What is a parent?
Just someone who gives birth and lets you exist in this world? Is that a parent?
No.
A parent is someone who gives a child a name and raises them so they can grow up. That’s what makes them a parent.
From that perspective, the girl in the back alley had no parents.
She didn’t know who her mother or father was.
She just appeared in the back alleys of San Francisco one day, like fruit flies magically appearing on rotten fruit.
It was pure luck that she survived until the age of 9 in the infamous Saint Michel Slum of San Francisco.
…Or maybe surviving until 9 was actually bad luck.
Either way, the nameless girl managed to live until 9 thanks to some kind of fortune, whether good or bad.
“…I’m hungry.”
But that luck eventually ran out, and she was now on the brink of death.
The girl tried to remember the last time she ate, but she couldn’t.
It was too far in the past.
Surviving on rainwater and gutter filth had reached its limit.
“…I’m hungry.”
At 9 years old, with no one to teach her words, the girl quietly closed her eyes.
Like any back alley… no one paid attention to the dying girl.
…Or so she thought.
*Tap.*
“…What’s this?”
Someone spoke to the girl for the first time in a long time.
The girl opened her eyes and lifted her head….
“Already dead… no, not quite.”
“……”
A man in a white mask stood there.
Even the beggars in the back alleys knew one thing.
You don’t mess with the people in white masks in San Francisco.
The girl didn’t know why you shouldn’t mess with them… but she wasn’t scared of the man in front of her.
She was about to die anyway, so what was there to fear?
*Thud.*
“I’m hungry.”
The only emotion the girl felt was the instinctual hunger.
As soon as the girl grabbed his white suit with her dirty hands, the man…
“……”
*Swoosh.*
…pulled out a piece of bread from his pocket.
“Ugh…!”
Seeing bread for the first time in forever, the girl reached out like a wild animal.
“Wait.”
The man gently pushed her back and pulled out something else with his other hand.
A water bottle.
*Drip, drip.*
He sprinkled water on the soft white bread, making it soggy like oatmeal.
The man tore off small pieces and fed them to the girl.
*Munch, munch.*
The girl would never forget the taste of that bread.
“…What is this, a human kid or an animal kid?”
And she would never forget the man’s voice.
“Why are you so skinny? Can you even walk?”
*Munch.*
The girl, too hungry to answer, just kept eating the bread.
By the time she had eaten half the bread…
“Kid. Where’d you go?”
“Here.”
Another person in a white mask arrived.
From the voice, it was a woman this time.
The woman, who called the man “Kid,” turned the corner and saw Kid and the girl.
“Wow, what’s this? Who’s this cute little girl?”
She squealed with delight at the sight of the girl eating bread.
“A girl? You can tell? Her face is so dirty, I couldn’t even tell.”
“Tsk tsk, Kid, you really have no eye for this stuff. How can you not see how cute she is?”
The girl’s small stomach was already full from just half a loaf of bread.
As the girl patted her full belly, the masked woman asked.
“Hey, what’s your name?”
“……”
The girl couldn’t answer.
She didn’t have a name.
*Shake shake.*
“You don’t know your name? Or do you not have one?”
*Nod nod.*
“Oh, should we give you a name?”
“……!”
…A name.
Even the poorest beggars had names, but the girl was the only one without one.
It had secretly made her sad at times.
*Nod nod nod.*
She nodded faster than usual.
The masked woman smiled and said to Kid.
“Kid-! Let’s take her with us! And give her a name! I want her last name to be ‘James’ like mine, but what should her first name be? You pick!”
“Give her a name? Hell no. And who said we’re taking her? What we need right now is a gunslinger, not some little kid.”
“Why not? Can’t we raise her as our daughter?”
“Daughter? I’m 18. Jenny, you’re not even 17 yet. Why would we have a daughter that big?”
Kid’s sharp refusal made the woman, called Jenny, grab his arm and beg.
“I’ll raise her well. We can train her to be a gunslinger who’ll help us someday. Let’s take her, okay?”
“Sigh…”
Kid seemed weak to Jenny.
After her persistent begging, Kid finally nodded.
“…Fine. But this is your thing, okay? You’re the one raising her.”
“Okay! Hehe, Jamie will like her too. By the way, Kid! What should her name be?”
“Name… hmm… Last name is James…”
After a moment of thought, Kid spoke.
“Alright, she looks so weak, so her name will be…”
Those who give a child a name and raise them to grow up can be called parents.
For the girl, the two people in white masks that day were her parents.
“…Rize, Rize…!!”
“……!”
Rize, who had been sweeping the floor, snapped out of her 6-year-old memory at the shout of Bob, the owner of Deaf Man’s Tavern.
“What’s wrong, Rize? Why do you look so out of it?”
“……”
“Was it something Kid said to you before he left? What did he say?”
Kid.
She hadn’t seen him since their first meeting 6 years ago, but his name held a special meaning for Rize.
Earlier, Kid had given her an order.
‘Guard Deaf Man’s Tavern until I return.’
Rize, entranced by the fact that this was Kid’s first order to her, nodded blankly.
But she hadn’t come here to follow Kid’s orders.
‘What do I do?’
She had to kill Kid. But she didn’t want to.
As Rize furrowed her usually expressionless face in confusion, she remembered something.
‘If you don’t know what to do, follow the organization’s rules. Kid made them, and the first one is the most important, followed by the second.’
The words of the person who had given her her last name, someone she could call a mother, came to mind.
When you don’t know what to do, follow the rules.
The organization had rules, more sacred than the Bible, created by the first leader.
Following those rules, Rize’s next move was clear.
‘Ah.’
So she decided to follow them.
Without realizing it, the broom she had been sweeping the floor with slipped from her hand.
**
“Noah… please… kill me…”
“……”
“Please… I… uh, huu… hurry….”
At Joe’s desperate plea, I moved the gun barrel to his forehead.
Perhaps realizing death was imminent, Joe gasped for breath and began confessing like he was in a confession booth.
“…My body. My body started acting strange at some point. Huh… I wanted to kill someone, I felt rage boiling up….”
What he was saying now was definitely the Joe I knew.
His face was drenched in tears.
“…I lost control, and when I came to my senses, I had already killed someone.”
“……”
“Huu… I was so scared… I kept going in and out of Justice Town because I was afraid I might kill the townspeople….”
Was that why I thought Joe had been unusually busy lately?
“Ugh, I’m sorry. I should have disappeared from Justice Town completely… but I came back….”
“……”
“…Ah, huu, Hector, Aiden, Finn, I’m sorry. Laura, Laura… Laura…! Aaaah-!”
Joe then began to wail, calling out the names of the townspeople he had killed… especially his younger sister, Laura.
“Noah…!! I think… I think a demon has possessed me. So please, huu… please just kill me…!!”
Joe begged me to kill him.
My gun was already precisely aimed at his forehead.
One pull of the trigger, and Joe would be dead.
Even in <Outlaw>, if a fellow NPC was unlucky enough to be marked as Zodiac, the standard procedure was to deal with them quickly and move on to the next episode.
The Zodiac chosen by the system… couldn’t be changed.
Besides, Joe wasn’t even my comrade.
He was just an ordinary NPC in this town… just a bit kinder than the others.
But…
“…Fight it, Joe.”
I was making another idiotic choice.
“Don’t lose to the Zodiac. Snap out of it.”
Even though I knew better than anyone that once someone was marked as Zodiac, it could never be undone.
“Huu… Please, Noah… just kill me….”
“Stop whining and snap out of it, you bastard-!!”
Instead of pulling the trigger, I shook Joe’s head.
If I killed him now and presented evidence that Joe was the Zodiac, I could claim the $12,000 bounty.
Then I could go home much sooner than planned.
What happened to this NPC bastard didn’t matter to me at all.
Even though I didn’t know why I was doing this stupid thing…
I desperately wished for Joe to return to his old self.
“Can’t you snap out of it? Then think about your family, you bastard.”
“Fa…mily….”
Joe had always been someone who cared deeply for his family.
Mentioning family to him…
Twitch.
I could see Joe’s strength overpowering the Zodiac in his eyes.
At least, that’s what it looked like…
But…
Nope.
“You should’ve killed me when you had the chance, you idiot-!!”
Joe and the Zodiac had already switched places.
Thud.
The guy I thought was out of strength pushed me away, caught off guard…
Pfft.
He grabbed a handful of sand and threw it in my face.
While I was momentarily blinded, I saw him pick up the gun again.
Click.
I could still shoot him now.
If I didn’t shoot, he would.
I had to shoot now.
A million thoughts raced through my mind, but…
‘I’ll give you a ride in the carriage next time.’
“……”
Even in that critical moment, I hesitated to pull the trigger.
And then…
Bang.
While I hesitated, a gunshot rang out.
“……”
“……”
A body fell to the side.
Joe’s body fell to the side.
Thud.
“……”
I stared blankly at Joe’s fallen body before approaching him.
Drip.
Since the shot came from a distance, Joe didn’t die instantly.
Instead, blood gushed from his pierced neck like a waterfall.
“…Fam…ily… I have to take care of my family….”
Even in his final moments, Joe worried about his family.
And then…
“Estoy seguro que me voy al infierno… infierno……”
Thud.
He left his final words in his native tongue and died.
“……”
The first place I entered in this game was the New Mexico Territory.
It hadn’t been long since it became U.S. territory, and there were many Mexicans there.
Being around them, I ended up speaking Spanish too.
Estoy seguro que me voy al infierno.
Joe’s last words were…
‘I’m sure I’m going to hell.’
I repeated Joe’s last words several times…
“…Pfft, hell? Go to the recycle bin, you piece of data.”
I let out a hollow laugh and stood up.
Strangely, I couldn’t stop laughing.
I kept smiling for no reason and turned toward the direction the bullet had come from.
Clatter.
There, I saw Rize riding Bob’s horse, either borrowed or stolen, galloping toward me.
Tap.
The petite girl dismounted a good distance away from me.
“……”
“……”
We stared at each other for a long time.
Rize was the first to speak.
“TKK’s first rule.”
Rize recited the rule in a robotic, businesslike tone.
“Traitors must be killed.”
Traitors must be killed.
…Yeah, that was definitely a rule I had made.
“TKK San Francisco branch enforcer, Rize James.”
Rize James.
As soon as I heard that name, I remembered who she was.
‘Okay, you look weak, so your name will be Rize James.’
The girl I saved was now going to kill me based on the rules I created.
“Under the first rule, I will now execute former leader ‘Kid.'”
Rize finished her sentence and opened her holster.
Still smiling, I…
“That little bloodstain from the back alley has grown up so much. No wonder I didn’t recognize you.”
Click.
I raised my gun.
