Quiet, for no reason, but unsettling quiet.

Alexander VI seemed to sense something, and he raised his head slightly to look at the door.

This room was Alexander VI's living room in the Vatican, and although it was known for its depravity and even exclamity, he had not yet reached the point of doing absurd things at the seat of the Holy See, so it was a palatial but decent living room, and it was almost the most unpretentious place in the whole city of Rome compared to the extravagance that is now everywhere.

But the only thing that displeased Alexander VI was that he could not always be quiet here.

Perhaps because there were some problems with the building when it was first built, there were always high and low voices coming from the corridors, and even if the people passing by the door were cautious, they would often disturb the pope inside.

Alexander VI did not want to change places to rest, but because this living room was used by Gregory XI, and it was during the reign of the same pope that established the Vatican's rule as a papal residence.

Alexander VI saw himself as the key figure in bringing the Vatican to glory, because he had saved the Holy See, which was already on the verge of breathlessness due to its poor financial situation, and because of this, the authority of the papal authority, which had been declining, was slowly being re-established, which made Alexander VI feel that he could live in this living room as a representative of the new Vatican.

Even the headache-inducing interruptions are nothing.

It's just that I don't know why, but it's a little surprising that it's quiet outside today, and it seems that everyone is gone all at once.

Alexander VI looked up again at the door, then lowered his head and began to look at the advisory statement he was about to issue at the Council of Cardinals on the reduction of the issuance of Ladia's gold coins.

Suddenly, there was an unexplained commotion from outside, and then the sound of heavy footsteps was getting closer and closer, and it seemed that many people were rushing towards it at the same time.

Alexander VI looked up again, a little dazed, and he felt something strange.

The door was slammed open without warning, and the heavy door slammed into the wall and bounced back because it was too hard, but it was immediately blocked by several people who had squeezed into the doorway.

One of the attendants rushed to the front with a panicked expression, his face pale, as if he had seen a ghost.

"Your Majesty...... Under ......, Caesar, Caesar......"

The squire's voice trembled, and he couldn't even speak a complete sentence.

Alexander VI's heart suddenly tightened, he sensed something, but he did not dare to admit and face it, and when his eyes fell on the man who was being carried into the room by several men with a blanket, the Pope first paused, and then walked slowly over his feet.

Caesar had been placed on the ground by this time, his armor had been taken off, and his chest could be seen rising and falling, but the original white shirt had been stained dark red by large patches of blood, and the color was jet black in several places, and there seemed to be some holes in it.

The mask on Caesar's face had been removed, revealing an ugly scar from the bridge of his nose to his cheek, and his face was so desperately pale that even his lips were bloodless.

His eyes were glazed, and a pair of beautiful eyes that had been described as pure and childlike were not at all beautiful, and the hollow appearance proved that life was rapidly slipping away from his already tattered body.

"What happened, what exactly happened......"

The Pope crouched down and stroked his son's forehead tremblingly, the tentacles were lifeless and cold, which made him unable to support it any longer, and he fell backwards into the arms of the attendant who was about to hold him in his hands.

"Your Majesty, the Duke needs to make a confession." A priest whispered a reminder that Caesar seemed to know that he had returned to his father's side, and that the spirit that had been on the verge of disappearing but still holding on seemed to collapse at this moment, his constantly heaving chest movements became more and more intense, and his eyes moved first and then began to drift.

"No, my son won't die!"

Alexander VI stood up suddenly, his eyes shaking because he had tried too hard, but after being held up, he suddenly calmed down, and his eyes were fixed on his son, who was already on the verge of death, and might be called at any moment.

The Pope slowly crouched down again, his hand caressing his son's forehead, and then gently reciting the confessional verse in his mouth.

"Cleanse the last evil and forgive the sins of life in the name of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, and your soul will ascend to heaven in innocence, where it will have a seat in the glorious ......"

Alexander VI's voice began to tremble a little, then slowly calmed down, and his hand shook slightly twice as he took a handful of anointing oil from the cup that had been prepared by the man next to him and applied it to his son's face.

Then he reluctantly stroked Caesar's face, and finally let out a muffled cry.

"My son~"

Alexander VI's voice trembled, and he seemed to gasp for breath, but he could not breathe because of the crusting pain in his chest, which frightened him.

He turned around and waved vigorously at the attendant next to him, and it was not until someone quickly brought him a glass of wine to pour into his mouth, and then he sat down slowly while gasping violently.

The Pope looked at Caesar again, and saw that the last bit of expression in Caesar's eyes had disappeared, except for a pair of gray-looking eyes that had completely lost their life and soul support, and the Pope let out a cry of sorrow again.

"What happened?" Alexander suddenly looked at the soldiers who had sent Caesar back, and saw their dodging gazes, and Alexander VI's face showed a hint of cruelty.

"I want to know how my son died, and I will not punish any of you no matter what you say, but if you hide it, I swear to God that you will suffer the most cruel punishment in the world, and then you will feel that the infidels will be much more merciful than I am."

The Pope's almost crazy words made the people next to him tremble, and Nomelo, who had already heard the news, looked at Caesar, who was lifeless on the ground, and his eyebrows were already tightly wrinkled together.

So even when Alexander VI was heard to say such indecent words, Nomelo did not say anything to stop it.

Rather, he quickly pondered what kind of great changes would happen to the Vatican with the death of Caesar after such an unacceptable accident!

"Our army was supposed to launch an offensive ......"

"The Duke himself led us, he gave us orders, and then took the lead in rushing to the front, but, but ......"

"But the army did not rush with the Duke," said a guard who was also bloodied and with a drooping left arm, and gasped Alexander VI, "and we rushed together, and I saw the Duke taking the lead in the charge against the Neapolitan positions, and he even looked like he was about to succeed, but we were betrayed, and no one followed, and we were 55 in all, all of whom were exposed to the Neapolitan muskets, and then they opened fire......"

The guard's voice trembled as he said this, his face turned pale as he remembered something terrible, the fingers of his uninjured hand trembled as if he wanted to grasp something, and then he clung to the edge of his trousers.

"It was a hell, they beat us like prey in the fields, we didn't even have a place to hide, everybody fell, I escaped, but everyone else died."

The guard's eyes looked straight at Caesar, he felt that the light in front of him was a little dim, so he couldn't help but raise his head, and saw the Pope standing in front of him, and the guard immediately lowered his head.

"I know you, you came out of Elba with my son, and he used to tell me that he trusted each and every one of you, so now tell me everything you know and tell me what happened."

The guards looked at the Pope with some excitement and some timidity, and then continued: "We have been betrayed, and the troops that were supposed to attack with the Duke have not followed at all, some of them have just watched us being killed, and some of them have acted, but in fact they are far away from us, and everyone is watching us being shot by the Neapolitans, but none of them have come up to our aid. ”

"Then how did you survive," Alexander VI's eyes flashed with a hint of fierceness, although he noticed that one of the soldier's arms seemed to have been broken by an arrow or some other weapon, but the son lying on the ground still irritated him, "Everyone else is dead, isn't it, so how did you survive?" ”

"I was shot and hid under a corpse," the guard did not dare to look into the eyes of the Pope, but could only stare at Caesar, who was lying on the ground, and then he seemed to suddenly remember something and began to say loudly, "but I rescued the Duke, and I carried him off the battlefield, and you see that it was his blood that he shed on me!" ”

The soldier kept shouting, which made Nomerlo's face gloomy next to him, and he waved his hand to the side, and immediately two guards came over and set the soldier up!

The soldier began to shout loudly until Alexander VI waved his hand for the guard to let go of his arm.

Alexander VI stretched out his trembling hand and stroked the bloody tunic of the soldier, and then he pressed the blood-stained hand on the man's cheek, leaving several striking blood marks: "I swear by the blood of my son here, I thank you for sending Caesar back to me, so that he did not fall into hell because of the loss of the opportunity to repent, and you will enjoy it all your life in the future, and this is my reward to you." ”

As he spoke, Alexander VI's rickety body bent down even more, he silently bent down and stretched out his hand to touch Caesar's face, which had gradually cooled down, and then knelt down and hugged his son's head and kissed his forehead and cheek.

"Let us be alone for a while," said Alexander VI in a deep voice.

The corners of Nomerlo's mouth moved but he didn't say anything, he raised his hand and motioned for everyone to go out, and when he was the only one left in the room, Nomelo looked at the Pope, who was kneeling beside Caesar, and then turned to leave the room and closed the door with his hand.

In the hallway, everyone was waiting.

Seeing Nomelo come out, a priest stepped forward, but before he could speak, he was stopped by Nomelo holding his lips to silence him.

And at this moment, a hysterical and crazy wail suddenly came from the room!

"God's punishment! Punishment~"

The sound broke through the thick door and echoed through the hallway, sending creeps out to everyone standing outside.

Caesar Borgia, Alexander VI's favorite son, Duke of Valencia, commander of the imperial army and the most promising ever unifier of Italy, died!

When the news came out of the Holy See in the Vatican, many people already knew about it, or at least it was not so surprising.

The Papal army suffered a crushing defeat at the town of Pesha, and the news actually reached Rome before Caesar's death.

Hearing the news, Skop immediately rushed to the barracks of the Roman city defense in the city, but as soon as he entered the barracks, he felt a strange atmosphere, looking at the soldiers who were looking at him with strange eyes from afar, Skop couldn't help but secretly grasp the hilt of his sword.

A group of officers had been waiting for him for a long time, and when they saw that Skop and the others seemed to be secretly relieved, and after greeting each other with a rather vague look, one of the officers took a step forward, holding a hat with a gorgeous feather in his hand, and said tentatively: "My lord, do you already know what is happening?" ”

"Yes, I know, and I know that you all have your own plans," Skop looked out the door, "those people are yours?" ”

"My lord, we just hope that you can tell us the right way," Seeing that the matter seemed to be revealed, the officer's expression changed from cautious to fierce, and at the same time, those people's hands had involuntarily pressed on the hilt of the sword, and the eyes of Skop were also full of ferocity, "We don't want to die, at least we don't want to be like Caesar, I heard that he and his people were killed by the Neapolitans one by one, and even Caesar himself probably gave his life, so why do we still have to fight the Neapolitans?" ”

Skop listened quietly, his hand patting the hilt of his sword rhythmically, and his originally nervous expression seemed to suddenly relax at this moment.

He couldn't help but anger the officers a little by doing this, and they decided to put pressure on him, at least to let him know his decision.

"We ask that you relinquish your command of the city defense army, and then our temporary officer corps will decide the fate of all the city defense forces and the city of Rome," the officer who took the lead finally stated their purpose, "Of course, you can refuse our request, but in that case we will only have to do what is necessary against you." ”

Although the officer's attitude became stern and even a little vicious with these words, Skop listened unhurriedly, and it was not until the men seemed to be a little impatient that he raised his hand and raised a finger: "First of all, I want to know if you understand what you are doing, rebellion is going to be beheaded, and what I want to know is, if you decide to take over the Roman city defenses, then do you want to fight the Neapolitans?" ”

"This is not a rebellion, it is the salvation of the city of Rome," the officer retorted loudly, "we must negotiate with the Neapolitans, the queen is just outside the city, she will be willing to accept a non-hostile Roman officer corps to negotiate with her, we don't know what happened to the Papal army, but we all know that it was Caesar Borgia's army and not Rome's, so we can talk to the queen, but before that you can renounce power." ”

"If that's the case, I'm sure you'll get nothing." Skop showed a look of contempt, he ignored the angry eyes of the officers and the fact that they pressed the swords that they might draw at any moment, but simply walked directly through these people, sat down in his usual chair, and looked at them with one leg crossed, "You said you want to negotiate with the Queen of Naples, but who are you, a group of rebels, low-status mercenaries and **, do you think that the Queen of Naples will negotiate with you, I can assure you that if you send a messenger like this, It must be her anger that answers you, not some negotiating terms. ”

The officers stared at Skop in annoyance, their faces clearly insulted and annoyed, but none of them could refute him, because they all knew that Skop was right.

And they can't help but admit that until now they have been polite to Skop, but in fact, they are secretly making extravagant calculations in their hearts.

"We all know that you need a true nobleman to be the leader of your actions, this person must have the legal command of the city defenses, and only then can he order the Roman city defenses to give up resistance and not be considered a rebellion, so who is this person and where is it?"

The officers looked at Skop with ugly expressions, they knew that he had actually grasped their point, and the thought that even if they took the initiative to negotiate with the queen, they would probably be ruthlessly rejected, and a trace of despair rose in their hearts.

They had seen the Roman Thescian garrison, and it was precisely because they knew the horror of that army that the officers of the city defense did not believe that they could hold back the Neapolitan army, which was said to have been admired even by the Duke of Roman Thesia.

But the problem in front of them now is that if Skop refuses to give up, then they are bound to seize the command of the city defense army as rebels, and if so, they will become confused about what awaits them in the future.

Looking at the officers who were looking at each other, Skop smiled, he was waiting for such a moment, although the process may be a little different from what he imagined, but the result was still very satisfying to Skop.

"You need a legitimate commander, and I'm right in front of you right now," Skop said, slowly drawing his sword from his waist after making a reassuring gesture to several officers, and he drew the tip of his sword and pointed diagonally to the ground, looking at the men, "Now I ask you, if anyone wants to join me, I can bring security and peace to you and Rome." ”

The officers looked at Skop in amazement, then at each other, and in the eyes of the others, they saw the same meaning: "It turns out that the biggest leading party in Rome is here." ”