In the city of Évora, Alexander stood on the edge of a sloping street and looked out at an overgrown wasteland in front of him.

Because it had rained not long ago, the streets were muddy and dirty, and a shallow ditch barely called a drainage ditch was filled with smelly garbage and excrement, and the wasteland was also a mess, and several crosses could be seen standing on their feet, which looked desolate and slightly gloomy.

It was a cemetery, but it was clearly not a churchyard, but a place where the poor were buried, mostly in the middle of nowhere, far from the center of town, but this somewhat deserted cemetery was not far from the center of the city.

"Évora is a gift from God, the terrible Black Death once claimed the lives of nearly 100,000 people, at that time the city of Évora was almost completely filled with dead people, but many people thought that the city would eventually become a dead city, but then Évora still persevered, and even later, although many people fled from Lisbon to escape the Black Death, but in the end it was found that the city had the fewest deaths of all the cities in Portugal."

Alexander was accompanied by a priest in a coarse cloth robe, who had already learned from the officials who had come with him that the duke was a big man from the Vatican, and that he had come to Évora on the orders of the king, which made the priest's attitude much more flattering.

This gave Alexander another sense of a different atmosphere in Iberia and elsewhere.

Even in the Balkans, where the royal power was more powerful, the power of the Orthodox Church was still a counterweight to secular power, and in Italy and elsewhere, the Church was even more influential, and even though it was no longer as powerful as Urban II or Innocent III, the Church still had a powerful power that secular kings could not ignore.

They were cautious and cautious about the monarchs of the Church, because they knew that although the influence of both the Vatican and the local Church was not as great as before, they were still formidable opponents to be reckoned with.

Indeed, the relationship between secular monarchs and the Church has been extremely delicate for thousands of years, cooperating and wary of each other, and sometimes even clashing fiercely, but even so neither can do without the other.

This is not the case in Iberia, where Castile, Aragon, or Portugal, which are considered the new holy places, and although there is a strong religious atmosphere everywhere, if you look closely, you will find that in Iberia the king is the one who really has the right to rule, and even the church has to submit completely to the king's will.

"That's why the king built the church of San Francisco?" Alexander pointed to a construction site looming behind the wasteland, where stood a church surrounded by scaffolding, the main body of which was almost complete, but many of the other ancillary structures were still unfinished.

"It is the work of King Joao," said the priest in a tone full of praise, "you must not have imagined how difficult it was to build that church, duke, for all the stones of the church were brought from quarries far away, and the great granite stones were not only strong but also surprisingly heavy, but the people brought them from so far away, which must be said to be a miracle of God." ”

"A miracle indeed," Alexander nodded perfunctorily, knowing that the church of San Francisco would be about another 10 years away, and that the Pope would then become famous for its unusual decoration.

However, although the completion of this church is not seen for the time being, Alexander's visit to Évora this time is indeed related to this church.

When Manuel's predecessor João II decided to build this church, it was intended to be used as a royal cemetery in the future, so although the scale of this church is actually not large, it is valued by the Portuguese royal family because of this purpose, and although the church has not yet been built, but the use of the royal cemetery has begun to play a role, John II and his wife are buried in the main courtyard of the main building of the church that has been built, and this time Alexander came to Évora, It was Manuel I who decided to bury his eldest son, Prince Miguel, here.

The church of San Francisco is actually not very large, and perhaps because of its late date, the church was not built in the typical Gothic style of antiquity, so the dome of the church is not the frighteningly high and empty style, but a slightly unavoidable Moorish style in some places, but somewhat mixed with the extravagance of the late Eastern Roman era.

The semi-circular downward curved roof is made up of several distinctly prominent curved ridges, each of which is decorated with beautiful patterns on the oval in-ridge, and in the middle of the closed roof is a painting of the zenith of the Three Realms of Creation, which can be used as a façade from any direction.

Alexander stood on the stone floor of the main courtyard of the church and looked up at the top of his head, directly above the middle part of the zenith painting, centered on God who looked down on the whole world in the halo of holy light, and the circle of heaven and hell spread out along the oval roof for the first time, and the person stood below and looked up at the whole scroll, as if looking at a condensed world in which he lived.

"God created the world and man, and the fate of each person is predestined at birth."

A voice suddenly came from behind Alexander, listening to this voice, Alexander, who was looking up at the top of his head, paused, and after a little thought, his face showed a look of surprise but not very surprised, and then he slowly turned around.

Looking at Count Mordillo, Count of Naples, who came out of the sarcophagus of John II and his wife in the auxiliary room next to the main court, Alexander smiled, and he slowly walked towards Count Mordillo, who was standing there looking at him with a smile on his face, and when he walked in front of the count, he looked up and down at this "uncle" who had been missing for too long.

"Why, are you upset to see me, Qiao Er," Modillo asked, and then he opened his arms, "Come on, let's hug, it's not easy to meet, isn't it." ”

Alexander motionless allowed the Count to give him a strong hug, and then he looked at the Count and asked calmly, "So, Prince Miguel was assassinated by you?" ”

Mordillo looked at Alexander seriously, as if considering how he would react after hearing the answer, but then he waved his hand indifferently: "Forget it, Qiao Er, you don't have to look at me like this, it makes me feel like a sinner." ”

"The child was only two years old......"

"Does it matter?" Modillo interrupted Alexander, he stared at Alexander's eyes, raised his right hand and clenched it into a fist in front of his eyes, "Since that child was born in the royal family, he should bear his fate, so since he will die, it means that God arranged it for him." ”

Alexander looked at Mordilo silently, he found that after not seeing him for so long, the count had really changed a lot, the manners that seemed to always seem so graceful before were gone, and were replaced by a dangerous sharpness, the short beard that had always been neatly trimmed had now turned into a beard, and the neatly combed hair had been cut much shorter.

He was dressed differently than before, the Count, who had always been dressed in splendid clothes, was now wearing a short leather blouse and a pair of lean trousers, and a pair of tall leather boots that were of fine workmanship hugged his thighs tightly.

Crucially, although he knew that Count Mordillo was a very dangerous sword-wielder, Alexander had never seen him carry a weapon with him, and now he had a sword hanging from his belt, which was obviously not intended for decoration.

"Count, what have you been doing all this time?"

Alexander didn't dwell on Miguel any longer, and he didn't know why he wasn't surprised when he saw Modillo, and he wasn't even surprised to think that Miguel's death had something to do with Modillo, or rather, he had already guessed all this, and it was only now that he saw the count with his own eyes, he finally confirmed the guess in his heart

There was one reason why he gave up and continued to ask the Count of Mordillo, that is, the Count's words really moved him.

Alexander could no longer remember when Prince Miguel died, but it was Maria's son who succeeded to the throne of Portugal rather than Prince Miguel, and he had the impression that the prince died at a very young age.

God created the world and man, and the fate of each person is predestined at birth.

Alexander didn't know if it was the fate of Prince Miguel, or if it was just a coincidence that could not have been more coincidental, but the subtle but different results between history and reality made him feel something indescribably strange.

"Count, you've disappeared in Sicily, and you can probably imagine how worried you are, but you look pretty good now."

"It's not bad, of course it's not as good as in Naples, but it's worth it."

Modillo made an inviting gesture to Alexander, apparently pleased that Alexander had ignored Prince Miguel, and after leading Alexander out through an unobtrusive door behind the sarcophagus, and down a long corridor to a construction site full of workers, Alexander looked at the workers who came and went around him, and their attitude of turning a blind eye to the two intruders.

"Earl, how long have you been planning all this," Alexander raised his hand slightly, pointing around, "I mean your disappearance, and then to Castile and Portugal, and the place where we are staying now, please don't tell me that no one here knows you, I can see that you are not a working worker here." ”

Modillo listened interestingly, at this time the count seemed to have a different energy that Alexander could clearly feel, he couldn't tell what it was, if he had to explain, he could only say that Modillo seemed to become a lot more active all of a sudden.

"Qiao Er, you should know how long I've been planning all this," Modillo led Alexander to a tent on a raised terrace on the edge and stopped, he looked at the busy construction site below, and smiled slightly, "I want to make all kinds of preparations in advance, I want to have a group of men where they are needed without attracting anyone's attention, and these people will quickly get into trouble if they don't do anything and just eat and drink all day." ”

"So you can find all sorts of things for your men that you can gather together without attracting attention, and that you can gather them when you need them," Alexander said, looking at the construction site below, "for example, building a church for the king, after all, this kind of work may take a long time, and some of these people may not be needed for a lifetime, but they can be of immediate use if needed." ”

"Do you know why I think you are my most needed nephew," Modillo asked instead of answering, and then he gave his own answer, "because you are so much smarter than everyone else, and you know what you are doing as well as I do." ”

Mordillo said and turned and walked into the tent.

It was warm in the tent, and a Moorish maid greeted Modillo when she saw him enter.

"Don't worry, she doesn't understand what we're saying," Modillo motioned to the maid to pour the wine for the two of them, then sat down before he began to look at Alexander seriously, "You're doing better than I thought, look at you Duke of Romatesia, I never thought you would be like this one day." ”

Mordillo sighed, and then his expression slowly became serious: "So what do you think of your sister, how is she?" ”

Alexander groaned, he was not surprised that Modillo knew so much about his whereabouts, after all, even Prince Miguel in the palace could assassinate him, which shows how carefully Modillo has been arranged in the courts of Iberian countries over the years.

Then Alexander said indifferently: "Juana, she is an ambitious woman. ”

Mordillo's cheeks twitched slightly, and he gently twisted the beard on his chin with his two fingers, as if pondering Alexander's words.

Then he slowly stood up and looked down at the "nephew" and said, "You know, I have been preparing for so many years, and in order to achieve my goal, I sent my sister to Enrique's bed, all for today, and you Qiaoer, I have to say that you really surprised me." I've imagined all sorts of things you're like, smart, stupid, cowardly, or greedy, but I never imagined you to be like this......"

Mordillo said as he stretched out his hands and tentatively put them on Alexander's shoulders, and then his eyes flashed with a gleam: "Your plan is good, although I am not with you, I can almost guess what you are going to do, the hostility of those Portuguese nobles towards Maria has helped us, and now we are sure enough to make a real change in the court of Lisbon, but all this requires your sister to really cooperate with us." ”

Alexander nodded slightly, he knew that Mordillo was right, with the changes in Portugal, the real critical moment of this trip to Iberia was coming.