Siracusa is a city-state that's effectively owned, in its entirety, by twelve 'Families' — mafia houses. There are courts, there are judges, but the shadow of the Families always looms over them both.
Texas, quietly making deliveries for Penguin Logistics in Lungmen, spots a wolf standing on a rooftop outside her window one night. That wolf was a visitor come to collect on a debt she'd owed for seven years.
Texas leaves without a word of goodbye — just "I'll be back soon." But what awaits her isn't a nostalgic homecoming; it's the surname she'd abandoned back then.
1. A Wolf Comes to Collect a Debt, In Person No Less
The wolf outside the window was Zalak — an immortal being who calls himself a 'Wolf Lord,' and the creditor of the deal Texas struck when she left Columbia.
The demand was simple: return to Siracusa and act as his 'Fang' — his proxy — just once. Texas said yes.
Her boss Emperor hurled every ounce of half-baked Konglish curses at her but let her go in the end. "I'll give you vacation, so go take care of that not-at-all important business." And so, one human and one wolf walked off into the dark.
2. A Murderer, the Moment She Comes Back
The one who greets Texas in Siracusa is Leontuccio Belloné. The young heir of the Belloné family, he asks Texas to attend tonight's party and show off the name 'Texas' publicly.
But mid-party, Construction Minister Karachi is killed instantly by a car bomb, and Leontuccio himself is attacked. Texas, present at the scene, instantly becomes the prime suspect.
The case falls to Lavinia — a young judge who insists on unshakable fairness even under the Belloné family's protection. In the end, she arrests Texas.
The truth is, this attack was orchestrated behind the scenes by Leontuccio's right hand and Belloné's strategist, Dmitri. Believing the Family had gone too soft, he had, for the first time, bared his fangs against his own master.
3. A Lungmen Idol Infiltrates a Siracusa Theater Troupe
Meanwhile, back in Lungmen, Sora couldn't sit still. Even in the middle of her idol activities, she managed to pass an audition for a Siracusa theater troupe, and chose to head to Siracusa to find Texas.
Coming along were Texas's longtime partner Exusiai and Croissant, who appointed herself the two of theirs' bodyguard. The three of them get swept up in a Family street brawl the moment they arrive — their first taste of hospitality.
"They're way harder to deal with than the thugs back in Lungmen." Exusiai grumbles, yet still ends up saving a random citizen, while Croissant is too busy chasing after her big sis to do much else. That's about all Siracusa's first impression amounted to.
The Del Alba troupe the three set foot into is led by none other than Bernardo as its art director. The title of the new musical he's preparing? None other than *The Death of Texas* — the first work to put the real name Texas Family on stage.
The critic Ben, who took it upon himself to coach Sora's acting, was also a puzzling figure. Every offhand remark he tossed out while munching on pizza somehow hit the mark. "Norms build people false pedestals, and true reverence quietly slips away in the cracks between them."
4. Why a Truck Crashed Straight Into the Courtroom
To calm the situation quickly, Texas confesses to being the true culprit — a calculated move to stabilize things and lure out whoever's really behind it, using herself as bait.
But right before the sentencing, a truck comes bursting straight through the courtroom wall. The one who steps out of the driver's seat is Lappland — the daughter expelled from the Salucho family. She calmly turns herself in, saying, "I'm the real culprit."
Everyone is puzzled. Why would Salucho's problem child suddenly take the fall for Texas? Lappland herself gives away not a shred of her true intentions.
The trial is suspended and Texas is cleared of suspicion. But the true mastermind is still crouched somewhere in the shadows.
5. The Judge's Trusted Promise — Turns Out the Man Who Made It Was the Mastermind
Lavinia had a secret: on the day the Belloné family achieves final victory, she'd been promised a city where the fairness she believed in would actually be realized.
Meanwhile, Salucho boss Alberto also quietly begins to move — a covert alliance with Belloné to take down Rosati and swallow the new city whole.
But the man who made that promise to her was sitting right there at the table plotting with Salucho to strike Rosati. Lavinia storms in and demands to know why — the answer she gets is just one line.
The game is over, Lavinia.
— Bernardo
Lavinia leaves the room without looking back, terrified she'll burst into tears. It was the moment the very reason she'd endured until now collapsed entirely.
6. Playwright Caterina — Turns Out She's Texas's Childhood Friend and Greatest Enemy
On the day of Sora's musical debut, the boss of the Rosati family arrives as an honored guest. It turns out that boss is none other than the playwright 'Caterina' herself — the person Sora had been friends with for weeks was the very top of Rosati.
On top of that, Belloné and Salucho conspire to assassinate Rosati right then and there. Texas draws the weapon hidden inside her bass guitar and sprints across the stage.
After a hard-won path to the room, the one who greets Texas has already set down her blade — a childhood friend from long ago. "It's been a while, Celinia." Rosati's boss, Giovanna.
7. The Quietest, Heaviest Reunion
Giovanna extends a hand to Texas. "Join me, and we can do something big here in Siracusa." But Texas's answer had already been decided.
"I don't want to be Siracusan or Columbian — I'm just Celinia Texas." The two part ways in the end. Giovanna lets her old friend, now an enemy of Rosati, walk away alive, but leaves behind a warning: this is the last time.
The three friends who greet the fleeing Texas ask her nothing at all. "The mark of a good partner is not asking what the other doesn't want to say." The four of them come together once more.
8. The Weakest One Picks Up the Gun
The Construction Minister's seat, left empty since Karachi's death, is taken over by Rubio, the Food Safety Minister long stuck in an irrelevant post. On the day of his inaugural speech, he goes on the radio and begins to pour his heart out to the entire city.
His friendship with Karachi, and even the conspiracy Belloné and Salucho had cooked up. A confession delivered calmly, without flashy rhetoric or excitement.
That we are living people. That our lives are real. That we are not animals penned inside a fence.
— Rubio
The moment the speech ends, a gunshot rings out. Rubio protected the final broadcast with his own life.
9. Her Father's Will Was, In Fact, the Entire Nation
Rubio's exposé sends the city into uncontrollable upheaval. Belloné and Salucho's secret pact is laid bare for all to see, and all twelve Families begin tearing at each other.
At that very meeting, Alberto's own man Dambron turns his gun on his boss. "You didn't become civilized — you just got better at pretending." The man who worked at a car wash barely finishes speaking before Alberto opens his throat, and the only one who remembers him afterwards is Ben. "This country, this city won't remember you. But I will."
Enraged, Alberto gives Leontuccio just ten seconds: submit to Salucho, or die right here. As the pocket watch's second hand ticks over that short span, Leontuccio has already realized what his father had been aiming for all along.
Leontuccio finally understands his father's true purpose. What Bernardo wanted wasn't the new city, wasn't victory — it was a Siracusa without Families altogether.
If the Families disappear, will Siracusa be better off than it is now?
— Bernardo
Leontuccio's answer differs from his father's. "That's not enough — you have to let people know what's happening right now, and let them take part in it." The son resolves to go beyond his father.
Bernardo had already made his peace. Right before Wolf Lord Zalak comes to demand the price of betrayal, he swallows poison of his own accord, ending the game himself.
10. Trial of the Wolf Lords, and a Farewell
The furious Zalak appears before Leontuccio to demand payment. At that very moment, boss Emperor, who flew in from Lungmen the instant he heard the news, cuts in.
What Emperor brings with him are other Wolf Lords who've already lost this very game. Zalak, having broken the rules, has no choice but to bow his head before them.
Meanwhile, Lappland bids her father Alberto a final farewell and stands before Texas. "Today, I'm going to kill you." The two swords clash.
"Texas, so you really were just Texas." — "Of course I'm just Texas. What about you?" — "I guess I'm just Lappland too."
— Lappland · Texas
Neither of them wins. Lappland holds out her hand, and Texas takes it. As friend and enemy both, the two walk side by side toward Grayhall.
There, Texas, Leontuccio, Lavinia, and Lappland finally come face to face with this nation's true ruler, Madame Sicilia.
On the surface, a gentle old woman, but her mere presence was enough to freeze the room solid. Even Wolf Lord Zalak didn't dare act carelessly before her.
Madame Sicilia demands no promises. Instead, she agrees to lend Leontuccio one new city — a fragment of the answer Bernardo had longed for his whole life: 'a city without Families.'
Epilogue: Sutures
On the day of his father's funeral, Leontuccio digs the grave alone. No one else attends, but the one who helps him push the coffin is Dmitri — his old right hand, the one who betrayed him.
In the now-empty Belloné mansion, Lavinia and Leontuccio talk about a new order. "We're going to build new things there. An order that belongs to everyone."
Emperor is still waiting for a party. "I don't know how I survived three thousand years without parties," he grumbles, and ends up settling in Siracusa a few more days anyway.
Sora returns to Giovanna's room with Texas, but she's already gone. What's left is a bundle of scripts — the never-finished Act 3 of *The Death of Texas*.
The first page reads: "I dedicate this script to my dear friend Celinia, and to my newfound friends at Penguin Logistics."
New rumors are already circulating in the theater district. Giovanna — or rather, Caterina — is said to be preparing her next work, *The Siracusan*. A name that points at every single person born in this city, yet one no one can fully define.
The wolf that had stood on that rooftop outside her window that night had, in the end, come only to collect an old debt. But Texas, who went to pay it off, only finished making ready to return to Lungmen once she'd built herself a reason not to need to flee Siracusa. The wolf that used to run now chooses, for herself, where to go home to.