The village of Alfrague is located on the high ground north of Lisbon, where it is perennially eroded by the sea breeze from the south, so the south side is eroded by weathering and tidal rain, the terrain is steep and steep, many houses are built directly on the side of the rather steep cliffs, and a mountain road stretches to the top of the mountain next to the cliff, from the bottom of the mountain it looks like a road to the sky.

Just a few years ago, the village of Alfrag was not very prosperous, because of the topography here, there was a small castle built on the top of the hill as a watchtower and barracks, and dozens of soldiers were stationed in it all year round, and because they were actually located on the edge of the capital city, no enemies would easily appear on either sea or land, and over time, this small castle had fewer and fewer soldiers stationed there, and it was about to be abandoned.

But just two years ago, Maria of Aragon, who succeeded her dead sister Isabella of Aragon as Queen of Portugal, suddenly took a fancy to this place.

The only reason Queen Mary fell in love with this humble hilltop village on the northern outskirts of Lisbon was because of the seemingly long and slightly steep mountain road.

Known locally as the "Road to Heaven", the road became a testing ground for Maria's "Castilian devotion to faith", and she asked King Manuel to renovate the small castle on the top of the hill and renovate the castle buildings to make it a prayer hall.

According to Maria's explanation, this mountain road is so steep and dangerous that it is like the path of the Bible that Jesus Christ walked barefoot step by step with a crown of thorns on his head and a sackcloth robe, and as a devout believer, he should repeat this feat, so she asked Manuel to not only transform the hilltop castle into a prayer hall, but also ask the king to give an order to personally lead all the ministers and nobles of the Lisbon court on Good Friday every year to "re-walk the path of martyrdom and remember the heart of Christ". At the same time, all of us should reflect deeply on our selfishness from the depths of our hearts, and then resolve to carry out to the end the great cause of rescuing our brothers in Christ who have been oppressed by the infidels all over the world.

Mary was clearly religious, and Manuel I certainly could not make such a pious and passionate suggestion against his wife in this matter, so at the sound of an order, the village of Alfrag came alive, the castle was demolished, the castle was rebuilt, and crosses were erected along the mountain road, which was regarded as a symbol of the Way of the Cross, to foreshadow the heavy burden that Jesus Christ had borne in the first place.

The Lisbon court had different opinions on this decision, but the queen's piety was still quite appreciated, and Maria was personally pleased, she felt that she had brought a new wind to Portugal, and in her opinion the Portuguese were sloppy in their faith, which could not be compared to the atmosphere in the Castilian court, and Manuel I's perfunctory attitude towards religious matters was even more unbearable for her, just think of how her mother, Queen Isabella, was keen to spread the glory of the Lord, Mary felt the need to replace the king as the religious spokesperson of the country's secular society.

So she began to appear in churches, monasteries, and all kinds of religious ceremonies, and because the Reconquista had only just ended, and even many of those who had witnessed the final victory of the movement that had lasted for centuries could bear witness to it, so Maria's actions quickly gained popular support.

This made Maria even more proud, and she simply deliberately showed herself on some occasions in a strong way that she was a better person to deal with the church than Manuel I, and her enthusiasm for building churches and spreading the gospel did win the favor of the church.

Mary was indeed very religious, no doubt due to her mother's influence, perhaps because of her title as Protector of the Holy Land and the titular title of Crown of Jerusalem, Queen Isabella's obsession with the Holy Land had made her want to reorganize the Crusaders to liberate the Holy Land more than once.

The village of Alfrag was not intended to be a good place for Maria to show herself to the Portuguese as the "pious queen", who would come here on the last day of every month and hike up the road metaphorically on the Stations of the Cross, spend the night in the prayer hall inside, and then descend the next morning back to Lisbon.

This made her a popular following, and although her Castilian status was inevitably uncomfortable with the Portuguese, at least she was much more popular than her sister had been when she was queen.

At the end of August, Lisbon was already much cooler, the wind blowing from the sea drove away the heat, and people who had been lazy due to the hot weather were also active, but the most important thing is that with the arrival of the monsoon season, the fleet that had already gone to Africa in the first half of the year is likely to return.

At this time last year, da Gama's return caused a frenzy among many people, and the stories of the treasures and unimaginable riches he brought with him from the East made many people talk about it even a year later, and Da Gama not only made a fortune but also had the full support of Manuel I.

So da Gama decided to make persistent efforts, and while providing all the information about the new route for the other expedition fleet that Manuel had decided to send, he also began to actively prepare for his second expedition, and this time, because of the great success of the previous one, as soon as the news got out, countless people were eager to provide convenience and funds for his voyage, but da Gama did not seem to be so eager to accept the kindness of those people, or he already had a satisfactory investor.

Maria was of course pleased with da Gama's success, because the precious stones, ivory and gold that da Gama had given to Manuel, were soon sold for a large sum of money and invested in the construction of the Lisbon Cathedral, which would take 200 years to complete and become a symbol of Portugal's wealth and power.

It's just that no one would have thought that it was also this church that later became a bottomless pit that almost squeezed out Portugal.

The larger expedition fleet under the command of another seafaring explorer and soldier, Cabrral, had already set sail more than two months ago, and this time without waiting for the voyage, Manuel generously gave the expedition more rights than waiting until it was fully loaded, as Vasco da Gama did.

Not only was Cabral given the post of deputy commander of the Indian Navy, but he was also given the enormous power of "sufficient maritime self-defence" allowed by Manuel, meaning that Cabral had the right to order engagement with any enemy that might arise if he felt threatened.

This made Maria somewhat uneasy, fearing that Manuel I, who was bent on opening up overseas colonies, might end up in conflict with her home country, and although Alexander VI had already divided the papal meridian for their colonies, it was often the ships and cannons that made the final decision.

Maria preferred Manuel to devote her mind to devotion to her faith, and as for wealth, she felt that it could be obtained through prayer to God.

At the end of August, the village of Alfrag came alive again, and a few servants of the court, who had been routinely inspected in advance, went around the "Way of the Cross", checked the safety of the road as usual, and then descended the mountain, where the queen would arrive at noon, as long as they did not let the queen be harassed by the villagers when she arrived.

In fact, the villagers of Alfrag Village were accustomed to the appearance of the queen from the beginning of their curiosity to death, and because the village was inhabited by locals, the servants only looked at it casually and went to the cool place at the bottom of the mountain to eat their lunch.

Mary arrived at the bottom of the Alfrag village a little later than usual, and it was almost afternoon.

She was late because she had heard that Juana had gone to the Château de San Jorge again for the morning blessing ceremony, which caught Maria's attention, and when the maid she had sent to inquire about the news had returned to tell her about the striking jewels that Juana was wearing, Maria could not help but be annoyed and angry.

She didn't think she was jealous of Juana, after all, she was now the queen of Portugal, and Juana was her prisoner, but because of this she couldn't tolerate seeing her prisoner live such a comfortable life, so that Maria's mood suddenly became much worse, so that when she embarked on the "hard road", she was not as calm as usual.

In the small castle, which had been converted into a prayer hall, there was now a priest who had come from Castile with Maria, and now he was the priest of the prayer hall, and the only one who served the queen was the priest.

As Maria walked slowly along the mountain path, her mood calming down, and at the same time amusing herself that she was mad at that Juana.

In Maria's eyes, this cousin was undoubtedly a tragic figure, and now that she had nothing, she had to rely on some jewelry to accompany herself, which made Maria think that it might not be long before Juana would go mad because she could no longer stand the loneliness.

"If that were good for all of us, wouldn't it," Maria always felt that her sister Isabella of Aragon had been too kind to Juana, "and if I hadn't become queen of Portugal and finally expelled her from the court, perhaps the court of Lisbon would have become the woman's home." ”

Mary thought so and went up the mountain path until she entered the little castle.

Then Mary saw something that surprised her.

The private priest she had brought from Cadilya was sitting with a man on the stone steps in front of the prayer hall, talking and laughing.

And she knew the man, Tiego, a merchant who frequented the Lisbon court and was said to have some good connections.

However, this man had not been present at court for some time, and had heard that he had gone to Castile or Aragon.

It's just that Maria wondered why the merchant had suddenly appeared here, and her personal priest had spoken to him like he was talking.

At the sight of Mary, the priest stood up, and Tiego, with a very surprised look, followed the priest to greet the queen, and after bowing to Mary, he stood quietly without speaking.

"Your Majesty, you have come at the right time, and you should hear the good news," said the priest, who obviously knew how to deal with the embarrassment at such a time, and said in a cheerful tone, as if there was no such thing as an unrelated person not being here at this time. ”

Maria looked at Tiego in a little surprise, she knew that the capital of the priest was not Lisbon but Valladórd of Castile, although there were various indications that in order to solve the problem of the future rule of the United Kingdom, the capital might eventually be moved to Madrid, but now the capital of Castile is still Valladord.

"What is it?" Although she was a little unhappy, because she talked about her hometown, Maria listened patiently.

"Your Majesty, in a place called Frantan, a pure girl gave birth to a baby boy because she felt some kind of holy miracle," said Tiego to Maria in the same cheerful tone, and when he saw that Mary's face changed instantly, he immediately explained, "I mean that she was a pure and holy virgin, and yet she gave birth to a baby boy in such an innocent way." ”

Maria's expression changed again, but this time there was a surprise and excitement that could not be concealed.

"Is this true? A virgin gave birth to a child? Maria asked in surprise, and then she immediately urged Tiego to continue, "Tell me not to leak anything, God, this is a real miracle." ”

"Who's to say it's not," the pastor next to him also interjected, "the Virgin Mary was inspired by God to give birth to the Son as a virgin, but Jerusalem has sunk into the hands of the pagans, and many people are confused because they don't know when the Holy Land will be reclaimed, and their eyes are stubbornly fixed in the East, and they don't even notice that it is right under our own noses, and even in the country ruled by Her Majesty, a new miracle has actually taken place." ”

Maria nodded happily, and by this time she had completely forgotten the unhappiness she had felt when she first saw the merchant, but was completely drawn by the good news he had brought.

She was so excited because she knew a little bit about the ambitions of her mother, Queen Isabella.

Queen Isabella of Castile aspires to be a great monarch who rules more than a secular state.

Isabella was widely supportive of the movement to discover the holy miracles in Castile, and whenever someone claimed to have dreamed that an angel would see something unusual and was encouraged to report it to the diocese, and then all kinds of legends about the holy miracles began to spread everywhere, and many people began to "discover" the miracles after speculating about the queen's intentions.

The virgin birth seems to be the most exciting of these miracles, for it implies that when Jesus' homeland fell and the holy city of Jerusalem was shrouded in a crescent moon, the country under a devout Christian queen had a miracle like the birth of Christ.

This casts a divine light over Castile, and there are signs that Isabella not only wants to be a secular queen, but also wants to be the ruler of heaven on earth.

"Has this miracle been reported to the Holy See?" Mary asked, overjoyed.

"Of course, Your Majesty, and this matter is too important and too special, so I heard that ......" said Tiego lowered his voice, "The Pope has sent a very special person to examine the authenticity of this matter. ”

"Who's that special character?" Mary immediately asked.

"It's the Duke of Rometesia, the son-in-law of His Majesty the Pope."

Tiego said.