Chapter 111 - In Emergencies, The Power of a Village Equals That of a Gang

Joshua, the gunslinger hired by Lloyd Railroad Company, was actually an outlaw.

His bounty was $101. The charges were robbery and murder.

He only intended to rob a Western traveler's belongings, but when they wouldn't hand them over, he couldn't control his anger and committed murder impulsively.

Joshua had always had problems controlling his emotions.

Joshua had a nature that if someone wronged him, his blood would boil, so he always had to get revenge.

But...

Damn it...!

Even for Joshua, Noah was too much to handle.

Sting.

His face that Noah hit yesterday hurt.

He had never been hit like that in his life, not even by his father... it was humiliating.

"Hey, Joshua. Are you okay?"

"...Don't talk to me, you bastards."

There was someone he needed to get revenge on, but he didn’t have the strength to do it.

Is there anything more miserable and frustrating than this?

Because of this, Joshua was full of anger even while working.

"Joshua, you still need to work, right? Why don't you take the lead this time?"

"...Fine."

At this, Joshua decided to take out his anger on the residents of Peace Town.

Smashing things here and there would at least relieve his anger a little.

Bang—!

"Didn't you hear the demolition order? Stop doing business and get out!"

Joshua's target for this job was the village's only bakery.

Crash bang.

He kicked over all the freshly baked bread from the oven and pushed over the counter with his hands.

Usually, when work started like this, the residents would wailed and shed tears.

But today was different.

"S-stop it, you bastards!"

Among the villagers, some started resisting the thugs' tyranny.

This was the conclusion reached at yesterday's village meeting of men.

If they stayed still, those guys would look down on people even more, so resist a little to stop them.

But...

"...What? Bastard?"

Not knowing this situation, Joshua got heated seeing a resident defying him.

Now even this bastard is disrespecting me?

Joshua had problems controlling his emotions.

Especially anger.

Now thinking that even the bakery owner was disrespecting him, he couldn't contain his anger.

At this, the excited Joshua...

Thwack—!

"Aaaagh!"

"Say that again, you bastard!"

He punched the bakery owner right away.

Since violence inevitably occurred while doing hired thug work, at first his companions just watched Joshua using his fists.

But...

Thwack—! Thwack—! Thud—!

"Huh? I said say it again. You dare call me a bastard? You wanna die...!?"

"Kuuugh...! W-wait...! Kyaaaah!"

Joshua's punches towards the bakery owner kept getting faster and showed no signs of stopping.

As it started going too far, even his companions who were just watching at first stepped in to stop Joshua.

"H-hey Joshua! He'll die at this rate! Stop it!"

"What do you mean stop, you bastard!"

But even with two people rushing in to stop him, they didn't have enough strength to restrain Joshua who was already highly excited.

Murmur murmur.

As the atmosphere heated up more than usual, villagers who sensed something was wrong also came out to the street to watch.

Thwack—thwack—!

As Joshua's punches continued with many spectators gathered around...

"...Ugh! Huu...! I said stop, damn it...!"

Michael, the bakery owner being hit by Joshua, couldn't bear the pain and threw a punch.

And it...

Thwack.

Hit Joshua's jaw squarely.

"..."

Although the hit area stung a bit, it didn't hurt that much.

Joshua wasn't weak enough to whine in pain from a punch thrown by an ordinary person.

But...

"...You bastard, you hit me?"

The fact that the bakery owner who had only been taking hits fought back enraged Joshua.

You dare disrespect me too?

He was already feeling down because his evaluation among his companions had dropped a lot after being hit by Noah, the youngest, yesterday.

Now even a mere bakery owner was looking down on him?

Not only that.

Murmur murmur.

Many spectators had already gathered around.

Even the murmuring of the spectators started to sound like they were mocking him to Joshua.

Then Joshua found it hard to contain the anger rising from deep in his chest.

Click.

What he pulled out was a revolver.

"...!"

"W-wait! J-Joshua! What are you trying to do!?"

Seeing Joshua draw his gun, his fellow gunslingers tried to stop him.

Joshua also knew well that he was acting irrationally right now.

Joshua needed money too... and if he violated the company's policy of not killing villagers, he might not get paid.

But...

Damn it, let whatever happens happen.

If he had been a person who could make rational choices from the beginning, his life wouldn't have turned out this way.

Bang.

"Guhuck...!!!"

Soon the bullet fired by Joshua penetrated the chest of Michael, the bakery owner.

Thud.

"Ah..."

"..."

When Michael collapsed, there was silence at first.

But...

Drip—

"Kyaaaahhhh!"

As a red pool of blood started forming under his corpse, the watching villagers started screaming and running away in all directions.

"T-the gunslinger bastards fired...!!"

Until now, the villagers had one small belief.

No matter how bad they were... the belief that the hired thugs wouldn't kill them.

That small belief was shattered by this incident.

"T-those sons of bitches killed Mr. Michael...!!!! A gunslinger killed Mr. Michael!"

"If we stay still, those bastards will kill us all!!!"

From now on, if they stayed still, the hired thugs would kill all the villagers like they did to Michael the bakery owner.

In that fear, the villagers ran in all directions to find means to protect themselves.

"Ha."

Amidst that chaos, Joshua smiled looking down at the corpse he killed.

The fact that now no one would look down on him gave him an indescribable satisfaction.

***

For now, we stopped working and gathered at the saloon, which was our lodging.

I was soon able to hear all the circumstances of this incident from the gunslinger who was with Joshua.

"...So you're saying Mr. Joshua got excited and shot the bakery owner. Is that right?"

"T-that's right. That c-crazy bastard, before we could even stop him...!"

He shuddered for a moment, seeming to recall the situation then.

In contrast...

"Did I really do something so wrong?"

Joshua, the perpetrator, showed a confident attitude, shrugging his shoulders.

When Joshua came out with a brazen attitude, the first to get enraged was Vogue, the leader.

"You crazy bastard! Didn't the company say not to kill people?! What if they say they won't pay us because of this incident!"

"I'll take responsibility for that. Since I'm the only one who killed someone, they can just not pay me, right?"

"It's not something that can be resolved so simply..."

"And honestly, it's better if one or two people die, it speeds up the work too. Didn't you see how scared everyone was earlier? Thanks to me, we can demolish the village faster, right? Shouldn't you all be thanking me instead?"

"This, this guy is really crazy."

Until now, I had just been watching the situation.

But then...

"Boss. A word please."

Emma approached and whispered something in my ear.

By the way, I had introduced Emma to the other gunslingers as my wife.

"...That person Joshua. He's an outlaw."

"...What?"

Startled by Emma's words, I asked her back.

"He's certainly not in my memory, but how do you know that, Emma?"

"When I was left alone after you left, I stopped by the Sacramento sheriff's office and memorized all the wanted posters there."

"..."

"There was definitely a name Joshua among them. He's aged a bit, but the sketch looks like the same person too."

If Emma said so, it must be true.

I believed without doubt Emma's words that Joshua was an outlaw.

So you're saying the bastard who's causing a lot of trouble and muddying the waters now is an outlaw?

I already didn't like Joshua, but when I learned that he was an outlaw, I felt somewhat irritated.

At this, I smiled slightly and called Joshua, "Mr. Joshua. Come over here for a moment."

"..."

Perhaps the fear of being beaten by me yesterday remained, Joshua flinched when I called him.

But perhaps gaining confidence from today's incident...

"What? What is it? Do you have something to say?"

He soon approached me with a proud expression.

I just watched him approach with a somewhat smug look, smiling.

And as soon as Joshua came right up close...

Stab.

"Guk...!!!"

"...!!!"

I immediately pulled out a knife and stabbed his neck.

"Hii...! Guhuck...!"

Swish—

When the knife stabbed his neck, Joshua reflexively put his hand on his holster.

But before he could draw his gun...

Slash—!

I pulled the knife out of his neck and finished him off.

Thud.

Joshua fell backwards, becoming a corpse right there.

It happened in an instant.

"N-Noah...! What are you doing...!?"

"I told you I was originally a bounty hunter, right? Actually, I didn't mention it before, but this bastard Joshua is an outlaw."

"This guy was an outlaw?"

I pretended I had known Joshua was an outlaw all along and calmed down the surprised companions.

And then...

"More importantly, can one of the uninjured people please carry this bastard and follow me?"

"W-what are you going to do?"

"...We need to go clean up the mess."

I immediately went out the saloon door with Vogue, who picked up Joshua's corpse.

There was no time. We needed to clean this up as quickly as possible before things got bigger.

I planned to resolve the mess living Joshua made with dead Joshua.

"The Peace Town village hall was definitely that way, right?"

"Y-yeah, it was."

I headed towards the village hall with Vogue.

Whoosh—

Although it was still only noon, the streets were empty.

But with each step we took, we could feel a wary sense of foreboding following us.

And the moment we reached the front of the village hall.

Click.

Click click click click.

...Countless loading sounds started to be heard, as if we were facing a huge gang.

Are we already too late?

Life in the West was like war.

That meant in case of emergency, all men could be mobilized as reserves.

"N-Noah. What should we…?"

"For now, raise your hands."

I clicked my tongue looking at the dozens of gunslingers surrounding us.

It seemed the difficulty of the final quest had increased by several levels.