To the northwest of the city of Calibo there is a hill called Green Ridge, which is not very high, but it overlooks the whole city, and even the port and the bay can be seen.

The Monastery of San Sebaron in Caribo was built right on top of the hill.

The news of the "pagan attack on Caribo" reached the church before they arrived, thanks to Father Mordillo riding a donkey with considerable strength on his head and feet, and while the others were panicking and running around the docks and the city, Father Mordilo had already taken the lead and went straight to the monastery to give the news.

So, when Dingmu and Harji came to the monastery gates, they were greeted by two closed doors and a pair of vigilant and panicked eyes in a string of narrow windows beside them.

Ding Mu never imagined that things would turn out like this, or that he did not understand the extent to which Europeans in this era were afraid of infidels.

Looking at the panicked figures behind the window, and thinking about the tragic scene of chickens and dogs jumping in the city now, Ding Mu felt that he might soon become the most unpopular person in Calibo City.

Ding Mu was thinking wildly, when the two heavy wooden doors of the monastery, which were as tight as castles, suddenly opened a crack, revealing half of Modillo's white fat face.

"Greeks, where are the pagans now?" Modillo asked first, and then felt that he looked too timid, and the whole person squeezed out of the crack in the door, but after standing outside, he looked back uneasily, as if he was afraid that the two doors would close at any time, "The parish priest asked me to ask you about the infidels," and when he said this, he suddenly lowered his voice and shouted urgently, "Are those heretics almost in Calibo, for God's sake, tell me quickly!" ”

Ding Mu looked at Modillo blankly, although he could roughly understand, but Modiglo's obviously pitched voice because of fright made him sound very difficult, and his appearance in Modillo's eyes was completely frightened, which made the already frightened deacon finally go crazy uncontrollably!

Mordillo didn't remember how he grabbed the Greek boy by the collar in front of him and shook it, shouting inexplicably, and then he was dragged to the ground by Gila and several priests who rushed out of the monastery after hearing the news, foaming at the mouth, and at the same time with crooked eyes and completely unaware.

Years later, among the piles of dusty papers of the Monastery of San Sebarón in the city of Caribo, one saw this incomplete record:

"On February 17, 1496 A.D., we lost our beloved brother ......, whose flesh was possessed by the devil, and we were completely caught up in madness and illusion beyond our comprehension. When we finally determined that we couldn't save the poor brother, we had to keep him in ...... But even then, the devil's cry can still be faintly heard in the middle of the night......"

On the same day, the monk on duty at the monastery also wrote down a small thing in the book of the day:

"By order of the abbot, a young man named Alexandre Juliant Cambrai, a Greek from Crete, whose job was to take care of all mundane work other than cleaning that was not suitable for the monks, and in return he would receive water, black bread, and a soup of lard."

………………………………

In the early morning, a small door by the wall of the Monastery of St. Sebarong gently opened, and a figure pushing a wooden cart walked along the path to the top of the hill of Green Ridge.

The mornings in Calibo are cold and dry, mainly because the southern coast of Sicily is ravaged by the Mediterranean monsoon in winter.

This weather will last for the whole winter, and even if it is already spring, it will still be like this for a long time.

Ding Mu has been in this era for more than half a month.

Although the time is not long, the previous world seems to have become so far away that sometimes when I wake up late at night, lie in the corner of the cold stone house, and listen to the whining wind outside the window, I will think that the time of more than 20 years before is just a long dream that is too real to extricate oneself.

At first, Ding Mu still did not give up his efforts to return to his own world, he thought of many methods, including jumping from a height, diving headlong into the icy water, and some dangerous tricks such as hitting his head against the wall, but many attempts ended in failure.

Because of the time that traveled hundreds of years because he fell into the Arno River and drowned, Ding Mu had planned to jump into the water, but when he stood on the cliff and looked at the cold water of the Ionian Sea below, Ding Mu first shivered and shrunk his neck exposed outside the collar, and then he told himself that it seemed good to stay in this era like this.

This also made Ding Mu finally understand that he could never return to his own world, and fate had destined him to survive in this strange world.

It's just that life here doesn't go well.

Although the city of Calibo is not large, it has a population of several thousand, and Ding Mu is definitely the kind of "celebrity" in Calibo that "although the brother does not show his face, there are legends of the brother everywhere".

The farce of the "infidels invasion" did not last long before it was exposed, but there were a lot of incidents.

Because of the fear of the terrible enemies of the Far East, for a time the city was like the end of the world, some people cried and cried for their mothers, some screamed in despair, some women were full of guilt to admit to their husbands that the son he had raised for many years was actually someone else's seed, and there was a famous miser in the city who threw a lot of gold coins into the crowd while shouting and shouting.

If it weren't for the abbot's grace to take in Ding Mu, who looked a little pitiful at the time, according to the European hobby of roasting living people, Ding Mu would probably have been lit by those Kalibo citizens who were still looking for him with lanterns everywhere in the middle of the night.

It's just that Ding Mu soon discovered that life in the monastery was not much better than lighting sky lanterns.

This is because Saint-Cebaron is a real "monastery".

That is to say, the people here do little every day except meditate, and the whole monastery is as depressing as a sleeping tomb, and although there are nearly a hundred people in the monastery, there is hardly a sound to be heard.

Speaking is a very serious sin here, Ding Mu once saw a monk being whipped for colliding with someone else, which at first made him feel unthinkable, but soon he himself enjoyed this "preferential treatment".

On the first day, Ding Mu was punished by not eating and washing the floor of the hallway for violating more faults than he could count on his two fingers.

When standing in the hall big enough to be used as a basketball court with a bucket in one hand and a huge horsehair brush in the other, Ding Mu almost fainted to the ground.

All night, Ding Mu kept brushing the floor with that rough horsehair brush, until late at night, when he finally finished his work and dragged his two unlifted legs into the stone house that belonged to him, Ding Mu didn't even remember how he lay in bed.

But as soon as he closed his eyes, the bell woke Ding Mu up from his sleep.

At three o'clock in the morning, the morning prayers of the Monastery of St. Sebarong began.

Although he didn't get enough sleep at all, Ding Mu still had to drag his sore and weak body, pulling the wooden cart to climb up the hill behind the monastery, the mountain road was difficult to walk, and the wooden cart behind him was so heavy that it was extremely difficult to walk, and his throat was so dry that every breath could erupt from his lungs.

The first thing he did in the morning was to pull a wooden cart to the spring at the top of the hill to draw water, and then he would clean every corner of the monastery, he would wipe down all the altars, the icons, the floor of the frighteningly large prayer room, and every piece of glass, cook for the seventy monks in the monastery at noon, and take care of the vegetables in the courtyard at the back of the monastery in the afternoon.

There is no free time during the day, and the only free time of the day is when it is time to eat, but that little bit of food only makes people feel hungrier.

Only late at night after the end of the day's work, Ding Mu could lie down and rest, but even so, he could only sleep for a pitiful three or four hours.

Then he would be awakened by the abominable bell and repeat what he had done before.

There are wells in the monastery, but in winter they are out of use due to drought and the water level drops, so that the entire monastery, nearly 100 people, have to rely on water from the spring on the top of Cuiling Mountain.

Ding Mu's job was to push a wooden cart to the spring at the top of the mountain every morning, fill several large wooden barrels, and then pull the water back to the monastery and pour it into a huge stone tank.

Wait for this tiring task to be done, and then the official work of the day begins.

Wiping down sculptures, shoveling off the droppings left on the terraces by seabirds, fertilizing the vegetable patches in the convent's backyard, and checking that all the oil basins are filled with oil are pretty much all the menial tasks that Ding Mu does every morning.

In the afternoon, he helped the monks to carry out bundles of ridiculously heavy manuscripts from the storeroom, and then he was ready to be instructed to deliver documents to the monks who were transcribing the scriptures.

He couldn't make any noise while doing these things, and Ding Mu could only guess from the simple gestures of the monks what they wanted him to do, so that after a few days, Ding Mu began to wonder if he would one day forget how to speak.

The work would not end until late, and then he would be able to have a supper that was not very good, and then he would go back to the transcription room and continue his work until late in the evening.

After the monks left, Ding Mu had to put the manuscripts back in the stacks, tidy up and wipe the floor of the whole chapel, and wait for the monks to turn off the lights and rest, and then drag his tired body to lie on his hard bed and sleep with his eyes closed.

But it was as if not long after closing my eyes, the bell of the morning prayer rang again!

Then, there is the never-ending repetition of the work of the previous day.

After more than ten days of this seemingly never-ending day, Ding Mu finally made up his mind to leave this place that would drive him crazy sooner or later!

Get out of here!

Once this thought is born, it can no longer be suppressed, but Ding Mu also knows that it is not easy to do it.

Medieval Europe was a chaotic time when endless wars could break out at any time.

In addition to the aristocrats who like to cause trouble everywhere, the crazy and rampant thieves have also made this year more unstable, not to mention those kings who are not too big to watch the excitement in the first place, and seize the opportunity to pounce on and bite.

Ding Mu was very skeptical about whether he could survive in such an era.

The Italian peninsula in 1496 was definitely the most chaotic place in Europe at the moment.

It's no wonder that Ding Mu doesn't have confidence in himself, as long as he thinks that even many nobles are precarious in such years, he feels that it is a bit stupid to want to leave Saint Sebalon.

Even so, Ding Mu still did not waver.

If you go outside, you may not know when you will die, but if you stay in St. Sebalon, you will be buried in this living tomb.

Whatever happens, get out of here!

Ding Mu thought to himself, took a step under his feet, and pushed the wooden cart along the hillside to climb a platform.

This is a part of the hill directly opposite the city of Calibo, and from here you can clearly see the entire pier and the bay beyond.

Ding Mu turned his head and looked at the sea, he had developed this habit these days, although he knew that this action was meaningless, but somehow, he would always involuntarily glance at the sea, as if something was attracting him on the boundless sea.

While Ding Mu was standing on the hillside and staring blankly at the sea, a small Clark sailboat was leisurely swinging into the bay of Caripo, and the tattered sails that had fallen told the story of the ship's previous hardships at sea.

However, there are so many such ships in the Mediterranean that they do not attract the attention of the people on the busy docks.

When the ship had landed, a man in a dirty, tattered robe dismounted, his brown eyes first surveying the vicinity, then passing past some merchants who were bargaining with the tax collectors, then putting his hood on the back of his head over his head, wrapping himself in a dusty robe, and hurrying out of the bustling dock with his head bowed, and walking along the mountain road in the direction of the monastery halfway up the mountainside.

When Ding Mu returned to the monastery, the second morning prayer was just over.

On his first day at the monastery, he was told that the monastery of St. Sebaalon followed strict Benedict rules, which meant that prayers were to be prayed at least five times a day in the monastery, and that the beginning and end times of each prayer were strictly prescribed, such as the second prayer every morning, which must start punctually at five o'clock.

At the end of each morning prayer, Ding Mu would bring the prepared water and bread to the abbot's room, and the other monks would eat together, and the abbot would eat in his own room, which was also the prerogative of the abbot.

Ding Mu, who was holding a wooden tray, was blocked by a priest outside the dean's house, and looking at the priest's index finger that was put up and sealed on his lips, Ding Mu compared it to a person who drank water and ate food.

The priest shook his head slightly, stretched back his thumb, and pointed to the plate in Ding Mu's hand.

Ding Mu put the plate on the ground and turned to leave.

This is the daily life in the monastery, boring, monotonous, and it is a luxury to talk to someone.

The monks should not talk loudly among themselves, even whispering in a whisper may be regarded as a violation of the canon, which makes Ding Mu feel that if he stays any longer, he will either become mute or become a madman.

He was about to go back to his hut, a rare moment of rest during the day, when a low quarrel came from the depths of a corridor as he passed through the door.

Even if the voice was low, the anger in one of the voices still filled the hallway: "How can this be, isn't Saint Sebaron the safest place, but what is happening now?" ”

"There's no way around it, no one thought of it happening," the other voice said calmly but helplessly, "Maybe it's God's arrangement, maybe you should go back and tell them it's over." ”

"No, this is absolutely not going to work, there must be a way!"

The voice suddenly raised, and before Ding Mu could stop, two figures walked out from the corner of the corridor.

Seeing Ding Mu, the two of them seemed to be surprised, and at the same time, Ding Mu also recognized that one of them was the abbot of the Monastery of St. Sebalong, and the other was a middle-aged man in a gray cloth robe.

Ding Mu immediately stood next to him and lowered his head slightly, although he was disgusted in his heart, but thinking about the whip that admonished the monks, there was really no need to be a good man.

The two of them didn't seem to expect to meet someone else suddenly, and the abbot's originally gloomy face became even more ugly, he stared at Ding Mu, and then waved his hand to the person next to him.

"Please pray for my soul," the middle-aged man bent down and kissed the dean's hand, "I pray that I will receive God's grace from you." ”

"Grace is given to the pious, my child."

The abbot slowly withdrew his hand, he glanced at Ding Mu next to him again, and slowly disappeared into the depths of the corridor.

"The Pious ......"

The man muttered to himself, then turned and walked in the other direction.

From beginning to end, the two of them didn't seem to take Ding Mu next to him seriously, but I don't know why, he just felt uncomfortable all over his body.

This made him decide to tell himself: this monastery really can't stay any longer.

Ding Mu shook his head and walked towards his hut.

He didn't pay attention, and the abbot, who had already left, was looking at his back with a strange expression.