The Ballad of the Red King: Chapter 2 – Against the “Lawful” and Unlawful

 

Chapter 2 – Against the “Lawful” and Unlawful

“Sargrantina…Sargrantina,” I hear the Red King say.

“Mmm?”

“You couldn’t stay awake for an hour?”

“I guess not. Are you done your meditating?”

“Yes. Let’s go.”

Is it darker in here or have my eyes not completely adjusted to waking up yet? Before I know it, priests and other gunmen surround us with shooters in the confessional, adoration room, pews, and above where the organ is.

“What’s going on? Father?”

“I’m sorry Red King, but you know there are sinners inside the Church. I could only do so much,” the wounded priest says before thrown to the floor.

“That’s fine. Then you will be the only one I spare.”

“I’ll give you one last chance, king. Join us or die,” a mobster says.

“How about I give you an offer?”

“Really? What kind of offer can you give me that will convince me to spare you?”

“Repent now or die and go to Hell.”

“Hahaha! What kind of offer is that?”

“What’s your answer?”

“I refuse-”

The Red King shoots the mobster in the head to everyone’s shock.

“Anyone else refuse?” Our attackers fire on us as we take cover. “Try not to damage the church, Sargrantina.”

“I’ll try not to.”

The Red King’s marksmanship is impressive. He lands headshot after headshot with his Jackpot pistol that manages to kill his targets without blowing their brains onto the walls. His Jackpot pistol was given to him as a reward from his bounties just like most of his weapons with the exception of the revolvers that he started out with and has gotten rid of. Jackpot’s previous owner was a man who was said to be half-demon, half-human with how he could somehow dodge bullets, dance between them while fighting, and take damage from them. His luck eventually ran out when he faced the Red King who took him down with the owner’s serious brother.

Jackpot contains more bullets than his other guns and they’re smaller because of this. It’s why he hasn’t had to reload and why the bullets don’t come out the other side of their targets. I hardly have the same results with my shooting even though I aim for the chest and head. Moving between cover and covering the Red King when I think he’s going to get shot makes me a bit inaccurate.

“Try not to damage the church.”

“I heard you the first time!”

The Red King is taking out everyone so quickly that you’d think that he doesn’t trust me to take them out on my own or that he’s filled with a righteous rage because of the gunfight in the church or both. All our attackers are dead within three minutes and the church is hardly scratched. Most of the damage is caused by either me or our attacker’s missing their shots. The Red King heads over to the injured priest who’s still alive despite the big gunfight.

“I’m…I’m glad you’re alive, Red King,” the priest says.

“Same to you, father,” the Red King says.

“You…you’re not going to shoot me for selling you out?”

“They tortured the information out of you, so no. Cleaning the church is a good punishment for your venial sin anyways.”

“You’re right…”

Hmm. I wonder what’s on these guys.

“Sargrantina. Didn’t you just confess the sin of looting the dead?”

“Yes, but I just wondered who sent these people, so we know who to look out for. Look.” I move aside one of the men’s coats to reveal an officer’s badge. “Government mafia. I didn’t even need to pick it off him. You have enemies in high places.”

“I have greater help in even higher places.”

“Yeah, I know.”

Oh! This pistol with a golden look is amazing. I also like the crucifixion painting on the grip. This could sell-I feel an ominous presence behind me as I reach for the gun. It’s the Red King breathing down my neck with a mean look on his face.

“Haha, I just like the design on the pistol,” I tell him before he starts pinching and stretching my face cheeks. “Ow! Ow! Okay, okay! I won’t take it.”

“Good. Now, let’s leave. More are bound to come for me.”

“Hmph. I can’t believe it. Bullying a lady in a church.”

“Chastising and stopping you from sinning is an act of charity.”

“If you say so.”

As soon as we step outside the church, we are shot at from the rooftops, so we head back inside for cover-or at least I do while the Red King runs for cover underneath some nearby wagons.

“What are you doing?!” I ask.

“I don’t want any more damage done to the church.”

Figures.

“Make your way over here. I’ll cover you.”

The Red King covers me by dual-wielding two pistols, Jackpot and Brandon. Jackpot keeps the shooters down with its semi-auto rate of fire while Brandon pierces through cover and kills whoever is shot. Brandon is more of a handcannon than a revolver. Named after its owner, the bounty he got it from was a man known for tanking bullets even without body armor supposedly because he had survived so many serious wounds, but the human body can only take so much punishment before it reaches its limit, which gave the Red King an easy kill. With Brandon in his hand, cover is nothing, and the recoil, deafening noise of the shots, and numbing pain of using the gun are probably worth it in exchange for using such a powerful revolver.

The shooters on the rooftops are probably scared now because they’ve seen what such a powerful gun can do to a person in a single shot. This allows me to get to the Red King fairly easily.

“Fall back! The cavalry is here-”

The Red King and I manage to shoot the last couple guys before we see their backup arrive in the distance. Several officers and their backup who I’m assuming are either mobsters or rival bounty hunters. They’re all riding on horses with their guns already drawn.

“Come on, Red King! We have to hide in the church for cover!”

“Isn’t there any place else?”

“There are the nearby houses and businesses, but they’re small and don’t offer as much protection, and I’m sure you don’t want to get anyone else caught in this crossfire.”

“Hold on. I got this.”

The Red King takes out his rifle called MacMillan and situates the gun on a barrel so he can steady it better. MacMillan was obtained by a bounty that the Red King had a ten-minute fight with, but it wasn’t a fight with constant shooting. Only one bullet was fired, and it wasn’t the killing one. The entire fight was them hiding in a forest trying to find each other and the sniper who wielded MacMillan shot the Red King in the arm, and it was his best arm that he used to shoot. This was back when he had only one gun. Since he couldn’t shoot well, the Red King used his instinct to find the shooter and killed him with a hunting knife to the back of the head.

The rifle shoots through three of the Red King’s targets, and with just three bullets, he kills nine people. It’s quieted down for now, but the people after us probably have more.

“We have to leave town while we have the chance,” I say.

“We’ll get back to chasing after Black Jack then. The last place I heard he was at was the casino by the shore. We’ll take the main road there and hopefully, we’ll catch him in a couple days.”

“Why would you want to take the main road when we being chased by the ‘law’ and unlawful? How about we take the backroads in the forest instead? It’s shorter and there are fewer people that go that way, which means we'll run into less trouble.”

“Because it’s cursed. Don’t you know that dead men walk those roads?”

“I’m sure it’s just a rumor or superstition and I’m sure it’s a sin for a God-fearing man like you to believe in superstitions.”

“…okay. Fine. We’ll take the backroads to get to the shore.”

Yes! Finally got him to agree with me on something. This’ll teach him that he should listen to my advice. Together, we buy a horse and head out of town and in the direction of the shore. While riding, I look at the map of the area that I have.

“So, tell me why this bounty is personal to you,” I say.

“It’s a personal reason. Besides, you’re just interested in the money. Why do you want to know?”

“I know all about you and Black Jack, but I’ve never heard about anything between you two that would make this a personal bounty. The only thing I can guess is that he’s your father…am I right?”

The Red King is oddly silent.

“What makes you think that?”

“In the tales that I’ve heard about you, I’ve heard about your father and how you’ve hated him for not giving your family a better place to live.”

“Is that all that makes you think that Black Jack is my father? What else have you heard about him?”

“Not much. He’s just a character in your story that lacks a name and backstory.”

“Figures.”

“Do you still hate him?”

“No, I don’t. Is there a place along the path that we can rest at?”

“Yes, this is one place after we exit the forest. You’re not tired already, are you?”

“No, I’m not.”

“So, when we get a room, do you want to sleep together or…”

“We sleep in separate beds in the same room.”

“But what if the room we get only has one bed?”

“I’ll sleep on the floor. You can have the bed.”

“Such a gentleman. Wait, are you saying that sleeping on the floor is better than sleeping with me?”

“Yes.”

“Hmph. What makes you say that?”

“Because only married couples should sleep together.”

“Oh, of course, you would say that.”

A gunshot goes off. I look around to see if we’re being followed and it looks like we have a few more troublemakers on our tail except they’re pretty far away.

“Are we being chased?”

“Yeah, but they can’t hit us from here with their pistols. We can probably outrun them and lose them in the forest-wait, what are you doing?!”

The Red King turns around with his rifle and uses my head as a rest for his rifle. He takes one shot then another before turning around. My head feels shaky now. I turn around to see that he’s taken out our pursuers.

“Good shot, but why did you have to use my head as a rest for your rifle?!”

“I didn’t have anything else and I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

“No, but still!”

“I’m sorry,” he says while turning around to pet my head.

“Hmph. You may be one of the best bounty hunters, but you need to learn a lot more about how to treat a lady.”

“I’ll try to.”

I’d say that was a sarcastic response, but the Red King is too blatantly honest as a man to be sarcastic, so I’ll believe him. Wait a second, wasn’t the Red King just dodging my question about his father being Black Jack? He never gave me a straight answer on it. Hmm. This bounty might actually be personal for him. The adventure I’m on just got more interesting.