Chương 28: The Other Ledger

Click. The false panel behind the bookshelf released with a soft, mechanical sigh. Gregor's head snapped toward the sound. As a professional thief, he immediately recognised the smooth, precisely weighted release of a high-quality concealed hinge. The heavy wooden shelf swung forward several inches, revealing a narrow hidden compartment built directly into the gilded wall. Inside sat one object. It was not a cache of stolen Tremendian gold. It was not a magical weapon, nor a sealed chest of royal gemstones.

It was a thick, battered, entirely plain leather-bound ledger. It bore no gold leaf, no embossed royal crests, and no magical glowing titles. The contrast with Aurelius's absurd, magnificent official chronicle was enormous. Thaddeus carefully pulled the ledger from the compartment.

The faded cover simply read: SUPPLEMENTAL CHRONICLE REIGN OF AURELIUS IV And underneath, written in Thaddeus's own precise, ink-stained handwriting: PRIVATE WORKING RECORD - NOT FOR ROYAL REVIEW Gregor lowered his clipboard and stared at the Royal Historian.

"You hid it behind a secret door?" Thaddeus held the ledger tightly against his chest.

"Yes." Bart looked genuinely impressed.

"I may have judged historians too harshly in the past." Aurelius reacted immediately. This time, there was no comical bellowing, his face drained of colour. The king looked at the battered leather book, and for the first time since the Archive annex had appeared in his palace, his expression was one of fear.

"Destroy that book," Aurelius whispered to no one in particular. Bart adjusted his glasses, that immediate response told him everything he needed to know the hidden ledger mattered. Thaddeus did not hesitate this time, holding the heavy ledger against his chest, he crossed the room and stepped over the smaller cyan line surrounding Bart's oak desk. The active Audit Area recognised him immediately. He placed the battered ledger beside the Intake Tray.

"I began it roughly 20 years ago," Thaddeus explained, his voice trembling but gaining strength with every word.

"Every night, after I completed the official royal chronicle... I came back to this chamber. I privately recorded what actually appeared to happen."

"A separate diary?" Bart asked.

"An archive," Thaddeus corrected softly.

"I recorded whatever evidence I could preserve. Dates of actual skirmishes. Names of real witnesses. Discarded government orders, physician reports, military rosters, kingdom expenditure records. I made copies of original decrees before the king altered them, and I wrote down the exact filing locations of documents I could not safely steal." Bart looked at the terrified man.

"Why?"

"I never expected anyone to read it," Thaddeus said, looking down at the worn leather cover.

"But I needed there to be somewhere in Tremendia where yesterday was recorded exactly as yesterday."Bart felt a deep, immediate surge of professional respect for the Royal Historian.

"And everything in this book is accurate?" Bart asked. Thaddeus hesitated. He looked at the glowing Annex plaque, then at the official chronicle, and finally back to Bart.

"Everything I believed to be accurate," Thaddeus said carefully. Bart nodded. Thaddeus had not called it truth but his best record of the truth, that type of distinction mattered.

"Let us see," Bart said. Bart directed the active Sovereign Collateral Assessment toward the battered leather book. The System responded instantly, projecting a new cyan screen above the desk.

UNREGISTERED SOVEREIGN HISTORICAL MATERIAL RECEIVED Document: Supplemental Chronicle of the Reign of Aurelius IV Author: Thaddeus, Royal Historian Period covered: 20 years Official status: None Previously detected sovereign-record gap: 6% Probable source: LOCATED Verification status: Pending Custodian history: Single custodian Chain of custody: Partially verifiable Internal consistency: High Independent corroboration: Undetermined Potential evidentiary value: Significant WARNING: Unregistered record cannot automatically supersede recognised sovereign chronicle.

Thaddeus read the warning and his shoulders slumped. He looked deeply disappointed. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"History isn't decided by whichever book I like better," Bart said, pulling the ledger toward him. Aurelius, who had been watching the blue text with mounting panic, suddenly let out a loud, triumphant bark of laughter.

"HA! You see? Even your wooden bureaucracy knows its place! My official chronicle stands!" Bart looked up at the king, his expression completely blank.

"Neither is it decided by whichever book has more gold on the cover," Bart said. Aurelius's smugness vanished instantly. Bart opened the battered leather cover.

"Let us examine the discrepancies." He flipped to a date that corresponded with one of the most absurd claims he had seen in the official audit. According to Aurelius's mandated history, the Battle of Aramholm had been a glorious, unassisted victory where the king had single-handedly defeated sixty-seven winged beasts. Bart found the matching date in Thaddeus's ledger. He read some parts aloud. There had indeed been 67 winged beasts.

They were a flock of royal Tremendian geese being moved across the courtyard by the staff. According to Thaddeus's neat, meticulous handwriting, one of the geese had become aggressive. Aurelius had attempted to kick it. The goose had dodged the royal boot and chased the king across the cobblestones. Fleeing in terror, King Aurelius had tripped over a marble fountain, struck his head, and briefly lost consciousness. Gregor leaned over Bart's shoulder, he slowly looked up at Aurelius.

"Did the goose survive?" Gregor asked.

"THE CREATURE WAS A MONSTER!" Aurelius roared, his face flushing crimson. Thaddeus kept his eyes strictly on the desk.

"Her name was Beatrice," the historian said quietly. But what made the entry truly devastating was not the embarrassing narrative. It was what Thaddeus had written in the margins. He had not merely recorded a funny story; he had built a trail of evidence.

Bart read the citations listed beneath the goose incident: Supporting records: Palace physician's incident report (Concussion treatment) Royal Poultry Master's livestock ledger (Flock relocation log) South Courtyard Guard Incident Report — three witness statements Royal Tailor invoice #881: replacement ceremonial trousers — reason: waterfowl incident Personal journal of King Aurelius, entry dated 17 Harvestfall Bart stopped reading and stared at the final line.

Personal journal of King Aurelius, entry dated 17 Harvestfall. Bart slowly raised his head. He looked across the records chamber, beyond the cyan boundary of the Audit Area, until his eyes locked onto the leather-bound book still clutched tightly against King Aurelius's chest. The overdue holding. Suddenly, the relationship between the overdue journal and Tremendia's corrupted history became clear. Bart flipped through several more pages of the secret ledger.

He tested entries about the rain, the moon, and the dragons. He discovered a meticulous pattern. Thaddeus's chronicle did not simply contradict Aurelius's lies; it told Bart exactly where the evidence to disprove them should be. Some of the evidence still existed. Some had likely disappeared. Some government departments possessed copies of original invoices and decrees and dozens of the most vital cross references pointed directly to Aurelius's overdue personal journal.

Bart did not need to arbitrarily decide which history he trusted, he needed to construct a verification procedure. The Archive chimed. A massive, complex System notification expanded across the ceiling of the Annex. PROVENANCE REQUIREMENT IDENTIFIED To amend a recognised sovereign record, the Keeper must: Preserve the original institutional claim. Establish authorship and chain of custody for new submissions. Locate contemporaneous primary evidence. Obtain independent corroboration where available.

Record correction without destruction of the previous claim. Official Record Correction: LOCKED Verification standard: Incomplete Bart read the list again and again. This wasn't a spell that would tell him who was telling the truth. It was a procedure for proving it. Aurelius realised what was happening. The secret ledger itself was deeply damaging to his ego, but the evidence trail it contained was a lethal threat to the mythology Aurelius had built around his reign.

If the Archive verified those citations, 20 years of carefully manufactured royal history could be formally reclassified as unsupported, disputed, or false with the evidence attached permanently beside it.

"That document is stolen royal property!" Aurelius demanded, pointing at Thaddeus's ledger.

"Return it to the Crown immediately!" Bart did not move to hand it over; instead, he checked the System. Document classification: Sovereign historical material Lien relevance: Included under Official State History Temporary audit custody: Infinite Archive Removal: Suspended pending assessment Bart looked at the furious king.

"Apparently, it is part of the collateral."Gregor grinned from behind his safety goggles.

"You repossessed his secret history."

"Temporarily," Bart corrected.

"Landlord of the past." Aurelius gritted his teeth, shifting tactics. His guards had failed to breach the Audit Area, and demanding the ledger back had fallen afoul of the Sovereign Catalogue Lien.

"Then I demand you conclude this 'audit' immediately," the king sneered.

"You have your conflicting book. Decide."

"I cannot conclude the audit," Bart said.

"The evidence has not yet been verified." Bart turned to the Royal Historian.

"Mr. Thaddeus," Bart said.

"How many of these supporting documents can you locate?" Thaddeus considered the question, looking over the citations he had painstakingly maintained for two decades.

"Some of them, immediately. Some may still be buried in the lower ministries. A few were officially ordered destroyed by His Majesty..."

"And the rest?" Bart asked. Thaddeus looked directly at the heavy leather book clutched in the king's arms.

"Some are in there." The gilded records chamber fell completely silent. Aurelius squeezed the overdue book tighter against his chest, his knuckles turning white.

"Of course they are," Bart said quietly. The book wasn't merely the overdue item causing the Sovereign Catalogue Lien. It was the most important primary source required to establish Tremendia's real historical record. The Archive cross referenced Thaddeus's ledger against the active audit. A new, flashing notification appeared directly above the Intake Tray.

PROVENANCE PATH DETECTED Unresolved historical conflicts: 1, 184 Highest-value primary source identified: The Private Journal of King Aurelius - Original Current status: OVERDUE Current custodian: King Aurelius Audit relevance: CRITICAL Bart pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

"Your Majesty." Aurelius hugged the book even tighter, backing towards his disarmed royal guards.

"No."

"I haven't asked anything yet," Bart pointed out.

"You were going to." Bart folded his hands neatly on the plain oak desk.

"Your overdue library book has become evidence."