Prince Miguel's funeral took place on a slightly gloomy day, with a sky full of dark clouds obscuring the sun, and all those who attended the funeral looked gloomy, and the people on the roadside as the funeral procession passed wept quietly, and many slowly knelt down as the hearse passed, silently marking crosses on their chests.

Prince Miguel was only 2 years old when he died, and he was so short that he could only say that the two years of his life flashed like lightning and flint actually had no effect on the Portuguese, except for Lisbon, many places didn't even know that Manuel had such a son, or at least the name of the prince was not clear, so the child's death should not have caused any waves, but when he really died early, the Portuguese found out that the death of this 2-year-old child was not just the king's son, And the fate of the country is at stake.

As Manuel's eldest son and only son to date, Miguel was the natural first heir to the Portuguese throne, which may not have been noticed much during his lifetime, but it was only after his sudden death that the Portuguese realized what kind of difficult situation they were facing.

The impact of Miguel's death was enormous, as Queen Maria was suspicious of the Portuguese aristocracy, who were already hostile to her, and it was no secret that rumours that the prince had been poisoned by his stepmother, and it was impossible to verify how many of them really thought so, and how many simply wished so.

The prince's funeral was held in such a turbulent situation.

According to the arrangement of Manuel I, Prince Miguel's coffin was temporarily placed in the large mourning chamber of the auxiliary hall on the east side of the church of San Francisco in Évora.

Manuel I stood in front of the sarcophagus that was about to close, because no one thought that the prince would die suddenly, so he could only hurry to make a new small sarcophagus, looking at Prince Miguel lying in the sarcophagus like a toy, Manuel did not look at it, which made Archbishop Bullo who had just finished Requiem Mass a little embarrassed, he wanted to whisper to remind the king, but was stopped by Manuel when he just took a step forward.

Manuel turned around, looked at the people standing below, and finally spoke: "My son Miguel, my eldest son, is the heir who I originally thought could inherit my kingdom and continue my career, but now lying here, he was brutally murdered, I don't know who was so cruel to a child who was only 2 years old, but I know that they did it because of their cowardice and cowardice, because they couldn't do it to me, so they turned to murder my son, They wanted to intimidate and stop me in this way, because they knew what I was going to do and they knew that if I did, they would shake their position. But today I am here to tell you that I have made a decision that I will send my strongest fleet and the bravest sailors to explore new routes under the command of my best captains, and I will tell you that I have authorized my captains to declare whatever they find in the depths of the Atlantic where no one has ever been before, and that any person or country that tries to deny and rob them will be regarded as enemies of the Kingdom of Portugal. ”

Manuel's voice echoed in the auxiliary hall, and then outside, his voice was full of anger, but there was an unconcealed passion, at this moment everyone had even ignored the sarcophagus behind him and the funeral of a child, listening to the cheers, the look on the face of the Count of Donluvigo, the envoy of Castile to Portugal, became more and more ugly.

Like everyone else, Count Don Luvigo noticed that Queen Maria did not attend the funeral, which was undoubtedly bad news for him, he had already written a report on what had happened in Lisbon and sent someone back to Valladode, but he did not expect the situation to get so bad, and now it seems that Manuel I had decided that Queen Maria was the mastermind of his son's murder, and given the relationship between Prince Miguel and the two kings, Count Don Luvigo was eager to imagine what kind of attitude the couple should have towards this matter.

What made the Count pay more attention to Manuel's words, from which he heard strong hostility and even provocation, which made Count Don Luvigo angry and surprised, he did not know what Manuel thought would say such a thing, which made him wonder whether he should immediately meet the king to find out the truth or write now to report everything to Queen Isabella.

Count Don Luvigo was a very cautious man, and one of Isabella's most trusted ministers, and for this reason he was also one of the most familiar with the Queen's mind.

He knew very well what Isabella wanted, both in faith and in the world, Isabella actually had ambitions far beyond her husband Ferdinand, which was why many people were willing to follow her when she was a princess, and even willing to participate in the adventure of overthrowing her brother Enrique.

The venture proved to be worth it, and when she finally triumphed, her followers were richly rewarded, and the queen seemed to be more than satisfied with that, and her ambition was both exhilarating and worrying to many, as they saw in Isabella's actions the staggering ambition of her.

Count Don Luvigo knew what he had to do, and he wondered how he and Manuel could have so much confidence, after all, although their power at sea was indeed not to be underestimated, if it really turned into a war between nations, then Portugal would obviously have the upper hand.

It was for this reason that Count Don Luvigo finally decided to get a peek from the king first.

As a close confidant of Isabella, the Count of Don Luvigo was well aware of the situation of the seemingly solid but fragile United Kingdom between Castile and Aragon, especially the turbulent domestic situation between the nobles of the two countries, which also made the Count of Don Luvigo feel more careful in his attitude towards Portugal.

So the Count of Don Luvigo took advantage of the king's presence in Évora after the funeral to request an audience with Manuel, and at the same time he paid close visits to the nobles of the Lisbon court in an attempt to obtain more reliable information from them.

Alexandria also attended Prince Miguel's funeral, and when Manuel delivered his impassioned speech, he was standing in a slightly secluded place, though he had been paying attention not to the king, but to the cold sarcophagus behind him.

When the lid of the sarcophagus finally closed with a dull grinding sound, Alexander seemed to feel that something was also firmly sealed inside with the sarcophagus, and at that moment, he lost his mind slightly.

Then a servant-like man came up and whispered a few words to him, and Alexander looked in the direction he had indicated, and saw Count Mordillo, who was standing far away in a corner of the auxiliary hall.

To Alexander's surprise, the Count was dressed in a dirty, shabby garment, and the mud stains on his face and his messy hair were almost unrecognizable, and if he hadn't looked closely, he wouldn't have thought that this man who looked like an ordinary commoner would be the Count of Naples.

When Alexander looked at him, the Count's gaze turned to him, and after one glance the Count turned away.

In a somewhat remote house in the city of Évora, Alexander met the Count of Mordillo again.

"I see the guilt in your eyes," the Count pushed his glass in front of Alexander, who was sitting opposite, "perhaps you feel guilty and have a troubled conscience for killing a 2-year-old child, so I'll do it for you." ”

A hint of gloom flashed in Alexander's eyes: "Your Excellency, you don't know what I'm thinking. ”

"Oh, forget it, of course I know what you're thinking, you're not thinking much more than I do, so you're not qualified to condemn me," Count Mordillo waved his hand impatiently, and then his hand holding the glass paused and stared at Alexander's eyes, "But a king must be merciful and upright, legend has it that Emperor Nero of Rome was a very cruel man, he could quietly poison his enemies at a banquet, and then watch them die so calmly in front of his eyes, And he even laughed at the ugliness of those people before they died, which was terrible, and it gave him a bad reputation and the greatest tyrant of all time, but is it true? Didn't Nero's bad reputation fall because of his cruelty to Peter and his followers? And what about his successors, they were much better than Nero, but many of them became heroes of Rome, and as for Charlemagne, he was a savage monarch, but look what people say about him. ”

As he spoke, Modillo raised his glass to Alexander, and he drank it in small sips, only then did he look like the famous Neapolitan nobleman.

"Qiao Er," Modillo stood up and walked around the table behind Alexander, reaching out and putting a slight force on his shoulder, "it's almost a little bit, so many years of preparation, I don't want to fail." I'm sure you don't want to fail even more, right? ”

Alexander looked down at the glass in front of him, he was silent for a moment, then nodded, raised his glass and drank it.

Behind him came Modillo's gasp, which seemed to be slightly relieved, and then the hand on his shoulder moved away.

"I need to know what you're going to do," Mordillo sat down across from him, he refilled the two of them with wine, and then looked at Alexander with some curiosity, "I know you said you were going to let Portugal contain Castile, but I don't understand if you really think that by fighting for the new colonies, you can attract Isabella's attention, or even cause greater change, do you really think it's worth it?" ”

Looking at Count Mordiglo's confused expression, Alexander thought about it and could only nod in response, he knew that even if he explained at this time, probably no one would really believe it so unreservedly, after all, what he said was always just speculation in the eyes of others.

Compared with the new oriental route to the real India, the too magical new world on the other side of the ocean is too magical after all, and Manuel, who has decided to invest great strength, has later revealed the attitude that "even if the new colony is just a large archipelago, it is worth it".

Even Castile, who had become more and more attached importance to the new colonies, had a purely predatory mentality about the existence of the new colonies because of Columbus's previous assertions, but Alexander knew that this blindness would soon pass, and when the true face of the New World was fully revealed, people would realize how insignificant what they had done before compared to this magical land.

"After all these years, I'm old," the Count twisted the rim of his glass, and then his eyes lifted to look at Alexander, "but it's all worth it, I've got everything I can think of, and maybe it's not the same as I thought a lot of things at the beginning, but it doesn't matter, because you're still there." ”

Count Mordillo said as he pushed a thick leather bag aside in front of Alexander: "My heart and hope, and all my dreams, are now yours." ”

Alexander stretched out his hand and stroked the surface of the rough leather bag, he knew that this should be the arrangement of Count Mordillo over the years of Iberia's left, this Pandora-like leather bag, once opened, could set off a huge wave on this continental peninsula.

"But be careful," said Count Mordillo suddenly, "there are some people here who are not easy to deal with. ”

Alexander noticed a strange look in Modillo's eyes as he said these words.

"Trust me, all you want is the crown, and some people want something that you are not interested in, so there is no need to offend enemies who are not necessary for you." Count Mordillo's voice was low, and he looked at Alexander with a complicated look in his eyes, as if he was about to say something at this moment, but finally swallowed it back.

"Tell me, Germo Illo," the Count stood up, a strange smile on his face that seemed to be pleased and slightly mocking, "tell me, do you love Josa?" ”

Alexander was stunned for a moment, then nodded silently.

"Love her like a sister, or like a woman?"

"My lord, does it make a difference," Alexander asked quietly, "I wrote to her before, in which I promised her a crown that was the most special in the world, and I think that is enough to prove it." ”

"That only proves that you don't want to owe her, as for love," Mordillo glanced at Alexander with a mocking look, "I'm sure you must have written more than one such letter, so be careful, beware of the curse your name may bring, if you can't keep your dynasty going, then even if you succeed while you're alive, only Alexander's fate awaits you." ”

As he spoke, Modilo pulled his open collar and walked out the door.

But when he reached the door, he stopped and turned around, looked at Alexander with strange eyes for a moment, and finally asked, "Can you tell me who you really are?" ”

After a little silence in the Earl's gaze, Alexander spoke: "Duke of Rometesia, Alexandre Giulian Gombray. ”

Hearing the name, Count Mordillo chuckled and turned to open the door.

Then, the figure of Count Mordilo disappeared from the closed door.

Throughout the year 1500, the European continent was still disturbed, but much of the attention was drawn to the war on the Apennine Peninsula, which was destined to be protracted.

So no one noticed that in the last days of the year, a fleet of 2 huge seagoing vessels was launched from the Tagus River shipyard in Portugal and finally entered the port of Rotterdam in the Low Countries.

Little did anyone know that at about the same time, a team entered Castile from eastern Portugal.