A Chronicle of the World

Killing one person is evil. Saving a thousand is virtuous. But how can the virtue you earn by saving a thousand make you forget the evil of having killed one? All living beings are equal, and everything is governed by fate. One wrong deserves one recompense; the two must not be conflated. This is the great truth of the world. This story speaks of the world, and of the heart of the man who lives in it. He has weathered countless hardships along the way. Though he hates evil with a passion, he cannot escape the shackles of the mundane world. He can save all living beings, but not himself. He can tell the story of the world, but not the story of his own life. The setting sun illuminates his back, calm yet turbulent. “I can't go on. I'll go home and tell stories instead.”