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Chapter 4
The Dream That Revealed the Lottery Numbers (4)
“I-I think you’ve mistaken me for someone else…”
“Mistaken you for someone else, my ass!”
“I’m not a woman named Walton!”
“Have you finally run out of excuses for skipping out on your debts, so now you’re pretending to be crazy?”
He snickered, his shoulders bouncing with laughter, and the barrel of his gun jabbed painfully into my cheek.
The smell of improperly cleaned gunpowder residue was vile. He looked like the sort of man who wouldn’t even blink if the trigger accidentally got pulled or the gun exploded in his hands.
I could proudly say that I’d experienced all sorts of things in my relatively short life, but I’d never been robbed at gunpoint before.
If I refused to pay this bastard, I had a feeling he’d execute me right here on the spot.
“I-I’ll pay! I’ll give you whatever you want, so please…! H-how much did you say?”
“What kind of trick are you trying to pull now? Fine, fifty dollars. Hand it over. Right now!”
“F-fifty dollars…?”
For a moment, I wondered if I’d misheard him.
Fifty dollars? He was pointing a gun at someone over such a paltry sum?
“What, you don’t have any money? I knew it. I’ve heard all about how Cassel dumped you and left you broke as a church mouse. Then you can pay me back with your body!”
Apparently, he’d misinterpreted my speechlessness. He grabbed my arm and started dragging me toward the tent without giving me a chance to argue.
“Wait! I-I told you I’d pay! I’ll give you the fifty dollars!”
I shouted as he dragged me along. The harder I struggled to resist, the more my body flopped around like a scarecrow, and my left arm, which he had in his grip, felt as though it was about to be torn off. There was no way I could overpower him.
“Oh, really? When? Last week, you said you were going to get the money from Cassel. You haven’t got any other men wrapped around your little finger, have you?”
“Ow! Please, just let go of me…”
I desperately racked my brain for a way out of this mess, but nothing came to mind. Unfortunately, I was carrying my handbag in my trapped left hand, so I couldn’t even rummage through it to see whether I had any money.
Wait.
There was a revolver in that bag.
If he found out I was armed, things might spiral even further out of control.
“Quit pretending to be so innocent, you sly little bitch! Don’t bother trying to scheme your way out of this one, either. I’m not letting you slip away today!”
The man bellowed at me, then flashed a devilish grin. With his rough, powerful hand, he grabbed the sleeve of my dress, which was barely clinging to my shoulder.
“I know how to get money out of women like you. I heard you were raised as a proper young lady in a real noble family before you came to this town.”
A cacophony of laughter and whistles erupted from the men around the tent.
I really needed to do something now. If this kept up…
Perhaps my thoroughly disgusted expression pleased the outlaw, because he grinned with satisfaction. His grip loosened slightly.
That didn’t mean I could afford to struggle carelessly. He’d just grab me again in an instant. I discreetly twisted my wrist and moved my handbag behind my back, out of sight.
“Ohhh, so when people called you ‘Lady,’ it wasn’t just some nickname you picked up at the gambling tables? You really did live in some palace-like mansion, ordering servants around?”
“Then why’d she run away from home?”
“Why else? Her Ladyship must’ve gotten tired of eating sugar cookies!”
“BWAHAHAHAHA!”
“Hey, Lady! How about you let us have a taste of those sugar cookies, too? Five dollars off your debt for every man you take on with your skirts up. How’s that sound?”
“Shouldn’t we see whether she’s worth that much first? All right, line up, boys! I’m going first—”
BANG!
A sudden gunshot rang through the open sky, drowning out their filthy jeers.
I was being violently jerked around in the outlaw’s grip, and the sound startled me so badly that I nearly fainted.
“Take your hands off that woman.”
A stiff voice, utterly devoid of emotion, rang out.
Until I heard it, I’d been convinced that the gun in my own right hand, held behind my back, had somehow gone off.
“Now.”
I turned toward the sound. A large black carriage had appeared in front of the town sign, though it hadn’t been there a moment ago.
The man who had fired the shot was a gentleman visible through the open carriage window. The barrel of the rifle protruding from the window had been pointed at the sky, but it was now slowly lowering toward the outlaw holding me.
The coachman sitting on the driver’s seat was also aiming a rifle at the outlaw, his posture as disciplined as that of a seasoned soldier.
Whatever was going through the outlaw’s mind, he sneered and raised both hands.
“Well, well. Is the gentleman acquainted with this woman, too? She certainly has a way with men, doesn’t she?”
He still held his revolver in one hand.
His expression was utterly relaxed, as though he were confident he could shoot his opponent before anyone else, even with his hands raised.
For a moment, I considered whether I could move faster than him and press my own gun against his chin.
It was a simple move I’d performed countless times in video games. But there were far too many variables involved in risking my life like that.
For starters, I wasn’t even sure I could bring myself to shoot a real person with live ammunition.
“Then why don’t you pay her debt for her? Fifty dollars!”
While I carefully concealed the barrel of my revolver inside my handbag again, the outlaw kept his eyes fixed on the newly arrived gentleman.
Apparently, it didn’t matter much to him who paid the fifty dollars, as long as somebody did.
“Fifty dollars?”
The gentleman shot me a sharp glance at the mention of money. He looked as though he couldn’t decide whether to be exasperated or angry.
The outlaw, meanwhile, grew even more brazen.
“And no paper money! I only take coins!”
“…Ah. Of course you do.”
The gentleman fell silent for a moment, then opened the carriage door with a sarcastic remark that made it clear he thought the man was an idiot.
He stepped down onto the dusty ground, holding his rifle in one hand. He was tall and slender, dressed in a neat black suit and coat.
“No one would believe a banknote offered by the likes of you was genuine, anyway.”
His appearance and manner of speaking made it obvious that he’d spent most of his life enjoying considerable wealth.
He even lowered the rifle he’d been aiming at the outlaw and approached him with an air of complete nonchalance. Watching him, I could only groan inwardly.
Does he think this roadside shakedown is some honorable, fair-and-square duel? Even if he’s lived a sheltered life, how can he be so careless when a gunfight could break out at any moment?
Perhaps the outlaw shared my opinion. I saw him discreetly begin lowering his hands.
My right hand still hadn’t completely released its grip on the revolver. Just as I tensed my fingers, a sharp shout came from the coachman.
“You’d better keep those hands raised! If you so much as point that shoddy piece of junk at my lord, I’ll shoot you without a second’s hesitation!”
The coachman was clearly a different breed from his pampered-looking master. Faced with his unwavering vigilance, the outlaw reluctantly raised his hands a little higher.
“Your lordship? From where?”
“Oh, forgive me. We may not be in England, but my coachman has a habit of insisting on proper etiquette regardless of where we are.”
The gentleman from England answered calmly and courteously.
“He’s rather fond of me, you see. Fond enough to follow me all the way out here from England, so I hope you’ll understand. Of course, no one here needs to call me ‘Lord.’ To be honest, I’d rather they didn’t.”
No sooner had he finished speaking than the coachman loudly protested again.
“Now, that’s not entirely fair, sir! It’s not as though I followed you all the way out here because I’m so fond of you! You promised you’d take me to New York!”
Although he lifted his chin in obvious displeasure, neither his rifle nor his gaze wavered for an instant.
As I watched the coachman nervously, a long arm suddenly shot out in front of me. In one swift movement, the gentleman snatched the revolver right out of the outlaw’s hand.
“Wha—!”
“I’ll hold on to this for a while, while we have our little conversation.”
He’d been standing over there just a moment ago. I had no idea when he’d closed the distance between us and reached the outlaw.
Had his apparent carelessness been a deliberate ploy to make the man lower his guard from the very beginning?
Even if the outlaw hadn’t let his guard down, I doubted he could have prevented the theft. The gentleman’s movements had been so fast that the only word I could think of was supernatural.
It was certainly not the sort of skill I would have expected from a man dressed so impeccably as a gentleman.
“Damn… You’re no ordinary fellow, are you?”
Now that he’d been disarmed so effortlessly, the outlaw looked even more shabby and insignificant standing beside the gentleman. He was a full head shorter, too.
Meanwhile, as I looked up at the gentleman’s face, I realized he was much younger than I’d expected.
His voice was deep and mature, his manner stiff, and his expression positively authoritative. But his skin was smooth and free of fine wrinkles, and his eyes had a sharp, angular shape. Judging by his appearance…
I could say with confidence that he wasn’t even thirty yet.
“Anyway, it’s true that this woman owes me money! I’m just exercising my rightful claim. Either pay her debt for her, or quit sticking your nose into things and go on your way before you get hurt!”
Now that the odds were heavily stacked against him, the outlaw shook his greasy hair beneath the gentleman’s clean-shaven chin and raised his voice even louder.
He reminded me of a little dog yapping desperately at a much larger hunting hound.
“You’ve got a loyal coachman, but I’ve got friends backing me up, too! And we’ve got more men on our side!”
That part was true. By now, all the men who’d been sitting around the tent had gotten to their feet. Several of them were nervously reaching toward their holsters. There were nearly ten of them in total.
Yet the gentleman showed not the slightest hesitation.
In fact, he shot his arm out like lightning and aimed the revolver he’d just taken from the outlaw directly at the face of the man standing at the front of the group. From my perspective, it couldn’t have taken even a tenth of a second.
“And the fifty dollars wouldn’t all go to you, would it? Are you really so close that you’re willing to risk your lives for one another over such a small sum?”
His audacity was so staggering that, once again, nobody managed to react in time. If he’d pulled the trigger, his target might already have been dead.
Does he have multiple lives or something?
At this point, even I couldn’t help wondering.
Why is he going this far for a stranger he just happened to come across?
The men in front of the tent exchanged bewildered glances, blinking at one another. Eventually, they seemed to decide they wanted no part of this and weakly raised their hands.
“We’ve got nothing to do with that woman!”
“We’re not getting involved, so don’t worry about us! Here, we’ll even take off our belts and throw the holsters into the tent. Happy now?”
“You bunch of gutless cowards!”
The outlaw shouted furiously, but the men avoided his gaze and slumped back down where they’d been sitting.
I watched the scene in disbelief when, all of a sudden, I felt a warm touch around my wrist.
