Rose

Werther walked down the empty corridor, his mind filled with thoughts.

For instance, why had he become the way he was now? Was it the influence of his environment? No, he had not suffered any major trauma. Maybe there had always been a devil inside him. In this new world, he no longer wanted to restrain himself, so he had released the devil in his heart. Was that not also releasing his true self, no longer living behind a mask?

Thinking of this, Werther smiled happily. Though he no longer had freedom over his own body, his heart was already free. He could think what he wanted and do what he wanted.

He did not search the third floor for long before finding the target's daughter's room.

Inside was a pale pink room, with a huge bed in the middle.

A pink-haired girl sat in the center of the bed, hugging her legs as she trembled.

Each time Werther took a step closer, the girl seemed to shake even more violently.

"Are you... are you here to kill me? Can you let my father, mother, and me go? I... I can have Father give you money, lots and lots of money. Please don't hurt us. We haven't done anything bad." The girl's words were disjointed from fear. She innocently assumed Werther had broken in to rob them, just like the bandits from before.

"That is no longer possible. I already killed your father. As for your mother, she probably tried to escape. My senior sister may have caught her by now, and she is probably dead too. Now you're the only one left. You have thirty seconds for your last words." Werther looked expressionlessly at the innocent girl.

The girl herself had done nothing wrong. The fault lay with her father, who dealt in slaves. Slave trading was not merely morally wrong; illegal businesses were practically synonymous with exorbitant profits, and exorbitant profits were almost another name for danger. In this world where strength ruled, having money without strength was extremely dangerous.

"Can you... bury me with my parents? I can tell you where my family's treasure is." Upon hearing that her loving parents were dead, the light in the girl's lively eyes faded. She summoned tremendous courage to say those words.

"Fine. Goodbye. No, farewell." With that, Werther severed the girl's throat with a single slash. For some reason, he did not cut the nameless girl into several pieces.

Blood gushed from the girl's throat as she collapsed weakly onto the bed. Her pink hair spread across the sheets like a blooming rose, except this flower was about to wither.

Werther took the treasure from the basement: quite a few gold and silver ornaments, antiques, and some Beli.

He headed directly for the back to find his senior sister. The target's wife was unlikely to have escaped through the front entrance, since Werther had slaughtered his way in through there.

Before he even reached the back door, he heard a woman wailing from far away, shouting something.

Only when he got closer did he realize that his senior sister was holding a curved blade and skinning a middle-aged woman alive. Her other features were no longer discernible, because aside from her face, all the skin on the rest of her body had been completely peeled away. The woman screamed in agony and begged, but what she begged for was death, to spare her this hellish pain.

It was also Werther's first time seeing someone skinned alive. He had only heard of it before and had not expected his senior sister to have such a hobby. He stood nearby and watched with great interest.

Seeing her junior brother emerge, An assumed he had completed his task. And seeing her actions, he seemed to have no particular reaction—he even appeared somewhat interested.

"Want to learn? I can teach you. In the East Blue, my interrogation techniques are among the best." Seeing that Werther was not especially repulsed by her torturing enemies, An asked.

"Sure. If I encounter anyone uncooperative in the future, I'll use Senior Sister's methods on them." Werther was also interested in this unfamiliar skill and wanted to learn more.

Right in front of the woman screaming in agony, one began teaching and the other began learning.

When Roy arrived, the two of them were still engrossed in it.

"Hey, Junior Brother, were you traumatized when you were younger? Like your whole family getting wiped out or something? You're way too ruthless. Other than that girl, I didn't see a single intact corpse all the way here. What kind of hobby is this?" Roy said with a headache as he looked at Werther.

It was his first time going on a mission with his junior brother, yet this junior brother turned out to be a freak on the same level as his wife. His wife had become that way after suffering trauma, but his junior brother somehow seemed to have been born that way.

"Of course, it's a hobby of cutting people apart. At first, it was because my lightning ability made my slashes too powerful. Later, I gradually got used to it." Werther spoke casually to his senior brother, but all his attention remained on learning from An.

"Hey, hey, you're already enough of a freak, and you're still learning interrogation techniques? Hurry up, we're leaving. We need to report back to Master." With that, Roy turned and headed toward the inn, seemingly tired.

Werther and An could only follow him. Before leaving, Werther buried the nameless girl, fulfilling her wish to be buried with her parents.

A few days later, the fellow disciples returned to the sword hall and reported the details of the mission to their master. Roy particularly pointed out his junior brother's habit of cutting people into several pieces. Longliang was speechless after hearing it, silently thinking, Just as I guessed, this kid isn't a good person either. But he said nothing.

Thus, Werther continued his daily training and occasionally went on missions. In the blink of an eye, three years had passed.

Over those three years, Werther had grown accustomed to killing. He had also learned many interrogation techniques from Senior Sister An. Whenever someone refused to cooperate, he would let them experience something more painful than death.

Then one day, his master sought out Werther and seriously told him that he might be close to reaching the Steel Cutting stage.

During missions, he had faced death countless times. The most dangerous occasion was against a Devil Fruit user with the Spear-Spear Fruit. The opponent could turn his entire body into spears and wielded them skillfully. As long as his stamina held out, he could regenerate continuously, and his spears could even extend and bend like snakes. In the end, Werther used Tsubame Gaeshi to cut off his head. At that exact moment, one of the man's spears had nearly pierced Werther's heart. He could already feel its icy touch against his chest, as though the god of death stood before him.

After that incident, Werther developed a strange sensation. Apart from a very small number of materials, such as diamonds or exceptionally hard metals, he seemed able to sense the presence of all other objects. After a few days, the feeling became clearer. Or perhaps it was no longer a presence, but a kind of breathing.

Today, his master had sought him out and told him that Steel Cutting meant sensing the breathing of steel, then cutting it apart.

After Werther casually picked up a sword and split a massive steel plate in two with one strike, he officially entered the Steel Cutting stage.

At last, after so many years of training, he had finally reached the Steel Cutting stage. As for the next stage, attribute attacks, Werther had possessed those from the beginning.

So the next stage might be cutting rare materials even harder than steel, perhaps Seastone or diamonds.

Just as Werther was brimming with joy, he received another mission. This mission was very unusual.

Rather than sending out one or three people as usual, all four members of the sword hall would be deployed, including his master.

He asked his master what the reason was, and his master answered him.

This enemy was the culprit who had caused his senior brother to become somewhat self-destructive and his senior sister to become cruel.

The Stuart family, a family that hid like rats, had finally been found.