Chapter 15 Misty Rose (Fifteen)
◎Redrick◎
Julius came to have lunch with Raphael. The servants put the documents on the table and left one after another. Julius walked to Raphael's side and picked up a book from the bookshelf. While flipping through it, he said, "In two days, it will be the birthday of Grace Divine. According to tradition, Florence will organize a large celebration. Have you decided who will coordinate the celebration?"
The Church has many different festivals throughout the year, including the birthdays and memorial days of different patrons, meaningful days related to God, days with special meanings and symbols, etc., including the Pope’s birthday. Raphael’s birthday this year has passed, and there are still dozens of circled marks on the church calendar.
Raphael looked at the specially made church calendar on his desk, which clearly marked the celebrations and festivals that needed to be paid attention to. The Feast of Grace was just a week away.
This is a celebration of the first day when God came to the world, the new birth of the world. After that, God created all things, distinguished between male and female, called them "my children", and gave humans the status of the most intelligent creatures and the eldest son of God.
This festival needs to be celebrated for a week. The Vatican will distribute food and drinks day and night. The gas lamps in the Piazza della Signoria will be on all night long. The street lamps everywhere can illuminate the entire Florence, lifting the holy city on earth into a paradise in the twilight.
But at the same time, those huge expenses and purchases are no small burden. The probability of drunkenness and trouble-making increases greatly, the crime rate in Florence will be much higher than usual, and public security will become a big problem.
Choosing a suitable person in charge is very necessary.
In the past, leaving it to Julius would have been the best and most appropriate choice, but...
Raphael felt a dull pain in his right leg that disrupted his thoughts and made him frown impatiently.
He doesn't have a capable assistant, and he can't fully trust the most suitable person. This is a good opportunity for him to train himself. Of course, it would be best if he could hand it over to his confidant.
All kinds of complicated thoughts were swirling in Julius' mind. He didn't say anything to disturb the young Pope. He held the book in his hands and quietly looked at Raphael's pensive profile from above the open pages. His long light golden hair fell on the Pope's shoulders, like a layer of shimmering gauze covering his too thin body.
He seems to have always been this thin.
He should have recommended a candidate at this time, but Julius suddenly thought about it in an irrelevant way. Since the first time they met, the skinny slum kid seemed to have never gained weight. When he was a teenager, he often stayed in bed to recuperate due to a leg injury. After a few days of recuperation, he had to force himself to go out to work, and he had to act as if nothing had happened so that no one could see any flaws. After that, St. Vitalian was assassinated, and Raphael fell into trouble again. He was directly exiled to the poorest place in the Papal States, living in a broken rock castle. The cheeks that had rarely grown a little flesh immediately became thin again.
Julius looked at Raphael absentmindedly, noticing that the other party's eyebrows seemed to be unconsciously frowned, and his teeth were lightly biting his lower lip.
Just like a child, he bites his lips when he feels pain or discomfort.
"Are you feeling unwell again? Didn't you get enough rest these days?" Julius's eyes fell on Raphael's right leg covered by his clothes.
Raphael was already annoyed to death, and being asked this question made his anger even more intense. He paused for two seconds before swallowing his angry words, but his tone was also much colder: "It has nothing to do with you."
Julius was recalling Raphael's schedule over the past few days, crossing out the unimportant items. He was not angry when he heard this, but instead spoke in a gentle and soothing tone, as if he was coaxing an angry cat: "I have written to the doctor who followed you before and asked him to come over. He will be in Florence soon, and I will ask him to take care of you then."
Raphael opened his mouth, and the words of refusal were on the verge of his mouth, but Julius, who saw through him at a glance, stopped him: "This is a personal gift from me to you. He is too old, knows too much about the Portia family, and has no children. If you don't want him, his final fate will be terrible."
How could the Portia family not be able to take care of an old man? Raphael knew that this was just an excuse, but... maybe because his legs were really painful and the pulling blocked his clear thinking, so he acquiesced to this decision.
“Little Dondol,” Raphael suddenly said this name. Julius instantly realized that their topic had returned to the beginning. The boy who used to talk to him intimately now seemed to refuse all tender topics and insisted on bringing the atmosphere back to business. “What is he doing now?”
Julius paused, and dug out the recent situation of this "Lord Goose" from the vast amount of information in his mind: "He doesn't have any position. Old Cardinal Dondol originally wanted to put him in the Papal Palace before he died, but after your coronation, you stopped accepting external staff members of the Papal Palace, and he didn't care about those ways after his death. Little Dondol is worried about the title recently. Old Dondol didn't have time to leave a will, and his half-brother has recruited a few people to compete for the title."
Raphael was stunned for a moment. He didn't expect that such an excellent start by young Dondler could be played into this state by himself. Old Dondler always regarded him as his heir, and he was a legitimate son. There was no objection to the inheritance of property and title. How useless must young Dondler be to let the things he got become neither good nor bad?
Thinking of how old Dondol begged him to take care of this useless guy before he died, Raphael frowned in pain and decided to put this little useless guy aside for the time being. The Birthday of the Glory of God cannot be used as a training opportunity for this useless guy.
After eliminating one candidate, the situation on the day of the meeting with Don Doler came to his mind again. Raphael hesitated for a moment. Even Julius could see his struggle: "Rafa?"
Raphael glanced at him quickly, not caring about the name. He stroked the gold-plated pen with his fingers and asked slowly, "What about Redrick? What is he doing now?"
When Julius realized what he meant, a rare look of shock appeared in his eyes: “You want to…”
He paused for a moment before saying, "Rederic Claudius Portia graduated from the Faculty of Theology and Law of the University of Bologna two years ago and inherited the title of Duke of Lucerne last year. He currently lives with me in the Portia Palace for more than half a year and goes to Lucerne to perform his ruling duties for less than half a year. But he has no experience. If he is asked to coordinate the affairs of the Birthday of Grace——"
Julius paused. He wanted to reject this absurd suggestion. Everyone in Florence knew how much hatred Rederic, the eldest son of Saint Vitalian, had for Raphael. However, he was surprised to find that if this factor was eliminated, Rederic would be the best candidate in terms of identity, ability and means.
It was so suitable that he couldn't even come up with a more suitable candidate in a short period of time, even the person he originally planned.
Julius frowned and thought about it. The more he thought about it, the more he felt that Redrick was the best choice.
Redrick was born into a noble family and grew up in Florence. He was well aware of the complicated relationships between the various families in Florence. His network of relationships was enough to cover most of the aristocracy, and it was effortless for him to order all kinds of people around. In addition, he also had his own guard team that could help the Florence Security Guard maintain law and order. More importantly... he knew that Redrick had been holding back a grudge and wanted to "do something."
For a long time, this was also an important reason why Rederic targeted Raphael everywhere, because St. Vitalian III taught and trained Raphael, brought him by his side and guided him, which was a great blow to a young child who admired his father.
Of course, he could not directly blame his powerful father, so he could only vent his anger on the innocent Raphael. For so many years, he had been holding back his anger and wanted to prove that he was better than Raphael. Until the death of St. Vitalian III, this knot in his heart could not be completely untied.
“If he knew that it was you who gave him this opportunity…” Julius almost smiled bitterly. He imagined it and found that he couldn’t imagine Redrick’s reaction.
Raphael didn't care about Redrick's reaction at all. He even sneered: "If he doesn't want to, there are many people who are willing.
. ”
As he spoke, Raphael looked at Julius. The two looked at each other for a moment. A hint of mockery flashed in Raphael's eyes. His delicate, almost beautiful face had no expression. He was as cold and indifferent as a sculpture. A strange coldness slowly permeated his inhuman beauty. "Do you think I'm being nice to you and Portia?"
Indeed, this behavior is easy to be misunderstood. After all, Rederic had made Raphael suffer for a long time. Suddenly offering him such a good opportunity was a bit like a trap, or it was a silent gesture of goodwill to the nobles who had never treated him well, expressing the new Pope's tolerance and generosity and willingness to forgive bygones.
Show goodwill? Raphael was about to sneer.
If it were him in the past, he might really have such thoughts.
"Don't you think this is interesting?" Raphael said thoughtfully, "He looked down on me and despised me, but now he has to find a way out from me. I think his expression must be very interesting when he heard the news."
He said it very interestingly, but there was no smile on his face, and he changed the subject: "-Do you think I think so now?"
Julius stared at the young pope with his dark purple eyes behind his lenses without blinking, and sighed slowly: "I don't think so."
The Raphael he knew had crawled out of the mud of fate, but was never as dark as the maggots in the mud. He was more determined and bright than most people.
If this were not the case, why would Julius be willing to abandon the Pope chosen by his family and support Raphael, who had almost no chance of winning?
"Whatever you think, I don't deny that I am indeed happy about this," Raphael admitted arrogantly, and then said, "Giving him this opportunity does not mean that I forgive what he did. Let him struggle and tangle on his own - and then roll in front of me obediently to thank me for my gift."
Julius nodded at him and replied gently, "He will, Holy Father."
"Also, send invitations to all the lords of the Papal States," the young pope said slowly. His smile was not bloody at all, and even a little shy and gentle, but there was a certain meaning in it that made people shudder. A long time ago, he smiled like this when he was "hunting" Julius. "They always hide in their own city-states, enjoying lonely wealth and glory. It's really too boring. I hope to see the twelve lords gather together at the celebration to receive God's blessing. What a wonderful thing it will be."
Julius smiled the same smile as him, and whispered, "Florence will ensure their safety. They will come, I promise."
The two foxes looked at each other and immediately understood each other's thoughts. The twelve independent lords of the Papal States who were targeted by them did not know what they would face. The first to be hit was the poor Duke of Lucern.
In fact, Rederick's reaction to the news was more interesting than Raphael had imagined. Rederick was nineteen years old, at the age when he was fearless and self-centered. When Julius informed him of this, he was overjoyed - everyone knew how much power and glory he would gain as the person in charge of the Birthday of Divine Grace. However, he then heard from his respected uncle who proposed this appointment.
The little bully of Florence was stunned at that time.
Julius walked around the living wooden stake with the book and returned to the desk without changing his expression. After turning three pages, the living wooden stake finally took a breath of cold air, which was so long that it seemed to squeeze his lungs dry. Then Julius saw the most interesting change of expression in history, from astonishment to confusion to disbelief, and finally fixed on anger.
No, that should be called rage.
Redrick jumped three feet high, his face flushed red, and he cursed: "What is his intention?! This bastard born of an unknown origin! I knew he had bad intentions! He wants to humiliate me?! He's dreaming! I swear - I swear in the name of Claudius, I will definitely repay him a thousand times! This bastard!"
He kept cursing and for a moment he even forgot where he was, until an instinctive intuition began to remind him, and then he realized something belatedly and looked back tremblingly.
Julius, who was sitting behind the desk, had closed his book at some point and was looking at him calmly and coldly.
“If I haven’t forgotten, I reminded you to respect your brother.” Julius’ voice was deep and cold, without any emotion. “I also told you what would happen if you did it again.”
Redrick covered his mouth reflexively.
Julius stared at him for a while, a trace of disappointment flashed in his eyes, and he looked away for a while: "Don't care where the opportunity comes from, as long as it is good for you and you can climb up with it. As a Portia, you have grown up to this age, don't you even understand this truth?"
It seems that Redrick is really spoiled too much, Julius thought a little tiredly. No matter how he corrected himself, the boy who had long been stereotyped was not willing to give up his pathetic and ridiculous "noble dignity". Julius wanted to tell him that the nobility he claimed did not come from himself, but...
Forget it, Julius thought indifferently, since this one is not suitable, just change it. Portia has a lot of family members anyway.
Redrick's face turned pale and blue. His terrified uncle said, "Now, go change your clothes, get ready, and go to the Papal Palace to thank the honorable Sistine I - your brother gave you this opportunity."
His tone was that familiar commanding tone that brooked no doubt or refusal.
"Tell him reverently and respectfully that you are grateful for the opportunity he has given you," said the patriarch of Portia.
Redrick gritted his teeth, lowered his head unwillingly, and squeezed out a few words from between his teeth with all his strength: "...Got it."
He prepared himself mentally before getting on the carriage to the Papal Palace, but to his surprise, the attendants refused his audience.
The black-robed monk had a stern face and repeated His Majesty's words in a serious manner: "The Holy Father said that he knows your piety and respect, and hopes that you can complete the task entrusted to you well and make Florence have a perfect birthday of Divine Grace. This is the best way to express gratitude for his gift."
Redrick had just breathed a sigh of relief that he didn't have to meet the person he hated the most, but now after hearing these words, he felt uncomfortable all over again.
The young man had a gloomy face and grabbed the door of the car for the first time. His face turned blue, but he still had to force a smile to obey his uncle's order. The driver shrank in front in fear, feeling that the owner of the car was like a powder keg that was about to explode and would be blown up to the sky along with the car.
Redrick felt a deep sense of shame, which made him feel even more at a loss than the news he had just heard from his uncle.
The person whom he once despised and humiliated had indeed climbed over his head. He could so lightly give him the opportunity he had always dreamed of, or he could refuse him an audience even though he had mustered up the courage and prepared all the way.
...It was as if he really didn't care about the old grudge anymore.
But is this possible? Redrick sneered. He didn't believe that the bastard had such a broad mind. They had similar blood, so they were destined to fight each other to the death. He wanted to get rid of him in this way?
--dream!
The author has something to say:
The opening volume jumps a bit fast because there are many characters to appear and events to set up, but everything will be connected soon!
Redrick...is a mad dog brother, yes, a mad dog type, brother.
Kiss each of you, my babies!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
