Novel Lived
Chapter 14
Chapter 14
During the era of pioneering in the West, in the land of America, harpies were made into targets by those taking on the appearance of gunmen.
Originally, Christianity persecuted the harpies. They saw them as ugly imitations of angels, and made them out to be underlings of the devil that tried to cheat humans. They were thought of as ominous harbingers of calamity that summoned raging storms and tornadoes. Sailors in particular were so afraid of the harpies that brought storms with them that theyd have a heart attack just from the sight of them.
The persistent attacks from the deeply superstitious humans caused the harpies to mostly disappear from the eyes of the Christian church by the 15th century, but the new continent was different. As long as you looked up at the sky, you were bound to see at least one of them.
A bounty was placed on the harpies, and all of the gunmen tried to hunt and shoot them down in order to bring up their reputations.
As harpies possessed the ability to manipulate the wind, a sharp sense of intuition, and they could fly quickly in the sky, it was not easy to hit them with a bullet. A trend was started in the new continent where being able to take down a harpy for the first time was a sign that you could be counted as a first-class gunman.
Amongst the gunmen whose names were well-known, there was not a single one that didnt have any experience in hunting a harpy.
And then in the West appeared rumours of a dreadful divine gunman who would challenge such renowned gunmen, bringing defeat to every single one of them.
That gunman was Calamity Hal Jane.
A famed female gunman who represented the age of pioneering in the West.
She was a gunman that was active in the latter half of the 19th century, and there was an abundance of odd anecdotes about her.
The first was that she apparently did not remember her own birthday. After saying to a certain opponent that, I just turned twenty years old, the very next day at a bar she said something crazy like, Actually, Ive lived for several hundred million years. There was also a funny story about her insisting, Im actually still three years old in order to cheat a missionary who was distributing candy to children.
The harpys harp that Jane carried with her was a beautiful piece. Dragon crystals are a classic example of the most supreme jewels, and this magnificent article used them freely to join the harp together through some unknown technique. Only fifteen of the villains who tried to steal this harp from her remained in the records, and all of them were shot to death.
Since it was that great of an item, there was no way it wouldnt be gossiped about if it were traded. However, there was no such rumours, so it was believed that Calamity Hal Jane shot a harpy to death and stole it herself.
However, Jane absolutely hated the shooting and killing of harpies. Rather, it could be said that she loved harpies.
The person herself repeatedly stated that, the reason why she had challenged all those gunmen that killed harpies to a duel and shot them to death, was because she had a personal grudge with them.
In addition, over the course of her active period between the years of 1850~1900, Jane always had the appearance of a young girl with blonde hair and blue eyes. This was evident from several pictures that existed of her.
At the time, it was apparently said that because she had shot an alchemist to death and stolen their philosophers stone, she became ageless.
The person herself would regularly change how she introduced herself, saying I am Calamity Hal Janes daughter Im her granddaughter Im the person herself. While the truth may have been like that, the Jane that called herself Janes daughter seemed to speak of matters that only Jane herself shouldve known in a nostalgic manner or at least, there were a number of anecdotes regarding such situations, though they could not be completely trusted to be true.
In the years following her active period, Jane (or the women who said they were Janes blood relatives that looked just like her) had a bounty placed on her and was chased around due to it.
She openly defended the harpies whom Christianity had declared to be demons, and shot skilled gunmen to death one after the other. Such barbaric acts were seen as intolerable.
All of Janes pursuers were completely repelled. Jane was generous, and since she was a kind and lovely young maiden to anyone other than the gunmen, those with ulterior motives and those who owed her a debt of gratitude helped her escape. Thus, Jane managed to dodge the pursuit from the authorities over the course of eighteen years. According to a number of letters exchanged with the woman who is thought to be Jane, she had been enjoying this grand escape drama that went through all of the states in America.
However, apparently in the end the authorities managed to corner Jane and get rid of her.
It was apparently so because on November 3rd, 1900, the place where Jane was cornered in Salt Lake City was flattened by a sudden giant tornado. Whether it be the house, the people, or the livestock, not a single one of them was left behind.
Ever since the annihilation of Salt Lake City, Calamity Hal Jane disappeared. The authorities deemed her as dead due to the tornado, and the wanted posters that had been posted for eighteen long years were finally taken down.
Together with Jane, the gunmen also disappeared, as did the harpies. They were simply being hunted down, and as such stopped appearing in front of humans. They became rare existences that could seldomly be seen flying inside high altitude clouds during large stormy days where bullets cannot physically reach them.
By the 21st century, the harpies were only confirmed to be found in ravines that had strong winds blowing through them, or high mountains without human settlements. Alternatively, they were found in lands such as Patagonia, where there were strong winds present all year round.
As expected, the harpy could be said to be the symbol that made up the era of pioneering in the West.
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