Chương 31: The Hall of Verified Triumphs

Bart turned back toward the centre of the gilded records chamber. King Aurelius, having just weaponised Tremendia's own bureaucracy against the Archive, stood just outside the Audit Area's boundary. The king looked smug, clutching his overdue journal with confidence. Bart, Gregor, and Thaddeus prepared to leave the room but as Thaddeus took a step toward the chamber's heavy double doors, a pale blue System notice blinked in front of Bart.

AUDIT WITNESS PROTECTION Current jurisdiction: Tremendian Sovereign Records Annex External protection: Unavailable Thaddeus stopped as he understood immediately that the moment he stepped out of the repossessed records chamber, he was no longer standing inside an Infinite Archive facility. He would just be a treasonous historian standing in a palace hallway, surrounded by royal guards. Aurelius's smile widened having just seen that, revealing a row of perfectly white teeth.

Bart however did not panic, he thought there must be a way around this and checked his system. He opened the active inspection warrant for the Sovereign Collateral Assessment as Thaddeus was the kingdom's recognised Royal Historian, he was strictly necessary to identify the location and nature of the corrupted records. Bart tapped the interface. ESSENTIAL AUDIT PERSONNEL Witness transit authorisation available Protection applies only: During direct transit between an active Annex and an approved inspection site.

While accompanied by Custodial Administrator. No unrelated activity permitted.

"Authorised," Bart said. A narrow, hovering badge appeared directly over Thaddeus's shoulder. AUDIT WITNESS - IN TRANSIT Gregor squinted at the floating text.

"So is he legally luggage?"

"No," Bart said.

"Protected paperwork?"

"Gregor."

"Right. Not luggage." Aurelius's smile vanished instantly, he could not order his guards to grab the historian without violating a rule attached to an active lien. Bart, Gregor, and Thaddeus walked out of the palace. The march through Aramholm took about 20 minutes. The city seemed wealthy and entirely dedicated to the glory of its ruler. Gregor had started to take his new role as records inspector very seriously.

"Unsupported statue base," Gregor noted, scratching something on his clipboard as they passed a towering marble depiction of Aurelius. A few minutes later, he gestured with his pencil toward a cobbled street.

"Open drainage channel adjacent to the pedestrian route." He paused and pointed his pencil at a 12 foot golden statue of Aurelius holding a stylized sun above his head.

"Structural vanity again," Gregor declared. Thaddeus glanced at the towering gold monument.

"That one cost more than the western hospital," the historian murmured. Bart decided to ignore them. The walk was not easy for Thaddeus. While the badge protected him from the royal guards trailing a little behind, it did not protect him from the stares of the citizens. As they walked, several merchants and minor nobles glared at the historian. For 20 years, Thaddeus had been the man who wrote the king's truth, justified the taxes, erased the failures, and magnified the absurdities.

A secret ledger did not instantly absolve him of the public record he had built. Thaddeus kept his head down, looking pale and uneasy. Finally, they reached the crest of the hill. The Office of Royal Authenticity was absolutely ridiculous. It was a sprawling palace of flawless white marble, crowned with a bright golden dome.

Carved into the massive architrave above the entrance, in letters 3ft high, was an inscription: TRUTH REQUIRES AUTHORITY - King Aurelius IV Bart paused at the bottom of the wide marble steps, adjusting his glasses. He looked up at the inscription and murmured "That feels backwards." They walked through the massive bronze doors. The interior of the building was a vast museum of propaganda. Velvet ropes guided visitors past a series of officially authenticated exhibits.

One painting showed Aurelius standing by a pond, pointing a commanding finger at a fish. The plaque read: His Majesty Teaching a Goldfish to Swim. Another depicted Aurelius looking thoughtfully at a dropped apple: The Discovery of Gravity. Further down the hall sat a sealed crystal vial, glowing faintly. Its label declared it to be ORIGINAL (BEFORE IMPROVED SUNLIGHT). Beside it sat a petrified lump of dough, formally certified as the first loaf of bread.

At the centre of the rotunda was a massive, official scale model of the moon, bearing a heavy brass plate: DISCOVERED BY HIS MAJESTY. At the far end of the rotunda sat an enormous mahogany desk, polished to a mirror finish. Behind it sat Lord Director Justinian. He wore impeccably tailored dark robes. He was a genuinely competent bureaucrat, a man whose loyalty was not necessarily to the king personally, but to the sacred act of certification.

He watched Bart approach with cold eyes, "I am aware of the 'lien' currently disrupting the palace," Lord Director Justinian said smoothly, folding his hands.

"But nothing leaves this repository without an authenticated transfer."

"I am not requesting that anything leave," Bart said. Bart pulled up the System interface. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. REGISTERED SOVEREIGN REPOSITORY Office of Royal Authenticity Temporary inspection jurisdiction: AVAILABLE Activation requirement: On site registration"I am establishing an External Records Inspection Annex," Bart explained.

"To activate the on site registration, the Archive requires repository identity confirmation, a recognised custodian's acknowledgement, a designated physical inspection point, and a non removal guarantee."Justinian sneered.

"I will just not surrender this Royal Office to an interdimensional clerk."

"I did not ask you to surrender it," Bart said calmly. He pointed to a framed, gold leafed parchment hanging behind Justinian's desk. It was the original decree establishing the Office.

"Your own founding charter states that the legal purpose of this institution is 'to preserve and furnish authenticated evidence supporting the sovereign record of Tremendia.' I am a mandated auditor requesting that you furnish evidence. If you refuse, you are in violation of Tremendian law." Justinian hated it but he was enough of a bureaucrat to recognise that Bart had read the rules better than the king had. Justinian pulled a ledger toward him and signed an acknowledgement of the request in sharp, angry strokes.

A new, heavy, self inking wooden stamp materialised in Bart's hand. Its heavy rubber face read: EXTERNAL INSPECTION REGISTRATION. Bart pressed it down firmly on the desk. THWACK!!. A thin blue line traced a rectangular boundary across the polished marble floor, enclosing an empty space to the left of Justinian's grand desk. One plain oak desk materialised. One wooden Intake Tray. Two modest Archive filing cabinets labelled SUBMITTED FOR VERIFICATION and RETURN TO REPOSITORY. Above the desk, a small plaque appeared.

INFINITE ARCHIVE EXTERNAL RECORDS INSPECTION ANNEX OFFICE The boring, highly practical wooden furniture sitting amid a sea of Tremendian gold and velvet ropes looked incredibly opposite. Bart looked across the rotunda at Justinian.

"How does this Office verify an historical claim?" Justinian puffed out his chest, proud to explain his flawless system.

"The process is rigorous. First, a claim is formally submitted by a Crown office. Second, it is reviewed and confirmed by the Royal Historian to ensure narrative consistency." He shot a glare at Thaddeus.

"Third, it is authenticated with the Royal Seal by His Majesty. Only then is it registered in our files as Verified Royal History." Bart paused and asked " What about Independent evidence?" Justinian looked genuinely confused.

"The Royal Seal is evidence." And there it was, the flaw at the centre of Tremendia's entire certification system. Gregor leaned on his clipboard.

"So the King tells you the King is right."

"Correct," Justinian said.

"And then you certify that the King confirmed the King was right." Justinian frowned.

"You are simplifying a sophisticated process."

"Am I?" Gregor asked. Bart ignored the philosophical debate.

"I am requesting the certification record for the Battle of Aramholm Courtyard." Justinian scowled, but he stood, walked to a massive wall of golden filing drawers, and retrieved a thick parchment folder. He carried it over and dropped it into Bart's wooden Intake Tray. The original, initial incident description read: Royal injury following encounter with waterfowl. The first attached amendment read: REVISION 1 - Hostile waterfowl. Beneath that: REVISION 2 - Extremely hostile winged creatures.

Beneath that: REVISION 3 - Winged beasts. And finally, the certified version currently inscribed in the palace's official chronicle: FINAL CERTIFIED VERSION - His Majesty personally defeated 67 winged beasts. Every single revision carried a Royal Office instruction requiring the upgrade in threat level. It was hilarious, but more importantly, it solved the claim origin provenance. It proved exactly how Beatrice the goose had been turned into a mythological monster.

But the final authorising instruction at the bottom of the file caught Bart's eye. Royal instruction source: Personal memorandum, 17 Harvestfall. Original retained by: King Aurelius IV. That was the journal entry. The chain of evidence was perfectly clear: goose incident → bureaucratic language → royal embellishment → updated propaganda → official chronicle. But the original, instigating instruction remained locked inside Aurelius's private diary. The System flared above Bart's desk.

CLAIM-ORIGIN PROVENANCE UPDATED Incident evidence: VERIFIED Certification chain: VERIFIED Record alteration sequence: VERIFIED Final sovereign instruction: UNVERIFIED Official Record Correction: LOCKED Provenance completion: 92% It was a satisfying step forward, but the procedure remained unbending. They needed the book. Bart looked past the single folder and stared at the towering wall of golden filing drawers. The goose case was not unique. There were thousands of certification files housed in this rotunda.

Thaddeus realised it at the exact same moment.

"Every correction His Majesty ever ordered... it would have passed through this Office." Bart turned to Justinian.

"I require the master amendment register." Justinian looked as though he had been asked to eat a lemon, but the legal requirement held. He walked to a heavily guarded podium and lugged an enormous, leather-bound ledger back to the Intake Tray. The Archive's cyan light swept over the pages.

SOVEREIGN HISTORICAL AMENDMENTS Total amendments during Aurelius IV reign: 14, 882 Administrative/clerical amendments: 3, 159 Amendments initiated by independent evidence: 317 Amendments initiated by Royal Narrative Instruction: 11, 406 Bart slowly said.

"That seems like a lot."

"It is," Thaddeus whispered, looking sick. This was not some occasional vanity, it seems Aurelius had built an administrative system for manufacturing history. Bart scanned the glowing summary. His eyes caught on one specific, deeply alarming column in the amendment ledger. Source material recalled after certification.

"Lord Director," Bart said slowly.

"Under the old certification procedure, ministries temporarily transferred authenticated original documents to this Office for verification. After certification, those originals were supposed to return to their registered ministries."

"That is the procedure, yes," Justinian said cautiously.

"But thousands of them didn't," Bart said, pointing to the column. Thousands of truthful invoices, accurate guard reports, and real physician notes had been removed from the Office of Royal Authenticity the moment their altered, fictional versions were certified.

"Where did the recalled originals go?" Justinian hesitated, adjusting his dark robes.

"They aren't stored here." Thaddeus slowly turned his head, looking out the massive front doors, back down the hill toward the gilded palace. Bart followed his gaze. The Archive system chimed in. MASS SOVEREIGN RECORD RECALL DETECTED Destination: Royal Private Archive Current registered custodian: King Aurelius IV Access index: See sovereign personal journal Gregor let out a long groan.

"It's the book again, isn't it?" Bart adjusted his glasses.

"It does appear increasingly overdue."