Sheriff.
Stays stationed in the town, responsible for the town’s security and public order.
Pinkerton Agent.
Works for the private security company Pinkerton, handling tasks like taking down outlaws and providing security.
Bounty Hunter.
Hunts outlaws based on officially issued warrants and wanted posters, and collects bounties.
These three professions have one thing in common.
Many of them are former outlaws.
Gunslingers, who have been familiar with guns since childhood, easily and quickly turn to a life of crime.
Once they become criminals and outlaws, they hide their identities and work as sheriffs, Pinkerton agents, or bounty hunters.
Noah was a natural gunslinger when he arrived in Justice Town.
His suspiciously excellent shooting skills, and his connection to the leader of the South Brotherhood, the most lawless of the lawless…
…and most importantly, his ties to TKK.
Emma judged that it was highly likely Noah had been an outlaw before coming to Justice Town.
And not just any outlaw—a member of TKK, the worst gang in the West.
“Boss, were you an outlaw?”
“……”
Noah’s eyes grew colder as he looked at Emma in response to her question.
*Thud.*
Noah approached Emma with an eerie atmosphere and asked,
“What if I am an outlaw?”
“……”
Emma took a few steps back as Noah approached her.
But soon, she hit a wall and couldn’t retreat any further.
“What would you do if I were an outlaw?”
“…Boss.”
Emma was the one who asked, but she didn’t expect Noah to be so aggressive, leaving her a bit flustered.
*Thump.*
Noah stretched out his arm and slammed the wall, trapping her. Her chest trembled, perhaps out of fear.
“Are you going to catch me? Or report me to the authorities?”
“……”
Noah continued to stare at Emma with cold eyes.
“Tell me, Emma. What would you do if I were an outlaw, huh?”
“…Well.”
Just as Emma, unable to withstand the pressure, was about to speak—
“Pfft.”
“……”
“Ahahaha! Why are you so scared, Emma?”
“…Boss.”
Suddenly, Noah returned to his usual playful expression, as if this whole thing had been a joke.
He chuckled and said to Emma,
“Come on! How could you doubt someone as great as me? Me, an outlaw? Emma, have you ever seen my name or face on any wanted posters while organizing them?”
“Well…”
Indeed… Emma had seen countless wanted posters while working as a secretary.
Most of them were from Utah, but none of them had Noah’s name or face.
“…No, I haven’t.”
“My connection with TKK is the same as my connection with the South Brotherhood when I was a bounty hunter. I’ve never been an outlaw, not before, not now.”
“……”
Emma, who had worked with Noah for three years and thought she knew him well, carefully studied his face.
And in his face now…
There was that unique expression of someone telling the truth.
“What? Don’t you believe me, Emma?”
“…No, I believe you.”
As Emma nodded, Noah turned away as if everything was settled.
Noah quickly cleaned up the bodies of the TKK members and said to Emma,
“Emma, you heard what those guys said earlier, right? The state militia is blocking San Francisco. If we don’t get out of San Francisco by tomorrow, we might never get out.”
“…That’s probably true.”
“So let’s get some sleep. Yawn~. I’ll sleep here.”
And then, as if still under the influence of the medicine, he rubbed his sleepy eyes, laid out a blanket, and lay down on the floor.
Emma also lay down a bit away from Noah.
“Emma? There are plenty of rooms here, why are you lying next to me?”
“…Outlaws might come looking for us like before. Just in case, it’s better to sleep in the same room tonight.”
“Alright, let’s do that.”
And so, Noah and Emma ended up sharing the same space again tonight.
The only difference was that tonight, Emma had requested to sleep in the same room.
**
Time passed, and it was late at night.
*Flicker.*
“……”
Emma, who had been pretending to sleep with regular breathing, secretly opened her eyes.
Just a while ago, Noah had told her with the most sincere face that he wasn’t an outlaw.
It wasn’t that she didn’t believe him…
‘But I want to see it with my own eyes.’
Emma wanted to see Noah’s past with her own eyes.
“Zzzzz…”
Noah’s regular breathing could be heard.
Having been under Noah for the past three years, Emma knew for sure that he was deeply asleep now.
She decided to take this opportunity to check Noah’s body.
If Noah had been a member of TKK, he would have a ‘K’ tattoo somewhere on his body.
‘First, there’s definitely nothing on the back of his hand.’
If there had been a tattoo on the back of his hand, Emma would have noticed it by now.
So, the back of the hand was a pass.
She hadn’t seen it while treating him earlier, so the right arm was a pass.
Similarly, since she had seen it during treatment, the side was a pass.
The neck was a pass.
So, what was left…
‘First, the left arm…’
Emma carefully moved to Noah’s left side.
Her boss was someone with an uncanny sense of awareness, so she had to be cautious.
Emma successfully moved to Noah’s side, doing her best to remain unnoticed.
And then…
*Swish*, *shhh.*
At a pace as slow as an ant’s stroll, she rolled up Noah’s sleeve.
The sleeve passed his wrist and went up to his elbow.
Carefully rolling the sleeve up to his shoulder, Emma…
“……”
Noticed that there was no tattoo on Noah’s left arm.
“Phew…”
Feeling a sense of relief for some reason, Emma moved on to the next part.
Having confirmed that there was nothing on the left arm, the next was his back.
*Swish.*
Fortunately, Noah was sleeping on his stomach.
The back was easier to check than the sleeve, so Emma could more easily see Noah’s back.
As she lifted his shirt, Noah’s back muscles, extending from the lower part, came into view.
‘I thought the boss had a slim build, but he actually has some muscles… Hah…’
Emma momentarily got distracted but quickly regained her focus and continued checking Noah’s back.
And thankfully, Noah’s back was also clean.
At that moment, Emma was pondering whether she should check her thigh next and was about to pull down her clothes when…
“…Huh?”
Before she could pull her clothes down, something caught Emma’s eye.
At the very edge where her back and shoulder met, there was something engraved, like a dot.
As soon as she saw it, Emma reached out her hand as if she were entranced by something.
And the moment she confirmed what it was…!
*Click.*
“……”
A cold gun barrel appeared next to Emma’s head.
As soon as Emma checked the tattoo, Noah turned around and pressed a pistol against her head.
“……”
Noah was staring at Emma with an indescribable expression.
In the awkward standoff, Noah was the first to speak.
“Emma, curiosity usually leads to death.”
“……”
*Click.*
Noah then pulled back the hammer of the pistol, as if hinting that he might actually shoot.
Now, if Noah pulled the trigger, Emma’s 22 years of life would be over.
At that final moment, standing at the crossroads of life and death, Noah asked Emma in a flat voice.
“So, Emma. Did you figure out who I am?”
“…Yes.”
“Yeah? Who am I?”
“…The Boss.”
Emma, without any pretense…
Spoke exactly what was on her mind at that moment.
“…You’re the Boss.”
Noah, seemingly taken aback, asked again.
“…What?”
“…You’re the Boss… That’s all.”
“……”
Noah was just Emma’s Boss.
This was…
‘…What exactly is the Boss’s identity?’
‘…What do you mean? I’m just your Boss.’
‘……’
‘You don’t need to know anything else. I’m just your Boss.’
This was also the answer Noah gave when Emma asked about his identity right after they arrived in San Francisco.
“……”
“……”
*Swoosh.*
Noah then lowered the gun aimed at Emma.
And lying back down, he said to her.
“…Get out. I want to sleep alone in this room.”
“…Yes.”
Following Noah’s command, Emma obediently left the room.
*Thud.*
Left alone in the room, Noah, unsurprisingly, couldn’t sleep.
*Sizzle.*
Unable to sleep, Noah lit a cigarette in the room…
“Phew…”
And lost himself in thought amidst the thick cigarette smoke.
**
Over the past three years, I thought my relationship with Emma was quite satisfactory.
Emma was an excellent secretary… and most importantly, she never crossed the line.
We only bickered with simple jokes and pranks…
Emma and I weren’t close on a personal level.
But was it wrong to take her out of Justice Town and bring her to San Francisco?
…She crossed the line.
*Step.*
Emma started stepping out of our original relationship, taking one step at a time toward me.
…I wasn’t happy about her getting closer.
Her getting closer could actually be dangerous for me.
With not much time left before returning home,
I was more sensitive and cautious than ever.
If it were the old me, I would have shot Emma just now.
Because the most important thing to me in this world was logging out.
And…
Emma knowing my true identity could hinder my return to the original world.
But in the end, I didn’t shoot Emma.
…Why did I do that?
I know the reason.
‘Mr. Noah. We’re all the same, human beings.’
Because Emma seemed like a fellow human.
It was then that I realized why I had let Django and Josephine go.
Because the two of them, struggling for their love, seemed like fellow humans to me.
“Ah… damn it, I caught a case of the crazies before going home.”
Seeing NPCs as fellow humans…
This is a whole different level from my principle of not killing civilian NPCs.
What if I can’t kill outlaw NPCs because of this stupid sympathy and end up not making any money?
“Ah… but that’s not it, is it?”
It’s not like I couldn’t kill outlaw NPCs because they seemed human—I just killed those TKK bastards without hesitation.
It seems not all NPCs appear as humans to me.
Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s not a problem.
“Sigh…”
I got up with a deep sigh.
And looked down at the letters on the desk.
[From JJ to Kid]
“……”
The old me would never have done something as absurd as seeing NPCs as humans.
This was all because of this guy.
‘Dokgo… Dokgo Young…? Is that your real name, not Noah…?’
You shouldn’t get attached to NPCs…
Because of this guy…
“Phew……”
The memory of that day is still vivid.
‘Kid…! I think there’s a traitor among us.’
‘……’
‘Kid…, …it’s not you, is it?’
The letter said he would definitely come back to me.
This kid, if he says he’ll do something, he’ll definitely show up in front of me again.
And when we meet again…
It’ll be the worst reunion ever.
“…This is troubling.”
No matter how much I smoked, my mind wouldn’t calm down, and sleep wouldn’t come.
“…Ah, damn it, how am I supposed to get out of here tomorrow? Should I just go on a market killing spree and cause chaos in San Francisco?”
Once one thing goes wrong, everything gets tangled up, and my mind becomes a mess.
In the end, I spent that night wide awake, chain-smoking.
