It was still so hot, and standing on the banks of the Tagus River, the cool river breeze made Alexander want to scream.

Schell stared closely, he was a little nervous at this time, because from the news from Vallaridos, it was clear that the situation was becoming more and more tense.

At the end of June, a small but well-equipped army set out from Zaragoza.

The commander of this army was a noble nobleman, and he had a cousin of the same name, who was very favored by Ferdinand and served as the governor of Sicily, named Flomenza.

General Flomenza the Younger led a well-known Aragonese Axe infantry.

Among the Aragonese army, the largest number also formed the basic combat effectiveness, and it was this axe infantry.

Their armament was simple but effective, consisting of a fish-shaped helmet, a set of half-body or shin armor, a saber or a short musket with a small number of men, and finally their main weapon, either a halberd or a long-handled axe and cross-spike spear.

Such an army is still terrible if it is well trained, especially when it comes to fighting an enemy of about equal numbers, and with good equipment and training, it is enough to defeat opponents who are outnumbered by them, even against a certain number of cavalry, and if the terrain is favorable, they can also make the enemy suffer a lot.

The army numbered about 400 men, and because of its small size, the Barriaridots did not care too much, despite their resentment towards the Aragonese.

Ferdinand had brought in this army in the name of strengthening his own guards, which somewhat drew ridicule from the Castilians.

They thought Ferdinand was a coward, and that he might have used his status to show off when the queen was there, but not long after Isabella's death, he was afraid of offending the nobles who opposed him, and he wanted to hide himself behind the guards.

At that time, no one thought that such a small Aragonese army would be of little use until a few days later, when a sudden change occurred at the Castilian court.

Juana was awakened at night by the sound of footsteps suddenly breaking into her living room, and she immediately got up vigilantly, and the first thing she did was to see her husband, who was lying on the bed on the other side of the room, covered by a thick net.

On the doctor's instructions, Juana had a lot of incense mixed with fish oil light at Philip's bedside, because it was said that this would allow the smoke to penetrate the miraculous substances in the fish oil into the prince's already festering skin.

Although the result of this only made the smell in the room more unbearable, Juana was clearly convinced.

However, the doctors who had taken her large sum of money were not useless, and it was not known who provided the hypnotic and tranquilizing potion that allowed Philip to be temporarily freed from his pain and fall asleep for a long time.

Juana was furious by the sudden burst into the palace, calling out to her captain of the guard and denouncing the barbaric behavior of the soldiers, but neither the captain of the guard, who was supposed to appear immediately, nor the lowly-looking Aragonese soldiers, did not respond as they should be.

Under the polite but brutal control of the soldiers, Juana was taken away from the palace of Vallidode.

During this time, Juana was horrified to find that they seemed to be trying to disadvantage her husband, so she tried to resist, but was forcibly stopped by the soldiers, who could only watch as they carried Philip out of the room on a stretcher.

Fortunately, Ferdinand did not intend to separate the husband and wife, in fact, when he saw Philip's terrible appearance, Ferdinand was only secretly happy in his heart.

Juana's obsession with Philip became an excuse for Ferdinand to take the reins and have the young couple sent overnight to the castle in the Highlands across the river, this time with no intention of letting them out again.

The sudden change in the court spread throughout Vallariddo almost that night, and the nobles of Castile were overwhelmed by the sudden accident, and it was not until almost noon the next day that the nobles finally made the decision to confront Ferdinand in the palace.

This time the Barrialidots lost their precious opportunity.

When the nobles finally rushed to the palace surrounded by the guards of their respective families who had stopped them, they were waiting for the closed palace gates, and had been prepared for the most important parts of the palace's defenses by Ferdinand's orders.

These Aragonese soldiers quickly captured many important places in the palace, and they began to hunt down those whom Ferdinand considered a threat to the palace.

When the nobles tried to confront Ferdinand, they were confronted with the Aragonese who were waiting for them, and they could only curse in anger.

Attempts were made to storm the palace, but they soon discovered that although the Aragonese army was small in number, the Aragonese soldiers were surprisingly powerful under the cover of the palace's strong defenses.

The only tentative attack was soon defeated by the Aragonese defenses, and as rumors of Juana's possible house arrest by Ferdinand faded, the nobles soon realized that unless they made a complete and open break with Ferdinand, they would be labelled a rebellion if they sent men to storm the palace.

This left the nobles helpless and desperate, and the only thing they could hope for now was to find Juana.

To their disappointment, there was no information about Juana's whereabouts, and it was clear that Ferdinand had already thought that they might be looking for her, so he had secretly placed her in an unknown place.

It's not that no one thinks of the castle in the Highlands, but it's already tightly sealed, and Ferdinand has ordered the city's army to prepare to suppress the nobles' guards.

As a result, the nobles who did not want to break with Ferdinand completely fell into a dilemma for a while.

However, Ferdinand did not give them a chance to think about it, and the moment he noticed that the nobles were hesitating, he immediately issued a more severe order.

Looking at the nobles who finally chose to retreat, Ferdinand, who was standing in a fortress in the palace and watching all this, couldn't help but let go of his clenched heart.

However, he also knew that the compromise of the nobles was only temporary, and he had to win over those who had influence among those people as soon as possible and draw them to his side, otherwise once the situation was inevitable, it would be difficult to guarantee that these people would not gather against him again.

While contemplating how to win over the Castilian nobility, Ferdinand kept a close eye on Toledo's news.

He had ordered the garrison of Madrid to send troops to arrest the Duke of Thesia, but only Ferdinand knew that among the orders issued was a secret order for Alexander's execution.

For Ferdinand, a living prince of Castile was obviously a big problem, especially if this person was the son of Enrique IV, whether he was true or not, that status was enough to cause a lot of trouble.

So Ferdinand wanted to really get rid of the Duke of Rome and Thesia in one fell swoop.

As long as he died, there would be no excuse for the Sicilian army to remain in Castile, and if the Queen of Sicily did not withdraw her troops at that time, Ferdinand believed that it would cause great discontent among the Castilians.

At that time, not only would the Casstillians be on his side, but he would even be able to take the opportunity to send the Aragonese army into Castile to fight the Sicilians.

And once the Aragonese army entered Castile, it was not so easy to go back.

Thinking about it this way, Ferdinand, who was originally extremely annoyed by Alexander's appearance in Toledo, suddenly felt that Alexander's reckless behavior had helped him a lot.

While the nobles of the Bayaridots were spreading the many events through various channels, the inquisitor of all these changes, Thomas Tongomada, the chief inquisitor of the Inquisition, was waiting in his lair for Ferdinand's next move.

It was only to his disappointment that Ferdinand seemed to have forgotten about him.

This made Tomgo Mada very dissatisfied, although Isabella's death made him lose his biggest backer for a while, but his unresigned personality made Tomgo Mada ready to try to join the new owner again.

However, despite the fact that Ferdinand had been given sufficient favorable reasons to imprison Juana, it was clear that Ferdinand did not intend to fully believe or count on him.

This is evident from the fact that he had already arranged for the Aragonese army to quietly arrive at Barrialidod as early as June.

It is clear that Ferdinand would have taken action against Juana even without Thomas Tongomada's accusations, but for better reasons now.

When he heard that Ferdinand was trying to persuade the nobles to contact them alone, Thomas Tongomada felt vaguely in danger.

During Isabella's time, Tangomada became Isabella's tool to eradicate dissent in order to curry favor with her and gain her trust.

A large number of people were sent to the Inquisition, and although it was impossible to judge everyone, Tongomada knew Isabella's mind very well, so he kept weaving accusations and accusations, labeling them as heretics, hypocrites, and all sorts of hats that would make them cruelly punished.

As a result, many people are forced to pay off their loved ones, friends, and themselves for fear of punishment.

And using these people, Tangomada succeeded in directing the blame to their lords, superiors, and various patrons who contributed money again and again.

He himself has lost count of how many people Thomas Tongomada sent to the terrible prison of the Inquisition, and how many of whom he personally ordered to be burned at the stake.

Thomas Tongomada knew very well that if Ferdinand decided to make him a scapegoat in exchange for the support of the nobles, he was doomed to have no escape.

He could even imagine that it was the Truth Society, and the people would not save him either.

So Tongomada decided to find a way to save himself, at least to get out of the immediate danger.

When he was told that a group of heretics had been captured, instead of falling into a frenzy of trial of them, as he had done in the past, he ordered them to be sent to the Inquisition.

He then announced a merciful punishment for the Queen, in the name of praying for the Queen.

They were ordered to be sent to the quarries far from the city of Barriaridud to do hard labor as punishment for the crimes they had committed.

Tongomada's unexpected move caused too much of a sensation, and everyone's attention was focused on Juana, and even if anyone noticed that his behavior was abnormal, they only thought that the slippery priest had begun to leave a way for himself at this time.

Thomas Tongomada was clever enough to know that Ferdinand did not trust him and was unhappy with his control of the Inquisition.

In the past, with Isabella supporting him, Tongomada could have completely ignored Ferdinand's anger, but now that is not the case.

Tongomada knew that he probably had a spy sent by Ferdinand, so he did not arrange for someone close to him to send a letter to Alexander.

Thomas Tongomada intended to report to Alexander what had happened in Vallaridus, but as for Ferdinand having sent someone to capture him, he was not very worried.

Because although he did not have much contact with the Duke of Rome Thesia, in the eyes of Tongomada, the Duke was not a person who would make a stupid move.

The person he arranged to deliver the letter did not know who he was working for, and on the way to the quarry, the guards who escorted him cleverly let several people go after being bribed.

Among them is the messenger of Tongomada.

The shock of Juana's captivity was apparently much greater than expected.

The turmoil along the way made the messenger travel overnight, but by the time he entered the city of Toledo in exhaustion, it was already four days later.

A lot had happened today, and one of the things that neither Tangomada nor the Courier had ever thought of was that Alexander was no longer in Toledo.

2 days ago, Alexander received a letter from Madrid.

The letter was not written by Gonzalo, but by the mayor of Madrid.

In the letter, the mayor of Madrid not only extended an invitation to Alexandria in the name of all Madridians, but also wrote the following in the letter:

"Your Royal Highness, I am suddenly alarmed to learn that Her Majesty has had an accident in Vallaridos, the nobles and commoners of Madrid are facing an unprecedented panic, and the people are eager to save their queen from danger and darkness, and this requires a brave, upright, and extraordinary talent to lead them, so here I ask you, on behalf of all Madridians, to lead us to save the Queen, and the people of Madrid are looking forward to your arrival."

At that time, I looked at this letter that seemed to be a generous statement, but in fact it was deliberately ambiguous, and it made sense no matter how it was explained. Schell heard a sneer from Alexander.

"Slippery head."

This is what Alexander said about the mayor of Madrid.

On July 24, 1502, the Duke of Rome Thessia suddenly appeared outside Madrid with his hunting guards.

Immediately, the mayor of Madrid ordered the city gates to be opened.

This follows Isabella and Ferdinand's visit to Madrid. After a gap of 25 years, another member of the Castilian royal family entered Madrid as a victor.

After meeting Gonzalo, Alexander stopped the Santiago knight captain from saluting.

Then, in front of many nobles who came to greet him, Alexander personally handed the scepter in his hand to Gonzalo.

"Please take this, but this is not a commendation for you, but a duty to you," Alexander said to Gonzalo first, and then he lowered his voice and said in a tone that only the two of them could hear, "Are you ready, my friend, a new era is coming." ”