Chapter 103
The Sacramento sheriff's office wasn't far, so we could arrive quickly.
"Hey, we're here to drop off outlaw corpses."
"...Who told you to speak so rudely? You should bring the corpses inside."
When I, a young man, didn't show proper manners, the sheriff inside frowned and got annoyed.
I just pointed outside to him.
"There are too many corpses to bring inside."
"...What? How many corpses could there be..."
And...
"...!!"
The sheriff froze when he saw the procession of outlaw corpses outside the window.
At this, I smiled slightly and handed him a stack of wanted posters.
"Outlaws not on the wanted posters have gang marks on their bodies. You can check them."
"...No way, this is crazy. No, wait, this is a first."
Seeing the flustered Sacramento sheriff reminded me of Sheriff Jett's reaction when I first arrived in Justice Town.
In the past, I had also led a procession of numerous outlaw corpses from San Francisco to Justice Town.
— ...What the hell is this?
At that time, Jett said this while looking at me:
"A crazy guy has come to our city (town)."
The Sacramento sheriff seemed to be on the same wavelength as Justice Town's Sheriff Jett.
"But they're all small fry, so it's not that much money. Please process them as quickly as possible."
Although there were dozens of outlaws, they were indeed all small fry as I said.
All together, it probably wouldn't even reach $2,000.
But regardless of the amount of money, the sheriff showed reluctance, as if it was his first time dealing with so many outlaws.
"...But we still need to properly check everything. It will probably take a long time. You seem to be outsiders, have you found lodging yet?"
"No, not yet."
Then the sheriff pointed to a fairly clean building in the distance and said, "Then how about staying at that inn while you wait…? Actually, it's an inn I run, and I can proudly say the facilities are quite good."
"Oh."
In fact, many sheriffs in the West often had side jobs like this, though Jett was too lazy for that.
As I was looking for a place to stay while in Sacramento anyway, I nodded readily.
"If you stay at my inn and wait, I'll quickly sort out the bounties and bring them to you."
"That would be great. We'll do that."
"Good, we'll probably see each other often, so let's introduce ourselves. I'm Samuel."
"I'm Noah, and this is Emma."
"Noah and Emma. I'll remember."
I know.
Although Sacramento's Sheriff Samuel might call me Noah now...
Soon enough, he'd be calling me Kid.
I'll leave this game before this person calls me Kid.
Setting that goal internally...
"Then we'll head to the lodging first since we're tired. Please take care of things."
We headed to Samuel's inn.
***
The good thing about Samuel's inn was that there was a Wells Fargo Bank nearby.
Emma and I stopped by the bank before going to the inn.
Not having found a single bank from Justice Town to here, I belatedly exchanged the promissory note for cash.
"Here's $5,000."
A whole $5,000.
"Emma, go to the lodging first."
"Yes, understood."
I sent Emma to the inn first and stuffed all the money into the logout window.
[Unable to log out]
[Remaining amount until logout: $968,231 / $1,000,000]
If we add the bounty for the outlaws we just left at the sheriff's office, it would exceed $970,000.
Now I really just need to gather $30,000...! Just $30,000...!
Ah shit, if I had just properly extorted money from William back then, I could have gone home long ago.
For the past 17 years, I tried to live only looking at money, but there were a few times when I couldn't overcome my emotions and messed things up.
No... I just need to do well from now on. From now on.
I swallowed my regrets of the past internally and went up to the inn.
Samuel's words weren't a lie, as his inn had quite good facilities.
It was very clean as if regularly cleaned well... and the price was reasonable.
Feeling moderately satisfied, I went up to our room.
The room we were assigned was on the 3rd floor with good sunlight and wide windows.
Creak.
"Emma, I'm back."
"Welcome back."
"Oh, is this our room? It's quite spacious. But..."
The inn staff seemed to have put quite some effort into it after hearing Samuel's words, giving us a very nice room.
But...
"...Why is there only one bed in this nice room?"
There was only one bed.
"I heard later that this room is for newlyweds."
"Hmm..."
Seeing Emma's brazen gaze, it seemed she had intended this.
Well, I guess it's okay.
Perhaps due to guilt, my immunity to Emma's seduction was increasing.
Last time I slept tightly embracing Emma, but there was no problem.
There wasn’t much left until I went home, so probably no accidents would happen.
Plop.
I laid down on the bed with a slightly lighter heart.
...No, actually my heart wasn't that light.
When I fill up the $30,000, I'd finally return to the original world I've been longing for.
What should I do with Emma then?
...What can I do?
...Of course, there was nothing I could do.
She was an NPC. A resident of this world.
I had no choice but to leave her behind.
...It's not my fault.
But I decided to think that it wasn’t my fault even if I abandoned Emma and left.
My goal from the beginning was to leave this world...
And Emma liked me on her own in the meantime.
It's not... my responsibility.
As I was repeating that to myself...
"Why are you doing this?"
"...What?"
For a moment, as if reading my mind and scolding me, Emma opened her mouth looking at me with an expressionless face.
At this, I flinched for a moment, but...
Swish.
What Emma pointed to was outside the window.
What could be seen outside the window was the Sacramento sheriff's office we had just visited.
They probably hadn't finished cleaning up yet, as outlaw corpses were still piled up outside the sheriff's office.
"Honestly, these outlaws aren't worth much money, but you deliberately caught a lot of them."
"Ah... That's what you meant."
I let out a sigh of relief and answered Emma, "I caught them because there were outlaws. Do I need a special reason to catch outlaws?"
"But we were delayed getting here because of transporting those outlaw corpses. It would have been more profitable to come to the city as quickly as possible and find work."
Catching one big fish was much more profitable than catching dozens of small fry outlaws.
Emma, who had been my secretary for the past few years, knew this all too well.
But there was a reason I deliberately did this inefficient work.
"To attract people's attention."
"To attract people's attention...?"
As Emma tilted her head, this time I pointed somewhere with my hand.
There were citizens gathered in front of the sheriff's office to see the spectacle of dozens of outlaw corpses piled up.
"We were only famous in Justice Town. We're unknown here."
"Ah..."
First become famous. Then even if one defecated, people would applaud.
The key word in this saying was not “defecate” but “become famous first”.
Why would the rich people of Sacramento entrust a big job to me, someone they had never seen before?
To get high-paying jobs, becoming famous was essential first.
So I deliberately did things to attract people's attention while showing off my skills.
"In a few days, rumors about us will spread throughout the city. Rich people will come to offer us money even if we just wait here."
And that attempt was quite effective.
"That's right! I've come to offer you money right now!"
"...!"
The inns in the West were not well soundproofed.
At the sudden voice from outside the door, I jumped up from the bed and Emma flinched.
Creak.
Eventually, when the inn door opened, standing outside was...
"I guessed it was you when I saw the horses in the stable, but it really is you!"
"Mr. Lloyd!"
It was the railroad tycoon uncle Lloyd who had helped us considerably last time in San Francisco.
It had been about 8-9 months since we last met.
Since the biggest reason I came to Sacramento in the first place was to meet him, I couldn't help but be very glad about his visit.
Above all...
The money source has arrived!
He was one of the richest people in this world and my last lifeline to get me out of this world.
***
Lloyd didn't visit my room alone.
Behind him were a young man who seemed to be his secretary and...
"Sheriff. Thank you for guiding me."
"It's nothing, Mr. Lloyd."
Sacramento's Sheriff Samuel was there.
Lloyd Railroad Company, which owned the most railroads in the West.
Its headquarters was located here in Sacramento.
It seemed Lloyd had considerable power here in Sacramento.
"Then I'd like to talk with my friends here, so could you two step out for a moment?"
"Yes."
At Lloyd's words, his secretary and Samuel immediately left the room.
After sending the two out, Lloyd smiled as if genuinely glad to see us and offered a handshake to Emma and me.
"I don't know how long it's been. Miss Emma and Mr. Jett. Or... should I say Mr. Noah?"
"Ah... Mr. Lloyd, that's..."
"It's alright. Jett is an alias and Noah is your real name, right? I'll call you Mr. Noah from now on."
"Haha, I'd appreciate that."
Lloyd was still kind as before.
And...
"I have a job for you. I'm offering $30,000 as the reward."
"...!"
...He was generous.
I couldn't help but flinch at Lloyd's words before even sitting down.
$30,000.
That was exactly the amount I needed right now.
This might...
I could go home much faster than I had expected.
Damn...
I finally see the door to return home.
...No? I just grabbed the doorknob of the door to return home.
That excitement made me forget everything—Emma, the James Twin, Justice Town, TKK, South Brotherhood, etc—and focus only on what was right in front of me.
Unable to calm my pounding heart, I said to Lloyd, "If you give me $30,000 as a down payment right now, I'll definitely complete whatever the job is."