Chapter 107
Peace Town was similar to Justice Town in many ways.
Built on barren land...
It was also a transportation hub of sorts, being the last town before Sacramento.
Therefore, the town's industry was also overall similar to Justice Town.
20% were engaged in primary industries such as agriculture and livestock farming.
And 80% were in the service industry targeting outsiders.
Having lived in Justice Town for 4 years, I knew well how to ruin a town where most people were engaged in the service industry.
It was...
"Who told you to do business here?!"
Causing a ruckus.
Crash bang.
When I went into the saloon and flipped over a table, the saloon owner ran out from behind the bar with a flustered expression.
"W-what? What do you think you're doing—!"
Swish—
Then I just showed him a piece of paper.
It was the official demolition order that Lloyd Railroad Company had obtained from the state government in advance.
"Mister. When did the demolition order come out that you're still like this?"
"Do you think I'll follow such an unreasonable demolition order? I've lived in this town since I was born!"
"That's a shame."
Bang.
When the owner wouldn't listen, I kicked another table hard.
Seeing this, the saloon owner couldn't stand it anymore and tried to stop me while taking something out of his pocket.
"You bastard...! I can't take it anymore...!"
It was a revolver.
But...
Click.
"Want to shoot?"
"...!!"
Before he could properly draw his gun, my gun was already positioned in front of his brow.
"W-what...!"
Drawing my gun at a speed hard to follow with ordinary eyes, the saloon owner made a face of disbelief.
"What a pity. If you had shot first, I would have shot too."
"..."
It was then, as this tense standoff continued.
Rustle.
"...!"
I heard someone's presence from the kitchen behind the bar.
Through my sensitive ears, I could feel someone standing behind the wall, trembling.
Usually, saloons were rarely run alone, and often couples ran them together.
The person in the kitchen seemed to be the saloon owner's wife.
At this, I deliberately smiled vilely and showed him the revolver in my other holster.
"I have another gun, should I show it to the person hiding over there?"
"S-stop it..."
A fact I learned from the farmer at the village entrance earlier was that even the toughest person became weak when one mentioned their family.
Even the saloon owner, who had been resisting violently by drawing his gun, shrank and begged me when I mentioned his wife hiding in the kitchen.
"P-please, at least my wife..."
"I'll come back in a few days. It would be better to leave the village quickly."
"Ugh... huuu..."
So I left the saloon owner who had hopelessly slumped in his seat and went outside.
"..."
Outside the saloon were the other six gunslingers who had been watching me work.
I said to them, who were standing with blank expressions and mouths agape, "Well, this is how you do the job."
"You, you."
Vogue, who claimed to be the leader among the gunslingers, stuttered and pointed at me, then shouted, "You youngest bastard! You were a genius of hired thuggery!"
"Ooooh!"
The other gunslingers also cheered following Vogue.
"Genius of hired thuggery! Genius of hired thuggery!"
"King of demolition!"
"You're the best trash I've ever seen-!!"
...I'm not sure if this is praise, but I’ll go along with it.
I heard that before I joined, Vogue and a few others had visited the village a couple of times, but each time they were met with fierce resistance and driven out.
They say there were even gunslingers who quit and ran away in the middle.
From the perspective of those useless guys, I might look like a god.
"Youngest! Youngest!"
"Now, now, calm down everyone. It's the first day, so let's all go around the village together like this."
Actually, the most efficient method would be for everyone to spread out across the village and cause trouble, but these useless guys seemed to need more education.
So I started leading them around the village like a kindergarten teacher.
"Where should we go next?"
"H-how about that fabric shop right next door?"
"Sounds good."
When Vogue pointed to the fabric shop, I went right in.
Bang—!
"Who told you to do business here?!!"
"Aaaah! W-wait-!! W-why are you doing this!!"
The work was going smoothly.
***
The following work method was similar.
Bang!
"Who told you to do business here?"
"Y-you, who are you!"
First, cause trouble in the store...
"You threw the first punch?"
"Ugh, uuugh...!"
Subdue them with a bit of violence...
"Heheh. Your son is quite cute, isn't he? How old is he?"
"Huuu... please, at least our child..."
Identify and poke at their weaknesses.
Just doing this made the villagers show weakness and burst into tears.
If we harass them like this every day, the residents would get tired on their own and leave the village.
Looking at it this way, the work was expected to finish faster than anticipated.
"The sun is starting to set, let's wrap up today's work here!"
Happy about that, Vogue shouted cheerfully when it was time to finish today's work as the sun was setting.
"Let's all go drink! I'll treat, so let's drink to our heart's content today!"
"Yaaay!"
By the way, the sun was setting.
Emma must still be waiting for me in the inn room in Sacramento, what should I do?
"Boss. Where do we sleep? Are we going back to Sacramento?"
"It takes over 4 hours to Sacramento, when would we go back and when would we sleep? We'll just sleep in this village."
"...We're sleeping in this village?"
"Yeah, the saloon we first visited also serves as an inn. We can drink there and sleep there too."
"..."
Drinking and sleeping at the saloon we had just pressured to evacuate.
This was quite ironic.
As I shrugged my shoulders at this, another gunslinger asked Vogue, "By the way, Boss. Didn't you say there was one self-proclaimed sheriff in this village? We've been causing trouble all day but haven't seen him at all."
"That's right. That bitch usually charges at us like a mad dog when she sees us, but she's not visible today. Where did she go?"
"Bitch? It was a woman? Is she pretty?"
"She's pretty, but you'll soon get sick of her when you meet her. She's quite crazy."
So we entered the saloon talking about this village's self-proclaimed sheriff.
It was the same saloon where I had caused trouble earlier.
Creak.
"Welcome... Hiiik...!"
The saloon owner, with a somewhat haggard face, was welcoming customers but recognized our faces, especially mine, and immediately backed away.
Vogue laughed at the terrified owner and ordered food.
"Hey! Bring us 7 beers and some warm food! We'll be sleeping here, so prepare rooms too!"
"Ah, that... Yes...!!"
The saloon owner who took the order headed straight to the kitchen as if fleeing.
"Wait."
"...!"
I stopped him as he was going to the kitchen.
When I called him, the saloon owner froze like a convict receiving a death sentence.
I said to him, who was extremely tense, "I'll have whiskey instead of beer."
"...Pardon?"
"Rum is fine too if you have it."
My basic motto was to strictly separate work and personal matters.
The sun had set, so I was now just a customer, not a hired thug.
But the saloon owner seemed unable to adapt to this gap in my behavior.
"..."
He looked at me, whose attitude was completely different from earlier in the day, as if I were crazy, and then...
"Ah, w-whiskey...! I'll bring it right away!"
He soon came to his senses and went into the kitchen.
Vogue laughed at the subdued appearance of the saloon owner as if pleased and said, "Look at that bastard. When I came last time, he didn't even pretend to listen to me, but did you see just now? How scared he was of our youngest."
"A real lucky charm has joined our team."
"That's right, haha!"
Vogue took out a cigarette from his pocket, lit it, and asked me, "By the way, youngest. You said this is your first time doing hired thug work, so why are you so good at it? What was your original job?"
"I was just an ordinary bounty hunter."
"Then how did you end up doing this job?"
How did I end up doing this job, well...
"For money, of course."
"Is that so? Seems you're in a similar situation to us."
At that moment, the eyes of Vogue, who had only seemed like a thoughtless useless guy until now, darkened a bit.
"Damn it. My mom caught tuberculosis or something, and we need money for medicine."
As Vogue first shared his story, the other gunslingers also chimed in one by one.
"In my house, I have eight mouths to feed that I'm responsible for."
"The old man in our house has been farming for over sixty years, it's time to let him rest now."
And soon their gazes turned to me.
It seemed like they were asking why I needed money, so I thought for a moment and answered:
"I need money to go back to my hometown."
"Your hometown must be very far away."
"Very far. Unimaginably so."
As we were chatting like this, the saloon owner brought the alcohol and food.
"H-here's your food...."
"Let's eat first. We need to eat to work hard again tomorrow."
Tired from going around the village all day, we ate and drank a lot to relieve today's fatigue.
Maybe because it had been a while since I'd been to a saloon, I drank a lot like the other gunslingers.
***
"Ah, I need to pee."
Did I drink too much?
I woke up first in the early morning because I urgently needed to use the bathroom while sleeping.
The toilet was set up for common use outside the inn.
It was just as I came out of the bathroom after relieving myself comfortably and roughly wiping my hands with a handkerchief.
"Honey...! We need to come up with a plan somehow!"
"Haa...."
Usually, saloons become quiet in the early morning when there were no customers.
Taking advantage of the absence of customers, the saloon owner couple was talking in the kitchen.
"We were both born and raised here.... If we leave the village, we have nowhere to go..."
"But what can we do... Those bastards... It seems like they'll start shooting if we don't leave..."
Tsk.
I clicked my tongue while listening to their conversation.
Hearing such pitiful stories only leads to distracting thoughts while working.
I picked my ear and took a step to return to my room.
But...
"Honey, we need to think about the child in your womb too..."
I couldn't help but pause at the saloon owner's following words.
The saloon couple were both young.
They looked about the same age as me.
The wife had a child in her womb.
The wife, hearing her husband's words, seemed to become even more sorrowful and burst into tears.
"...Sob, we shouldn't leave even more because of the child. How can we raise a child without a penny?"
"Haa... Let's gather with the villagers and try to come up with a plan. The sheriff should be back soon too. Okay? Don't cry..."
After hearing the saloon owner comforting his wife for the last time, I moved my feet.
"Ah... shit."
Maybe because I heard such an unsettling story, my sleep completely vanished.
Instead of returning to my room, I went into the back alley and sat down.
I could tell after going around for a day today.
The people of Peace Town... they had nothing and were barely surviving day by day, making this village their home.
But what would happen to those people if this village was demolished?
"What will happen, you ask."
Didn’t I know better than anyone how the beggars in San Francisco lived?
...Of course, I didn't think this was my fault.
Everyone has their own circumstances.
I didn’t have the luxury to listen to NPCs' circumstances right now.
Rather, me leaving this game quickly might be the shortcut to liberating them from their difficult lives.
"..."
Thinking like that, I took something out of my pocket.
It was cigarettes and matches.
Originally, I didn't smoke often.
— Boss, don't smoke.
— It's bad for your health.
Since Emma told me not to smoke last time, I just carried them around like a charm without smoking even once.
A full 8 months of quitting smoking.
I had endured well until now, but somehow today it was hard to resist smoking.
Hiss.
As I lit it and inhaled the strong smoke, I recalled what a black guy who shared a cigarette with me in San Francisco last time had said.
— Mr. Noah. We are all the same humans.
...Bullshit.
Come to think of it, if I had killed that black guy, I could have gone home already.
I chain-smoked while regretting the past days.
Soon dawn broke, and it was time to get back to work.