That was the moment when I moved my hand without even realizing it.
Thud thud thud.
It wasn’t like I was inexperienced, but starting a relationship with Emma felt special from the very beginning.
Hearing my heart pounding so loudly, it felt like… the earth was shaking.
Thud thud thud thud—!
The sound of horse hooves…? Huh?
“Kid—!!!!”
“…!”
“…!”
The familiar voice that woke me and Emma, who were sitting there with dazed, drunken eyes, was none other than…
Sheriff Jet from Justice Town.
He was pulling up in his carriage, heading straight for us.
‘Damn, what was I about to do…!’
I had held out for six months, but Emma’s seductive charm almost broke me in an instant.
Hearing Jet’s voice, I snapped back to reality and pushed Emma’s face away with my palm just before our bodies touched.
Then I kicked the chair back and stormed outside.
Bang.
“Kid—!!! You little—! Did you shoot again? I told you to be careful…!”
“Oh my—! Sheriff! Welcome! Come in quick!!”
Seeing Jet, with his muscles bulging and testosterone oozing, after looking at Emma, snapped me out of my daze like a splash of cold water.
“You came at the perfect time. I almost crossed a line, but thanks to you, I’m saved.”
“…What? What are you talking about?”
Jet, who had come running, furious about me shooting in town again, tilted his head in confusion at my unusually welcoming attitude.
Then, as Jet stepped down from his carriage and approached me…
“Kid, did something happen in the office… What, what the…! Ah, you scared me…!! Miss Emma…!”
“You’re here.”
He froze when he saw the icy glare Emma gave him as she stepped out of the office.
Emma’s gaze was so cold it could’ve brought on another ice age in the middle of winter.
“…Y-you’re not surprised, Miss Emma. …Why are you glaring at me like that? Did I do something wrong…?”
“No. I’m just happy to see you after so long, Sheriff.”
“B-but Miss Emma…! Is that… a knife in your hand?”
“Oh.”
Oh, crap.
Emma was holding a fruit knife, though I had no idea when she grabbed it.
Emma herself seemed surprised, muttering as if she hadn’t realized she was holding it.
“…Since we have a guest after so long, I thought I’d peel some apples.”
“…Apples in the middle of winter?”
“…Now that I think about it, we don’t have any. I’ll just put this back.”
Whoosh.
As she turned around, Emma’s demeanor was as cold as a winter breeze.
Jet, flustered by this side of Emma he’d never seen before, asked me,
“K-Kid… Did I do something wrong? Why is Miss Emma acting like this…?”
“Hmm… To put it simply, the goalkeeper left the goal open, Emma took the shot, and then you, the center-back, came running in and cleared the ball.”
“W-what are you talking about? Explain it simpler…”
“Okay… It’s like bottom of the ninth, one out, bases loaded, one run down, and you, Sheriff, stepped up to bat and hit into a double play.”
“…Were you playing baseball with Emma in the office?”
“We almost did more than that. Anyway, glad you showed up. Let’s talk money inside.”
I led a bewildered Jet into the office.
Even then, Jet was still completely clueless about what had just happened.
**
“$100!”
“Nah, $50.”
As soon as we finished identifying the outlaws, Jet and I started arguing over money.
Out of the five outlaws I caught last night at the Deaf Man’s Tavern, only one was worth $347. The others didn’t have bounties on them.
“Hey! You’re killing people without bounties and still trying to haggle? You should be thankful I’m not throwing you in jail!”
“Jail? These guys were flaunting their gang tattoos!”
In the West, killing someone without a bounty was taboo.
But there was one exception…
When the outlaws openly showed their gang tattoos, like those guys last night, declaring themselves as gang members.
In such cases, if you handed the bodies over to the sheriff, they’d handle the bounties themselves.
But since you didn’t have the bounty posters upfront, you had to negotiate the price with the sheriff.
“The Remember Me Gang is one of the most notorious in Texas. I deserve $100!”
“You got the gang name wrong! It’s the Re Axio Gang! They’ve been disbanded for ages… $50!”
“Why are you being so stingy today? Fine, $80. Not a penny more.”
By the way, the profit here goes straight into the sheriff’s pocket.
“$80… That’s generous for you. You’d usually refuse outright.”
“A sheriff’s gotta eat too.”
“Well, thanks. Deal! $80.”
And with that, the negotiation was settled.
Adding the $347 for Pike McGuffin from the Broadman Gang and $320 for the four Re Axio Gang members, my earnings for last night totaled $647.
This brought my total savings to over $950,000.
Just $50,000 short of my goal.
“The money will be paid at the sheriff’s office. You know the rules.”
“Yeah, Emma will pick it up. How about a drink before you go?”
“Sure.”
As the negotiation ended on a warm note, Emma brought us drinks.
She refilled my half-finished coffee and for Jet…
Plop.
“……”
“……”
She placed a glass of ice-cold water in front of him.
“…Miss Emma, if I’ve done something wrong…”
“What could the sheriff possibly have done wrong?”
“……”
Her tone was colder than the icy water.
Jet, sensing Emma’s mood, gulped down the water.
“…Ahhh.”
“……”
Only after Jet finished the water did Emma bring him a hot coffee, as if her anger had finally subsided.
“Th-thank you.”
I clicked my tongue as I watched Jet, sniffling, sip his hot coffee.
“By the way, Sheriff, any hot outlaws lately? The kind with big bounties.”
Sheriff Jet was essentially my informant.
The reason I had these tea times with this bald guy was to get intel on new outlaws.
Jet waited until I took another sip of coffee before answering.
“Outlaws? There’s always plenty. Especially with the way things are these days.”
Jet said that and pulled something out of his briefcase, handing it to me.
“Today’s newspaper.”
“Newspaper? Why… oh.”
Suddenly, I tilted my head at the newspaper he handed me, but after seeing the headlines, I understood why Jet had pulled it out.
[California State Government Declares ‘Distrust in Federal Government,’ Countdown to Secession Begins]
[San Francisco Mayor Says, “We Must Follow the Anti-Federalist Ideals of the Great Founding Father Thomas Jefferson…”]
[Arizona and Nevada State Governments Show Signs of Joining the Movement…]
“As you know, the atmosphere around here has been not just unusual but downright dangerous lately. I’m starting to think California might actually secede from the Union.”
Secession.
That meant war.
‘Luke must be out of his mind.’
Of course, the ones driving this atmosphere were the South Brotherhood in San Francisco and their leader, Luke.
Originally, the final episode of <Lawless> didn’t start this quickly…
But ever since I visited San Francisco six months ago, Luke has been on a radical political path.
“But still, do you really think there’ll be a war?”
“You might not remember well since you were young back then, but… it was exactly like this before the Civil War. At first, people thought, ‘Surely there won’t be a war?’ But soon, the Southern states seceded, and the war began.”
Jet shook his head with a horrified expression, recalling the situation at the time.
‘Hmm… with the current atmosphere, something could definitely happen.’
In the original <Lawless>, the protagonist stops the South Brotherhood’s plan in the final episode, preventing California from seceding.
But now that the original plot of <Lawless> has already gone off the rails… I honestly can’t predict what’s going to happen.
“Phew… With California in this state, people are flocking to Justice Town too… Yesterday, the chief told me that over 800 immigrants came to Justice Town last month wanting to settle.”
“That’s insane.”
The development of Justice Town wasn’t just because of the Rush and Gold Gang’s money.
As the crisis in California escalated, many people were fleeing eastward.
Thanks to that, Justice Town now had a much larger floating population and more immigrants than in the past.
And more people coming and going meant… more outlaws too.
“Lately, the number of outlaws has multiplied. It was already a town full of outlaws, but now… phew…”
“Well, at least I’ve been making a lot of money.”
With so many outlaws appearing, I’ve been able to handle quite a bit of money over the past six months.
But I was still hungry for more.
“But all that’s been showing up are small fries.”
“……”
I’ve always had a tendency to go for the big scores.
But lately, only low-bounty outlaws have been swarming like locusts.
“I want to make a big score. Aren’t there any outlaws with bounties over $10,000?”
Honestly, I didn’t have high hopes when I asked.
Outlaws with bounties over $10,000 weren’t common.
But Jet gave me an unusual look when he answered.
“…Actually, there is one. An outlaw with a bounty over $10,000.”
“…Huh? Really?”
“Exactly $12,000. He’s been making a name for himself all over Utah, and it seems he’s come this way. There was a victim in Lincoln County.”
Lincoln County was just a day’s ride from here.
I immediately jumped up from my chair.
“I’ll catch him. Give me the bounty poster.”
With less than $50,000 left to go home, adding $12,000 would speed things up dramatically.
I was determined to catch him, but Jet frowned and shook his head.
“Well… even if you go to Lincoln County, you won’t be able to catch him right away. He’s a faceless outlaw.”
“…A faceless outlaw?”
Hmm.
At the mention of a faceless outlaw, Emma subtly glanced at me and then shook her head.
I glared at her for a moment before asking Jet.
“Since when is there a faceless outlaw?”
Faceless outlaws weren’t common.
It was foolish to put a bounty on someone without knowing who they were.
Even across the West, faceless outlaws were rare.
“That guy’s a real freak. He sends letters to the security forces warning them of his murders or leaves blatant evidence at the crime scene saying he did it.”
“That’s insane.”
“Yeah, he’s insane. Most outlaws kill for money, but this guy doesn’t even touch the victim’s money.”
…If it’s not for money, why kill people?
Honestly, it didn’t make sense to me.
Jet seemed to feel the same way, sighing in frustration as he continued.
“He taunts them by leaving evidence, but they still can’t catch him. The sheriffs chasing him have been really frustrated. I just hope he doesn’t come to Justice Town…”
Jet hoped the guy wouldn’t come to Justice Town, but secretly, I hoped he would.
If I caught him, I’d get $12,000.
‘Hmm… but a faceless outlaw would definitely be tricky.’
I decided to gather as much information as I could and asked Jet.
“If he’s faceless, there’s probably no known information, right? Like gender, age, or name.”
“Well, it’s probably an alias, but he did reveal his name.”
“An outlaw revealing his name…?”
Even if it was an alias, for an outlaw to reveal his name, he must enjoy the attention.
Jet nodded and told me the name the guy went by.
And…
“How can you understand the mind of a madman? In every murder warning letter, he asks to be called ‘Zodiac.'”
“…Zodiac?”
Hearing the name, I couldn’t help but shudder.
