This is something that most people should be happy and emotional, even people who usually don't have a good relationship often sigh because they feel something, and maybe they will have a drink together and talk about the past.

But this slightly sentimental mood does not come between the current Bishop of Palermo, Alfonso, and Alexander.

Alexander already knew that Alfonso had come to Rome, but he did not expect to see him so soon.

Looking at Alfonso, who had already been crowned bishop, Alexander remembered the other two people, the twin brothers, Kunto and Cleion.

Kunto was dead, and Clarion's whereabouts were still unknown, but Alexander always felt that the man was not far from him.

They all had an extraordinary relationship with Alexander, and all of this had to do with Alfonso.

Looking at Alfonso's calm face, Alexander nodded slightly, then stepped aside.

"May God bless you, my dear friend." Alfonso said in a low voice, which sounded like a prayer, but it seemed like it was trying to make him remember something.

Looking at the hand stretched out in front of him, Alexander smiled lightly, he bowed and bowed his head and kissed the back of Alfonso's hand slightly, and replied in a low voice: "God will bless me, but what about you, Bishop, do you want God's blessing?" ”

Alexander felt the hand in front of him stiffen slightly, and then slowly withdrew it, and the expression on Alfonso's face was calm and gentle from beginning to end, and no one else could see anything unusual.

The door of the audience room was obviously not a good place to chat, and the two men almost made a mistake and only maintained two sentences, looking at the back of Alfonso, who had passed by him, with a powerful footstep that the old bishops did not have, Alexander did not think much about it, and walked briskly towards the door with a slight urging cough from the squire standing in the door.

The Basilica's Audience Room is a long and narrow room, with a door at each end and a variety of portraits on the walls on both sides, the most famous of which is the upside-down crucifixion of Peter.

Curiously, this room is almost the only place in the entire cathedral where there is no painting of Jesus Christ as the main character.

There was a guard standing at the doorway across the room, and Alexander knew that this person should be the personal guard of the Pope, because there are many unlucky people who have been assassinated by the popes of all generations so far, and especially in the future, so even when summoning high-ranking clergy, the guards around him have become an indispensable part of the pope recently.

Especially now the Pope, Alexander looked earnestly at the closed door beside the guard.

Alexander VI, the man who claimed to have seized the papal throne by unjust means, and who relied on all kinds of cruel and cunning means to constantly eradicate dissidents and hold his throne, should naturally care more about living longer.

The door opened slightly, and a middle-aged man stepped out of it, he looked at Alexander, who was waiting in the middle of the room, and reached out to make a gesture to let him pass.

Seeing Alexander approaching, the hand of the guard, who was draped all over his body, pressed the hilt of his sword, and his movements made the armor on his body rattle, and the eyes under the brim of the helmet with boots were fixed on Alexander's every move.

Alexander believed that even if he had the slightest abnormality, this man would not hesitate to draw his sword, and he doubted that the audience room was built so narrow and extended, whether it was the deliberate consideration of the popes who were afraid of being assassinated, so that as long as the two ends of the room were blocked, they would not be afraid of being attacked or someone escaping.

Alexander, thinking so crankily, was examined again at the signal of the guards, and this time he did not even spare the cross he was wearing.

Assassination or strangulation with a short sword hidden in the cross, or simply with the sharp edge of the cross itself and a sturdy lanyard, is not unheard of in the history of the Holy See.

It's ironic, but it's cruel.

Finally, Alexander followed the middleman through the door.

The moment he walked through the door, Alexander's eyes lit up.

The room was bright, and compared to the faint gloom of the corridor and the audience room outside, the brightness of the room gave an indescribable sense of comfort, as if a sunny day had finally ushered in after a long period of gloomy weather.

The room is not very large, but there are a lot of things in it, and it even seems a little cluttered.

In addition to the pile of books that seemed to be constantly being turned over on the table next to the wall, the most striking thing in the room was a huge marble globe on the floor next to the table!

Alexander was sure he was right, and although the pattern on it looked plausible, this unusually bulky thing was undoubtedly a globe he was familiar with.

Right next to this globe, an old man with a slightly hunched back and a little fat was standing there, looking seriously at the stone lump in front of him.

Alexander VI is in his 60s, and it is hard to imagine that a man who is almost 70 years old in this era can still have so much energy, but this pope has made it clear to people what it means to be old and strong, not only is he still infatuated with women but also likes beautiful daughters who are getting younger and younger, and at the same time this personal life is so corrupt that it is said that when he was an archbishop, the man who was once reprimanded by the previous pope wrote a letter to reprimand, but with extraordinary energy to run his huge diocese, until he finally ascended to the papal throne.

Now Alexander was standing not far away looking at the man, and he found that looking in this direction, Alexander VI, who was staring down at the globe, gave an indescribable sense of unusual tranquility, and the sunlight outside the window shone on him, and even made people feel as if they had put a layer of holy light on him.

At this time, Alexander's finger was lightly tapping on a place on the marble globe, and Alexander couldn't see where it was, but as he watched the Pope's hand slowly draw a line down the globe, he couldn't help but think of something very famous.

"It seems that if you can't make a decision about anything, it will eventually cause a lot of trouble." The Pope said this as he looked at the globe, and then he looked up at Alexander.

This is an old man's face, slightly chubby, with high cheekbones, the more prominent is the bridge of his nose, there is a clear dent on the bridge of his nose that has been broken because of the bohemianism of his youth, which makes his nose look a little obvious bulge, this pope has a pair of eyes that are very similar to his children, Alexander seems to see the shadows of Caesar and Lucrezia in those eyes, which makes him suddenly understand why among the children of Alexander VI, the relationship between brother and sister is the best, Perhaps the greater resemblance to this fatherhood is the main reason why they feel that they should be closer.

Alexander VI was not very tall, which reminded Alexander of his rumor that in order to appear taller, he had people put thick soles on his shoes, but of course he couldn't stare at His Holiness the Pope's feet at this time.

First he bowed to the Pope, who wore only a small yarke, and then Alexander took a step forward and knelt down on one knee.

This is etiquette that has long been taught, and in informal hearings, kneeling on one knee is the rule, and it can neither be rude nor excessive.

"Get up," Alexander VI didn't say much, he waved his hand lightly and slowly walked to a chair and turned to sit down, then he looked at Alexander with those eyes that resembled those of Caesar, "Giovanni said you had something for him, didn't you?" ”

Listening to the Pope's inquiry with a characteristic Valencian accent, Alexander nodded and said "yes", before he came, he had been told that he was not allowed to speak unless the Pope asked, and even if he heard the inquiry, he could only answer "yes" or "no", even if it was used to praise His Majesty, it could not be used casually.

"Well," Alexander VI unconsciously tapped the fingers of his left hand on the arm of his chair, and then waved to the middle-aged man standing not far away, "Show him." ”

The middle-aged man placed a large pile of various letters on the table next to him, and then motioned for Alexander to come to the table: "Find out from here those letters you said." ”

Alexander casually spread out the seemingly disorganized letters, but to his surprise, they were all the same content.

Lucrezia's husband, Giovanni Sforza, is conspiring with some people to try to oppose his father-in-law, Pope Alexander VI, who is also the titular supreme ruler of all of Christendom.

All letters, no matter what kind of stationery they use or what kind of font they use, are exactly the same.

Alexander looked at the middle-aged man with some surprise, but saw that he only smiled and raised his short bearded chin, as if to signal him to ignore himself and carefully pick out what he wanted from the letters.

Alexander lowered his head and began to search, of course he remembered the forged letters that Giovanni had shown him, those letters looked very ordinary in both paper and font, and in order not to appear to have just been baked, Alexander saw with his own eyes how the two men had aged the letters in front of him, and in order to appear real, there were two traces of improvised changes in the letter that seemed to be misspellings, all of which made people feel so natural that there was no trace of deliberate imitation.

But now, what is it that he sees is exactly the same content, but there are so many different letters on the handwriting and paper?

Suddenly, Alexander found in the letter what he was looking for, which Giovanni had asked him to forge earlier.

The same paper, the same handwriting, and the two errors that were not obvious and seemed to be temporary changes by clerical errors, Alexander picked up the letter.

"Oh, that's it?" The middle-aged man nodded, casually reaching for the letter in Alexander's hand.

Just as his fingers were about to touch the edge of the letter, Alexander's hand suddenly shrank.

"What's wrong?"

The middle-aged man looked at Alexander calmly, and although he showed a questioning look, he didn't seem surprised by his actions.

Alexander looked carefully at the letter in his hand, which was ordinary, the usual straw gray paper, with a slight yellow mark characteristic of this paper, and a pale black edge.

The black color is the color of the soot peculiar to the Sunilo coal mine, a detail that is taken into account even on the letterhead.

Because of this, Alexander was able to quickly find the forged letter in the pile of letters, which he would have regarded as genuine if he had not seen it with his own eyes.

But it was precisely because he had seen the process of making the letter with his own eyes that Alexander knew better about the small details that made the letter.

That is, on that letter, there are traces left by him.

In familiarizing him with the letter, Alexander had taken the letter and looked at it carefully, for it seemed natural that his fingers had been stained with soot on the edge of the letter, for Sunilo was a large mine with black ash flying everywhere.

But it was precisely because of this casual feeling that Alexander recorded this incident in his mind.

But now, the edges of this letter are "clean" albeit "clean"!

The coarse yellow letterhead, the blackened dust, and the font with intermittent handwriting were all deliberately prepared before, but only the random touch was just a completely unintentional move on his part, but now the traces of the edges of the slightly stained letterhead were gone.

"What's wrong?" The middle-aged man still asked, as if he was just repeating his previous doubts.

Alexander shook his head slightly, but did not speak.

Is this the letter, or is it a forgery?

Or did someone use this forged letter to drop another real forged letter?

Where is the "true faith"?

And who did that?

Why?

These questions swirled in Alexander's mind, and just as he was determined to speak, Alexander VI, who was sitting in his chair, raised his hand.

Alexander VI, who sat in the chair in the sunlight, looked taller and more burly than he stood on, his dark eyes looked at Alexander carefully, and after a little silence, he suddenly pointed strangely to the cloth bag hanging from his waist.

This action made Alexander feel a little inexplicable, and he looked at the middle-aged man next to him in confusion.

"Your pocket," the middle-aged man smiled, as if he were watching an interesting play, "Please look at your pocket." ”

Alexander reached for his waist in confusion, and there was a bag hanging from the belt of his coat, and on his belt hung a cloth bag that men usually carry, and in it there would be a few gold coins or some other mess.

And Alexander took out a crumpled piece of paper from the bag he was carrying.

When he opened the paper, there was a familiar sentence written on it.

"What begins with unrighteousness must be strengthened by sin."