The recruitment

With Jeremiah’s arrival I finally buried my dreams of living a calm life. It wasn’t like I hadn’t wished for something to happen, but I certainly didn’t wish for more bandits, especially for the ones that had earned themselves a name already.

Why did these voices have to send me to somewhat extreme worlds? I didn’t even dare to ask myself anymore what would have befallen me if I had survived just a little longer back in my first reincarnated world, but a haunted house and wild west were already great places to get yourself killed.

Was there some kind of deeper meaning to all of this or did this first voice just take pleasure in seeing me die?

Anyways, now with Victor Troef entering the game, my chances of dying were as high as they hadn’t been for months, including the time when one of the few travelers that passed through this town, had brought in some sickness and therefore had gifted me two weeks during which only the priest and the undertaker had dared to visit me.

Frank had managed to get his hands on some rifles and revolvers but all in all we had too little weapons to openly fight against 30 to 40 men, if it came to the worst. We had the officials informed but they didn’t send a response, so it would be better to not rely on any help from outside.

Jeremiah had shown us the location of his village on a map. The place was situated near a place called “meadow creek” and officially uninhabited. The boy claimed they had settled down at this place after they had found gold. Therefore they of course had tried to keep the location a secret. It would have only attracted more gold-diggers or bandits.

It would take about three hours by horse to get there, meaning that we were way too close to the place to hope to not be molested by Troef and his gang in the near future. This aside everybody agreed that we had to do something, knowing the situation of the people at meadow creek.

Of course I thought like this as well, but I would have preferred if somebody else could have helped them. Somebody with more firepower or experience maybe.

Also leaving the town with too many fighters, would leave the other inhabitants defenseless, sealing their fate in case we failed at our attempt to save the other people.

This had more than once led to heated debates in the saloon.

“I say we have to help them!”, shouted one of the elder workers at a table.

“You, and which army?”, shouted another one, slightly younger and likely one of the people who would have to join the fireteam.

He was right. In a way at least. As far as my considerations had went by that time, I had been sure that there were only two possibilities: going in without being recognized or winning the fight as fast as possible. The latter would require an army and would endanger the people living in the town.

The first variant would be risky as well, but it was clear, that we wouldn’t be able to just sit and wait until Troef’s gang decided the time and place of the fight. This would mean fighting him directly here in town, with us against as many men as he would choose to bring.

It would be best if we could gather some information about the gang and the village before we started a large-scale attack.

One evening, shortly after our new weapons and ammunition had arrived, I went to the saloon.

"Gav, Archie? Can I talk to you?”

Gav waited behind the counter as usual. Archie was a burly man with a rather impressive beard who made his living by helping out in every matter requiring muscles.

We sat together around a table and I told them about my plans.

“We need to take a look at the village’s surroundings. We can’t just charge in and hope for the best. Maybe we are able to get to know their plans or just work out a strategy.”

“And you want us to join you?”, asked Archie in his usual deep growling voice.

“There is nobody else. We can only take a few people and we are the only ones who are remotely in shape for a stealth mission.”

“You want us to go in and out, gather information and leave?”

“At best. If they see us, we have to fight. If we fight, they are warned or will even follow us. We should be careful if we do this. Can I rely on you both?”

They sat in silence for a moment.

“Either we fight there or they fight us here…. I prefer my house without any bullet holes.”, replied Archie and Gav nodded.

“It’s settled then. We ride tomorrow evening, be prepared. It will be a long night.”, I said.

“You can’t ride, can you?”, Gav asked.

“Well I will have one day to learn it.”, I grimly laughed back at him.

I felt that I had looked more confident in this moment than I had felt. I had underestimated the difficulty already once. Chances were, that I still underestimated how long it might take. Anyways, it was an urgent matter to finally check the village and come up with a plan to defeat Troef. The bounty on his head would be another nice addition to the whole matter.

Tomorrow would be a long day. So I ended the evening by silently nodding to Gav and Archie and heading to my room upstairs.