On the east bank of the Manzanares River in the west of Madrid, an abandoned section of the city wall came to an abrupt halt, and the large ruins and swarthy masonry seemed to prove how majestic the city was in the first place, but with the expulsion of the Moors from the peninsula and the continuous expansion of the city to the east, this section of the city wall that was originally built along the Manzanares River is now gradually deserted.

Since the Moors were driven out of Madrid more than 140 years ago, Madrid has suffered several major natural disasters and turmoil, but after Isabella and Ferdinand announced their marriage, and then held a grand wedding ceremony here, with the resolution of the conflict between Castile and Aragon and the gradual unification of the two countries, the city of Madrid, which was originally more focused on military defense, gradually developed in the direction of a commercial city.

Today, with a population of nearly 200,000, Madrid is almost the largest city on the Liberian Peninsula, and even Seville, which has a significant position in the south, cannot be compared to the rapid growth of the city and population.

The city of Madrid, located on a plateau, looks very well demarcated from afar. The northern part is neatly blocked by the central Iberian mountain range at the foot of its southern foothills, while the southern part is directly blocked by the Tagus River.

As a result, Madrid would have to expand in an east-west direction, and the Manzanares River, which had been used as a natural line of defense, naturally became the western border of the city.

The city of Madrid now expands eastward along the slopes of the plateau, and has grown even more rapidly as the threat from Aragon no longer exists.

On the east bank of the river in Manzanares there is a small farmstead owned by a typical wealthy family, whose property consists of a small plot of land and a flock of sheep, as well as a pack cart and a donkey pulling it.

The family originally consisted of a total of five people, and in addition to the head of the family, the eldest of their three children was an adult, and the youngest had only recently learned to walk.

This is a very ordinary family, in Madrid or anywhere else this is a typical well-off family, that is to say, their life may not be very rich, but as long as the year is good, not only can they have a full stomach, but also a slight surplus, such a family is precisely the most unnoticeable in Castile today, so no one cares that their home suddenly has a guest.

Sister Alfette had been sent to this family for some time, having been snatched out of the convent by the rude pirates and delivered to Toledo like a cargo, but she was soon sent to Madrid.

The family apparently did not know the origin of Sister Alfurt, but they did their duty faithfully.

That is to say, they became Sister Alfurt's guardians, but they were told to be polite and careful with the nun.

Sister Alft never knew why she was facing such a change, she originally thought that she had met human traffickers, although her years of life in the convent did not give her much impression of what level she looked, but at least from the envious and jealous looks of many nuns, at least she was not ugly.

This made her worry about herself at first, but then she realized that the robbers were so wary of her that the bandit leader did not even allow his men to come near her, and then in Toledo she met a different person.

The man seemed to know "who she was".

The reason for this is that Sister Alft was told that she was an orphan from a young age, so she was sent to that convent, but this experience made her realize that maybe her origin was not so simple.

It wasn't hard for her to think so, after all, in the previous 19 years of her life, she really couldn't remember any relationship she had with these people, so the only explanation was her background.

Sister Alfurt was now sitting on the balcony in front of the window of the cottage of the farmhouse, the stone table was covered with a thick layer of sheepskin, and the fire in the hearth was very hot, and although the snow was falling outside, the room was very warm.

Sister Alft had taken off her black nun gown, but had replaced it with a coarse cloth skirt from the housekeeper's daughter.

The style of the skirt is a bit old, but it has no patches and is clean, but she has been wearing a nun's robe for many years, and suddenly changes into worldly clothes, which makes Sister Alfurt somewhat uncomfortable.

When they first arrived, the family was very nervous, they didn't know who the nun was who had been sent by Bald, and they didn't know what the reason for sending her here, but they knew that if they didn't serve her well, or let her run away, then the family would be out of luck.

But fortunately, Sister Alfurt did not seem to intend to embarrass them, she was honest from the beginning, and even once saw someone visiting the house, she took the initiative to hide and did not show up.

Sister Alft, of course, did not want to stay because she thought she believed them, but remembered what the strange young man had said to her when she had left Toledo earlier.

"Maybe I'm not a good person in your eyes, but believe me, the outside of the monastery is more dangerous than you think, you don't know what you'll face if you escape, but stay at least you're safe now."

Although she had not left the convent for as long as she could remember, Sister Alfurt was clearly much smarter than one of her crazy sisters, and although she did not believe the young man's words, she chose to wait for the moment rather than die in a rash madness before she had clarified the series of questions.

A young man hurried towards the farmstead, the eldest son of the owner of the farm, Devita, the little Devita, and when Sister Alft first entered his house, the young man was completely stunned by the beauty of the young girl who suddenly appeared.

Although he knew at first glance that she was a Moorish half-breed, he was still hopelessly infatuated with this girl of mysterious origin.

It's just that his mind was immediately seen through by his father, and then he was sent away from home.

Now that he had finally returned from the city of Madrid, and had not yet entered the house, looking at the outline of the house from afar, thinking of the young girl who was now living there, little Devita could not help but feel hot in his heart, and his steps quickened.

Devita's house is not very far from the city of Madrid, or his home is on the edge of the city, because the farm is close to the main road to the Manzanares crossing, so you can see the people on the ferry from a distance.

Little Devita put his hands in the thick short robe that wrapped around his body, he was sent to the city by his father to work for a rich man who had paid for the construction of a house, and because he did not expect this money in the past, and the family already had a lot of farm work, DeVita would not send his son out.

But after seeing his son's immediate fascination with the girl, he immediately drove his son out of the house in a hurry.

Little DeVita walked forward in a hurry, he had never felt that his home was so far away, as if he could not walk any way.

At last the shadow of the farm could be seen clearly, because it was night, and the smoke could still be seen faintly wafting from the rooftop, and the memory of the fragrant coarse wheat cakes made by his mother and the fish that was always marinated in saffron juice, little Devita felt hungry.

But he couldn't wait to get home as soon as he got paid for the house after it was built, and he never stopped except stopping at a stall on the road to buy a small gift for the girl named Alft.

Little Devita strode vigorously over a dry ridge, from where he could take a shortcut and go straight to the house.

But just as he had just jumped over the ridge and was about to run home, a rapid sound of horses' hooves in the distance caught his attention.

Because this area only has his own home, little Devita can be sure that those people are coming towards his own home.

This made his heart tense all at once, and he couldn't help but think of the scene when the girl named Alft was sent suddenly.

It was also in the evening that the strangers suddenly visited his home, and the father seemed to be very familiar with one of the fierce-looking men, and even seemed to be a little afraid of him.

After chatting alone with the fierce-looking man behind closed doors, Daddy announced to the family that they would have a guest staying in the house, and it was unknown how long he would stay.

Then little DeVita meets the half-race girl named Alft.

All these changes dazzled little Devita, but he never forgot the man with this fierce face.

The sound of horses' hooves was getting closer, and little Devita saw several figures on horseback running from the distant dirt path around the farmland in the direction of his house.

Behind the men, a carriage staggered behind.

Little Devita's heart skipped a beat, and he remembered that Alft had been in such a carriage when he had come, and now that it had reappeared, he immediately realized what might happen.

Little Devita immediately quickened his pace and ran through the field, his mouth wide open, the cold, dry air sucked into his mouth to relax his already hot chest slightly, but then his throat was dry and painful.

When little Devita ran to the door, he saw that the men had already entered the house, and sure enough, the carriage stopped outside the courtyard of the farmstead, and a well-wrapped coachman did not get down, but sat on the carriage and bit the jerky in his hand.

Little Devita hurried into the house and immediately saw the fierce-looking man again.

At the sight of little Devita, the man grinned at him, but this did not make him look kinder, but more hideous.

"I'm here to pick up the young lady." The man told the DeVita family that the younger DeVita noticed that his accent sounded strange, clearly not from Madrid, and possibly not even from Castile.

Seeing that his son immediately looked anxious, the corners of Old Devita's mouth twitched, and then he looked at the man.

"We're going to have to hurry up, and we'll get to the other side of the river before it's all dark."

The man urged impatiently, and at the same time took out a heavy money bag from his deep pocket and threw it on the table, making a muffled "thump" sound.

Little Devita's heart trembled at the sound of this muffled sound, and he looked with some difficulty at the door of the back room, and saw his mother carrying a bag inside, and after a while the girl named Alft came out.

She was dressed in a dark travel suit, a thick coarse cloth skirt and a short cape with a hood that wrapped her tightly.

Sister Alfurt's face flashed with panic at the sight of the man, and she would not forget that this man was one of the robbers who had snatched her out of the convent in the first place.

Although the leader of the robbers sternly warned his men not to offend him, Sister Alfurt could not forget the look in the eyes of the robber with a rosacea nose that frightened her when she looked at her.

"Miss, you're coming out, if we slow down a little longer, we'll have to go through the night." Rosacea grumbled with some dissatisfaction, and James told him to be polite and polite to the young half-breed girl, or he would be unkind to him.

And James's exact words were: "If I hear that even the slightest reason for your cause upsets her, I will hang you on the mast and dry you all the way to a pile of bacon the next time I go to sea." ”

Rosacea was careful to send Sister Alfout to Toledo and then to Madrid, and James would not have let Rosacea pick her up alone if he had to leave immediately because he had something very important.

As if sensing little Devita's concern, Sister Alfurt couldn't help but look at him, and when she saw the young man's expression that seemed to be trying to restrain something, she couldn't help but sigh in her heart, and then turned and walked silently out the door.

Little DeVita followed to the gate of the courtyard, watched the carriage go in the direction of the ferry, until it gradually disappeared into the darkness that had dimmed, he wiped the tears on his face a little dazed, and saw a necklace with rough workmanship and a black agate in his hand, Little Devita suddenly felt an indescribable sadness in his heart, he clutched the necklace hard, and then dragged his tired body towards the house.

It was already completely dark, which made Sister Alfurt nervous, and she couldn't forget the rosacea look at her, but fortunately they were soon at the ferry.

Sister Alfurt didn't know where the men were going to send her, and they kept her in the carriage, not even letting her out of the carriage when crossing the river.

There is a convenient road from Madrid to the Valria, and after crossing the Manzanares River, they follow the road all the way to the Valria, which they follow.

Sister Alfort had tried to find an opportunity to ask Rosacea about herself, but it was clear that they had been instructed not to reveal anything to her, and she was left restless and uneasy with all sorts of speculation and worries along the way.

Sister Alfurt could vaguely guess that her current strange encounter might have something to do with her background, but she couldn't figure out why these people had taken such great pains to carry her from one place to another, and had to hide her so carefully.

It's not like she didn't want me to run away, especially when she was at Devita's house, she thought about finding an opportunity to escape, but the fear of the outside world made her afraid to take risks.

She had been in the convent for too long, almost for as long as she could remember, when she was very young she was always stared at by some people around her, and she remembered that she was always locked up in a large house and could not leave the house, and when she was a little older, she was suddenly sent to a convent in the depths of the swamp.

In her memory, she knew that someone had visited her often, and although he had never been to the convent, she could feel that the man seemed to care about her.

But that was all when he was a child, and as he grew older, the man came less and less, and he didn't show up for a long time.

Sister Alfurt had guessed who that person was, and even guessed that he might be her father.

She had never seen what he looked like, but she knew that his body seemed to be inconvenient, because every time the man came, he seemed to be in a wheelchair.

The man would stay long behind the window outside the monastery door, and she was ordered to stand in the courtyard and bow far away to the two gates that would never open.

I remember when she was a child, the nuns who brought her to see the person would make her walk around the courtyard a few times, as if to let the person see that she was in good health, and although the nuns stopped letting her do these obviously boring things as she grew older, they always asked her to report her studies and life to the person behind the door.

That man was probably her father, or perhaps he was a nobleman of high status, and he was the illegitimate son of him and some lowly woman.

Sister Alfurt often guessed this, but then the person came less and less, and after that, they simply did not see each other for a long time, which made Sister Alfurt very sad.

Are these people going to take her to that person, to her father, and maybe to her mother?

Sister Alfurt was thinking wildly, and this kind of speculation was the main reason why she didn't run away.

On the way, they heard rumors on and off that the queen was seriously ill, but the rosacea apparently didn't care about that.

Sister Alfret, on the other hand, was very concerned about the queen's condition, knowing that Isabella was a pious queen and that it was because of her and her husband Ferdinand that she had been able to drive the heretics out of Iberia once and for all.

And because of their strong faith, they almost completely expelled the Jews of the Iberian Peninsula from their country.

Sister Alfurt prayed for the Queen's health, and she even made a wish that she would be willing to endure great suffering if the Queen recovered.

But God apparently did not hear her prayers, and as she was about to reach the Barriarides, the sad news of the queen's calling finally came.

Sister Alft wept over the Queen's death, but rosacea didn't care, he just wanted to get to his destination as soon as possible.

Torlistias is a small town south of Barriaridud, built on the side of the valley where the ancient river diverted and dried up, so the whole town is surrounded by the valley except for the exits at both ends of the town.

Follow the valley north through Torlisteas and walk a few more fats into the place under the jurisdiction of the Barriaridus, which became a prosperous place because it was a must-pass.

Rosacea led the party slowly along the valley toward the town, having been instructed before they came to be as cautious as possible when approaching the Barriaridus, and not to attract unnecessary attention.

The town was much livelier than ever, the impact of the Queen's death was great, and some nobles from afar were rushing to Valariedod, and now the whole of Torlisteas was full of people.

A guard of more than a dozen cavalry gathered around a carriage, and as the two teams staggered through the street, Sister Alfort, who was sitting in the carriage, let out a low cry when she overheard a strange wheelchair strapped to the back of the carriage.

Her whisper seemed to attract the attention of the people in the carriage opposite, and a very tall figure flickered through the window of the carriage covered with thick curtains.

Sister Alfurt was stunned, she felt that she saw a familiar shadow, but the thought that she had never left the convent was a little ridiculous.

In the carriage opposite, Don Bavi also looked at the passing carriage, and his heart was surging with a trace of doubt, "This voice sounds very familiar".