself driven out along with his lord's orphan.

Swearing fealty to the young master, falling into depravity and running a brothel just to acquire enough wealth.

Ultimately killed by a noble prince.

....

"In the end, I didn't become the knight in *The Prince and the Knight*, but rather turned into the villain..."

"How I envy that youth!"

The knight's soul wailed in lament.