Cardinal Monteiro was a man of small stature and a serious expression.

Although he always looked majestic, there were some interesting rumors about the cardinal in Rome.

It is said that because of his height, the cardinal was secretly ridiculed, and on two occasions his opponents even openly laughed at his stature that he was shorter than the average person.

This annoyed the cardinal, so he had a pair of shoes with high soles made to order so that he could not look so short.

Somehow, the cardinal's wearing a pair of heightened shoes was leaked, so once again, taking advantage of the opportunity to pray and bathe, a very mischievous guy secretly changed one of his shoes, and the cardinal had to be embarrassed for a whole day.

Not many people know the truth of this joke, but most people know that Cardinal Monteiro's early life was not a good one.

In his early years, the later cardinal was almost excommunicated, although he gradually became popular when he hugged a pope's thigh, but the pope's nephew did not have a good impression of him.

And the bad thing is that the nephew of this pope was surnamed Borgia, and later he also had a very loud honorific title - Alexander VI.

As a result, Cardinal Monteiro's position is somewhat awkward.

Although he was appreciated by his uncle, he was not liked by his nephew, and because he did something for the pope during the reign of Alexander VI's uncle Gallistus III, he was not accepted by others, so in the eyes of many people, Cardinal Monteiro was very inhuman.

Despite this, the cardinal was still quite powerful, and he gradually gained the approval of the Pope for helping Alexander VI successfully arrange a seemingly perfect marriage for one of his daughters.

In short, Pope Monteiro was a very capable man, and at a time when everyone was surprised that Alexander VI openly favored and promoted his illegitimate sons, Monteiro was able to put aside his position and associate closely with the papal illegitimate sons.

It is even rumored that in the presence of the Pope's favorite son, Caesar Borgia, the bishop not only praised the young man more than once for his bravery, intelligence and appearance.

And he was the first to publicly support Caesar as a cardinal.

It was thanks to these efforts that Alexander VI finally put aside his old suspicions and helped him become a cardinal.

Cardinal Monteiro, on the other hand, devoted himself to the Borgia family, and of all those who held Alexander VI's thigh, the cardinal was arguably the most sparing.

When he first saw Cardinal Monteiro, Alexander's first impression was that he was "really short".

The cardinal's stature was indeed a little short, and even when he stood with Joanna, he had to raise his head higher to appear less disadvantaged, which made Alexander wonder how short the cardinal's mistress would be.

And in fact, there are rumors that Cardinal Monteiro seems to be more interested in pretty teenagers.

The cardinal met Joanna in his dormitory, which of course was not a place to sleep, but a private place more akin to a living room, but this is enough to prove that the cardinal had a close relationship with the Queen of Naples.

Except for Joanna, even her cronies and maids were not allowed to enter the dormitory, and the queen came out of it after the two men had been talking secretly for more than an hour behind closed doors.

At this time, Alexander remained in the church, because he had agreed to send the queen to her place in the end to complete the task.

According to the plan, Joanna was to live not far from the Franciscan church where Cardinal Monteiro was located, and this arrangement was also for her safety.

As the cardinal accompanied the queen out of the bedchamber, Alexander noticed that Joanna's face seemed to be much more relaxed, and it was clear that some kind of agreement had been reached between the two men during the secret conversation that had lasted for more than an hour.

Because she let go of some worries, Joanna's mood was somewhat better, and she nodded slightly when she saw Alexander.

It was only when she saw Nashan that the queen turned her head slightly, and her eyes showed a little disgust.

The gypsy did not care about Joanna's attitude, and he and Alexander followed the queen out of the church, but when he got on his horse, Nashan suddenly glanced at the noisy market not far away.

Alexander did not notice the slightest strangeness of the gypsy, and he was listening to Joanna whispering to her steward that he should be ready for the visit of some people as soon as possible

It's just that it seems that because she is afraid of too many people around her, she didn't say it in too much detail.

But even so, Alexander could guess what the so-called preparations were.

It is clear that the Queen of Naples came to Rome not only to pray for the peace of her dead husband's soul, as she herself said, but at least from her visit to Cardinal Monteiro, Joanna came for a purpose.

And now that bribery has become a public measure of wealth and power, in the city of Rome, if you want something, you must be willing to give money.

Joanna seemed ready to throw a lot of money around, but Alexander couldn't help but wonder why the former queen would be willing to spend such a large amount of money.

After all, in his impression, this queen was somewhat stingy.

The place where Joanna lived was called Marino Palace, which was built by a famous Roman nobleman, but for unknown reasons, the nobleman was convicted and killed, and the palace became the property of the church.

The fact that the palace is now owned by Cardinal Monteiro's church estate, and Joanna's ability to live in this palace shows that she had a close relationship with the cardinal.

The Marino Palace has a large and conspicuous square vault, which is not very popular at a time when the round vault is becoming fashionable, which is why the palace, although large and well-decorated, is somewhat isolated and calm because it is not taken seriously.

As Alexander dismounted at the steps of Marino's palace, he happened to see Nathan patting his horse's neck and doing nothing behind him, but he did not pay any further attention, for he saw the queen's steward approaching with a heavy bag.

"This is the reward paid to you by Her Majesty the Queen," the steward looked at Alexander with a little arrogance, the previous flattery along the way was gone, and the arrogance of being the head of the royal family returned to his face again, in his eyes, Alexander had also become a hired mercenary, as for the status of the lord of Agri, how many people in Rome would care" Your Majesty allowed me to thank you on her behalf, and I hope to accept your services again one day. ”

The Agri looked angrily at Joanna's steward, someone was already about to dismount and prepare to teach this arrogant and unreasonable fellow a lesson.

Alexander waved his hand slightly to stop the angry men next to him, and when the gates of the city of Rome were opened to him, everything that was not necessary was no longer in his heart.

"Sure enough, there is a good pay," said Nashan just as he squeezed in, and he almost rushed to take the money bag from the steward's hand, and after weighing it with shaking hands, he said to Alexander, "Perhaps you should really consider whether or not to become a mercenary, and believe me, if you do, I will be able to help you train those peasants into the best soldiers, but before that we should go find a decent tavern and have a good drink to celebrate the success of our first business." ”

Alexander looked at Nashan in a little surprise, he knew that this gypsy looked like a random wanderer, but there was absolutely proud blood flowing in his veins, which could be seen from Sophia's body, but now Nashan took the initiative to calm the anger of the Agri, which made Alexander not only strange, but also immediately raised a cloud of suspicion.

Sure enough, after turning into a street not far from Marino Palace, Nashan immediately grabbed his mount and turned his head to look at Alexander with a smile that seemed to be not a smile.

"I'm relieved now," Nashan looked at Alexander, "I thought you were going to hook up with that widow queen, if I didn't look sad at Sophia, so I'd cut off your head first, but now it seems that you don't have any messy relationship, so Sophia doesn't have to be sad, and we can all do something with confidence." ”

"What are you going to do? It's not like you're still worried about the possessions Joanna brought," Alexander didn't say anything about Nashan's words, but looked at the sly smile on his face and realized, "It's a pity that this is the city of Rome, even if you can defeat a group of enemies by yourself, if you come here, you will die,"

"No, we don't have to do it ourselves, someone will do it for us," Nashan leaned over to Alexander, "We just have to wait, wait for those people to help us get what we want, and then we can do it." ”

Alexander was stunned for a moment, then reacted, and he lowered his voice and asked, "What did you find?" ”

"Somebody was watching us," Nashan whispered, "and I noticed something was wrong at the door of the church, and someone followed us all the way, no, it was the widow, and they followed us all the way to the big house, and then they stayed there after we left." ”

"That is, someone is spying on Joanna?" Alexander asked with interest, and then couldn't help but glance at the street behind him, and then he suddenly noticed that Carlo was gone, "Where is Carlo?" ”

"That kid is good, he also noticed something strange, so I asked him to go back and keep an eye on it." Nashan reached out and grabbed Alexander's shoulders and pulled him to his side, "Alexander, my child, don't you think this is a good opportunity, that widow must be squandered with so much money, look at this city, this is a place for people to go bankrupt, sooner or later she will spend all that money, in that case, why can't we cheapen us, besides, we just took the money from a group of people who robbed her, not from her, although you seem to be a vassal of Naples, But that won't bother you. ”

"Nashan, I'm only now discovering that you're a good lobbyist," Alexander looked at the gypsy in some surprise, and then he smiled slightly, "Well, tell me what you're going to do." ”

The sky was slowly getting dark, and it was dark early in early winter, and before the golden sunset could shine through all the streets, the darkness was already quickly enveloping half of the city of Rome.

Farther afield, the hills are already lit up, and Rome, the most prosperous city in Europe, is almost a city that never sleeps, and sometimes the night is more exciting than the day.

It's just that Rome is still under the occupation of the French, and the coalition forces outside the city seem to be ready to attack at any time, in order to prevent anyone from colluding with the coalition forces, the French have issued a curfew order.

Still, some people ignore the curfew.

A few well-dressed young men walked down the street with half-empty bottles, and as they passed by the Marino Palace, they could not help but look envious as they looked at the lights cast from the palace windows.

Although the Marino Palace is not as noble and illustrious as the ornate palaces located on the Seven Hills or on the banks of the Tiber River, it is still magnificent to the common man, and the people who can live in this palace are equally unattainable in the eyes of the ordinary people.

"I don't know what it's like to live here," muttered a young man, who immediately glared back with angry eyes when he saw the guards standing on the steps of the palace gate throwing a warning glance at him, "Don't look at me like that, I'm not a thief." ”

"Then stay away, for this is the residence of Her Majesty the Queen of Naples," the guard announced in a loud voice, "get out of here, or I will drive you away." ”

"Neapolitans, wasn't your king beaten for his life by the French?"

The young man's taunting words caused his companions to laugh, which completely angered the guards on the steps.

The two guards came down the steps, their right hands pressed to the hilt of their swords, and they could not help but frown at the heavy smell of alcohol on their bodies when they walked up to the young men.

"Get out of the way of you drunkards, or I'll ......"

One of the guards shouted at him, and he stretched out a hand and thrust the young man's chest.

But when his hand pressed on the other party's chest, the young man who was originally stumbling under his feet suddenly stood firm.

The guard looked up in surprise and saw a pair of eyes that were completely devoid of alcohol and at the same time had murderous eyes, and at the same time a short sword stabbed into his chest!