Outside the Royal Palace of Palermo there is a huge cistern built earlier in Roman times to prevent the water from being cut off after the siege, depending on the topography, this cistern was built in the form of a step, and after many years the cistern became a small dry basin, and around the edge of the cistern gradually many houses gradually appeared, and finally it became a square.

Although the current King of Sicily, King Ferdinand II of Aragon, almost never visited Sicily, the square held a grand gathering in the name of the king every year to declare the royal power of Aragon over Sicily.

Other major festivals are also held in the square, such as Santa Rosaria's Day, which is a very solemn day, especially the last torch prayer, and this is the only place that is suitable for the kind of ceremony that still has the style of the Roman era.

Although Western Rome has long ceased to exist, and Eastern Rome was destroyed by the Ottoman Empire a few decades ago, many things from the Roman era remained, not only in architecture, but also in some customs that were not actually in accordance with Catholic rules, and even the Church itself inherited or borrowed some of the habits of the Romans in many places.

A tall pyre stood in the middle of the square, and the torches in the hands of countless people swayed in the night, illuminating the outline of the palace overhead, and faintly illuminating the illustrious figures standing at the gate of the palace.

Gomez wore a black velvet robe embroidered with gold palm leaf trim today, and the robe was very long and dragged to the ground, although this dress was somewhat nondescript, but it also set off his already fat figure quite majestic.

It was noticed that Osborne had not been seen, and although it was impossible for him to formally participate in the ceremony as a tailor, he could always serve as a tailor for the court, but now Osborne did not appear, which led many people to speculate that the rumors that the tailor had fallen out of favor were probably true.

Alfonso did not attend the bishopric meeting, after all, he was still a priest, so when the eleven Sicilian bishops entered the secret room of the Cathedral of the Assumption, he could only stand outside with everyone else and watch the two deacons close the door from the outside.

However, Alfonso was going to hold an evening torch prayer ceremony with the palace minister today, and standing in front of the palace gate, looking at the almost invisible fire in the square that sloped downward, like the stars in the sky, the priest sighed softly: "What is expected will always be wished." ”

"Priest, any expectation is a desire, so we are sinful people," Gomez rarely looked serious on his face, although he sometimes appears cruel because of anger, but only makes people afraid to approach because of fear, "May God forgive us all our sins." ”

"God bless me." As he said this, Osborne was standing at the mouth of a black-looking ramp that led down to the ground, and there was no light in it, and a cool breeze blew up from below, making a "whirring" sound, which made the inside look even more eerie.

When he saw the crowds gathering on the street because of the nearby Gypsies showing, Alexander understood why the French wanted to save the Gypsies for after the anniversary, and that they must perform in this place.

Although the Capuchin monastery is not a monastery, it is not often frequented, and now that there are so many people coming and going, it is inevitable that it will attract the attention of the people around it, but if it is a place where many people gather because of the performance on an important day, no one will pay attention to whether the dozens of people have entered and left the monastery.

Because of this cover, when Alexander entered through the half-open gate with the palace minister's men who had already crept into the monastery in front, the crowd of excited people around them did not notice their actions.

As soon as he entered, there was a strong smell of torch rosin, but even this did not hide the faint smell of blood, and watching the two men dragging a soft thing to the corner behind the pillar, Alexander knew the origin of the smell of blood.

"I told not to kill casually," Osborne seemed unhappy, whispering to a tall man with a bald head, "this is the Holy Abbey." ”

"The man is going to shout when he sees us coming in," the man said disapprovingly, a large gold ring dangling from his right ear, revealing a typical alien breath, "We can't help it, you said you can't leak the news." ”

Osborne snorted, but didn't say anything more, and then he looked back at Alexander: "It seems that you are right to come along, these fools killed a monk, now it's up to you to help us find the entrance you said." ”

Alexander nodded, it seems that there is only one monk left in the monastery, everyone else has gone to the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary for today's night prayer, and the only guide has now been killed, it seems that he can really only rely on him.

It's just that Alexander couldn't have taken these outlaws directly to the entrance of the tomb, not to mention that it might arouse suspicion, and the difference of hundreds of years also made him unable to find the location of the entrance to the tomb for a while.

Walking forward from where I remembered the place, the monastery was dim and silent, the more you went inside, the quieter the noise outside, and finally the sound of footsteps of a group of people walking on the stone floor.

"It should be here, I used to see Michelangelo's sketches that there is a wall here."

Alexander paused in front of a door and pushed it slightly, and with a soft 'squeak', the door slowly opened, and under the reflection of torches and sharp swords, two very strong men rushed in first.

Behind the door was a long hallway with torches stuck in the walls, and the end of the hallway was dark, and when you approached you could see the entrance to the ramp that was in a semicircle at the top.

It was dark below, with no light, and even if there were torches, the light was soon swallowed up by the darkness in the distant cavern below.

"Who's going to go down first?" Osborne licked his lips, he was able to regain the palace trust, and even for the first time to be given such an important task by Gomez, he was originally very excited, but looking at this strange place, he began to wonder if it was a bit stupid to rush here before.

"It's weird," gasped the bald man in a gold earring, these people are not afraid to kill, but they are not so easy about some strange things, "light more torches, everyone be careful." ”

As he spoke, the bald man lowered his head slightly, vigilantly turned sideways, and walked to the crypt first.

In front of the palace square, the sound of torch prayers rose higher and higher, and under the light of the fire, like stars, there were countless Palermo people who recited the blessing psalms aloud, although a little chaotic but gradually converging into one voice The high prayers have drowned everything around, and when a group of monks carrying dark coffins appeared at the gate of the palace, the mood of the people reached a climax!

Many years ago, the "Miracle Record" preserved in the Cathedral of Palermo once recorded that after the death of Santa Rosaria, people burned the remains of Santa Rosaria according to the time to prevent infection, but there was an incredible miracle, after the flame burned for a long time and finally extinguished, people were surprised to find that Santa Rosaria's body was still intact, not even her hair was damaged in the slightest, this miracle was recorded by a monk of the cathedral at that time, The remains of Santa Rosaria are kept as holy relics in the cathedral crypt.

She was buried in the underground cemetery by Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI and his wife Constance of Sicily, as well as the couple's controversial and unconventional son, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II.

But even with these noble "neighbors", Santa Rosalia is still so famous that every year on her anniversary, the priests of the cathedral carry her coffin out to the world, and one of the most famous ceremonies is about to begin.

The coffins that had been roaming the square returned to the palace with countless prayers and praises, and then another coffin of the same appearance was placed on the erected pyre, and as the smell of olive oil splashed on the wood, a man completely wrapped in a tight black robe from head to toe walked towards the pyre with a torch, and everyone held their breath, except for the crackling sound of the torches, the square was surprisingly quiet at this moment.

"Every man shall end up with the world, because of the debt and original sin of the world."

As Alfonso uttered these words, the man with the torch raised his arm in the air, and as an arc of light swept through the night, the torch was thrown far into the olive oil-soaked pyre.

With a "boom~", there was an almost transparent blue flame, and then the flame that gradually turned red at the edge quickly spread along the surface of the firewood!

The greased wood burned, and the flames climbed up the pyre, and soon reached the top of the pyre.

The coffin was lit, and in a few moments, the coffin crackled with firewood.

"Ahh

Suddenly, a woman very close to the pyre let out a frightened cry!

She screamed in fear as she pointed to the burning coffin at the top of the pyre, and then more people joined in the panicked shouting.

Because people were horrified to find that as the coffin kept shaking, a charred hand stretched out of the cracked crack!

Then, with a faintly audible scream, the lid of the coffin was knocked open from the inside, and an unrecognizable person with black smoke emitting from his body suddenly sat up from the coffin!

There was an instant chaos in the square, everyone was frightened by this terrible scene, the people shouted in horror, blindly crowded, the people close to the fire began to run frantically down the slope, and the people behind did not know what was happening, when there were torches in the crowd that ignited people's clothes in the chaos and caused even greater panic, the terrible trampling began to spread in the square that had been completely in chaos.

Gomez was completely stunned by this sudden and terrible turn of events, and when the two guards dragged him desperately towards the palace, he didn't even know how to turn around, and was dragged into the palace with his back to the crowd.

Seeing Gomez disappear into the distance, Alfonso glanced in the direction of the Capuchin monastery.

"It starts here and ends here."