“Ugh-! Finally back-!”
The exterior of my office, which I hadn’t seen in a while, looked no different from before.
I immediately ran to the stable.
“No Name.”
“Neigh.”
There, No Name was grooming himself and greeted me.
Joe had been taking care of No Name, and he was in good shape.
“…No Name really came back on his own. From Salt Lake City to Justice Town.”
“Yep, of course. Our No Name is smart, right?”
“But still, it’s dozens of miles… how…?”
Emma still seemed unable to comprehend how No Name had made the long journey back alone, but I had always believed in him.
From the day I first met No Name three years ago, I knew he was no ordinary horse.
In <Outlaw>, there’s a secret quest called “Taming the Wild Horse” that allows you to obtain a special horse.
I hadn’t completed the quest myself, but judging by No Name’s intelligence, he must have been one of those special horses.
And so, No Name and I formed a bond, riding through the wilderness of Justice Town and catching countless outlaws.
The bond between No Name and me was…
“Alright, let’s make a decision.”
“Huh? About what, Boss?”
“With No Name and the horse Lloyd gave us, we have two horses now. We need to sell one.”
Honestly, it didn’t matter much to me.
No matter how good a horse is, it’s still just a horse.
But my statement seemed to shock Emma and the two horses.
“Boss, what kind of trashy statement is that…?”
“Neigh-!”
“Neigh…?”
Emma and the two horses looked at me with disgusted eyes.
I learned something new from this.
“Oh, so you can kinda understand what I’m saying too?”
“Neigh.”
The horse Lloyd gave me.
I already knew it had good bloodlines and was fast, but it seems it can kinda understand me too.
“Hmm… this makes it even harder. Which one should I sell?”
“…Boss, are you seriously thinking of selling one of them? Why not just keep both…?”
When Emma spoke with a hint of disappointment, I rationally explained it to her.
“Emma, I don’t need two horses. Raising one more would just be a waste of money, a waste.”
“……”
But more importantly…
“And, you know. Selling a horse could bring in a lot of money. No Name is super smart, so we could sell him to a circus or something, and the horse Lloyd gave us is pretty and fast, so we could sell it to a racetrack.”
“…You’ve even thought about where to sell them, huh?”
“Selling just one of them could easily bring in a few hundred dollars.”
Horses, the equivalent of cars in the Wild West, were extremely valuable.
And if other horses were like regular cars, the ones in front of me were like supercars.
For me, who just wanted to get out of this damn game world as soon as possible, it was wiser to cash in one horse for a few hundred dollars rather than let two horses sit idle.
“Ugh… what if Lloyd asks for the horse back later? But selling No Name would be hard since we have such good teamwork…”
After a moment of agonizing, I finally decided which horse to sell.
“Alright, I’ve decided. No Name has been through a lot with me, so we’ll stick together till the end.”
“Neigh-!”
“Neigh….”
The two horses reacted differently to the news.
No Name was happy, while the horse Lloyd gave me seemed sad.
Anyone watching would think it was the result of some audition.
And it wasn’t just the horses who were sad.
“Of course, I can’t sell No Name… but… sigh…”
Swish.
Emma reached out to the horse Lloyd had given us upon hearing my decision to sell it.
“…I’ve grown quite attached to this one.”
“…Attached, my foot. You’ve only known it for a few days.”
“But in those few days, it carried us quickly and comfortably.”
Emma’s hand, stroking the horse, was filled with deep regret.
At that moment, I found myself staring blankly at Emma’s face.
‘It’s a new expression.’
She used to always have an icy, expressionless face…
But lately, her expressions have become much more vivid.
This look of deep regret was also something I’d never seen on her before.
Maybe that’s why.
“…Alright, then.”
“…Huh?”
I made a choice I normally wouldn’t have.
“Let’s hold off on selling this one for now. The horse trader won’t be here for a few months anyway.”
The horse trader comes to Justice Town twice a year.
Since he came once already, it’ll be a few months before he returns.
Without him, we’d have to go to Lincoln County or Lexio County, which is a few days’ journey, and honestly, that’s too much hassle.
“In the meantime, Emma, you ride this horse. You should have one too.”
“Boss, that horse…”
“You’re its owner now.”
“…!”
Oh, now she’s smiling.
The way Emma’s face changed so quickly was more entertaining than I thought.
“…Thank you, Boss.”
“Alright, keep it in the stable next to No Name for now.”
I wasn’t planning to not sell the horse at all, just postponing it, as I mentioned earlier.
Right now, I need over $90,000 to go home.
‘When I have about $1,000 left, I can sell both No Name and that horse to get home.’
And until then, it’s a waste to just let the horses sit idle, so I entrusted it to Emma.
But to Emma, her first horse must have felt incredibly special.
“Boss, can I give this one a name?”
“A name? Sure, go ahead.”
“Hmm…”
Emma immediately fell into deep thought, pondering what name to give the horse Lloyd had given us.
The horse Lloyd gave us was a white horse, the kind you’d see in fairy tales.
I waited to see what kind of naming sense Emma had.
And then…
“…Bonnie.”
“…What?”
“I’ll name it Bonnie.”
“……”
Hearing the name she chose, I couldn’t help but be a little taken aback.
“…Bonnie? You really want to name it Bonnie?”
Of all the names, why Bonnie?
Bonnie. That name…
But Emma seemed to have already made up her mind.
“…Yes, I really want to.”
“……”
“Is that not okay?”
After a moment of thought, I shook my head.
“Fine, it’s your horse, so you can name it whatever you want.”
“Thank you.”
With my permission, Emma’s face lit up again.
I watched her for a moment before turning away.
“Alright, let’s head in. Emma, put Bonnie in the stable and make me some coffee.”
“Yes.”
As I started walking toward the office, No Name whinnied as if thanking me.
“Neigh.”
“Huh? Oh…”
When I first met No Name, I couldn’t tell if it was male or female, but I later confirmed that No Name is a mare.
In contrast, Bonnie…
…
No wonder people say not to mess with horses.
Bonnie was clearly a stallion.
So then…
“Ah, you little beast.”
“Neigh.”
No Name finally found her match.
Looking at No Name, the black mare, and Bonnie, the white stallion, reminded me of Django and Josephine.
How are those two doing now?
*Click.*
I unlocked the door and stepped inside, greeted by the office interior that, just like the outside, hadn’t changed a bit.
“Ugh.”
Exhausted from the journey, I immediately flopped onto the bed.
As I rolled around on the bed for a bit, Emma brought me some coffee.
*Sip.*
I took a sip of the coffee, and Emma sat down in front of me, drinking hers, before hesitantly bringing up a topic.
“…Do you really not plan to help the villagers?”
“……”
Her sudden question made me frown for a moment before I answered.
“…Since when have I done work that doesn’t pay? There’s no bounty on those guys, so I can’t even get paid.”
“But since they’re a gang that ran loan-sharking operations, they must have a lot of hidden money, right? Maybe we could make a lot of money like we did with the Redbeard Gang…”
“Nah, they’re broke. Even if we ransacked them, there’s no money.”
“…Huh? How do you know that…?”
“I just do.”
<Outlaw Job> Chapter 4 [Liberation of Justice Town].
When the protagonist clears Chapter 3 and arrives at Justice Town, Chapter 4 begins.
Chapter 4 starts by showing the hardships of the villagers who have fallen into slavery under the Rush and Gold Gang.
Even if the protagonist immediately tries to help the villagers and deal with the Rush and Gold Gang, they can’t.
Because the Rush and Gold Gang is still an unofficial outlaw group with no bounty issued yet.
Here, the protagonist can make a choice.
To choose Justice or to choose Benefit.
If they choose Benefit, Chapter 4 is automatically skipped.
If they choose Justice, it leads to a quest to exterminate the Rush and Gold Gang.
But even if you manage to exterminate the Rush and Gold Gang, their money is already hidden somewhere and can’t be found…
And you’ll even end up having to pay bail because of the circuit judge connected to them.
Chapter 4 is structured so that no matter what, you end up losing.
So why does this crappy chapter even exist? Can’t we just skip it? But in <Outlaw Job>, Chapter 4 is crucial because…
Successfully completing it greatly boosts your reputation, which directly leads to a happy ending.
To see the happy ending in the final chapter, your reputation needs to be at a certain level, and clearing Chapter 4 is essential for that.
In other words, since reputation is useless to me, there’s no need for me to get involved in this.
No, I shouldn’t get involved.
If I do, I’ll just end up losing my own money.
And if I leave it alone, the protagonist will eventually come and solve it.
…But what if I run into that protagonist?
She’s the worst of the worst.
…Ah, whatever.
I decided to think about the future later.
“We’re going to completely ignore that gang and focus on squeezing money out of that old geezer William.”
“…Yes, understood.”
Hmm, she’s as expressionless as usual this time.
Emma finished her coffee with that same blank expression and then…
“Then I’ll be going now.”
She got up from her seat.
“Huh? Where to?”
“I should head home now.”
“Ah.”
Emma lived alone in a log cabin about a mile from my office.
Well, Emma’s human too, and she just got back from a trip, so she must be tired.
Watching her get up, a mischievous idea popped into my head, and I smirked as I spoke.
“Why bother going all the way to your place?”
“Huh?”
“Just sleep here. Hehe, I’ll hold you tight.”
“……”
“…Just kidding.”
“Yes, then.”
If it were the old Emma, she would’ve looked at me with disdain when I teased her like that.
But the current Emma didn’t.
Instead, she had this look in her eyes like, “Should I just sleep here?” which left me flustered.
“Boss, I’ll be going now.”
“Oh, yeah.”
*Thud.*
Emma left the office just like that.
Over the past three years living in this backwater town, I’ve made tormenting Emma my hobby.
So I had about 101 ways to mess with her in my head…
But it seems like I’ll have to delete a few of them.
“Emma’s changed… she’s changed.”
I muttered bitterly and lay back down on the bed.
Closing my eyes, the various expressions Emma had shown earlier came to mind.
‘It was worth watching. Emma changing… maybe it’s not so bad?’
Thinking that, I drifted off to sleep.
Maybe because I was so exhausted.
I fell into a deep, lazy sleep.
**
The log cabin I returned to after so long was just as it had been.
Emma finished a quick cleaning and sat down.
“Phew.”
It had been a short but intense trip to San Francisco.
Though Emma prided herself on her strong stamina, the lingering fatigue from the journey made her close her eyes.
As she closed her eyes, memories from the trip surfaced.
…But for some reason, only the good memories came to mind.
‘…Bonnie.’
The name her boss, Noah, had given her earlier.
Emma had named the horse Bonnie.
She named it Bonnie because as soon as she saw the horse, she kept thinking of that person’s face.
No, not just when she saw the horse…
Lately, every time she closed her eyes, he came to mind.
Feeling her cheeks warm up a bit, Emma got up from her seat.
She washed up, changed her clothes, and lay down on the bed.
As she closed her eyes to sleep, an old memory surfaced.
It was from three years ago when she first started working as Noah’s secretary.
‘…So your name is Noah, Boss?’
‘Yeah, that’s right.’
‘Then what’s your full name?’
‘Full name?’
‘Yes, I think it’s good to know just in case.’
Meticulous as ever, Emma had asked for his full name just in case.
Noah thought for a moment before answering.
‘Well, since you’re going to be my secretary from now on, I’ll tell you just this once.’
She had only heard it once, but Emma had never forgotten it.
‘Noah H. Bonnie Jr.’
Noah H. Bonnie Jr.
Bonnie.
Ah.
Again.
Lately, every time she closed her eyes, only that person came to mind.
Emma was changing.
And…
*Thump.*
She could feel the change within herself.
…She had no idea when or why she fell for that jerk.
It was her first love.
