I Keep Accounts in the Old Lands

If you had the golden finger of making your words come true, but didn't know when you'd pay the price or what it would be, would you still say anything?

There are no gods in the Old Earth, but there is a ledger.

Here, spoken words are recorded. Promises become clauses, and those who break them develop white cracks across their bodies, like cracks in porcelain.

She has only one ability: when she speaks, people listen.

The price is that she doesn't know when it will come, or what she will have to pay.

She says,

I am willing to accept the requests of others.

I am willing to play the villain.

I know the price will come eventually, but I will still build a white city for everyone.

Only to you can I not say I want you, I love you, or I need you.

He says,

Go do what you want.

Go pursue what you desire.

I will settle every old account for you. I will work out every possible way forward for you.

You needn't fear being forgotten, because I still remember.

All her life, she used words to build structures for others.

In the end, she took the whole city's debts and transferred them, one by one, onto her own line.

One line could not hold the debt of an entire city. The ledger split, and her name ceased to be a "place" and became a number.

From then on, her words no longer counted.

Still, she managed to take the fire.

She walked into it and sat down. By morning, her hair had turned completely white.

She didn't make the world a better place.

She only made it possible for the world's accounts to be calculated again.

[Childhood Friends] [Strong Leads] [Survival in Another World] [Ensemble Cast] [Serious Drama]

Theme: Growing up means going from being remembered by others to remembering others.