Chapter 317: The Second Copy

Pell was eighteen years old this year, from Oakhurst village, had only entered the Department of Military Affairs for four months, and within those four months he had been forced to memorize by heart twenty-two types of wax seals.

When learning he found this matter extremely useless, because standing guard all day he only met ox carts carrying firewood and women carrying vegetables on poles going to the market, learning brown wax blue wax to do what. The captain forced him to learn so he just learned, both learning and yawning to the point tears flowed out.

Therefore noon that day, when a horse staggered dashing arriving before the red and white barrier pole and the man on its back pulled from his shirt a bronze tube, Pell looked at the bright red wax streak on it and his heart jumped all the way to his neck.

Bright red wax having debossed patterns, stamped with the Seal Keeper’s seal, the first type among the twenty-two types he had learned, and in the entire kingdom there was only exactly one person permitted to use it.

The knight rolled off the saddle, resting both hands onto the ground for a moment before managing to force himself to stand up, his voice hoarse like a person being choked, saying this was the order of His Majesty the Emperor sent to the commanders of the two armies out there, open the barrier pole for him to pass immediately.

Pell turned into the watchtower.

In his head at this moment was echoing exactly the sentence Mr. Hollis had stood reading before the three hundred recruits on the opening day, that any regulation that spared one person then from the next day it was no longer a regulation. The other day the Royal Family’s Special Envoy also declared. Madam Mabel selling eggs in Millbrook also declared, declaring three times a month, grumbling every time. If now he spared this man then tomorrow Madam Mabel asks why force her to declare, how does he answer?

He pulled out a declaration paper with a pencil, his two hands slightly trembling, yet his voice still managed to remain clear exactly like reciting a lesson.

"Sir, please declare helping me into here. Name, departure place, destination place, carrying what things on your person."

The knight widened his eyes glaring at him, glaring to the point Pell thought those two eyes were about to fall out.

"Do you know what seal this is huh little boy?"

"Yes I know. Bright red wax debossed pattern, Seal Keeper’s seal, the first type." Pell answered: "I learned three months about seal types. And I will not open your bronze tube, opening it I go to prison. I only ask you to declare into this paper, then open the chest behind the saddle for me to take a look seeing if there is anything else."

"You dare to block His Majesty’s order?"

"I do not block. The barrier pole is opened ready here." He pointed his finger to the barrier pole standing straight up to the sky: "You just go right away is also fine, but going then I must record into the ledger that someone passed the station without declaring, then this afternoon I go up meeting Mr. Hollis to present the case. If you pity me then you declare helping me, I just started working for four months."

The knight stood dead silent for three breaths, after that then declared.

He declared because he had traveled eleven days’ journey, changed five horses, slept three consecutive nights on the saddle, and the final strength remaining inside his body was not enough to argue with an eighteen-year-old kid knowing even the wax type name. Finishing writing he even pressed the pencil forcefully breaking exactly the lead tip, then threw the declaration paper into Pell’s hands.

Godfrey stepped out of the watchtower, holding the declaration paper reading once, after that told someone to lead the horse away feeding it and scooped him a bowl of hot porridge.

"You rest taking one hour." He said to the knight, his voice calm like an official doing procedures: "Outside the marker there are two camps located thirty footsteps away from each other, one camp flies the sun flag, one camp flies your family’s flag. You entering the wrong camp then lose adding half a day you know. Finishing eating I order people leading you over."

In the afternoon, the broadcasting station read the news bulletin, reading that noon today the checkpoint received an order-delivering person from the Royal Capital, the order content Lyra did not open so did not know, only knowing the order-delivering person traveled eleven days’ journey and currently sleeping at the station.

Lyra city hearing finishing boiled up like a porridge pot.

At the tavern at the head of Dyer street, the porter crowd having bet on the bald head and losing pants matter the other day gathered fully again. One guy firmly insisted that that order definitely was an order calling troops back, betting five copper coins. The guy sitting opposite pouted saying calling back then calling for what anymore, people’s troops already finished soaking in mud, betting seven coins that it was an order arresting the Cardinal. In the innermost corner, the old man from the other day leisurely contributed a sentence that according to him just wait and see, whatever way ultimately would also just pop out a few more pieces of paper.

The whole tavern exclaimed "oh" together then swarmed in betting the rest with the old man, because last time he had won completely their money.

Inside the small meeting room, Kaelen read the knight’s declaration paper, then read over the gate entry ledger that Hollis had just brought up.

The order Lyra did not open, but the declaration paper recorded fully everything. The order signed in the Royal Capital, stamped with the Seal Keeper’s seal, copied making three copies, handed to three knight squads taking three different routes, the content was stopping troops and retreating troops.

"So His Majesty already knows!" Elric slammed the table once, his face relaxing for the first time in half a month: "My two Lords, so is it done?"

"Done one wing." Kaelen answered: "The Royal Family’s order then can call the Royal Family’s troops. While Mr. Marcellus completely does not receive the Emperor’s order, therefore he out there still remains completely intact."

Elric deflated like a cold cake.

Mr. Hollis sat at the end of the table waiting for him to finish deflating, after that finally pushed his glasses frame, flipped the gate entry ledger backward a few pages then placed it onto the table.

"Holy Son, there is this spot I ask you to see." The old man said: "Morning the day before yesterday there was a Church’s person asking to pass the station traveling upstream to the North. Our people let pass, because that road is the kingdom’s road. However passing the station then still must declare, and inside his declaration paper there is the line asking carrying letter for whom."

Kaelen picked the declaration paper up.

That line was written exactly by the letter deliverer’s handwriting, slanted strokes, uneven dark and light ink, recording that he carried an envelope from Cardinal Marcellus to the Archive House in the Royal Capital, handed directly into the hands of Count Aldric Thorne.

To speak the truth, that line later became the most valuable thing in the entire file folder. Yet when sitting writing it the letter deliverer only wanted to record quickly to be in time getting on the horse leaving for the cool weather.

Sane sitting at the head of the table peeling a pear with his fingernail, hearing the name then looked up.

"The Royal Family’s ledger keeper." He said: "That skinny soft-spoken old man often standing attending behind His Majesty’s back huh?"

"Yes exactly him." Hollis answered: "His place keeps the copies of all troop deployment orders, all documents, all contracts of the entire kingdom. The other day the Second Highness recounted that exactly he was the person pulling out the old document that Duke Alban brought down to the barracks."

"So great." Sane bit a piece of pear, chewing deliciously: "Then tonight I go getting that letter back. By this time that guy has only crawled two days’ journey, still not yet out of our land."

"No." Kaelen said.

"I won’t open it reading at all. I bring back intact seal for you to see the stamp then I return it to the old place, that guy won’t know anything."

"Still no." Kaelen placed the declaration paper down, pushing it to Hollis putting away: "Outside our checkpoint gate pastes a line, that letters of travelers Lyra does not open, does not hold, does not delay a single day. That line I forced pasting. Now I go picking up an envelope on the road bringing back here, then next month the Church’s people standing out there point at the gate saying Lyra blocked their letters, and they speak correctly. You hear and do not find it jarring to the ears huh?"

Sane raised his eyebrows, implying [Jarring is jarring, but convenient is still convenient.]

Kaelen looked at him once, implying [You going then tonight cook rice yourself.]

The God of War of a fallen era ultimately smacked his lips once, bit another pear piece, not saying anything more.

"And we do not need the letter for what." Kaelen tapped his fingers lightly on the tabletop: "What it writes then I guessed already. Mr. Marcellus now only has exactly one reliance left, is the commitment document signed since autumn last year. As long as that document is still effective then he is the person going fulfilling the Royal Family’s promise, out of effect then he becomes a person leading private troops into the kingdom’s land, even having just lost a battle in the mud. And according to the very kingdom’s custom, an order must copy one copy back to the Archive House then enter into the ledger only then considered as promulgated."

Mr. Hollis sat silently for a moment, after that took his glasses frame off placing onto the table, wiping his face once.

"Lord, meaning he wrote a letter begging the ledger keeper do not enter into the ledger."

"Or enter into the ledger a few days late, or issue him a confirmation paper that that document still remains entirely effective." Kaelen answered: "Therefore we do not go getting the letter. We make the second copy."

The next afternoon, the two went out to General Oswin’s camp.

Not bringing soldiers, not bringing even Godfrey, only Ivy tagging along behind hugging a leather briefcase. Inside the camp were more than six thousand human beings, yet since the two stepped past the stone marker the entire land plot was dead silent to the point hearing clearly the horses eating grass.

Oswin came out receiving at the entrance, just touching his knee down onto the ground was caught by Kaelen’s hand pulling erecting him up.

"His Majesty’s order arrived at our station since yesterday noon." He said, taking the bronze tube inside the briefcase out placing into the general’s hand: "The seal is still intact, you check carefully. The order deliverer slept at the station one night, this morning already went over to the other camp."

Oswin held the bronze tube, his two hands trembled violently, peeling forever finally peeling the wax spot off.

He read it entirely once, then read it again, then looked up, his mouth gaping open but unable to utter a single sound, because simultaneously the tagging along little girl had held out to him a second piece of paper.

"General, this is the receipt." Ivy said: "The Lyra checkpoint received the bronze tube at exactly yesterday noon, handed directly to the general’s hand at past mid-afternoon today, clearly recording date, recording time, recording the station guard’s name. You sign into this spot helping me, I keep one copy, you keep one copy."

"Signing... signing this to do what?"

"So later no one can say that you retreated troops before having an order." Kaelen answered: "You retreated after receiving an order, having a paper, having time, having witnesses on both sides of the marker. Anyone wanting to hold you accountable must ask this piece of paper first."

Oswin stood rooted to the spot.

He had been a general for twenty-something years, retreated troops four times, yet never once had anyone handed him a receipt paper. The retreating time at Rock Gorge in the past, returning to the Royal Capital he was suspended armor for eighteen months, his wife and children had to return to her maternal hometown relying on relatives, just because no one could find where the troop retreating order was lying.

He signed, finishing signing then slumped down sitting onto a nearby wooden chest, placing his two hands on his knees.

"Holy Son." Ultimately he said: "What do you need from me. You handing me this paper then definitely you must need something."

"A testimony." Kaelen answered: "Who went down to the barracks calling you going, what date, held out to you what piece of paper, you saw whose signature on it. You write exactly what you saw, not adding a single word. Then you sign, the Second Highness signs acting as a witness, we copy making three copies."

"Me writing that then I touch a Duke."

"You do not write then next month the person touching that Duke is the Emperor, while His Majesty in his hand only has exactly an old document with an army going missing somewhere." Sane spoke up, the first time since entering the camp, his voice lazy like a person currently commenting on someone else’s chess game: "General, you refusing is also fine, we completely do not force anyone. It is just that you just stand here thinking carefully. Arriving at the time people must find a person to vent the crime onto, then between a Duke currently sitting coolly in the Southern territory and a general having led six thousand troops tailing behind the prince’s back, you guess seeing who people will choose?"

Lucien standing beside hearing finishing frowned, but did not object a single sound.

The testimony was written until night, on the folding table inside the command tent, Ferris ground ink, Ivy sat recopying it cleanly. Oswin recounted clearly, including the matter Duke Alban only held the copy out for him to read then took it back, and he managed to keep the content only because he stealthily told the clerk to hand-copy one copy to enter into the barracks ledger. That handwritten copy was submitted attached with the testimony.

The next day, the Accounting division finished doing the file folder, thick to the point Brian had to take hemp rope tying diagonally two rounds to make it neat. Inside there was Oswin’s testimony with the document handwritten copy, the Second Prince’s testimony minute record, the recall order copy Lyra had copied back before handing over the bronze tube, and the passing station declaration paper of the Church’s letter deliverer. Every paper was also stamped with the City Hall’s seal, also entered into the outgoing dispatch ledger, also copied fully three copies according to custom.

Elric looked at the paper parcel tied with hemp rope, timidly asking that the express letter from here returning to the Royal Capital took ten days, while the Church’s letter deliverer had already departed three days ahead.

"His three days then can be compensated." Sane answered, reaching his hand lifting the parcel up: "Eating rice first. Tonight I bring it going."

In the Royal Capital, Count Aldric Thorne that night stayed awake later than usual.

Cardinal Marcellus’s envelope arrived at his hands since afternoon, and he had read it four times. Inside the letter there were three questions, every question was polite, every question only discussed papers, and reading to the final question he had to place the letter down going washing his face, finishing washing even splashing water one more time.

People did not ask him to do anything bad. People only asked that according to the kingdom’s custom, an order not yet entered into the Archive House’s ledger then was it considered promulgated or not.

Forty years working as a ledger keeper, Thorne clearly understood ten out of ten that exactly such polite questions were exactly the kind of questions having poison lying inside.

He went down to the second basement, personally latched the wooden door bolt at the top of the stairs, then sat down at the table placed between four wooden shelf faces towering all the way to the ceiling. Before his face was this month’s incoming ledger, opened at an empty page. On his right hand was the wooden tray, inside the tray there was a piece of paper, exactly the recall order copy that he had not yet entered into the ledger since the rainy night people drafted it out.

Every night he went down here sitting for one hour. Every night he dipped his pen, then rested his pen back onto the inkstone.

Because Duke Alban was one of the twenty-three members of the Council, having two large territories in the South, having a son working as the Treasury Keeper, having a niece married into the Seal Keeper’s house. While Aldric Thorne only had exactly one basement with several wooden shelves, a wife suffering joint pain and two grandchildren currently learning letters.

Arriving near the third watch, the candle flame on his table suddenly tilted to one side, as if someone had just opened the door.

"You keep the ledger carefully you know."

Thorne turned around.

The person standing between the two wooden shelf rows was taller than him by a whole head, purple hair, purple eyes, draped in a dark-colored cloak not resembling any land’s formal attire on earth. In his hand was a thick paper parcel tied with hemp rope, the corner stamped with a red seal.

Thorne had worked in the Royal Palace for forty years. He immediately recognized what he was looking at, because these past two months the entire Royal Capital repeatedly recounted about a hair pile arranged in perfectly straight lines outside the Crown Square, while completely no one could guess who sat arranging them.

He did not scream calling people. He only slowly stood up, clasped his two hands before his belly, bowed one beat exactly like bowing before His Majesty.

"Lord Divine Envoy." He said, his voice still soft as usual: "The Archive House closed since the afternoon bell toll. You needing to look up whichever paper then tomorrow morning I order people to bring it up."

Sane burst out laughing, walked over placing the paper parcel exactly onto the opened ledger.

"You enter into the ledger for me this spot." He said: "General Oswin’s testimony, the handwritten copy of the document last autumn, the Second Prince’s testimony minute record, and a copy of the recall order that my side copied back before handing the bronze tube to the general. My side’s ledger entered already, and my side’s ledger keeps three copies. Now you enter into your side’s ledger to match."

Thorne looked at the paper parcel, then his eyes automatically slid over to the tray on his right hand.

"You just look comfortably." Sane said: "I completely do not tell you having to enter that paper inside the tray, also completely do not touch it, you leave it adding three days or three months is your business. However from tonight my side also keeps one copy of it, having a number, having a date, having the received station guard’s name. Meaning from tonight, you no longer keep the only copy anymore."

Inside the basement it was silent to the point of hearing clearly the candle burning sound.

"My wife instructed saying with you one more sentence." Sane patted lightly onto the paper parcel then turned walking toward the stairs: "My side did not open the Cardinal’s letter, also completely did not hold it back a single day, the letter is currently on the way arriving at your place, about seven eight days more then it arrives. How you reply to him then is entirely up to you. Only that now you reply in front of the face of two ledgers."

By the time Thorne managed to call one sound then inside the basement there was no longer anyone, while the door bolt at the top of the stairs still remained latched intact as before.

He stood alone for a very long time amidst the four wooden shelf faces, hearing his heart beating in his two ears.

Then he turned back to the desk, taking the paper piece inside the tray on the right hand out, dipped his pen, and entered it into the ledger.

When Sane returned arriving home then the kitchen still had lights on.

Kaelen was sitting at the dining table, before his face was a warm baked pastry plate and a glass of milk, yet he completely did not eat, only resting his hand on his cheek sitting waiting.

"Done?" He asked.

"Done." Sane pulled a chair sitting down, directly grabbing a pastry: "That old man did not scream, did not call people, and also completely did not beg for anything. Hearing finishing then bowed very standardly once. Do you know what he said first? He said the Archive House closed since the afternoon bell toll, tomorrow come up looking."

Kaelen snorted laughing, pushing the milk glass over.

"So did he enter it into the ledger yet?"

"I left already, who knows." Sane chewed the pastry, shrugging: "And entering or not is also just like that anyway. Now that paper has two keeping places, he wanting to make it disappear then must make the entire Lyra city disappear. And Lyra city then he cannot reach his hand out touching, therefore sooner or later he must also choose the easier place."

Kaelen nodded, reaching out brushing a paper dust speck on his shoulder.

"You eat adding one more." He said: "Tomorrow still have to go out bidding farewell to our guests you know."