De Charlon's eyes from behind the mask looked at the priest's face for a long time, and everyone held their breath and waited for his reaction.

In the face of the tall black-armored knight, the priest had no fear, and he did not budge.

There have been monarchs in history who were so powerful that they could do whatever they wanted even in the face of the Pope, but Hon de Charlain was clearly not on par with those who dared to defy theocracy.

After a long silence, the knight finally lowered his head slowly.

The Frenchman took a slight step back to the next step, then he bowed his head with his sword in his hand, and as his armor shook, de Charlain turned and walked past the soldiers beside him to the steps.

But when he got on his horse, and looked back at the priest who was still standing on the steps of the Marino Palace looking at him, de Charlain raised his hand and made a strange movement.

He raised his hand flat and made a horizontal stroke from right to left, before slowly leading the horse to turn away.

Watching his dark back gradually disappear and merge with the dark night, the priest moved his neck for no reason, and the action of de Charlaine before leaving made him feel uncomfortable.

Joanna had already cleaned up her mess and stood at the door of the Marino Palace, and when she saw the priest walking towards the door, she immediately walked out of the gate and nodded slightly to the priest.

"Your Majesty, I have been instructed to convey to you His Majesty's concern for you, and that the Cardinal has reported to His Majesty that you wish to see Your Majesty, and that Your Excellency would like you to be present at the Vatican Palace at noon tomorrow."

Joanna had a look of joy on her face, she did not expect to be summoned by the Pope so soon, although when she visited Cardinal Monteiro, she sent a large sum of money and offered to get the cardinal's recommendation to meet the Pope, but she did not expect to get a response so quickly.

But when she remembered the empty boxes in the bedroom upstairs, the joy immediately turned into a basin of cold water that made her whole body cold.

Alexander VI's greed was almost universally known, and the Borgias in his family, who were attached to him and relied on the power of the Pope to accumulate wealth by all means, were even more like greedy demons, but now Joanna had suffered such a huge loss, which made the Queen of Naples, after finally dealing with the priest, suddenly feel so bad that when she remembered the maid who locked her out of the bedroom, Angry, she immediately ordered the maid to be escorted to her, and then she stretched out her hand and slapped the woman in the face.

"Hand her over to the French," Joanna looked at the maid who was puzzled when she heard this, "tell them that this woman is in collusion with those gangsters and is trying to murder me," she said, grabbing the maid by the collar and gritting her teeth, "Aren't the French going to arrest the rebels in the city, I want to see what they do to you, you slut." ”

Joanna's words, the maid only then figured out what was about to happen.

Regardless of their attitude towards Joanna, the French are cruel to the bandits and gangsters in the city, and if she is handed over to the French in the name of her comrades, she will surely be the most cruel fame.

The maid screamed in terror, she struggled so hard that she rolled on the ground, and tried to hold Joanna's leg and beg her for mercy, but to no avail, and when she finally knew that she could not be spared, she cursed loudly as she was dragged, but in exchange for an elbow blow that knocked her unconscious.

"Let me be quiet," Joanna spun around with her head in her hands, and when she saw Nashan, she seemed to have some idea, and immediately ran to the gypsy, grabbed Nashan's arm tightly, and said, "Help me, you must help me." ”

"If you need any help, just tell me," Nashan twitched the tip of his slightly upturned beard, "you know that I have always been a friend of the ladies, no, I mean I have always been willing to help others. ”

"Help me find the escaped gangsters and the jewels they have robbed, and I swear I will reward you well," Joanna said anxiously, "I know you can do it, I see what you can do, you must have a way, don't you." ”

"Oh, what's this," Nashan was stunned, looked up at Alexander, who was not far away, and held out a finger to stop Joanna's pleading, "Please wait a minute, I have to discuss with others, you know I'm not the leader." ”

"Then go and discuss, I know that Cambrai is greedy, and tell him that I will pay him a large fee, if only he can help me recover the lost things."

Joanna whispered to Nashan as she walked towards Alexander, her hands slightly clasped together in a begging gesture.

"So you're going to speak for her now?" Alexander looked at Nashan who came over and asked interestingly, "I really didn't expect Sophia's father to be like you, it's not like Sophia said." ”

"Young man, you are not qualified to judge me, you must know that I am a man, and I am very faithful to Sophia's mother," the gypsy pouted, and then asked in a low voice, "what are you going to do with all the money, although we have made a fortune this time, we are also a little troublesome, and if we don't take it away soon, it will soon be discovered." ”

"It's a little trouble," said Alexander, smiling at Joanna in the distance, "and Caro has taken a few men to hide those things not far outside the Marino Palace, but I think maybe I should help you make a good name with the queen." ”

"What are you going to do, give the money back to this woman?" Nashan asked unexpectedly, "I have nothing to do with her, and you don't see how she treats that maid?" This woman is actually quite ruthless. ”

"I mean, I need her to see the Pope," Alexander shook his head, "and she's got so much attention as soon as she entered the city, and even the Pope is so quick to summon her, you think she's even a queen." Is it so easy to meet the Pope so soon? ”

"I don't know what you're going to do, but don't use my name," Nashan glanced at Alexander, "Okay, tell me what you're going to do?" ”

"Obviously she wants to bribe someone else, of course we can't pay her back, but we can pay her back a part, so that she can do more in Rome," Alexander said to a slightly dissatisfied Nashan with a smile "Don't worry, we can only go better if Joanna's life in Rome is better, and you didn't encourage me to come to Rome before, and now that we are here, then don't worry, maybe soon we can get more things back." ”

As if moved by Alexander's words, and as if it didn't matter in the first place, Nashan waved his hand casually and walked towards Joanna.

Ignoring the two men, Alexander walked around the palace on the shards all over the floor, beckoning to Carlo when he saw her reappear and nodded slightly to him.

"Do you think there's an inner deal around the queen?" Alexander asked in a low voice.

"Yes, my lord," said Carlo, whispered, "and when we followed the robbers through the small door, we saw that the lock of the little door was not broken, but had been opened from the inside, and as we rushed into the queen's bedroom, we saw two men robbing the money from the cupboards, and the maid was standing aside. ”

"What?" Alexander opened his mouth a little surprised, he didn't expect that Joanna was actually beaten by her to say the truth about the charges that Joanna had indiscriminately planted on the maid in order to vent her anger, "Just now Joanna asked the maid to send the maid to the French." ”

"You want to save her?" Carlo asked, a little curiously.

"I want to know who wants to do this."

Despite the fortune he had received and the fact that he knew that it was probably not his business, Alexander did not like the feeling of being watched in the dark.

In addition, the appearance of the French just now also made Alexander realize that although he entered the city of Rome, if he wanted to stay and do something without being easily suspected, Joanna was still indispensable as a shield.

In this way, Joanna's business became his business.

"Go tell that Romeo to stop bonding with the queen of Naples, there is still something to be done."

Alexander shook his head slightly, he felt a little worthless for the dead Ferdinand, thinking about how long it had been, was Ferdinand's coffin board about to turn green?

Although he did not know who Romeo Alexander was talking about, Carlo knew that he was calling Nashan, and after calling the gypsy, who had high hopes for the queen, Alexander immediately walked out of the Marino Palace with the two men.

By this time the night was already deep, for there had just been a battle, and the houses on both sides of the street were dark, and it was evident that even the Romans, who were more or less accustomed to conspiracy and turmoil, were frightened by what was happening outside.

"All the money is hidden?" Alexander asked Carlo in a low voice.

"Yes, sir, that's a lot of money." Carlo's voice trembled a little, although he didn't know how much money it was, but only from the heavy weight, it was enough to make his heart beat worse, "A big bag full of Durant, I've never seen even a tenth of it in my life." ”

"Durant?" Alexander was stunned, and he hadn't had time to see the money, "Not Florin?" ”

"It's Durant, it's all gold." Carlo nodded vigorously in the affirmative.

Where did Joanna get so many Durants?

Alexander groaned for a moment, then let out a soft "ah".

The figure of a lowland man flashed inexplicably from his mind, but for a moment he couldn't understand why Joanna's money was really given by that Groningen, then why that person made such a big investment.

What's more, Alexander didn't know why Groningen also invested a lot of money on him.

But these thoughts only disappeared for a moment, and at least for now, they didn't have much to do with the lowlander.

"Give back some of the money to the queen," seeing Carlo's face collapse, Alexander patted his cavalry captain on the shoulder, "Don't worry, we will get more in the future than we do now, I remember when I first left Agri, I promised each of you that you would go home with more loot than you could imagine, at the time you thought it was incredible, but now that this promise has been fulfilled, will you be content to leave now?" ”

Carlo opened his mouth, and for a moment he really wanted to say, "I want to go home," but somehow he couldn't say it.

"If you want more, follow me," Alexander seemed to know that this was going to be the outcome, and he walked forward alone, "do as I say, and one day you will get something more unimaginable than you can now." ”

When Joanna got the bag of gold coins stained with black and red blood, the queen of Naples was so excited that she covered her mouth with her hands and sobbed slightly.

Although she immediately screamed at the sight of two fingers in the purse that seemed to have been cut off and fallen into the fight, this did not affect the queen's inexplicable joy because of her excitement.

This good mood even led her to ask Alexander to continue to protect her, but the queen did not specify when it would end.

"Maybe until she's tired of that bohemian," Carlo teased secretly, "I think King Ferdinand is going to die." ”

Alexander was impressed by Carlo's words, but when he thought that he could accompany Joanna to the Vatican Palace the next day, he admired his father-in-law's "ability".

The Vatican, located in the northwest corner of the city of Rome, is surrounded by the famous Roman walls, but when the Tiber River separates the Vatican from the main city of Rome on the east bank of the river, you can still feel the difference.

Rome belongs to the Pope, but the Pope does not belong to Rome.

To get from Palazzo Marino, southeast of the city of Rome, to the Vatican, you have to pass through almost the entire city of Rome.

As the procession wanders the streets, which are sometimes wide and sometimes narrow, it's often hard to ignore the remnants of ancient Rome that can be seen between the crevices of the churches and the low-rise houses.

The mottled but still magnificent Colosseum, the monument to Emperor Trajan with its huge cross, and the Palazzo Senator, surrounded by a circle of steps, surrounded by countless marble statues, suddenly becomes wide and easy to walk through a narrow and chaotic market.

Even Joanna, who has been to Rome many times, still can't help but look like she can't help but linger when she sees these again.

And from the side of the Senate Palace, there is a gap towards the sparse western buildings, and bursts of cold wind blow in the face.

Alexander took his horse, straightened up slightly, and looked through the gap slightly downward, and saw a faint sparkling wave.

"It's still far away," Joanna seemed to be in a much better mood, so that she didn't look at Alexander so meanly, and when she saw Alexander's demeanor, she even took the initiative to say, "It's still a long way to get to the river." ”

"Yes, Your Majesty," Alexander smiled slightly, and looked forward again, "I know the way." ”10