Sebastian Don Carpendi looked out of the window, looking at the distant figures with a dull expression and a word.

Not far behind him, stood several men who were dressed like serious people.

When Don Cappendi turned to look at them, several of them had charming smiles on their faces.

"Be smart, don't look like a bunch of fools."

Don Carpendi walked to the chair on crutches and sat down with great difficulty, his leg had been rheumatized a few years earlier, because of the disease left by the old prison that had been seen for many years, and this unfortunate chronic disease had been haunting him ever since.

In order to make a good impression in front of the Duke of Thesia, he threw away his crutches, but God knows how much he suffered in that short half a day.

"My lord, what is that duke like?" A man with a dark birthmark on his face asked cautiously, "I've heard a lot of people say that he might be king in the future." ”

Don Carpendimo looked at the man silently, took a sip of the glass that had been handed by the other man, and then said slowly, "Be careful what you say, anything can happen at this time." ”

"Of course, of course." The man with the birthmark immediately responded cautiously, but he then asked, "What kind of person is he?" ”

Seeing the curious look on the man's face, and then at the other people who were obviously curious, Don Cappendi raised his glass and shook it slightly, pondered for a moment, and said, "I can't tell, but maybe it's not a bad thing for us." ”

As he spoke, he stood up with his cane and walked to the bookcase in the corner of the room, and took out a thick oilskin paper bag from a drawer.

He unfastened the belt buckle he had been holding on to it, and pulled out a thick stack of papers from a brown paper bag and placed it on the table.

Then his gaze slid over the faces of several people in front of him.

"Look, there were a lot more people who followed me in the previous years, but now there are only a few of you left, and I know some of you have wanted to leave for a long time, but now I'm going to tell you that we might all be lucky."

Hearing Don Carpendi's words, several people immediately showed excitement on their faces, and their eyes were hot and staring at Don Carpendi, waiting for him to announce the good news to them.

"You know I was very ambitious when I was a sheriff," Don Cappendi coughed as he looked at the men in front of him, and then he laughed to himself, "Of course you do, otherwise you wouldn't have stayed here with me for so long." ”

Don Cappendi looked around the room and sighed with emotion.

"My ambition was to get the Queen's approval, so I tried my best to convince Isabella, but I ended up being exiled to this ghost place as a prison warden for almost 10 years," Don Carpendi's tone was angry and unwilling, his eyes sweeping over the faces of everyone in front of him for a moment, and then suddenly asked in a deep voice, "Can I trust you?" ”

Several people looked at each other and nodded slowly.

"Trust us as you did before," said the birthmark man in a low voice, "and if you have any orders, we will obey your orders." ”

Don Cappendi nodded in satisfaction, he patted the thick pile of papers in front of him with his hand, and the gaze in his eyes seemed to remember and seemed to remember some unpleasant past events, revealing chagrin.

"I had suggested to Isabella that there be officials and institutions dedicated to the maintenance of law and order," he said and smiled when he saw that some of his men seemed to be confused, "I am not proposing to appoint a sheriff, you must know that I myself have been a sheriff, but that is not my real position, you know that I am actually a hunting officer in the royal hunting grounds." ”

As if remembering the good old days, Don Cappendi smiled before continuing: "I propose to Isabella the establishment of a special security organization throughout Castile and a minister in charge of this matter, and that every place have such an apparatus that is responsible for the security of the city, but is not under the command of the local magistrate, but only to this minister of justice. ”

Don Cappendi sighed, and he looked down at the suggestions and plans he had worked so hard to prepare, which had been the best opportunity for him to wait for Isabella's appreciation, but he never imagined that this opportunity, which he saw as a good opportunity to pay allegiance to the queen, would become the biggest reason for his exile from Valaridot.

"I know what you're thinking, all these years you think I've rushed to Madrid because I'm too ambitious and disgusted by the Queen, right?"

Don Cappendi didn't care about the evasive glances of a few of his men, he knew early on what people were saying about him behind his back, including the Madrid aristocracy.

Don Carpendi looked at his men and asked, "Do you know why the queen wants to drive me to Madrid?" I suppose you must have thought like the foolish aristocrats that this was a punishment for too much ambition on me. Wrong! The queen would drive me to Madrid just because it was here that I could achieve my ideals better. ”

Seeing the surprised expressions of his subordinates, the warden smiled mockingly, and then his already gloomy face suddenly became even more ugly: "The queen is a very wise person, I have almost never seen a wiser monarch than her, but because of this, I can't forgive her, because she completely ruined me and ruined my dreams!" ”

The search party kept moving along the road, and they were serious along the way, but they were always disappointed.

The search party consisted of several selected prisoners from the Madrid prison and a group of Gonzalo's soldiers.

The soldiers were recruited by Gonzalo in his homeland, and their loyalty to him was unquestionable, and it was for this reason that he sent them on this mission.

As for the prisoners, according to Don Cappendi, they were the most vile of scoundrels, and the crimes they committed were the inquisitors of the Inquisition, accustomed to evil deeds, who were terrified at the sight of them, and it was for this reason that he was relieved to recommend them to Alexander.

What to do if you find Juana?

What if Ferdinand's men got the first step?

Or did both parties encounter each other because they both discovered her whereabouts?

These may have been told to these men before they set out, and not only that, but Gonzalo also gave secret orders to his soldiers about the more serious accidents that might occur.

Now these men were making inquiries along the way in the direction of the Segovia ferry, but unlike the search parties that had already been dispatched, some of them had been given more important tasks.

The port of Segovia suddenly became particularly busy, and the people who had been coming and going since the day before, most of them looking worried, asked the locals again and again about the whereabouts of a few strange-sounding travelers.

Although people have been impatient to tell those people that they have never seen so many people, as soon as a group of people come, they will ask them non-stop.

The people of Segovia soon found that this seemed like a good opportunity to make a fortune, and some began to be deliberately vague at first, and then perfunctory in a point-in-the-other way.

The result of this is often one of two ends.

One is where someone gets a reward, and the other is when they are brutally arrested and beaten and then have to say what they know or don't know.

In either case, the searchers were disappointed, Juana was still missing, and the atmosphere of panic and vague eagerness grew stronger.

It was the third day, and the people of Valariolidot were already sure that something had happened to Juana, otherwise they would have already entered the confines of Madrid even if they managed to escape their pursuers.

Then Madrid should have reacted somewhat.

Even though for some reason the Madrid side may temporarily conceal the news of Juana's whereabouts, the signs of search parties from the southern shore of the Segovia ferry crossing are also frequent, and the Valliaridodes have a vague feeling that Juana should not be on the Madrid side.

Anxiety has spread throughout the city, and the palace has become more heavily guarded, with guards made up of Aragonese and Catalan mercenaries blocking several roads leading to the palace, and some say that cannons are being seen being carried on the palace's side......

This situation made the people of Valaridot even more nervous, and even the children who were not yet sensible seemed to laugh much less when they played, as they sensed that something terrible might happen, while the adults, both men and women, were worried all day long.

At Beruguete's house on Old School Street, young Alonso looked out of the window on the second floor to the street in the distance.

Master Normezi has been gone for a long time, and Alonso has not forgotten that he promised to take him to Florence, so Alonso has resumed his anticipation of waiting for Lord Normezi every day during this time.

It's just that Master Normezi never showed up, and Alonso saw through the window that something terrible seemed to be happening outside all day.

As he was now, Alonso staggered down the stairs because he had stepped on the floor in such a hurry that he was falling straight down the dust.

"Mom, there's someone out there." Alonso said to his mother, who was looking in the direction of the closed door, and when he saw that his mother immediately raised a finger at him, Alonso quickly closed his mouth, but then whispered, "Someone has taken the cobbler Sechoude." ”

"He deserved it," the woman snorted first, but then she probably felt that she should not say such a thing in front of her child, and was ready to send her son away.

At that moment, there was a sudden knock on the door.

Both mother and son were involuntarily startled, until they heard the sound of old Beruget calling the door outside the door.

Old Beruget, who had hurried into the house through the crack in the open door, looked at his wife, who was guarding the door, and when he came in, he immediately closed the door, and then muttered as he walked into the house: "When I came back just now, I saw that the cobbler Sechud had been arrested. ”

"I saw him upstairs and he was thrown into the carriage by the soldiers," Alonso immediately followed his father's words, and then added, "Mom said he deserved him, but why?" ”

"Don't ask casually, children," old Berugette glanced at his wife dissatisfied, walked to the table and sat down and sighed again, "Even the cobbler Sechud has been arrested, this is going to be messy." ”

"But I still say he deserves it," muttered the woman whispering, placing a plate of jerky in front of her husband, "and his cobbler's shop was bought by a tip-off, and it was left to his nephew by his brother, and it was returned to him." ”

"Sechud is a secret to many people, because this one is also said to be a secret agent of the Inquisition," old Berugette picked up the jerky and stuffed it into his mouth as he ate it, and said in a vague tone, "But I don't understand, but why should he be arrested, you must know that in the past two days, many people who have everything to do with the trial have been arrested." ”

"I heard it's because of Pastor Tongomada?" The woman asked in a low voice, and seeing that her husband didn't say anything to stop her, she became a little bolder, "I heard that the queen, I mean that Juana disappeared along with her husband and Pastor Tongo Mada, is it true?" ”

"It's all going on outside," said old Berugette sullenly, and then sighed, "Alas, there are rumors everywhere now, and I don't know what happened, but I hope these bad things will pass soon." ”

"I know ......"

Alonso, who had been sitting at the top of the stairs, suddenly said that when he saw his parents looking over, he used to shrink his neck before saying: "When I delivered those carved toys to the palace yesterday, I heard the servants of the palace say that it seems that the queen really disappeared, just two days ago. ”

"Shut up," old Berugette immediately scolded his son harshly, and when he saw Alonso so frightened, he immediately sat back on the stairs, and he couldn't help but lower his voice and ask, "What else have you heard?" ”

"I heard that the queen had fled, and some said that she had gone with her husband and the priest Tongomada to the Duke of Thesia."

Alonso rarely appeared very important in front of his parents, and he excitedly told his parents what he had heard from the palace servants, much to the surprise of the old Berugette and his wife, and even more so later.

"So, is it really possible that the queen and the duke are said to be cousins?" The woman asked her husband curiously.

"So what, their parents are still brothers and sisters," retorted old Berugette disapprovingly, "but if this is true, it is no wonder that Sechud was arrested, but who would have thought that the Reverend Tongomada would run away, he is loyal to the Queen." ”

When the husband says this, the woman has to say something.

But before she could speak, there was a knock on the door!

Although the knock on the door was not loud, it seemed to be a little urgent, and the sound reached the house so that the three members of the family who were talking energetically couldn't help but be startled.

Old Beruget instinctively stood up, took two steps forward and looked back at his wife and son, and then looked at the door again.

After a slight pause, there was another knock on the door, which startled the people in the room again.

"Go upstairs," old Berugette whispered to his son, and when he saw Alonso go up the stairs and look down the fence around the corner, he walked to the door and asked in a low voice, "Who?" ”

"A friend," said the same low voice from outside, as if sensing the suspicion of the man in the room, and the man outside said again, "it was Normezi who asked me to knock on the door, and he said he could ask the family for help." ”

Hearing the words of the outsider, Old Beruget was stunned, but after a little hesitation, he still opened the crack in the door and looked out: "It was Master Normezi who asked you to come, and his body is still as good as before, right?" ”

"He's not good," the traveler, who was wrapped tightly outside the door for the season, chuckled at old Berugut's words, "he was bad when he left here, wasn't he?" ”

Hearing the man's answer, old Berugette had no doubts, and he immediately opened the door wider, and closed it as soon as the man entered.

The man stood for a moment as he entered, slowly removing a large turban from his head, as the couple and Alonso peeked down from the railing upstairs.

Seeing the person's appearance, the family of three couldn't help but gasp at the same time.

"My name is Uliu," the Moorish gaze swept over the couple, and then looked up at the staircase, "I've probably been bothering you here for a while." ”