"Follow me, kid." Ezio whispered. Giuliano. Morality. The Medici was several years older than him, and when he was a naughty boy who loved to fight with the Patch Boy in the streets, Giuliano was already a famous beautiful man in Florence and even Italy, with hundreds of painters and stonemasons vying to use him as a model to portray Mars or Apollo, the god of the sun, and his lovers, or women who wanted to be his lovers, were as many as flowers in the suburbs outside Florence—more than a mountain of gold coins for young men who were just starting to fall in love. Or maybe the hot power is even more enviable.

At that time, because Ezio's father rescued Lorenzo, who was almost drowned by the Medici's enemies, from the river, the Medici and the Oritore family also had a vague desire to form an alliance, just because in addition to the banker, Ezio's father had another important identity, and he wanted to confess to the Medici Piero about him and the behemoth behind him, and the elders of Assasin also thought that this matter needed to be carefully considered - although so, But the relationship between the Medici and Oditore grew rapidly closer, and if it had not been for the sudden tragedy, perhaps Ezio would have been betrothed to a female member of the Medici family.

Because of this possibility, Ezio's heart could not help but feel a rare warmth, he remembered how his brother Federico took him to the roof of the Basilica of God, where he overlooked the whole of Florence, after the accident, his brother was executed in Piazza della Signoria with his father and brother, and his heart's wish was in vain, he had thought that if one day, he had a son, he would also take him to the highest place, Let him feel the wonder that no mortal can appreciate.

"Come on," he urged, after climbing a stone wall, using the nickname that his brother used to make fun of himself, "little turtle! ”

Julio doesn't want to admit that he's a little turtle, but he's unusually clumsy compared to his martial arts instructor. Ezio was a man of large size and slender limbs, wielding his sword like a raging lion and running like a sturdy cheetah, but between walls and roofs, he was a lizard that was good at hiding and climbing. Giulio followed him closely, and although Ezio jokingly called him a little turtle, he did not forget that the little Medici was only eight years old, and he constantly reached out his hand or lowered his boots so that Giulio could grab his body and cross the obstacles that he could not yet cross.

Neither Giulio nor Ezio made any more sounds, and sometimes, the people of Rome felt a shadow on their foreheads, but when they looked up, there was nothing, and they thought it was a dark cloud, but they didn't know that it was two daring men walking on the roof of their house.

The wind passed through their sides, not bringing resistance, but at first it seemed to make Giulio feel like he had given birth to wings, he was not running, but flying, his body was hot and light, his mind was clear, his sense was sensitive, as if in the darkness there was an angel or ghost guiding him where he should go—Ezio also seemed to feel that his disciple was silently crossing an invisible line as he had done when he was younger, and he did not stop even when he touched the walls of Vatican City. Instead, they boldly led Giulio over the city walls—revealing a high ground hidden in the darkness.

While this was a reckless move, Ezio was not a fool after all. In 756, the Frankish king Pepin the Short gave the city of Rome and part of the surrounding area (from Ravenna to Rome, a total of twenty-two cities) to Pope Stephen as a reward for the papal support of him and his descendants to become king of the Franks, thus establishing the Papal States, and the pope became not only spiritual, but also a secular monarch in Italy, and the subsequent popes built towering walls around the Vatican Heights, leaving only St. Peter's Square on the east side to communicate with the outside world, and St. Peter's Square to the west. St. Peter's Basilica, also known as St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Basilica, is above the Sistine Chapel, which was completed in 1481, where Innocent VIII was fortunate to be elected, and around them are the Pope's Chamber, the Reliquary, and the offices and residences of the various bureaucrats of the Holy See, which can be said to be the most important. Ezio did not attempt to mobilize the delicate nerves of the Templars and the Bishops, and led Giulio along the Vatican walls into the southwest corner of the Plateau, where the Papal Gardens were located, as Innocent VIII wanted to convert an old tower on a high point into a residence, merchants, stonemasons, apprentices, and servants were constantly intermingling, and torches were kept out all night.

It was these small mistakes that allowed an Assassin and a future Assassin to sneak into the heart of the Vatican.

Ezio only glanced at it, but did not see the flag belonging to Innocent VIII, indicating that the Pope was not in the Vatican now, and that it was probably that he was in Castel Sant'Angelo on the Tiber River, which was safe and comfortable, much quieter than the Vatican, which was being renovated and enlarged, which was also common sense. And in relation to Rodrigo. Borgia, Innocent VIII's sins were not enough for him to appear on the list of Assassins' targets. He withdrew his attention to the children beside him—below them was an empty darkness that Ezio had climbed thirty feet before, and about fifty feet above, and he looked into Giulio's eyes shining in the darkness and smiled at his fearlessness.

Giulio knew that he was being driven by the dopamine he was aroused, but he believed in Ezio, who he knew from the beginning that Ezio was not just a martial arts teacher, because he found in Ezio's room the cloak that had been worn by Lorenzo and the Medici, a cloak of Galbo wool and gold thread, which was not only a luxurious garment, but also a reliable weapon and shield, and it was Lorenzo who had resisted the first round of assassination by the Patch family. Something that symbolic, and could even be used as a token if necessary, is a revelation that appears in Ezio's chest.

They continued to climb up, and the place where they were was behind the palace that Innocent VIII had renovated and expanded for himself, the foundation of the stone building stood on a hard and stable rock, from the bottom of the rock to the middle and upper part of the building, there were simple scaffolding, only wooden strips, no nets and treads, so at that time unfortunately fell and injured many workers, but in the eyes of the assassins, these wooden strips were undoubtedly a smooth road, and the difficult part was where there was no scaffolding, There were only half-crumbling walls and pillars that showed out like rotting bones.

Ezio tread carefully through the gaps in the walls, the guards patrolling below rarely looked up, and the smoke and light of the torches hid their sights, but if a large rock fell, they would have wondered what had unscrewed it off. He saw an erect side slit like the open mouth of a sleeping man, and the Assassin gave his hand to Julio, and they climbed up the broken staircase and wooden beams, neither of them heavier than the cat, and the noisy crowd and torches frightened the birds away for them, and only the moths and spiders watched them silently in the dust.

Stepping on a blackened stone pillar, Ezio finally reached the highest point of the building, from here, he could see half of the sleeping Rome and a Vatican in the tranquility of countless conspiracies, excellent eyesight allowed him to see far outside the Vatican, the silver glittering Tiber River, and the riverside of the Castel Sant'Angelo, the original Roman Emperor Adrian and his descendants of the mausoleum, later became a fortress to block the invasion of the Goths, and later, Gregory I dreamed of the sword-wielding Holy Angel here, He declared that the Holy Angel had come to relieve the Black Death in the 6th century, and a bronze archangel was erected at the top of the fortress, and the name of the fortress was changed from Adrian's Tomb to Castel Sant'Angelo.

"There is a secret passage between St. Peter's Basilica and Castel Sant'Angelo, which allows the Pope and his courtiers to enter the fortified Castel Sant'Angelo without having to pass through a dangerous area of engagement in case of emergency." Ezio glanced down at Giulio who was clutching his knees and crawling up, he had the same scoundrel and likable energy as his father, he used Ezio's coat and body to fend off the cold wind from above, the wind lifted his black hair and made him squint his eyes, he looked more like an ignorant eight-year-old child, indifferent to what he did not understand. "Do you want to know where it is?"

……

"Well, you don't believe it." Ezio said sadly.

"Secret passages." Julio reminded. Even hundreds of years later, it's just a legend.

"Actually, there are not only one, but more than one," said Ezio, "and although it is true that there is only one direct access to Castel Sant'Angelo, there are two more, one leading to the Tiber and the other to the seminary." ”

Unfortunately, these three places were known not only to Assasin, but also to the Templars.

Giulio is not a fool, he sighed inwardly.

"How are we going to leave?"

Ezio also knew that this was a cunning imp, and he pointed down: "Whoever came up, went down." He blinked: "If possible, we will also use grappling hooks and slings." ”

"I've heard that some Assassins can jump straight down from a great height," said Giulio, "with their arms outstretched, like birds, and of course, there's a pile of straw underneath......"

Ezio's expression was strange: "A bunch of straw...... How much? "Can the entire St. Peter's Basilica be filled so much?

"A carriage?"

Ezio was silent for a moment, "How tall?" "From the windowsill on the first floor?

"The bell tower of the Florence Cathedral? Like what? "Julio compared.

Ezio remembered that the bell tower of the Florence Cathedral was one hundred and fifty feet high, and he was silent for a moment: "I kind of want to go back and rest, don't you think?" ”

——————————————————————————————————————————

Despite Giulio's reluctance, his cousin Madeleine married Francesco in 1487. Sibo, for this wedding is probably only Innocent VIII, he first ascended the throne encountered a very tricky matter, the king of Naples refused to pay taxes to the Holy See, and the French king Charles VIII once had an agreement with the Holy See, willing to send troops to "punish" Naples on his behalf, but for some reason, the young Charles VIII suddenly changed his mind, and Pope Innocent, who was placed in the air by him, was embarrassed and humiliated, not to mention, he had eight illegitimate children for himself, Perhaps the same amount of money borrowed from the bankers for the extravagant life of his daughters was also to be returned, and without the Neapolitan taxes, he had a large deficit in his books.

In order to get more benefits, Innocent VIII has made a lot of efforts, issued many edicts, confessions and pardons, and holy relics are well bought, prostitutes never owe taxes, bribes and bribes about marriage and inheritance have also enriched his chest, and the purchase and sale of the priesthood is also a good business, not to mention, the monster that he released with his own hands, tens of thousands of burns at the stake were erected on the mainland of Europa and even on the island of England. The money of witches and their relatives also flowed like water into the empty mouth of the Holy See, but it was not enough, far from enough, and Innocent VIII sometimes deeply regretted that he had eight sons, but the Medici would not waste another daughter in the Vatican.

Innocent VIII was satisfied with the dowry of hundreds of thousands of gold coins brought by Madeleine, for which he even admonished his son that he could continue to have fun as he had before marriage, that it didn't matter, that he was a man, and that his father was a pope, but that he could not beat his wife, and that he had to give her a son.

Giulio almost couldn't wait to visit the married Madeleine, and when she saw Giulio Madeleine, she hugged him tightly, she had to be grateful to this brother, it was impossible to say that this girl, who was only fourteen years old after all, had no illusions about her marriage and her husband, but she was desperate when she saw Francesque, she was full of disgust for him from the bottom of her heart, and if it wasn't for the fact that Giulio had warned her before, she might have done something stupid to make herself more passive.

She didn't make the mistake of trying to please her husband, Innocent VIII was the one who really controlled her destiny, she was now four months pregnant, and after paying Innocent VIII 50,000 gold florins, she had the privilege of moving closer to the Papal Palace, which was not good for her reputation, but to hell with it, although Francesco was reminded by his papal father, but within a hundred days he was already exposed, although he did not do anything to Madeleine, but almost all the maids around Madeleine suffered unbearable atrocities, She also used to rant at Madeleine, and if she continued to live in a mansion with him, Madeleine might die one day.

"The Holy Father promised me," said Madeleine in a whisper, "that I could live in Liguria with my children." ”

"Very well, my sister," replied Giulio, "the Holy Father was once the Archbishop of Savona, and Liguria is on the edge of the Gulf of Genoa, and you are now a Sibo, and you, and your children, will be safe there." ”

Madeleine looked at him gratefully, and was about to say something when she was suddenly interrupted by a noise.