The Episcopal Palace of the Diocese of Palermo is not in the city of Palermo, but in the Cathedral of Monreale on a hill called Caputo, not too far south of Palermo.

When the weather is nice, the valley is covered in a golden glow, a unique landscape that was once known as a miracle and which is why the Episcopal Palace of Palermo was chosen in Monreale.

Like many of the older buildings in the area, Monreale Cathedral is an archaic building with a typical mix of Norman and Arabic styles, except for the hexagonal front door of the church, and even some of the houses in the small town of Monreale down the hill seem to be more imposing than this church.

It was at noon the next day that Timmu accompanied Osborne to the Cathedral of Monreale.

Standing on Caputo Hill, you can see the town below with an unobstructed view, and if you have good enough eyesight, you can even see pedestrians in the streets through the crevices of the grey roofs.

But now the streets of Monreale are mostly armed Aragonese soldiers.

The small square outside the cathedral has been occupied by soldiers, the two main doors of the church are closed, and a line of soldiers with halberds stands in front of the door, faintly exuding the smell of killing.

Unlike the cathedral, which has a strict entrance, the Bishop's Palace has an open door, and people come and go.

On the way here, Ding Mu had already heard from Osborne about the arrest of the assassin conspirators, and although Osborne's account was somewhat exaggerated, Ding Mu could still imagine that the scene when the Bishop of Malecho was arrested must have been quite dramatic.

In fact, when the soldiers stormed the unsuspecting Bishop's palace and broke into the Bishop's bedroom, the Bishop was punishing the choir boy with his "God-given scepter" so hard that when the soldiers pulled the two of them out of bed, they had to be carried out of the room wrapped in sheets.

The soldiers then began to search the Bishop's Palace for the so-called "Assassins who had infiltrated", although it is unknown whether they found any evidence, but it can be seen from the fact that the soldiers used the sheets wrapped in the pair of bitter mandarin ducks as trophies and flags, and hung them on the flagpole at the entrance of the Bishop's Palace.

Who will preside over the affairs of the diocese next?

Seeing Priest Alfonso, who was already standing in the main seat of the Bishop's Palace, the thought of "sure enough" flashed in Ding Mu's heart.

Obviously, Priest Alfonso was the beneficiary of the assassination in the palace, which made Ding Mu feel that it was enough to explain the relationship between him and the assassination, and it was not known what other people were involved in.

Seeing Osborne and Dingmu, the priest smiled, he motioned for the two next to him to leave, and then raised his hand slightly to signal them to come over.

"My children, it is a pleasure to see you, especially at such an unpleasant time," said the priest, after having the two kiss the jewel in his great ring, and walked down the side aisle, "You must have heard of that very shameful thing, it is absolutely blasphemous to Christ. ”

"Forgive me, Lord Priest, for my faux pas, but perhaps it's a good thing," Osborne deliberately shrugged disapprovingly, "Palermo needs a truly pure bishop, not the kind of person who needs a bed sheet as a fig leaf." Speaking of which, he looked at Alfonso, who was walking in front of him, "I think Miyasami-sama thinks so too." ”

Alfonso paused to look back at Osborne, then turned and walked on.

"My lord, I brought this little guy on your orders." Osborne was very aware of the conversation, he pressed his hand on Ding Mu's shoulder and pushed him forward slightly, then stopped and saluted again, "If there is nothing else, I will take my leave, I will prepare the clothes for the upcoming bishopric meeting for the palace minister." ”

"That's really hard work," Alfonso nodded understandingly, "and I think I should advise my friend that overindulge in luxury is not the morality of a believer." ”

"But my lord, if the palace minister really abandons luxury, then I will lose my job." Osborne deliberately grimaced, then bowed deeply again after the priest smiled slightly, and left.

Ding Mu stood silently aside, looking at this Osborne's performance that although it was deliberately exaggerated but would not cause others to be disgusted, Ding Mu also secretly admired his ability in his heart, no wonder this person had a smooth journey later, and he was able to become the favorite of several monarchs as a powerful minister.

But now he had to think about his own situation, because he didn't know why the priest wanted to see him, Ding Mu couldn't help but cheer up and deal with it carefully.

"A very interesting man, isn't he," Alfonso said, looking at the back of the tailor who had gone away, "but I can tell you that you don't think much of him." ”

Secretly surprised by the priest's keen insight, Ding Mu reminded himself that he must be more cautious.

"I'm sorry, sir, but I'm not a tailor." Ding Mu showed a slightly conceited smile, which was very in line with his current identity, young, did not hide his ambition, and at the same time had enough self-confidence.

In fact, Ding Mu didn't think that he could learn from the tailor and become a fortunate minister, not to mention that he didn't know anything about making clothes, and becoming a favorite minister was not the path he hoped to take, there are few favored ministers in history who can die well, including the tailor who just left.

Noncommittal to Ding Mu's answer, the priest entered the living room, where a group of people were busy with their work, and when they saw them enter, they saluted.

"Everything has to be replaced with a new one," Alfonso said as he walked, "luxury, impetuousness, even depravity, these are not only blasphemy against the priesthood, but also original sin, and everything must be changed." ”

Listening to the priest's emotion, Ding Mu had the illusion that this man had now regarded himself as the bishop of Palermo.

Alfonso walked over to the wall, where there was a large mahogany bookcase, which looked heavy, the gaps in the ornate openwork doors were spotlessly polished, and in some places seemed to be shiny and sleek because they were often opened.

"This is the real treasure," Alfonso took out a string of keys from his belt and opened the cabinet door, and in an instant a whole row of books appeared in front of them, "There are so many treasures that God has given to the world, but many people only see some shiny things," he said and turned to Ding Mu and asked, "Do you know?" ”

"The Iliad and the Odyssey," Tinmu nodded, "Homer's heirlooms, as well as the works of Sophocles and Aeschylus." ”

"Greeks," Alfonso nodded in satisfaction, "although these people did not receive the salvation of Christ because of their misfortune, they used these works to make future generations remember them, tell me, what do you think of Oedipus the man?" ”

Ding Mu looked at Alfonso with some surprise, and it was strange and dangerous to talk about Greek literature with a clergyman who might become a bishop of a large diocese.

He did not think that the priest was playing tricks on him, because there was no need.

If he wanted his head, he only had to shout outside, and he believed that even if there were no five hundred axe men waiting to break the cup, the priest would definitely not be so comfortable and bold to be alone with him.

So now he can speak boldly with confidence, as for whether he has a deep enough understanding of the classical Greek masters, Ding Mu is not worried, literature and mathematics are different, there is no need to really "understand", a bottle and a half of vinegar can be shaken for a while without being recognized as long as he is careful, Ding Mu has seen a person in his previous life who relied on half-understanding to say that others were stunned.

If it weren't for the fact that he got carried away and confused Hegel with a certain basketball player, that person would not have been exposed.

"Oedipus, allow me to say this, when everyone regarded him as a hero fighting against fate, he himself had actually surrendered to fate," Ding Mu took out the book from the bookcase, "My lord, can you imagine that after doing a lot of things that have already been hinted at what will happen, can you still believe that everything has nothing to do with you?" ”

"God, you understand it that way," Alfonso seemed slightly surprised, "you are a strange Greek, and if it is as you say, then Sophocles is not telling the fate of a hero, but an indictment of a sinner." ”

"It's just my opinion, my lord," said Ding Mu, who knew that the priest would not call him purely to discuss art, "and now it seems that these things are of little value, and it is good for me to have a place to live." ”

Alfonso smiled slightly, he could hear what the young Greek was hinting at, although it was a little blunt, but this slightly immature appeal was not annoying.

"Look at these words," Alfonso sighed softly as he took out a parchment manuscript wrapped in twine from a compartment in the bookcase, and slowly opened it, "and what is truly gorgeous is these things, the elegance and wisdom that God would forgive, and the gold or precious stones would pale in comparison to them." ”

At the priest's behest, Ding Mu looked at the manuscript and recognized that it was a long poem written by an ancient Roman, and although it seemed to be a work of posterity, it seemed to be a work of late age, copied by later generations, but even so, it was still precious.

"There are indeed a lot of books here," Alfonso continued to open another bookcase next to him, Ding Mu noticed that there were not only more books in it, but even some of the content topics seemed to be quite acute, which made Ding Mu's heart move, he didn't know if Alfonso would use this excuse to rectify the former bishop, but Alfonso's next words surprised him a little, "If you want, you can stay here, I mean you can be the treasurer of my private library for the time being." ”

Library, Treasurer......

Ding Mu looked at Alfonso in amazement, the priest's suggestion was unexpected and made him feel incredulous.

"Precious things deserve to be protected, and you're well suited for the job," Alfonso closed the bookcase and handed the heavy string of keys to Ding Mu, "It's just a position of my own personal arrangement, but there is a reward of fifteen gold flints a month, and you are free to read these books." ”

Ding Mu no longer hesitated, he bent down and carefully took the set of keys.

It is indeed necessary to be careful, not to mention that these books are destined to be invaluable treasures of civilization in the future, and even now, they can be called treasures that cannot be exchanged for gold.

"Precious manuscripts and documents need to be transcribed, you can find some help, your job is not easy," said the priest, who was in a good mood, and looked around the living room again, before standing in front of the bedroom door, looking at the canopy bed, which was now only bare, and muttered to himself, "I want to say that Malejo's behavior is really not worthy of those books, otherwise he would have been a perfect bishop." ”

It was already late when Ding Mu left the Bishop's Palace, and unlike when he came, he had two more things on him, one was a plain gray two-cut short robe, which was the uniform of the treasurer of the priest's private library, and the other was a few gold flints in his pocket, which was the payment advanced to him, in addition to the expenses that Ding Mu needed himself, and the maid money he had to find to help with the transcription, as Alfonso said.

So although the pockets have become heavy, Ding Mu still has to be careful in his calculations.

There were still many guards patrolling the streets, and the whole Monray was on the way here, and the small town of Alai seemed quiet, and Ding Mu staggered with the patrolling soldiers from time to time, and sometimes he smelled a faint smell of blood from those soldiers.

Although there were no casualties in the so-called search for the assassins, Ding Mu believed that it was just the palace's statement to the outside world, and that there had always been victims of any disturbance, large or small, but to varying degrees.

On the way here, Ding Mu once saw two well-covered carriages passing in the direction of the church, and the aura in them was the same as that of these soldiers, only stronger and more revealing the smell of death.

In fact, as long as you think about it a little, you can understand that since Gomez has decided to eliminate the great enemy of Malejo through assassination, in order to be cautious, even if he cannot kill the bishop himself, it is imperative to take the opportunity to eradicate the bishop's henchmen.

It's not even something Gomez can stop.

This was the Italian peninsula in the Middle Ages, where intrigue, cruelty and massacres were the leitmotif of this era.

The melody never seemed to have a rest, and it kept stirring more and more people in and whirling and dancing with it, until it finally fell under the beating bloody notes.

Ding Mu didn't know if it was a wrong choice for him to choose to step on this stage, but he couldn't stop now.

Since you can't stop, dance to the melody until one day everyone follows their dance steps.

"Bohemia!"

Across the street, Michelangelo was waving his thick arms to greet Ding Mu.

"I was going to your camp to find you, you are my inspiration."

"But I've found an errand," Ding Mu smiled slightly, "and it's a promising career." ”