Chapter 53: Golden Ouroboros (Part 3)
◎Fairy tale◎
Watching Astanisia being escorted to Florence by several black-robed monks, Raphael felt as if the woman's high-pitched and passionate sigh was still echoing in his ears: "... God has given everyone the same organs and structure, what a wonderful creation! We are all born equal!"
Created equal.
Raphael smiled silently.
What a naive vision.
But people are born unequal. Some people fall into the mud of the slums and pay half their lives for a bite of hard bread, while others can appreciate the beauty of water drops falling on flower petals on rainy days and taste the new tea sent from the other side of the coast by the fireplace.
When stripped of name, wealth, appearance and status, and passing through the door of life and death to stand before God to be judged, everyone is equally noble, but the world is full of scales to measure high and low.
Ferrante stood behind him, and together with him, they looked out the window at the crowd leaving the atrium: "What a unique woman."
Raphael said softly: "Yes, it is a pity that she lives in this era, but this era should be ecstatic to have her."
Ferrante was surprised and asked, "You think so highly of her?"
In Ferrante's opinion, this crazy woman was simply unreasonable and spoke nonsense. If the Pope had not been here, he would definitely send her to a monastery to receive a good education.
"An extremely devout fanatic, a blasphemer who despises religion to the extreme," Raphael said thoughtfully, "but she only believes in her own God."
This is very interesting. Astasia's soul is something he has never seen before, extremely free and independent. Even he, Julius, Sancha and other people who have received the highest level of education of this era cannot maintain such absolute independence, but Astasia did it. All her thoughts were formed after witnessing the reality and making self-judgments. Even if there are chaotic and contradictory parts in them, it is because her level of knowledge is not enough to explain those phenomena, so she has to embrace theology.
Beneath the fanatical and chaotic appearance is the most independent and calm soul. This contrast makes Raphael want to explore it involuntarily.
But he still curbed his inappropriate curiosity.
Let Julius worry about these things, he still has a lot of things to do, such as enjoying dinner tonight.
After a day of rest, on the afternoon of the third day, the Pope, his monks and knights boarded a train to Romanum. This special train was built specially for this trip. The cities along the way had received the news and signed a pass, so it would travel all the way to the Romanum capital of Beligo and would not stop unless to replenish supplies.
Ferrante mysteriously disappeared before the train started, taking most of the black monks with him. Raphael did not ask about their whereabouts, but he had a rough guess about it.
The convenience of the journey means that the target is fixed. Now half of the people in Syracuse know the route the Pope will take, and this route cannot be changed. If you want to ambush the Pope here, it is a rare opportunity.
Saint Vitalian III was murdered while on tour, and Raphael...
When the porcelain cup was put down, it gently hit the edge, making a crisp sound. Raphael turned his head and the scene passing by the window was reflected in his pupils. The train was not moving very fast, which was enough for people to lean comfortably on the wide pillows and enjoy the plains, sheep and windmills.
This carriage was wrapped in burgundy velvet, embellished with deep and gorgeous golden strips, the floor was covered with soft long-haired carpets, and it was equipped with tables, chairs and other utensils. Raphael was tired of the unchanging plain scenery, so he turned his head and focused on the letter in his hand again. The messengers traveling to and from Florence needed to accurately calculate His Majesty's itinerary so as to spend the least time to deliver the letter to the train halfway.
The letter in his hand was Julius' daily report, with a short message attached at the end, asking him to pass it on to Redrick.
Redrick...
Raphael hesitated for a moment and began to recall that after Rederick's application was approved, he was assigned to Leshet's army. As the Duke of Luxembourg, he certainly could not become a member of the Knights Templar, and he would definitely form his own army in the future. Now it was just to accumulate experience for him.
For this trip, Redrick's name was also on the accompanying list and was listed in the Pope's Guard, but Raphael had never seen him among the guards. If it weren't for this sudden text message, he would have almost forgotten that there was such a person in his team.
Raphael put the letter down and pulled the bell rope. After a while, the door of the carriage opened. Raphael did not look back and handed over the letter: "Pass it to Sir Frederick Portia."
There was a pause, and then the letter was taken.
When the letter was about to fall from his hand, Raphael suddenly realized something was wrong. He quickly pinched a corner of the paper and looked up abruptly. The person standing in front of him was not the attendant he thought, but a timid little girl.
"...Lucreza?"
Raphael called out the little girl's name in surprise.
The little girl wore a Calais-style pearl hood, her long brown hair was combed back, her apple-like face had a healthy rosy red color, and her round brown eyes were like a newborn fawn. She looked at Raphael nervously, her left hand almost wrinkled the book in her hand because of panic, and whispered: "I... I'm at the door, the attendant has gone to make tea for you, I..."
The more she explained, the less clear it became, and in the end her voice began to sound like tears.
Raphael gently touched the little girl's head: "It's okay, you want to help me, right?"
Lucreza nodded and said softly, "I know that Lord Portia."
He had not expected this answer. Raphael paused and said, "Do you know him?"
Lucreza answered timidly but logically, "He has been the captain of the guard team for Ingrid and me all along the way. He is a good man, although he seems a little fierce."
Raphael understood. As expected, Redrick couldn't stand being around him, so he just ran to protect the two sisters. This was his style.
"Well, since he is your captain of guard, then this glorious mission is entrusted to you, my lovely lady."
Being entrusted with an important task by the handsome and gentle Pope, the little girl's face was filled with joy. She carefully took the letter and put it into the cowhide purse at her waist, and smiled at His Majesty who was looking at her with a smile.
"Then let's get back to the question at the beginning. What do you want to talk to me about?" Raphael asked. Lucreza was a very cautious and shy girl. She would not come to him for no reason. "Have you finished reading the book? Or have you encountered any problems?"
Raphael guessed casually.
Lucresa loves reading. Although she is only six years old, she has already mastered reading and writing skills and can recognize basic non-uncommon characters. She is now learning Calais. Raphael intends to cultivate her interests and hobbies, so he opened some of his book collections to her. The little girl did not disappoint his expectations and learned to the point of reading late into the night.
"I have encountered a problem." The little girl said softly, opening the book in her hand to a certain page and holding it up to show the young Pope. Because of the height difference between them, she also considerately stood on tiptoe.
Raphael quickly glanced at the words on the book. This book was a fairy tale book he specially chose to teach Lucretia how to learn the Gaelic language. Although it was a fairy tale, to be honest, it was not very interesting.
Paper and ink are very expensive, but books can be inherited as property by future generations. Under such circumstances, all editors and authors will strive to create something more "ideological", "artistic" and "philosophical". There are very few works for children, and children's education has not had a systematic development. Most of the aristocratic enlightenment education still remains at the stage of rigid indoctrination and recitation. The only way to find such a fairy tale book was because Raphael went to the library of the Papal Palace to look through it.
This was a rare large book, at least in quarto and about half a foot thick, with a gray parchment cover and copper edging. From Lucreza's angle, she could see a gilded thorn-winged totem on the top of the cover, proving that it was a private collection of the Papal Palace.
Raphael easily took the book, which was too heavy for a child, and placed it on the table in front of him. He pointed to his side. The clever little girl immediately understood and brought a stool from the side. With Raphael's help, she climbed onto the stool and looked at the open pages of the book head to head with the Pope.
“In fact, fairy tales can often tell us more than the precious history books in the library.”
The young pope opened today’s impromptu class with these words.
For example, a famous ballad from an island nation tells a story about a tower bridge collapsing, which contains many dark historical facts worth pondering. There are also poetic records in the alchemical notes of the 9th century. It is completely feasible to conduct experiments based on the above records. The Book of the Dead found in the Dead Sea desert contains a large number of fantastic legends. However, historians have proved that some of the plots are consistent with historical records...
Raphael smiled and stroked the smooth parchment with his pale fingers: "Humans will tamper with history books, but rarely tamper with fairy tales, folk songs, legends, and this book..."
He turned the book over and pointed to the gold-plated thorn-winged totem on the cover and the pits and holes on it: "It was once
There were attempts to destroy it, but it was finally preserved by the Papal Palace. As a fairy tale book, don’t you think it has too rich an experience? ”
Raphael opened the book again to the page he had just read: "The Story of the Pirate Orne."
The Papal States has a long coastline to the southeast, adjacent to the Black Sea, and across the Black Sea is Assyria. Therefore, these two countries have suffered from pirate invasions. However, Assyria has been in chaos in recent years, and there have been many opportunities to fish in troubled waters. The pirates rushed to Assyria like sharks smelling blood, and the Papal States took advantage of it by accident. Therefore, in the culture of the southeastern area of the Papal States, there are many stories related to pirates.
The content of the fairy tale is very simple, it is a stereotyped story of punishing evil and promoting good, and of evil people awakening.
The evil pirate leader Orne had a kind-hearted little son. The pirates cherished him very much and protected him on an island. They built a high fortress for him, plundered all kinds of treasures for him to entertain himself, and cut off the tongues of the captured people to serve him. When the naive child grew up to be eighteen years old, his father kidnapped a princess to be his wife - of course, her tongue was cut off, and the pirates lied to him that this was a noble girl rescued from a wrecked ship.
The son happily married the beautiful princess. After the marriage, the princess was depressed. In order to make his wife happy, the husband tried his best. Finally, with the help of seabirds, mermaids and dolphins, he learned about his wife's life experience and found out that his father was a vicious pirate.
In order not to disappoint his son again, the pirate who was exposed decided to mend his ways. He handed over all the looted treasures, released the poor servants, and sailed his ship into a storm one night, never to return for the rest of his life.
His son was heartbroken over his father's departure, but he finally cheered up with the princess's comfort. The couple lived happily together from then on. He also inherited the title from the princess's father and became a true aristocrat.
The plot of the story is full of ups and downs, but the core is actually just like this. After Raphael answered some grammatical questions from Lucreza, he looked at the little girl's sparkling eyes and said, "This story has a prototype."
Lucreza's eyes widened in surprise: "Really? Who is it?"
Raphael thought silently for a moment, then shook his head: "I forgot the name, I saw it a long time ago, but that story is much more bloody and real than this fairy tale."
"The pirate gave birth to a smart and ambitious son. They plundered merchant ships crazily, killed people on board, and left those wealthy and powerful nobles behind, forcing their families to empty their pockets to redeem them. In just over a decade, they became a huge shadow entrenched on the sea. One day, his son said, we need to go to the land, which is the cornerstone of the family's continuation. So they tried their best to attack a large port and kidnapped the duke's daughter who happened to be passing by there on patrol - of course, this was a carefully planned event. The pirate's son married the duke's daughter and used this to get involved with the duke. They paid half of all the wealth they had robbed over the years - that was not a small amount, enough to make the kings of small countries crazy - and reached a cooperation agreement with the duke, so the duke's son-in-law was able to step into the port openly and become a member of the aristocratic society. His father-in-law paved the way for him in the upper class, and his father continuously grabbed money and wealth for him on the sea..."
As he spoke, Lucresa held her breath. She fell uncontrollably into that bloody storm. Those crazy schemes and cunning maneuvers were vividly detached from the book, as if they were being performed right in front of her. She listened to these things that happened in the past intoxicatedly. She felt the blood in her body burning and an inexplicable emotion gripped her.
"They successfully realized their previous plan, from being poor people with nothing to pirates with blood on their hands, and then to being well-dressed nobles. The duke's husband inherited the dukedom as he wished. One month after he buried his father-in-law, his father who had sailed the sea for many years also died of illness at sea - what a sad and perfect coincidence. No one can blame his origin anymore, because his hands have never been directly stained with blood. He has always been an innocent prince protected by his father in a high tower."
"This...is this true? Is there really such a story behind the fairy tale?" Lucreza asked anxiously.
Raphael replied briskly, "Oh, of course, but this is not called a story, for us, this is history."
"History..." Lucreza murmured the word again and again, thinking, "It's amazing, who wrote down these things?"
Raphael closed the book. "He didn't leave his name, but I don't think it matters to him, because he has left us enough things, and these things will be passed down from generation to generation, such as from me to you, and then you will tell someone else. Well, Lucreza, today's story time is over. Go back to your carriage and let Ingrid make you a cup of hot tea and go to bed early."
The girl reluctantly slid down from the stool, picked up the book, glanced at Raphael, and said softly, "Thank you, Your Majesty."
The little girl left with a clatter, and Raphael looked out the window again. He had changed and modified several details of the story. He had always had a good memory, so of course he could not forget the name of the protagonist of the story.
That was the bloody history of the Russo family's rise to wealth, but perhaps Lucreza should no longer hear those names that would make her sad and fearful. Maybe he could tell her the truth of this story later, or maybe not... In short, who knows.
Raphael pushed away the cold tea and watched the sun outside the window slowly sink into the horizon.
The author has something to say:
Lucreza also has her own dream!
You must pay attention to protection, my dears. Half of the students in a class of the first year of high school in our school have gone home, but we still have to insist on attending classes. It is said that it is really uncomfortable to be positive, so delay it as much as possible and try to delay getting infected as late as possible! I've been a former internet celebrity for two days. I'm not used to being in front of the camera. There's also the risk of being captured in the emoticon package. Damn it!
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