NOVEL NEXT Chapter 111
Joshua, the gunslinger hired by the Lloyd Railroad Company, was actually an outlaw.
The bounty on his head: $101. Charges: robbery and murder.
He tried to take luggage from a traveler in the West, but when they refused, he couldn’t control his anger and ended up committing murder on impulse.
Joshua had always had trouble controlling his emotions.
If someone wronged him, his blood would boil, and he’d feel compelled to seek revenge.
But…
“Damn it…!”
Even for Joshua, Noah was too much to handle.
Zing.
His face still hurt from the punch Noah gave him yesterday.
He’d never even been hit like that by his own father… It was humiliating.
“Hey, Joshua. You okay?”
“…Don’t talk to me, you brats.”
There were people he wanted to take revenge on, but he didn’t have the strength to do it.
Could anything be more miserable and frustrating than this?
Because of this, Joshua was filled with rage even while working.
“Joshua, you still gotta work, right? This time, you take the lead.”
“…Fine.”
So, Joshua decided to take out his anger on the townspeople of Peace Town.
Breaking things would at least help him vent a little.
Bam!
“Didn’t you hear the eviction order? Stop your business and get out!”
This time, Joshua’s target was the town’s only bakery.
Crash!
He kicked over the freshly baked bread and shoved the display stand with his hands.
Usually, when he started causing trouble like this, the townspeople would cry and wail.
But today was different.
“S-stop it, you brat!”
Some of the townspeople had started resisting the goons’ tyranny.
This was the result of a meeting the men had held the day before.
If they stayed quiet, the goons would see them as pushovers, so they decided to resist a little to stop them.
But…
“…What? Brat?”
Joshua, unaware of this, got furious when he saw a townsman standing up to him.
“Now even this brat is looking down on me?”
Joshua had a problem controlling his emotions.
Especially his anger.
Now that even the bakery owner seemed to be disrespecting him, he couldn’t hold back.
Enraged, Joshua…
Wham!
“Aaaah!”
“Say that again, you brat!”
He punched the bakery owner.
Violence was unavoidable in this line of work, so his fellow goons initially just watched as Joshua threw punches.
But…
Wham! Wham! Wham!
“Huh? Say it again. You dare call me a brat? You’ve got a death wish…!”
“Ugh…! W-wait…! Aaaah!”
Joshua’s punches grew faster and showed no signs of stopping.
When it started getting out of hand, even his fellow goons stepped in to stop him.
“H-hey, Joshua! You’re gonna kill him! Stop!”
“Stop what, you brat!”
But even with two people trying to hold him back, Joshua was too worked up to be restrained.
Murmur murmur.
As the atmosphere grew more heated than usual, the townspeople sensed something was off and came out to watch.
Wham! Bam!
As a crowd of onlookers gathered, Joshua’s punches kept flying.
“…Ugh! Hng…! S-stop it, damn it…!”
The bakery owner, Michael, unable to bear the pain, finally threw a punch back.
And it…
Wham.
Landed squarely on Joshua’s jaw.
“…….”
The hit stung a little, but it wasn’t that painful.
Joshua wasn’t the type to cry over a punch from an ordinary person.
But…
“…You hit me, you brat?”
The fact that the bakery owner, who had only been taking hits, had fought back enraged Joshua.
“Now even you’re looking down on me?”
After getting punched by Noah, the youngest, the day before, his standing among his peers had already taken a hit.
And now, even the bakery owner was treating him lightly.
Not only that.
Murmur murmur.
A crowd of onlookers had already gathered.
Joshua started hearing their murmurs as if they were mocking him.
He couldn’t hold back the rage bubbling up from deep within.
Click.
What he pulled out was his revolver.
“……!”
“W-wait! Joshua! What are you doing!”
Seeing Joshua pull out his gun, the other gunslingers tried to stop him.
Joshua knew he was acting irrationally.
He needed the money… and if he broke the company’s rule of not killing townspeople, he might not get paid.
But…
“Screw it, let it all burn.”
If he had been the type to make rational choices, his life wouldn’t have turned out this way.
Bang.
“Guh…!!!”
The bullet Joshua fired pierced through the bakery owner Michael’s chest.
Thud.
“Ah…”
“…….”
As Michael fell, silence filled the air.
But…
Drip drip.
“Aaaaah!”
As a pool of blood formed beneath his body, the townspeople watching screamed and began to scatter in all directions.
“T-the gunslingers shot him…!!”
Until now, the townspeople had held onto a small belief.
No matter how bad the goons were… they believed the hired thugs wouldn’t kill them.
That small belief was shattered by this incident.
“T-those bastards killed Michael…!!!! The gunslinger killed Michael!!”
“If we stay quiet, they’ll kill us too—!!!”
From now on, staying quiet would mean the bakery owner’s fate…
The goons are gonna wipe out all the townspeople like a plague.
Terrified, the townspeople fled in all directions, desperate to find a way to protect themselves.
“Ha.”
Amid the chaos, Joshua smiled as he looked down at the corpse he had just killed.
The fact that no one would dare underestimate him now gave him an indescribable sense of satisfaction.
First, we halted our work and gathered at the tavern, our base.
Soon, I heard the full story from the gunslinger who had been with Joshua.
“…So, Mr. Joshua got excited and shot the bakery owner. Is that what you’re saying?”
“Y-yeah. That crazy bastard didn’t even give us a chance to stop him…!”
He trembled slightly as if reliving the moment.
In contrast…
“Did I really do something that wrong?”
Joshua, the one who caused the trouble, shrugged nonchalantly, acting bold.
Joshua’s shameless attitude infuriated Borg, the boss, the most.
“You crazy bastard—! I told you not to kill anyone on the job! What if they don’t pay us because of this?!”
“I’ll take responsibility. Since I’m the only one who killed someone, just tell them not to pay me.”
“It’s not that simple…”
“And honestly, killing one or two people speeds things up and makes it better. Didn’t you see how scared everyone was? Thanks to me, we can clear the village faster. You should be thanking me.”
“This guy’s really insane.”
Up until then, I had just been observing the situation.
But then…
“Boss. A word.”
Emma approached and whispered something in my ear.
By the way, I had introduced Emma to the other gunslingers as my wife.
“…That guy Joshua. He’s an outlaw.”
“…What?”
Startled by Emma’s words, I asked her again.
“I don’t remember that. How do you know?”
“When you left and I was alone, I stopped by the Sacramento Security Force and memorized all the wanted posters.”
“……”
“There was definitely a Joshua on there. He’s older now, but the sketch matches.”
If Emma said so, it must be true.
I didn’t doubt Emma’s words that Joshua was an outlaw.
‘So, the guy causing all this trouble and muddying the waters is an outlaw?’
I already didn’t like Joshua, and now that I knew he was an outlaw, I felt even more annoyed.
With a sly smile, I called out to Joshua.
“Mr. Joshua. Come here for a moment.”
“……”
Still shaken from the beating I gave him yesterday, Joshua flinched when I called.
But emboldened by today’s events…
“What? What’s up? Got something to say?”
He approached me with a confident expression.
I just smiled and watched as he swaggered over.
And the moment Joshua got within arm’s reach…
Thud.
“Guh…!!!”
“……!!!”
I pulled out a knife and stabbed it into his throat.
“Ugh…! Gah…!”
Swoosh.
As the knife pierced his throat, Joshua reflexively reached for his holster.
But before he could draw his gun…
Schwak—!
I pulled the knife from his throat and finished him off.
Thud.
Joshua collapsed backward, dead.
It all happened in an instant.
“N-Noah…! What the hell did you just…!”
“I told you I used to be a bounty hunter, right? Well, I didn’t mention it before, but Joshua here was an outlaw.”
“This guy was an outlaw?”
I pretended I had known all along and calmed the shocked crew.
Then…
“Anyway, someone who’s still in one piece, grab this guy and follow me.”
“W-what are you gonna do?”
“…We need to clean this up.”
Borg and I picked up Joshua’s corpse and headed out of the tavern.
Time was short. We had to clean this up before things got worse.
I planned to use the dead Joshua to fix the mess the living Joshua had made.
“The Peace Town village hall is over there, right?”
“Y-yeah.”
Borg and I headed toward the village hall.
Whoosh.
Even though it was only noon, the streets were eerily empty.
But with every step, we could feel the tense, ominous atmosphere following us.
And the moment we reached the village hall…
Click.
Clickclickclickclick.
…The sound of countless guns being loaded echoed around us, as if we were facing an entire gang.
‘Too late.’
Life in the West is like war.
That means every man is a potential militia in times of crisis.
“N-Noah. What do we do…?”
“First, raise your hands.”
I clicked my tongue as I looked at the dozens of gunslingers surrounding us.
Looks like the final quest just got a few difficulty levels harder.