Chapter 132 Heart of the Storm (XIX)
◎ Low tide ◎
After the death of Julius Portia, the chaos in Florence could no longer be covered up. Without this strong-armed and talented patriarch, the entire Papal State instantly became a mess. Of course, some of the backup plans he left behind during his lifetime continued to play a role. In short, to outsiders, Florence was like a whirlpool that had suddenly rolled up, and this whirlpool was expanding at a terrifying rate, as if it was going to draw the entire Papal State in. Everyone who touched the edge of the whirlpool was scraped to a bloody pulp, not to mention those who were already in it.
When everyone heard what happened in Florence, they were so shocked that they thought they were out of their minds. To ordinary people, it was just an ordinary day. Suddenly, news came that Cardinal Lombardi announced the death of Saint Sistine I in Calais. The Holy See urgently held an election for the Pope, and Cardinal Lombardi was elected as the new Pope. Then a series of edicts were sent to Assyria, and then a small-scale turmoil broke out in Florence. It was not over yet. The death of Julius Portia completely added fuel to the fire of this turmoil.
This series of stories was so bizarre that everyone who heard about the changes in Florence first reacted that it was impossible, and then they thought Cardinal Lombardi was crazy.
Anyway, either he is crazy or he is possessed by the devil.
How could a normal cardinal suddenly go crazy?
After all, what he did was something that only a lunatic could do - Saint Sistine I was still sitting in Calais! Who in their right mind would remotely blame someone else for their death and then happily crown themselves the winner?
This self-deceiving behavior really shocked all the normal people in Syracuse from top to bottom.
Even those little kings and dukes who had long regarded Raphael as a thorn in their eyes and wished he would die quickly, opened their mouths wide and secretly expressed their admiration for Cardinal Lombardi.
Dare to send an obituary to the cruel uncrowned king in person - they wouldn't even dare to do such a thing in their dreams, but someone actually did it in reality!
How should we evaluate it? Because the matter was really too outrageous, most people did not understand the cause and effect at all. Some people even raised their hands and swore that Cardinal Lombardi was possessed by the devil, and the person who sent out that terrible devil was Raphael! It must be like this, otherwise how could anyone accomplish such a great feat that they could never dream of!
Only that cunning, treacherous, sinister and ambitious Saint Sistine I - only him! He deliberately let Cardinal Lombardi make a mistake just to eliminate him! ▃
Poor Cardinal Lombardi!
That being said, everyone quietly anointed Cardinal Lombardi - oh, he is now His Holiness Pope Tyn VIII - with the holy oil of last rites.
He made a huge mistake, a mistake that could never be forgiven by Saint Sistine I. Perhaps only if he prayed in hell could he be forgiven.
The church and nobles of Florence soon found themselves in a desperate situation of division. To be more precise, the entire Papal State was thrown into the mud. Some people wanted to rely on the Church and quickly collect money to escape; some people realized that they seemed to have been deceived and wanted to turn back; some people were determined to fight to the death with the Church that deceived them; some people fished in troubled waters, happily playing the role of fence-sitters, and leaning on various parties; some people simply pretended to be dead...
Even if the most brilliant logician came here, he would not be able to untangle this mess. Everyone here has his or her own stance, and some people have different stances as time goes by. The boundaries between friends and enemies are infinitely weakened in the Papal States at this moment.
The Papal States, which had been well-organized under the rule of Saint Sistine I, had completely changed into a completely different state. The common people complained and cursed Pope Tion VIII who was entrenched in the Papal Palace.
In the eyes of outsiders, he is either crazy or stupid, but his ending is bound to be a bad death. Now, Tyn VIII is more afraid than anyone else.
Not to mention that others didn’t know what happened, even he, the person involved, had no idea what had happened!
In his opinion, everything was logical. He sent out assassins, who killed Raphael. The Vatican held an election, and Julius bought votes for him, and he became the new Pope...
Every step was clear and logical, and he had thought it over countless times. But when he thought everything was settled and was feeling proud, a bolt from the blue hit him: Raphael was not dead at all!
His plan failed from the beginning!
The man who should have been lying in a coffin and rotting is now sitting peacefully in the palace of Dudley!
Julius...Julius! It was not until the news came that Julius was assassinated in front of the Portia Palace that he finally realized some things. Cardinal Lombardi, who always faced everything calmly, suddenly felt overwhelmed with fear.
If a person uses his own life as a trap, then the result he wants to obtain cannot be something other than an equivalent life, and Julius's character and methods destined him to never be just for the life of Cardinal Lombardi alone.
There is a huge difference between doing things after Raphael's death and doing things in front of him. Although he never admitted it, Cardinal Lombardi actually had an unspeakable fear of the young Pope who controlled the entire Syracuse at a young age.
He thought about what he had done, and realized that Raphael had probably heard about what he had done... For the first time ever, Cardinal Lombardi wanted to put an end to it all.
This probably means that as long as I die quickly enough, he can't kill me.
But facing Raphael,
Before facing the ferocious beast, he faced more problems.
After killing Julius, the Portia family seemed to have gone crazy. They had previously secretly colluded with many nobles, planning to launch a rebellion after the new Pope took office. Now they realized that it was a trap, but the arrow was on the string, and the wave that had been pushed up could not be calmed down. They turned around and began to stab their allies in the name of helping Saint Sixtus I to quell the rebellion. The nobles who were backstabbed were immediately furious, and a group of people even beat the Holy See into a mess.
But before all this chaos, they also captured and massacred a group of people who followed Sistine I. By the time they realized that something was wrong and wanted to turn around and please these people, Sistine I's loyal subordinates had either died, fled, or hid in places where no one could find them.
These more specific details were told to Raphael by Lucresa. No one had expected that this little girl adopted by the Pope, who looked weak and frail and carried a book and pen all day long, had the courage to escape from the Papal Palace on the night Julius was assassinated, hid in Florence for eight days, and then successfully left Florence and trekked all the way to Tudela.
"Your Majesty once told me that if you want to be a historian, you have to see with your own eyes and hear with your own ears. A weak noble lady cannot see those things. People who record history must have the courage to bear history." The girl with a delicate appearance and upright posture held a blank notebook. She spent half of her life at the lap of the Pope. The wealth and glory did not make her become shabby, but instead gave her a certain calm charm. "Your Excellency the Duke of Luxembourg also once told me that I should be more courageous than others."
When the name was mentioned, the girl in the plain linen dress paused for a moment. She smiled at the Knight Commander who came to greet her and said, "I think I may be witnessing history right now."
Lucretia did not plan to stay in Calais for a long time. She believed that His Majesty could resolve the chaos quickly, and her destination was Assyria on the other side of the Black Sea. That new country needed someone to touch it, to record everything about it on paper, and to wait for future generations to give it and himself a fair evaluation.
Leshet arranged a ship for Lucretia to Assyria, and by the time Raphael came to his senses from the overwhelming workload, Lucretia had already been gone for a day.
Doctor Polly was squatting in front of a small stove, identifying medicinal herbs. He had aged greatly in recent years, with a head full of gray hair sticking to his scalp, his body becoming more hunched, his vision blurry, and he couldn't see clearly the people one step away without his glasses. But the old man had a very stubborn temper, and he thought his glasses were uncomfortable, and he refused to wear them no matter what - when he lost his temper, he looked almost the same as before.
The old doctor left Florence before Lucreza, but due to his old age, he arrived later than the girl. Unlike Lucreza who was resourceful and escaped on her own, he was sent out by Julius.
When he left, the secretary-general's attitude was very normal. He just told him that Raphael was not feeling well recently and asked him to go and see him. Poli walked halfway in a daze, and when he heard about the major events that happened in Florence one after another, he realized that he seemed to have been deceived.
"Sigh..." The old man squinted his eyes and looked at the setting sun. The blood-red rays of light spread on the milky yellow marble floor. He was not used to the luxurious and magnificent architectural style of the Dudelai Palace. Maybe it was because he was old, he suddenly wanted to go home.
Raphael, who was in the room, heard the old man's faint sigh, but he did not speak or move.
The young Pope behaved normally after hearing the bad news. He did not even have the most basic anger. Instead, he quickly entered the process of solving the problem, as if these betrayals were already commonplace for him. Although Raphael did come from a bloody storm, Florence was his cornerstone after all, and it had a different meaning after all, not to mention... Julius also died in this chaos.
Everyone knows how much Pope Sistine I trusts the Secretary General of the Papal Palace. Every time Raphael leaves Florence, all matters of the Papal States will be handed over to Julius. The meaning is self-evident.
But when Julius died, Raphael didn't show any sadness at all - not even in an act.
He was only abnormal for a moment when he first heard the news of Julius' death, but such abnormality could be explained by being too shocked by hearing about the rebellion in Florence.
He was neither sad nor angry, but just did what a Pope was supposed to do step by step. His calmness made everyone around him feel creepy fear and worry.
As for what Raphael is thinking now...
He doesn't know himself.
The young Pope sat in a soft chair, staring at the document he had just signed with his head down. He still had part of the troops in Calais to mobilize, which was more than enough to suppress the chaos in the Papal States, but he was not in a hurry to return. Instead, he prolonged his stay in Calais.
What are you waiting for?
Raphael asked himself softly, waiting for the Papal States to become more chaotic, waiting for those restless idiots to reveal their true colors so that he could catch them all in one fell swoop, waiting... waiting for a letter from Florence urging him to return home.
Every time he stayed outside for too long, the Secretariat of the Papal Palace would always send him a letter, which not only reported all matters but also implicitly hinted that it was time to go home as he had been outside long enough.
At the end of the letter was always the same signature, a signature he had been seeing for twenty years. The gorgeous, slender font was entwined like a vine, just like the owner of the signature, beautiful and elegant, but poisonous.
Raphael suddenly thought that no one seemed to urge him to go home anymore. This thought floated in the air for a long time without landing. Raphael gently pulled it away and threw it into an unimportant corner.
He lowered his head again and stopped thinking about those inexplicable things. The sky outside the window darkened. The gas lamps in the room had been lit for a long time. The gas in the embedded pipes hissed to supply the wall lamps. Someone walked in quietly and turned up the lights. The lights covered by transparent crystals emitted a light as bright as daylight, casting a ghostly halo on the visitor's black curly hair.
Ever since the news of the rebellion in the Papal States came, Ferrante had been inseparable from Raphael, fearing that the assassin hiding in the bedroom would happen again. For this reason, Raphael changed bedrooms from time to time. Fortunately, the palace was large enough to allow him to change bedrooms as he wished.
Raphael randomly pointed to this bedroom today. It was originally reserved for the underage prince. However, apart from the statue of Our Lady of Peace and the ivory wreath that protects the child in the bedroom, there was no other decoration related to underage people. Raphael didn't like the statue of Our Lady of Peace at the end of the bed, nor did he like the dark red wallpaper inlaid with gold thread. However, since he would only stay there for one day, he didn't care about these details.
Ferrante silently urged him to go to rest quickly. Raphael's body could not support him staying up late without any scruples. His sleep quality was also very poor during this period. Maybe he was scared by the assassin. He always woke up in the middle of the night and could not fall asleep again after waking up. He tried to numb himself with a lot of cigarettes. The rapid consumption of tobacco soon aroused Polly's suspicion. After seeing his almost crazy amount of drugs, the old man almost died of anger.
From then on, his pipe was taken away by Ferrante for safekeeping, and no matter what Raphael said, Ferrante would not give it to him again unless he got permission from Dr. Polly.
But Raphael no longer tried to ask for it, as if something warm was flowing out of his heart. He just said what he "should" say, similar to playing his former self. As for real emotions, including anger, unhappiness and dissatisfaction with being restricted, he could not feel any of them, as if there was a thick layer of blurry glass separating him and making him watch his ridiculous performance coldly.
Raphael knew that his condition was a little abnormal, but it was not a big problem. He might be a little tired. He could always recover slowly and become the impeccable person again, always like this.
The author has something to say:
Pat the depressed Rafa cat.jpg
He'll get through this, just like every time before.
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