Chapter 116
"Wow, I almost got in big trouble for not checking the bullet count."
I never imagined all 6 revolvers would be out of bullets.
If I hadn't picked up and shot the bow and arrow right next to me, it could have been dangerous.
But was it because I shot the arrow so suddenly that I missed?
"Ugh... Kuuugh..."
The Indian leader who was hit by my arrow didn't die immediately, but groaned while lying on the ground.
"Oh my."
Blood trickled through the hole in his pierced neck.
At this rate, he'd die soon, anyway.
If so, killing him quickly would be the way to put him at ease.
Step step.
Click.
So I approached him while reloading my revolver.
Swish.
And just as I was about to pull the trigger.
"You... youuu...!"
As if he had something to say at the last moment, the Indian reached out his hand towards me.
Tremble.
But of course, that hand didn't reach me.
He must know that too... but perhaps out of hatred, he tried to grab me with bloodshot eyes.
"You... White Ghost...!"
"...!"
White Ghost, he said.
It was quite a nickname I hadn't heard in a long time.
Among the Indians... there were those who called the old me the White Ghost.
"...So the Indian village near Peace Town was the village of the Aranga branch."
The Shoshone tribe living around California.
Among them, the Aranga branch that once had the greatest power.
...It was also where I went on a punitive expedition during my TKK days.
I did the punitive expedition at the request of the U.S. Army. I remember it because I received quite a large sum.
I received a lot of money... and the resistance of the Indian warriors was fierce.
Because of this, my members and I had quite a hard time, but...
In the end, we burned down the village and drove them out of their territory.
Apparently, the young Indian leader lying in front of me must be one of those who barely survived back then.
"White Ghost...! White Ghost!!"
"If you keep talking, you'll only suffer more."
It wasn't sarcasm, but sincere consideration.
Dying slowly while feeling the pain of a pierced neck was truly terrible.
"Why don't you finish quickly and die, whether you curse or whatever."
How many NPCs have I killed so far?
Of course, it was uncountable.
Those countless NPCs all left words of curse to me as they died.
There was no way I would be hurt or care about what an NPC said anew.
No matter how many times I heard the last grumbles of a dying person, it had no impact on me.
So instead of killing him right away, I waited for him to say what he wanted to say.
And...
"...My mother, uncle, older brother, sister, younger siblings… and even my comrades who were like brothers."
"..."
"...Kugh, all killed by you. You will surely p-pay for your kar..."
The young Indian didn't miss the last chance I gave him and poured out his anger towards me.
"You will surely pay for your karma..."
"Is that so?"
"You will soon face death... and there will be no peace after your death...!"
Indians believed that when a person died, their soul went to another world.
Similar to my case.
Just as I could leave this damn Western world if I gathered a million dollars... Indians went to another world through death.
"When you die, that's the end... No, even after death, you won't be able to leave this place and will wander the wilderness... Uuugh...!"
"Are you done with what you wanted to say?"
Click.
Anyway, he was no longer in a state to say anything more.
Bang.
Thud.
I put the Indian at ease.
The Indian leader, who seemed to have just passed adulthood, breathed his last like that.
I examined the young face of the Indian leader and recalled the curse he had just left.
Even after death, you won't be able to leave this place and will wander the wilderness.
Not being able to leave this West even after death.
Whether he knew it or not, that was the most terrible curse I could hear.
— You will surely p-pay for your kar...
I got up and checked the corpses of the Indian warriors I had killed.
Roughly estimating, it was a little over 40 bodies.
Of course, it goes without saying that I didn't feel any guilt anew at this point.
But...
"I'm a bit tired."
I just didn't want to do this kind of thing anymore.
This business would be over once I demolished Peace Town and the Indian village here.
And it was no exaggeration to say that the demolition of the two villages was almost completed because of this incident.
The residents of Peace Town were more terrified... and the Indian village lost many of its warriors.
Of course, there must still be a few warriors left in the village, but they wouldn't be able to oppose me with their strength.
Now it's really the end… Really.
The past 18 years of this damn Western life was coming to an end like the setting sun.
As I was nearing the end, somehow my whole body felt drained.
As I was standing there blankly for a while...
Rustle—
"...?"
I heard a presence coming from the side of the building I was in.
I had certainly checked earlier, so it couldn't be an Indian who survived and ran away.
Is it a villager who stayed to watch and is now running away?
Tap tap tap
The owner of the footsteps didn't seem to be a threat to me, so I immediately stopped paying attention.
Then...
Creak—
This time, the door of the inn, which had been firmly blocked with lots of barricades, opened.
"My goodness..."
It was Emma and the other hired gunslingers.
Even though they had seen everything from the second floor of the inn, the gunslingers asked me with blank faces as if they couldn't believe it, "Y-Youngest.... What exactly is your identity...?"
Hearing their slightly trembling voices, I smiled and answered, "What do you mean? I'm just an ordinary bounty hunter."
"..."
Of course, the gunslingers didn't believe my words.
"More importantly, let's clean up these Indian corpses roughly. It doesn't look good."
"Ah... Yeah. Right!"
Instead, they followed my orders even better.
The Indian attack that started in the morning was wrapped up like that before noon.
***
Tap tap tap tap—
Claire, the sheriff of Peace Town, was running.
"Huff... Huff...!"
She didn't stop running even though she was now out of breath.
Because she wasn't just running.
Claire was now... fleeing.
She had just watched the gunslinger named Noah fight the Indians.
A fighting style so despicable it seemed petty, and unbelievable marksmanship.
Plus an expression that didn't change at all while massacring Indians.
She had been uncertain before, but...
Claire could know for sure through this incident.
It's the boss....
He was Kid, the boss of TKK to which Claire had belonged.
"Ugh—!"
Claire, who had run like crazy past her house to the edge of the village, soon felt her limit and collapsed.
"Haah... Haah...."
There was a bitter taste in her mouth and rough breaths burst out incessantly.
Nevertheless, her body was still shouting to hurry up and run away even at this moment.
To TKK members, Kid was such an existence.
An object of admiration... and at the same time an object of fear.
Tremble.
Claire couldn't help but be more afraid of Kid.
That was because...
Kid had abandoned her.
...No? It might be more correct to say he sold her.
When she was rising in prominence as a TKK executor, Kid gave her an order.
— Leah, there's something you need to do for the organization.
It was... a fairly simple and easy order for a TKK executor to eliminate one target and come back.
But...
— Kill her!
— It's a TKK executor!
Instead of the target, the place was full of South Brotherhood members.
After barely surviving the crisis, she was able to figure out the truth.
TKK and South Brotherhood.
On the surface, they were rivals desperate to kill each other over San Francisco, but...
In fact, the bosses of the two gangs were in a cooperative relationship.
A cooperative relationship where the TKK boss sold his members... and the South Brotherhood boss bought them at an expensive price.
Kid wasn't interested in completely taking over San Francisco.
Taking over one city was a big profit in the long run, but in the immediate term, the expenses were greater than the profits.
Kid's interest was just money that could be obtained easily and quickly.
When Claire realized that the TKK organization was just a means for Kid to make money, the emotion she felt was guilt.
Because the many evil deeds she had done as a member were just for money.
So she fled San Francisco and settled here in Peace Town, living with comfort as a sheriff, but...
"Haah... Huuu..."
She was still running away now.
After what just happened, the village wouldn't last long and would disappear.
"...Damn it."
As her breath calmed down, the emotion that soon came to her was anger.
Anger towards herself for not being able to fight together with the Indians earlier because she was trembling in fear.
Anger for not being able to protect even such a small village while boasting about being a sheriff.
And that anger...
"...Kid."
...was directed at the root of all evil.
She had intended to live the rest of her life atoning for her sins.
But Kid not only abandoned her and ruined her life, but was also ruining her remaining life.
"...Phew."
Anger originally led to courage.
She soon shook off the fear that remained like trauma and got up.
Suddenly this thought occurred to her.
The many sins she was bearing.
Perhaps they could be washed away by eliminating one great evil.
Click.
No matter how skilled a gunslinger was, he was human.
A human who died when a bullet was lodged in his head.
"..."
She soon regained the cold reason from her TKK days.
The first rule of TKK.
Traitors must be killed.
She returned to the village to carry out her last execution.