Chapter 3
"Wow~ Thanks, Joe. Thanks to you, I was able to move the bodies comfortably."
"No, it's nothing. Hehe."
Hispanic Joe, who worked as a coachman in Justice Town, was a very diligent and kind-hearted fellow.
How fortunate to have met such a person along the way.
Fortunately, I was able to load the bodies onto Joe's wagon and arrive home comfortably.
"Here we are, Mr. Noah. We've arrived."
[Noah's Bounty Hunter Office]
[We catch bad guys for you]
This was my home and office.
Usually, bounty hunters roamed all over the West, chasing outlaws without a home, but...
Knowing that Justice Town was a honey pot hunting ground, I settled down here, making both a home and an office.
"Thanks, Joe. But since you've come all this way, could you help me unload the bodies too?"
"Ah! Of course, I should help! But Mr. Noah. Ahem..."
"Hmm?"
Joe cleared his throat and subtly rubbed his fingers together.
"My income hasn't been very good lately. Ahem..."
"..."
I could immediately understand what Joe's gesture meant.
He probably wanted a tip for helping transport the bodies this far.
"Word has already spread throughout the town. They say Mr. Noah has become filthy rich from sweeping up all the bounties. So I was wondering if maybe... ahem, ahem."
"So what? Oh, you want something?"
"If you could just show a lil’ appreciation, I'd be really grateful... ahem, ahem, ahem."
At this, I smiled brightly at Joe and...
"Oh of course I should give you something! I'll give you something!"
"Really?!"
Click.
"I'll give you your life."
"..."
I pulled out a gun from my pocket.
When something other than money came out, Joe was startled and then desperately forced a smile as he spoke, "Ah, haha…! Ahahaha—! Mr. Noah! Your joke is a bit too much!"
"Oh really? Was my joke too much?"
"Yes...! Haha, the joke..."
"Does it look like a joke?"
"..."
Soon after, Joe unloaded the bodies from the wagon faster than anyone else and bowed to me.
"...Why would I take money from a fellow town resident…? Just go."
"That's right, isn't it? Hahah—! As expected, Joe, you're so kind-hearted!"
"...Then I'll be going now."
I waved at Joe and made one last request.
"Ah, Joe! On your way, could you call the sheriff for me! Please!"
"...Huh? But I need to go to Lincoln County now? The sheriff's office is in the opposite direction..."
"You'll do it, right?"
"..."
Joe soon began sweating profusely, then smiled brightly and nodded enthusiastically.
"Ah, ah, of course. Knowing how much Mr. Noah works for our Justice Town's safety, of course, I should do it...!"
"Uahahaha! Thanks for saying that, Joe! Have a good day today!"
"Yes...! You have a good day too, Mr. Noah...!"
Joe left smiling like that.
As expected, Joe was such a good person.
Such consideration in this barren-hearted era of the Wild West.
"...That bastard Kid, someday I'll..."
Joe's muttering seemed to reach my ears on the wind, but I ignored it and waved goodbye to Joe as he left.
And after Joe's wagon departed, dragging the bodies with both hands...
"Now let's go in. Ah... I'm so fucking tired..."
I trudged back home.
"Neigh."
"No Name… Hmm, did I feed you yesterday?"
My horse No Name in the stable greeted me.
I named the horse No Name simply because I was lazy.
I was going to call it Horse Boy or Horse Girl, but I didn't know its gender, so I just named it No Name.
I roughly patted No Name, threw the bodies in front of the stable, and then went inside the house.
Thud.
"Welcome back."
While No Name greeted me outside, a neatly dressed cold beauty greeted me inside the house.
"Oh, Emma, you came to work early."
"You came back late, boss."
This cold beauty's name was Emma. She was the secretary working in my office.
I didn't remember what her last name was... and I think she was 20 or 21 years old.
We had been working together for about 2 years now, I think?
Originally, I didn't particularly need a secretary, but when I opened the office, she begged me to let her work here, so I had no choice but to hire her.
Thanks to that, I was frugally exploiting her with a shitty passionate pay.
"Did you organize all the wanted posters?"
"Yes, I did."
"Did you feed No Name by any chance?"
"Yes, I did."
"Did you make my bed?"
"...Though I don't understand why that's a secretary's job, I did it because you told me to."
"Really? Then want to lie down together?"
"Get lost."
"Hiing."
Actually, I hired Emma as my secretary because she was the prettiest NPC I'd seen so far.
I was trying to seduce her and do something with her, but maybe because she lived up to her looks, she was an absolute iron wall.
Since entering Noah's body, there hasn't been a girl I couldn't seduce, so her constant rejection hurts my pride.
I was thinking of doing this and that with her someday, but it didn't seem like today was the day, so I clicked my tongue once and started talking about work.
"I caught some outlaws. They're outside, so take out the wanted posters for the Marcos brothers."
"The Marcos brothers... You caught quite a big fish. Understood."
"Ah, I caught one more besides those three."
When I took out Jake McGuffin's wanted poster from Marcos' back pocket and handed it to her, Emma replied in surprise, "Jake McGuffin... This is an outlaw I've never seen before."
"Of course. It's a wanted poster I got from the sheriff's office yesterday afternoon."
"What? Then you met the guy just one night after getting the wanted poster?"
"Yeah, that's how it turned out."
"Huh, I don't know if I should say you're really lucky or unlucky..."
While Emma was clicking her tongue, I handed her the wanted posters and laid down on the bed.
Maybe because the Deaf Man's Bar only had cheap whiskey, I had a bad hangover.
I was thinking of sleeping a bit, leaving the follow-up to Emma.
"Yawn... I told Joe to bring the sheriff, so he'll be here soon. When the sheriff comes, hand over the bodies and collect the bounty."
"Joe is bringing the sheriff…? You didn't bully the good townspeople again to make them run errands for you, did you?"
"Hey~ When have I ever bullied people? Joe said he'd run the errand himself first, so I had no choice but to ask him. How could you think of me like that…?"
"...Think of you like what? A thug…?"
"What?"
"...Nothing."
I thought I heard something strange, so I raised my head, but Emma had already turned away primly.
That brat. She's getting too cocky these days.
In this barbaric Wild West era, where else could you find a boss with modern sensibilities like me?
I hired her to work freely in an era without women's suffrage, and now she’s talking back to her god-like boss. Tsk tsk.
"Eeh, I don't like it," I deliberately spoke loudly enough for Emma to hear, then turned over.
And just as I was about to close my eyes...
Thud.
"...Hmm?"
I heard footsteps approaching my office.
About 150m?
Thanks to the [Superhuman Senses] skill I had included when customizing, I had keener senses than anyone else.
Thud, thud.
The owner of these footsteps... was definitely approaching our office.
"...Someone's coming."
"...Pardon?"
When I got up from the bed and said that, Emma tilted her ear once and then looked puzzled.
"...I don't hear anything though?"
"I've always had sharp ears. I can even hear your stomach growling. You didn't eat breakfast, did ya?"
"..."
Ignoring Emma who was blushing, I focused on my hearing again.
Thud, thud, thud.
"...Could it be the sheriff?"
"I don't think so."
It wasn’t time for the sheriff to arrive yet.
"Then it could be a client coming to give us a request."
"That's possible too."
One of the reasons for setting up the office was to receive commission requests.
Occasionally, clients would come with wanted posters and rewards for outlaws.
But my intuition told me that the owner of these footsteps probably wasn't a client.
"I'll go check who this visitor is."
"Boss. But why are you taking your gun...?"
"You never know. They might not be a visitor."
At my words, Emma cried out in alarm, "Boss! You must identify friend or foe correctly! If you accidentally kill a client...!!"
"I can tell right away if they're a client or an outlaw after just a bit of conversation. Don't worry."
"Huh...?"
Leaving Emma with a blank expression, not seeming to understand my words, I went out the back door.
"I'll have a good talk with the visitor and come back, so just keep organizing the documents."
Actually, I didn't care whether the visitor coming now was a client or an outlaw.
Whether they were a client or an outlaw, they meant money for me.
This month's income was low, but I'll earn a lot today.
So I went out with a grin to greet the visitor.
***
Thud, thud.
Someone was moving their footsteps stealthily.
[Noah's Bounty Hunter Office]
[We catch bad guys for you]
"...To put up a sign so blatantly, he must be begging to be killed. Crazy bastard."
His name was Marv Murchins.
He was an outlaw wanted for stealing a herd of cattle with his partner in Texas.
The state government put a bounty on him and his partner for stealing just about 50 cattle.
His partner ended up dying from a bounty hunter's bullet.
Don't worry, Harry. I'll avenge you.
The one who killed Marv's partner Harry was this bounty hunter nicknamed “Kid” in this area.
Marv planned to shoot Kid in the head to complete Harry's revenge and...
...Moreover, they say this guy has collected a ton of bounties and is filthy rich.”
He also intended to steal the guy's fortune while he was at it.
But...
"Ah shit, that scared me...!"
Marv, who was trying to approach Kid's office stealthily, saw four corpses placed in front of the stable and cried out in shock.
"Huff..."
Startled into making a bit of a loud noise, Marv belatedly covered his mouth.
"..."
Perhaps they hadn't noticed yet, as there was no sign of movement from the office.
Could there be no one here...? ...No, more importantly, what are these corpses? Are they outlaws he caught...?
Thud.
Marv calmed his trembling heart and carefully approached the door.
Creeak...
And as he opened the door just a little, what he saw through the gap was...
Gasp...!
An incredibly beautiful woman sitting at a desk.
In his 30 years of life, Marv had never seen such a pretty woman.
But wait, this is that Kid bastard's house, so why is there a woman...?
Oh, could it be...
"Is that woman Kid's wife? Tch... they say he's rich, I'm jealous as hell."
"We're not married yet and I have no plans to marry."
"Really? Then if she's not your wife, what is she? Don't tell me she's a whor—wait."
Feeling something strange, Marv turned his head to the side...
"She's not my girlfriend or anything yet, but I'm trying to seduce her. But she's not falling for it."
"..."
A man was crouching next to him, smiling brightly.
He had been talking about himself as if consulting with a long-lost friend, and then he asked Marv, "What do you think the problem is, visitor? Am I ugly?"
A handsome face, white skin, a lithe but firm body.
Above all, the dark circles under his eyes.
There was no doubt. This guy was Kid, the one who killed Marv's partner Harry.
And...
"..."
This crazy bastard, for some reason, wasn't even aiming a gun at Marv.
In the West, one shouldn't be flustered no matter what situation arose.
"...You're definitely not ugly. But your way of speaking is too aggressive. Women are like buffaloes, you can't make them come to you crudely with force."
"Then what should I do?"
"You have to coax them. Gently, like handling a baby."
Marv calmly began giving advice.
If he moved hastily here and accidentally drew his gun wrong or failed to hit the guy, he might end up getting shot instead.
Caution and composure were important now.
Slower than anyone else, but faster than anyone else.
Only those who know how to wait leisurely for the optimal timing could survive long in the West.
"I think I'm giving her special treatment... But she's kind to other people and only treats me roughly."
"She only treats you roughly? That's actually a signal that the woman is interested in you."
"Really?"
"I'm sure of it. So this is, um... how should I explain it? Ah, if only Harry were here... Harry was really good at giving relationship advice."
"Harry? Who's Harry? Did he come with you?"
"He didn't come with me, and as for who Harry is... Ah, before that, do you have a cigarette? I'm out of cigarettes..."
"Oh, just a moment."
"I have a light."
The two men each reached into their pockets to take out cigarettes and matches.
Click.
Of course, what the two men actually pulled out were not cigarettes and matches.