For the past 17 years, living in this damn West, it was obvious that my body couldn’t stay intact every time.
No matter how OP my traits were…
From my chaotic childhood to getting used to life in the West, I’ve been shot and stabbed.
If you get shot in the chest, you usually die instantly.
But does getting stabbed in the chest mean you die? Nope.
“Guh…, huuuh…”
Redbeard, with a knife stuck in his chest, fell backward.
Yet, he was still alive, breathing heavily.
Even with a knife in your chest, you don’t die right away.
But… if you pull that knife out, you’ll bleed to death.
I could’ve pulled that knife out and let Redbeard bleed to death, but…
“……”
*Thud.*
Instead, I picked up a pistol lying nearby and aimed it at Redbeard’s head.
I don’t sympathize with NPCs who are just data in a game.
But I’m not some sicko who enjoys watching others suffer.
I know exactly how horrifying it is to bleed to death.
Shooting him with the pistol was… my way of showing mercy.
*Click.*
As I pulled the revolver’s hammer, Redbeard, anticipating his end, gave me a hollow laugh and said,
“Heh… I’ve been struggling my whole life, and this is how it ends.”
“……”
“Mind telling me your name? I’d like to know who killed me before I go to hell.”
Redbeard’s face was oddly cheerful.
It was hard to believe he was facing death.
As I smiled back and opened my mouth…
“Don’t waste time.”
“…What?”
“You’re just buying time for your daughter and the other gang members’ families to escape, aren’t you?”
“……”
The smile vanished from his face.
Then, with desperation, he pleaded with me.
“……Don’t kill the women and children. We’re the ones who did wrong. They’re only guilty of being our wives and kids.”
“……”
Like I said before, I’m not some freak who gets off on others’ pain.
By my own code… I don’t shoot innocent NPCs who aren’t outlaws.
But…
“…The money you stole from the bank.”
“……”
“Where is it? Tell me, and I’ll spare the women and kids.”
Their existence became a great bargaining chip.
At my threat, Redbeard’s face turned genuinely calm, and he muttered,
“……If you go diagonally from here, there’s a building with red bricks.”
“Ah, next to the armory? I think I saw it. But there was no cash when I checked earlier.”
“…Lift the carpet on the floor, and there’s a trapdoor. Open it, and there’s a pretty big hole. We found it by accident. The money’s in there.”
Judging by Redbeard’s expression, it didn’t seem like a lie.
I nodded and asked something I’d been curious about.
“Speaking of weapons, how the hell does a gang like yours have so many? Were you soldiers?”
“…Yeah, we were. Up until 9 years ago.”
9 years ago… That’s when the Civil War ended.
“…America’s Confederate Irish Brigade. Most of our gang members were my comrades.”
The Confederate States of America, meaning the pro-slavery South.
After the Civil War, many Southern soldiers became outlaws.
Redbeard was likely one of them.
“Must’ve been tough.”
“……Yeah.”
An Irish immigrant soldier from the South, called a “white n****r” and ostracized.
They didn’t become outlaws for no reason.
They lost the war, and there were probably many stories.
Of course, that doesn’t mean I feel sorry for Redbeard or his gang.
Everyone in the West has a story.
“…The last 9 years have been hell. But now feels the hardest. …Just end it, will you? It’s hard to breathe with this knife in my chest.”
“Got it.”
At Redbeard’s request, I raised the gun.
And just as I was about to pull the trigger…
“…Wait.”
“What now?”
“No, just… before I die, I really want to know the name of the guy killing me. Won’t you tell me?”
“……”
I thought about giving him my real name, but…
“…Kid.”
I ended up telling him my nickname.
“Kid. Everyone around me calls me Kid.”
Honestly, I didn’t think much of revealing the nickname “Kid.”
It’s just what people around me called me, so I said it without thinking.
But…
“…What? Kid?”
Redbeard’s reaction was… unusual.
“…Kid? You’re really Kid?”
“…What, you know me?”
Even though I’ve been a menace, I was only a terror in Justice Town.
For the past 3 years, I’ve mostly stayed in Justice Town, working as a bounty hunter.
Did my nickname spread to other regions?
As I tilted my head in confusion…
“We were on our way to San Francisco.”
“……!”
San Francisco.
Hearing that word, which felt like home, my expression turned cold.
I could feel myself losing.
“…So you were thinking of joining the South Brotherhood.”
“Right. The South Brotherhood has a lot of my people. While exchanging letters with them, I heard about someone they call Kid.”
Despite my face growing colder and more icy, Redbeard’s face was filling with excitement.
“But are you really Kid?”
“……”
“Hahaha! No wonder. If you’re Kid, everything makes sense now.”
The color returned to his face, which had looked tired earlier from family worries and the pain of his injuries.
It was like… a kid who just saw Santa for the first time, his eyes sparkling.
I looked at Redbeard like that…
“How much was my bounty? $1,400? $1,500? Kehehe! Not even comparable to a lowlife like me…!”
Bang!
“……”
I silenced him quietly.
“…You talk too much.”
“……”
I clicked my tongue, put the revolver I shot him with back into my empty holster, and sank into thought for a moment.
“San Francisco… San Francisco…”
Hearing that name brought back all sorts of memories.
Why does everyone have a few of those? Annoying, crappy memories you’d rather forget.
“Ugh, why did this guy have to ask for my name at the last moment…”
I grumbled as I covered his still unseeing eyes.
Then, out of habit, I rifled through Redbeard’s pockets.
It was a common habit among all bounty hunters—to search the pockets of outlaws after taking them down.
“What, there’s nothing much here.”
Just as I realized Redbeard didn’t have much on him and was about to stand up, brushing off my hands…
Rustle.
“…!”
Suddenly, I felt a presence behind me, tickling my ears.
Click.
Without hesitation, I drew my gun and turned around.
But…
“Noah, sir! It’s me! Joe!”
“Ah, Joe.”
It wasn’t an enemy but Joe who greeted me.
As soon as I realized it was Joe, I put my gun back in the holster.
Joe, too, only approached me cautiously after confirming that all the Redbeard Gang members were down.
“Are… are they all taken care of?”
“As you can see?”
I pointed to the devastating scene, reminiscent of a battlefield, for the hesitant Joe.
Scattered everywhere were explosion debris, scorch marks, and puddles of blood around the corpses.
But, to be honest, most of this was Joe’s doing, not mine.
“By the way, Joe. I told you to set off the dynamite when I gave the signal. Why didn’t you?”
It was Joe who had secretly planted the dynamite in the buildings.
But because Joe didn’t set it off right away, things almost went south.
“Huh? I set it off right when you yelled ‘Go-!!'”
“Ah, come to think of it, dynamite doesn’t explode instantly.”
In that case, Joe had done his part well enough.
“Some of the gang members were trying to get up, so I shot them.”
On top of that, Joe had finished off the remaining gang members I hadn’t shot.
He pretty much earned his keep.
Proudly, I patted his shoulder and said,
“You did well, Joe. Remember how I said I’d take care of you this time?”
“Yes…! I remember…!”
“I’m sorry for being stingy back in Justice Town. This time, I promise a proper reward. So, clean up the gang members’ bodies, gather their weapons and horses.”
“Yes…! Uh… but Noah, sir…”
Joe, about to eagerly follow my orders, suddenly seemed to realize something and asked me.
“But am I supposed to do all that alone? What are you going to do?”
“Ah… I…”
Caught off guard by Joe’s sudden question, I hesitated for a moment before answering.
“…I have somewhere to go for a bit.”
“……”
As I stumbled over my words, Joe looked at me suspiciously.
“You’re not going to pocket some extra cash, are you?”
“Even if I did, you’re the one driving the carriage. How much could I really take?”
“Ah…”
“Stop with the unnecessary suspicions and get to work.”
I managed to send Joe off, who was still eyeing me with doubt.
And then…
“This is why I don’t like sharp kids…”
I stealthily made my way to the location Redbeard had mentioned earlier.
‘…If I go diagonally from here, there’s a building with red bricks.’
‘…Under the carpet on that floor, there’s a trapdoor. Open it, and there’s a pretty big hole. We found it by accident. The money’s stored in there.’
Of course, I planned to take all that money for myself.
