The violent explosion lit up the black river in an instant, and the flash reflected the snow on the river surface, and the dazzling light and the small waves reflected each other in a large area of light made the river surface like a dazzling star rising in an instant, followed by the explosion, a darkness swallowed the "starlight" that had just been lit up.

It wasn't until the dimming had passed a little that the fire began to burn on the ship, which had been blown up beyond recognition.

There were screams from the ship, some loud, some so weak, that by the flickering light of the flames, the people on board could be seen running back and forth in panic, some jumping straight from the ship, and some seemed to be trying to grab something from the tattered deck.

Suddenly, a panicked man let out an anxious shout, and although the scene was chaotic, people could still hear what he was shouting: "Where are the people, where are the people?!" ”

At this time, no one cared about him, and knowing that this man was sentenced, he grabbed a sailor who was running by, and kept yelling at him, and the sailor vaguely recognized this man as the owner of the ship from his embarrassed face.

"Where are the people?!"

Hearing the ship's owner's questioning, the sailor, while trying to break the pair that was about to suffocate him, gasped and asked urgently: "Who, who are you talking about!" ”

"That's it......" the merchant paused, even now he didn't want anyone to know about his mission, "it's my accountant, that old man, who of you saw him?" ”

The sailor still kept pulling the merchant's hands, he never thought that this merchant would have so much strength, more powerful than those of them who have been doing heavy work all year round: "I don't know, I haven't seen that old man, hurry up and let go of my ship into the water, this place will collapse!" ”

With the sailor's words, a flame suddenly burst out of the burning hull from below the deck, and as the flames instantly devoured the surrounding wood, the whole ship began to squeeze over with the central part that had been flooded and had been stranded to the bottom of the water.

"Oh! Oh~"

The merchant let out a reluctant roar, and then he jumped over the gang and into the water with the sailors who had already jumped into the water.

But he didn't go far, standing waist-deep in the water, and he and the crew standing not far behind him stared blankly at the large ship, which had been completely engulfed in flames.

The merchant looked gloomy and motionless as he watched the hull of the ship moan in the firelight, and from time to time something fell from the hull into the water with flames and smoke.

He seemed to see that the future he had been orchestrating for himself had been reduced to ashes by the flames, and that his mission had failed here, and it was conceivable that the future awaited him was bleak.

The light of the fire shone on his face, reflecting an ugly face.

The sailors were equally frustrated, unaware of what was happening, as the sudden explosion knocked many people out of their sleep or directly from the shock of the explosion, while some unfortunate enough to be close to the bombing site were already injured in varying degrees of severity.

Looking back at the sailors who were standing in the water and supported by their companions with their bloody faces, and then at the few people who had been carried to the shore and lay there without knowing whether they were alive or dead, the merchant turned sullenly and walked towards the shore.

Then he sat down on the damp shore rocks, and then he looked up again at the huge outline of the collapsing flame with a complicated expression.

"What do we do next?" A sailor approached, and behind him several men followed.

To these sailors, they were just temporary hired men by the merchant, and they would never have imagined that such a thing would happen, and looking at the companions around them who could not stop moaning in pain, these sailors could not help but worry that the merchant who was the owner of the ship would simply run away for fear of taking responsibility.

"What should I do?" The merchant looked at the sailors in front of him who were afraid that he would slip away at any time, scratched his wet hair, looked at the dirt in his fingernails that he couldn't see clearly even if there was a distant flame shining in the distance, and shrugged his shoulders to the sailors, "God knows what to do, now let's look at the others." ”

Saying that, he stood up tiredly and looked at the sailors lying on the shore, but sighed again: "Let's look at those people first, I hope they are lucky." ”

Watching the merchant walk towards the wounded after speaking, several sailors looked at each other, and their faces became extremely ugly.

The injuries of the injured sailors ranged from minor to severe, but fortunately, no one was in danger of dying for the time being.

It's just strange that an elderly accountant who has been hiding in the cabin since getting on the ship with the owner of the ship has disappeared inexplicably.

The fire continued to burn until dawn.

However, there was a large area of charred wreckage left on the river, and there were many burned and scattered hulls flowing down with the high tide at night, looking at the black wreckage stranded on the shore, the sailors looked at the uncertain face of the merchant, and did not know what to say for a while.

The ship had burned down, and the sailors were now nowhere to go, and although it was inevitable to be away from home these days, they did not expect such a thing to happen.

The sailors didn't know how to deal with the sudden situation, and they didn't know what the group owner had planned.

But the thought that a great deal of cargo had been destroyed, and that such a loss was enough to ruin a solid family, so that the sailors could not help but fear that their trip might be in vain.

But they didn't expect that after hanging the wreckage of the cargo ship and the missing old accountant, the merchant seemed to relax a lot with his sullen breath, and he turned his head to look at the sailors who were standing behind him and were watching the wreckage with him, and then beckoned everyone to gather together.

"Alright, I'm getting out of here." Seeing the change in the sailors' expressions, the merchant waved his hand to them, "Don't worry, you won't go without money, and I will treat those who are wounded, but I want some of you to stay and take care of them, and as for the others, you can go to Madrid with me, so that you don't have to worry that I will run away." ”

The merchant's advice surprised the sailors, who did not know what he was going to do in Madrid at this time, empty-handed.

However, as he himself said, it is entirely up to this person whether or not they are doing this trip in vain, so they must follow him, and as for how he will get the money under such a huge loss now, it is not something they need to care about.

After some deliberation, several crew members who had volunteered to stay behind to care for the wounded agreed that their companions would keep their remuneration for them, so they took their own bids to each other on the banks of the river, and the majority of the crew, led by the merchant, followed him along the road to Madrid.

"That person, what's going on?" Looking at the backs of those people who gradually disappeared into the jungle, a sailor who stayed behind to take care of the wounded asked his companion next to him in confusion, "I don't know why, I think it's better to stay away from that person, you must know that we are so hungry now because of him." ”

The companion nodded in agreement with him, and it was precisely because of this intention that these people who were willing to stay preferred to choose to stay at the risk that they might not get the money.

After all, the sailors who left could have their money to themselves.

"Okay, let's go back, we need to send these people to the nearest town, and see how pitiful they are, and how lucky we are to be with them."

A few men began to get busy as they spoke, one was sent to the nearest town to report the news, and the rest prepared to transport their companions.

The nearby town was not very far away, which was why the sailors were annoyed with the merchant.

They didn't know why he had to spend the night away from the village, and while it wasn't clear who had attacked them, many still thought that if they had stayed in the village, it might not have happened.

The sailors, who had been somewhat worried about the possibility of being attacked again, had been reassured that nothing unusual had been noticed until dawn, and they could vaguely guess that the attackers of the ship seemed to be targeting the merchant and not them.

This is one of the reasons why these people don't want to follow the merchant on.

The sailor, who hurried to a nearby town, ran through the wilderness, where there was no road nearby, and he had to make his way through the thorny wilderness with great difficulty.

His clothes had been torn to pieces, his shoes were in tatters, and the sailor was out of breath despite the cool weather.

Until he saw several people standing on the slope beside a grove of trees from a distance, looking in his direction.

The sailor hesitated, but when he saw that the road leading to the town was near where they were standing, he thought that these people were probably the townspeople.

He walked briskly towards the men, but gradually the sailor began to feel uneasy as he saw them.

These hanging swords and swords, at first glance, were not good people, obviously not the villagers nearby, and the thought of the attack the night before, the sailors could not help but get nervous.

"Looks like our friend is out of luck," a man with this obvious rosacea nose on his face patted the sword hanging from his waist, and when he saw that the sailor realized that something was wrong and turned to flee, he took the crossbow that had been loaded long ago from his companion and aimed it at the sailor, "Come over obediently, or I'll drill a hole in you." ”

Rosacea's words caused several people next to him to laugh, and they all took out their crossbows and short guns, as if they were about to hunt the frightened rabbit, and aimed them at the sailor who was already frightened and cold.

The sailor shuddered and fell backwards, he wanted to turn and run, but he knew that he could not escape, and he did not dare to turn his back to these men, for he did not know when he would be killed.

Rosacea took two steps forward and pointed at the sailor with the crossbow in his hand.

"Tell me where your people are now."

"They, they're out of here," the sailor struggled to make a trembling sound, "I don't know where they've gone, it's just a few of us over there now, and there are the wounded, please let us go, it's none of our business." ”

Rosacea narrowed his eyes, and he almost walked up to the sailor, grabbed him by the collar and whispered, "Tell me, where is the Pope." ”

"Who?"

Asked casually.

"Pope, Alexander VI, tell me where he is now, on the ship or has he left with the others?"

For a moment the sailor seemed to be unable to understand rosacea, but then he suddenly seemed to think of something incredible, his mouth suddenly opened wide, and his voice trembled: "Yes, it's the old man, yes, that's right, it's him, the accountant, he's the pope?" ”

Listening to the sailor's stammering words, rosacea tugged down again: "Tell me where is the man you said?" ”

"Dead," the sailor's body trembled even more, "and he was killed in the ship, and no one even saw the corpse. ”

"Didn't see a body?" Rosacea's face suddenly darkened, and he pulled the sailor closer to his face, "Tell me what happened, and where you said all the people who had left." ”

"It's Madrid, and the merchant went to Madrid with the others."

Listening to the sailor's words, the rosacea was stunned for a moment, and he looked back at a few companions with a gloomy face: "Tell me that you are not the same as I think." ”

Some of them shrugged, and some pouted helplessly.

"Looks like things are more troublesome than we thought," Rosacea muttered in an unhappy whisper, before turning back and patting the sailor in the face, "Don't worry, your companions will soon be coming for you." ”

The sailor was stunned, but before he could realize, the crossbow arrow had pierced his chest, and the bloody tip of the arrow was shining from his back.

"Go find them," rosacea pulled the bolt from the sailor's corpse, he wiped the blood from it, and put the arrow back in the crossbow trough, "I think we seem to have overlooked something before, so we must not let anyone suspicious go this time." ”

A group of people immediately mounted their horses and, led by rosacea, ran in the direction of the riverbank.

On the busy Tagus River, a horrific conspiracy slaughters caused panic among people near the shore.

The murder was first discovered by some villagers living along the nearby downstream coast.

They first found the wreckage and debris of what appeared to have been wrecked and burned by the river, which reminded them of the glow of the fire that seemed to have appeared upstream the night before.

Then, people found bodies that had drifted down from upstream.

From the scars on those people and the way they were in pain, it is clear that they had been tortured and tortured in their lives.

Whether or not they said the wrong thing the killer wanted to know, they could not escape the fate of being slaughtered.

This terrible thing alarmed the officials of the nearby towns, and at such times, the strange slaughter could not save it all the more confusing.

And as a terrible rumor spreads, the mysterious and horrific killing on the Tagus River seems to have a surprising answer.

Pope Alexander VI, who had been invited by the regent of Castile, suddenly disappeared on his way to Madrid, and his last words seem to have been heard from near the banks of the Tagus River, where the massacre took place.

The unexpected disappearance of the Pope sent those who heard the news into a panic, and many could not help but think of the terrible experience of Juana and his wife.

When he heard the terrible news from the passing town, a Moorish man who was walking leisurely north in a carriage shook his head and sighed: "James, it seems that you should take care of your pirates. ”