Chapter 157: The Right Choice
Davey spoke about all this with Hosea because he was trying, little by little, to pave the way for Hosea to one day stand with him.
In the game storyline from his past life, a player only remembered things as they happened in cutscenes. But this was the real world.
Davey had inherited the original host’s memories completely—his emotions, personality, marksmanship, everything.
He felt the original experiences as if they were his own.
Players in his past life had often wondered why Arthur trusted Dutch so blindly, even up to his death.
But that was because they never lived Arthur’s twenty years.
Arthur had been part of the Van der Linde gang since he was a boy. By 1899, he'd spent almost two decades among them.
To Arthur, the gang was family, and nothing meant more to him than these people.
Their brotherhood was as real as it got.
He would kill for them, and he would die for them.
Put it another way: if back in ancient times, someone lifted you out of misery, taught you to read, taught you how to survive chaos—and then one day told you he planned to rise up and overthrow the emperor—would you refuse to follow?
Arthur was in exactly that situation.
And Davey’s situation wasn’t all that different, except “Arthur had been the first person Dutch truly took under his wing.”, with the Callander brothers next in line.
Even if Davey didn’t have Arthur’s twenty years, he’d still spent eight—ages eighteen to twenty-six—under the influence of Dutch and Hosea. Those years had shaped the Callander brothers deeply.
Of course, Davey knew perfectly well what kind of man Dutch truly was.
But Hosea didn’t deserve the fate he had in the original story.
Trying to convince Hosea to leave the gang he’d lived with for decades wasn’t something that could be done with a few sentences.
“You know, Davey, what makes me happiest,” Hosea said, “is seeing you finally living the life we always hoped you’d have.”
“Dutch, the rest of us—we’ve all been working toward that for years. And yet you managed it in just a few months.”
“Meanwhile, we’ve become notorious fugitives, like rats crawling through gutters, hiding from every lawman. At any moment, someone might grab us and put a noose around our necks.”
“For people like us, maybe hanging really is our final destination.”
“The farther east we travel, the more we feel how fast the world is changing. Those industrial cities… remember Saint Denis, the one we arrived in five years ago? It’s completely unrecognizable now.”
“Tall buildings everywhere, more carriages on the streets, crowds thicker than ever… Davey, I think your choice is the right one.”
On the train, Hosea and Davey talked for a long time—about the future, about worry, about how quickly society was changing.
Hosea never expressed these things normally, because he had no one to confide in. But Davey was someone he could talk to.
Davey shared his own thoughts as well.
“The West is like untouched land being opened up. With the railways expanding, traveling from the East to the West is only getting easier.”
“The wealthy folks in the East—with all the money they’ve made—they’ll naturally turn their attention westward. There are more opportunities out here.”
“And immigrants from all over the world—they’ll end up settling in the West too. More people means more prosperity, and more prosperity means more wealth.”
“To protect the interests of these wealthy men, the US will crack down harder on crime in the West. Lawless gangs will eventually disappear. Anyone who doesn’t adapt to the times will be wiped out.”
“The real question is how a gang should develop—or transform—to survive. Honestly, Colm might be a bastard, but he has better foresight than Dutch. He understands more clearly what survival requires in this era.”
“But his vision is still limited. He still thinks robbery should be the core.”
“It’s just like the old British colonists. On the land that became the USA, they were tyrants, criminals, devils. But nothing lasts forever. The times eventually sweep everything away.”
“Hosea, listen. If you want to truly survive—and survive well—the old ways just won’t work. The only path forward is change.”
No one had ever discussed these things with Hosea before. He had his own ideas about the era’s changes, but he was still unsure and troubled.
Talking with Davey was like seeing a road appear through the fog.
“Just like you, Davey.”
“Yes. Just like me.”
Hosea paused, then gave a bitter smile. “But Dutch… Dutch won’t see it that way. You know that, Davey.”
“Just like with the Cornwall train—he wouldn’t listen to us then either.”
Hosea couldn’t abandon Dutch. Decades of loyalty, all the people in the gang—he knew some of it was wrong, but at this point, he could only keep moving forward.
Davey thought for a moment and then said softly:
“If… Hosea, if one day something truly major happens, I hope you’ll make the right choice.”
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