Zeroth Directive

Archive III

The Holy Orb of Order, a symbol of the Victorian parliamentary system, is usually held by the Speaker (the King themself). It is made of a special alloy crafted by royal alchemists; its deep blue hue emits a mysterious, shifting glow when placed in the light. It is adorned with a golden band in the center, set with various dark gemstones. There are two different Holy Orbs of Order: one engraved with a red dragon, and the other with a lion. The former belongs to the Draco royal family, and the latter belongs to the Aslan royal family. Eventually, the orb with the red dragon disappeared along with the Draco royal bloodline, while the orb with the lion has been passed down through the Aslan royal family for generations. Professor Briggs, 65 years old, and a faculty member at Victorian National University, tearfully recounted his experience. According to him, the current Speaker of Parliament, Vina Victoria, unexpectedly approached him one sunny afternoon, seeking information on the Holy Orb of Order. After Professor Briggs carefully explained the orb's history and political significance, as well as the process used to make it, the Speaker revealed her true purpose: she wanted to repurpose it into a voting bell to remind members to attend votes punctually! She even planned to make replicas and distribute them to every MP! Professor Briggs deeply regretted not asking for clarification in the beginning. He tried to 'hypnotize' the Speaker with his words, hoping she would forget this absurd idea as well as what he had told her, but unsurprisingly, he failed. In his despair, he cried that a royal heirloom, the sacred symbol of Parliament, should never be desecrated like this—and if it were, it certainly would not be in relation to him. The Speaker, however, had a different perspective. She boldly asserted that since both the Holy Orb and the voting bell are used to maintain parliamentary order, they are clearly the same thing. —'Londinium Bi-Monthly,' Headline News, 'Parliamentary Relic or Gold-Plated Alarm Clock?' Your Grace, we are losing Victoria. The Duke of Wellington's stance is clear, and his will is firm. We have no way to respond by force, lest we provoke another war. While Tara's economy is imbalanced, its foundation remains strong. You would need to collaborate even more closely than you currently do with the other dukes if you want to put economic pressure on the Duke of Wellington. On the other side, only Alexandrina and Parliament remain. As you said, there is no need to rush in and get involved; rather than seizing authority, Alexandrina seems to be building her own power base in a land where previous sources of authority have already been shattered. The power she is accumulating... we could have harvested it. However, as I've mentioned several times in my reports, her methods are unconventional. She appears adept at dismantling established symbols of power. Though she is currently powerless against the crown, the Holy Orb of Order has already been reduced to what common folk jokingly call a 'gold-plated alarm clock.' I don't know how she plans to establish her authority after so eagerly dismantling the existing symbols of power. I believe her approach will lead to one of two outcomes: either she will quickly be hanged by her own people, or she will create a kind of power we've never seen before and can't ever hope to harness. —Report submitted to the Duke of Caster, intercepted by Operator Harmonie and secretly forwarded to Rhodes Island Ha, it's happening all over again. I pass some bills in Parliament, and they remain indifferent... but when that little orb is placed on the lathe, everyone gets so worked up. When all else fails, shake things up! That still works in politics, from time to time. —After reading the above report, Vina laughed.

Archive IV

This one? This is a photo that the Count of Schutzbury gave me. Don't worry about who he is for now... Can you guess what it's of? Right, it's just a blurry mess, I can't make it out either. The day he gave it to me, he didn't prattle on about his usual theories of justice. Instead, he looked at this blurry photo and went on and on about what he saw in it: a bakery with a red sign, selling the worst bread on the block. Yet, homeless people would gather in front of it every night, eating the leftover bread the owner had left out. There was a sunken area on the road in front of the shop, where water would collect every time it rained. The neighborhood children would pick up the bread wrappers thrown away by the adults and fold them into paper boats to float in the water, etc... I later found out that his unusual behavior was something Vina had orchestrated. Strange, isn't it? Morgan and the others told me that Vina used to be like all the other street thugs—she despised nobles to her core. Two months ago, I would have had a hard time imagining her speaking with any noble for ten minutes without throwing a punch. In the past two months, she's made more new noble friends than I've made new intelligence contacts. Of course, she still hates salons, fancy dinners, and balls, but at least she's willing to let a viscount talk about his family's ancestral beliefs before raising her fist, or let a scholar explain some new, emerging political theories, or let an army officer recount the social ills he's witnessed firsthand. Just like how she used to listen to me talk all night about Lynncardine. It seems like she is trying to understand the Victoria she's determined to shatter. Victoria is dirty, but it's also proud. Over a thousand years ago, when the Draco people were still nomadic tribal leaders, they pieced together the earliest form of Victoria using a framework borrowed from Sargon. But the fundamental source of their power was still their ability to protect their people—something they took pride in. That pride has been passed down, stumbling along the way, to the present day. Every noble child still blindly recites 'Honor her glory, shield and protector,' just as their ancestors did, though they no longer can see the people they need to protect. I think Vina must have seen that pride, which is why she's holding back her fist for now. She wants these people to open their eyes and see Victoria the way she does. So, while riding in Count Schutzbury's hot air balloon, Vina pressed his head down, making him look at the streets below, showing him that the people he treated like trash also had lives of their own. What he couldn't see, Vina described to him, street by street, until the sky began to lighten again, until the hot air balloon was frosted over. After they came down, Count Schutzbury immediately called back those poor souls he had thrown into the boiler room without any protective gear. He started telling everyone about the sights he saw, the things he had learned for the very first time. Of course... we all know this was probably just momentary self-reflection. Vina opened his eyes, but in the end, he will most likely close them again. But even so, for Victoria, this is a big deal. —A conversation between Delphine and the Doctor

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