Embers of Embers

Chapter 237 Heresy
"The envoys have arrived."
Salicardo looked towards the end of the night. Everything was so obvious. The beam of light penetrated the darkness and advanced all the way to the dock of Old Dunling.
Shermans also glanced at the night outside the window, his eyes full of sadness.
"The leader is Anthony Russo. Do you have any impression of him?" Salicardo asked. It was not difficult for him to get the list of envoys. After all, he was also a distinguished duke. Maybe there will be a welcome dinner to attend in a few days.
"It's him..."
When Shermans heard the name, his eyes changed slightly, with a bit of fear and melancholy.
"It seems like he left a deep impression on you." Seeing the changes in Shermans, Salicardo paid attention.
After the night of Lawrence's attack, a new world unfolded before Salicardo's eyes. The scavengers had washed away his memory of that night, but they never thought that he would think of it all again in his future nightmares. .
Old Dunling is on the eve of a storm, and different forces are trapped in this icy city of steel. At this moment, the group composed of Salikado and Shermans is still hidden in the dark, Salikado knows very well Once exposed, they will definitely be liquidated by the mysterious agency. They tried their best to hide and wait for the changes in the situation.
"He is a traitor. Anthony betrayed us, betrayed the holy cardinals, and turned to the new Pope."
Shermans said slowly.
"Anthony was originally from our side. Although he is not outstanding in the Knights Templar, in fact, with our assistance, he has secretly controlled a large part of the power."
Salikado listened quietly without speaking.
"After the night of Holy Advent, the evangelical church was seriously injured, and the old pope was also injured in that incident. Time is running out. After his death, we need to elect a new pope, but at that time, the situation in the Seven Hills was chaotic. Unbearable."
Unlike other exiles, Shermans is already very old, and the things he has experienced for so many years have destroyed his will. Power and desire are not what he expected, just like a stubborn old man, what he does now Because, just for a little boring unwillingness.
"Perhaps this is the bad nature of human beings. Even faith and fear of darkness cannot curb the growth of their greed. Originally, there were two strong candidates for the next pope, one was Cardinal Miguel, and the other was Cardinal Medici," Shermans said.
"The Medici in charge of wealth?"
"Lorenzo Medici, the great Lorenzo, he once led Florence to the golden age, but it came to an end because of his own death."
Mentioning this great man, Shermans couldn't help being in awe.
"When I was a young man, he was already a distinguished cardinal. I thought he would become the pope, but he didn't. What he did was more terrible than I thought." Shermans recalled that The age that has turned yellow,
"Cardinal Medici did not become the pope, but he secretly supported several cardinals to become the pope," Shermans looked at Salikado and explained to him, "As the pope, you have to break away from the secular world. This will inevitably weaken its secular rule, and the foundation of the Medici family is finance."
"The pope became the puppet of the Medici Cardinals, ruling both the faith and the world at the same time, a situation that had never existed in the history of the church."
Although he didn't understand the various aspects of the Evangelical Church, Salicardo still sensed Shermans' fear from his words, and he was a little confused.
"Is there no objection?"
"Of course," Shermans laughed, "but when you object, the Medici family will easily bankrupt your family without a drop of blood and support others to take your place. At that time, the entire Medici family Leng Cui belongs to him, and the supported pope wanted to resist, but he put him under house arrest, and publicized that the pope was bewitched by demons."
"He finally committed suicide in his bedroom. Cardinal Medici held a grand funeral for him, and then the next puppet took office. Only then did we realize that he had completely taken control of the place, and he did a lot. good."
Shermans looked out the window at the steel city. It was in this city that the steam engine was born, and the roaring operation of the factory completely defeated faith.
"One of the reasons why we were not wary of steam engines at first was Cardinal Medici. Although your torrent of steel is terrifying, under his leadership, Feilengcui also entered a golden age. He was a ruthless tyrant. , defeated the enemy with gold, and then plundered all his assets, wealth poured into the church continuously, and even the original opponents gradually turned to him."
"Kai people will always grow old..."
Shermans sighed. The legendary life of Cardinal Medici ended here.
"He is getting old. Cardinal Medici seems to be tired. He continued to let go of power in his later years. With his retirement, the golden age came to an end. Without him, we discovered how important he was."
"In the first half of his life, he had gold and prestige. The entire Feilengcui was under his rule, managing faith and secularity. But in his later years, he put down all his weapons and turned to sponsoring artists. He was amiable and approachable. Every artist sings about his kindness and selflessness.”
Salicardo laughed when he heard this. Although he had never met this legendary cardinal, he still admired him sincerely.
"In the first half of his life, he was like a tyrant, but in the second half of his life, he was regarded as a saint."
Shermans nodded, Salicardo's words are very suitable to describe Cardinal Medici, "Like a blood-stained thug, what he did in his later years may be atonement."
"After the Night of Advent, we need a new leader. There are two people who are highly regarded by everyone. The newly promoted Michael, and the other is the elderly Cardinal Medici. In fact, everyone is more inclined to Cardinal Medici, I hope this old lion can turn the tide and lead us back to the golden age again,
But it was then that we discovered that Cardinal Medici was dead. He died silently on the night of Holy Advent. "
Shermans said slowly.
"No one noticed these things at all. He lived in a shallow place in his later years, dismissed all the servants, had almost no social life, and only a priest served him, and the priest died."
"We examined the rotting body. According to speculation, Cardinal Medici died on Advent Night. The riots that night were not just in the Cathedral of San Naro."
"This...this is not the way he should die."
Salicardo lamented that such a hero died in obscurity in the end, dying in a secluded place. It was not until someone looked for him that his long-decomposed body was discovered.
"We don't have time to find out the cause of his death. Without his competition, Cardinal Miguel was almost determined to be the new pope, but at this time, Seny Lothair appeared."
Shermans's voice was trembling. It was the owner of this name who forced them into this situation.
"He became the final winner?" Salikado remembered the name, now the Pope's name.
"Seni Lothar, he suddenly appeared, holding the appointment letter left by the previous pope... This thing is actually useless, every pope is elected by the cardinals, but with his appearance everything Everything has changed, just as premeditated, the cardinal who was originally on our side suddenly turned against him.
The whole situation became chaotic, his vote was tied with Miguel, we urgently investigated his identity, but the result was very strange. "
Shermans had an indescribable confusion in his eyes, and even today he couldn't understand these things.
"Seni Lothair suddenly appeared, but none of us knew that there was such a person beside the old pope. Those priests who survived the night of Advent have not seen him either, but it is clearly recorded in the information he gave. Everything in his life... it's like... it's like the power of God is controlling everything, suddenly inserting a non-existent person into this world and paving everything for him."
He couldn't figure it out, and neither could Cardinal Miguel, as if everything was doomed.
"Then what I told you, Seine Lothair's votes are getting more and more, and we don't want to lose. In order to make the Evangelical Church glorious again, we even decided to use dirty methods."
Sherman paused, took a deep breath and continued.
"Speaking of Anthony, Anthony was originally one of us. He was a dark chess piece we placed in the Knights Templar. We originally wanted to use him to kill Seni Lothar. Everything went smoothly until the mission began. , he didn't even reveal the slightest intention of betrayal."
"We thought that night was our beginning, but we never thought it would be the end. The Knights Templar had our list. They were supposed to attack St. Nalo Cathedral, but they appeared in front of us. We were unprepared. Rivers of blood flowed.”
It was a nightmarish night.
"We were almost wiped out. The only man we had left escaped from the Seven Hills overnight. After that, Seine Lothair was directly promoted to the Pope, and the rest of the Cardinals took orders from him."
Such was the cause and effect of this group of exiles, of whom Salicardo was one of their patrons, who also attempted to attack the new Pope.
"Anthony is a cunning guy. Although he looks cold and tough, he is very good at scheming. The new pope sent him here, and he definitely has no good intentions."
Salicardo nodded, silent and not knowing what he was thinking about. After a long time, he spoke slowly.
"Is there any more? Those secrets related to you."
In that constant nightmare, Salicado repeatedly dreamed of all the frightening things. Ordinary people may be afraid, but this business tycoon found new desires in the constant fear. It seemed to attract him, constantly pulling him.
Shermans shook his head. He refused.
"Secrets are also one of the benefits. You already know enough."
"That means I need a better price to know that, right?" Salicardo was keenly aware of something, and he smiled.
"Make a bid, Cardinal Shermans. This must be what Miguel wants you to do, right? You have nothing now except the knowledge hidden in your mind. You need money, you need manpower, you need too many things. , after all, you can’t get back to the Seven Hills with slogans alone.”
Salicardo's eyes were like a jackal. He did not take them in and support them out of kindness, but for the sake of secrets. When all the secrets were known to him, these exiles also lost their role, and Shermans also knew it. This, but nothing can be done.
They exiles have been pushed to the extreme by the cruel new pope, otherwise these noble people would not bow to Salicardo.
"Some secrets are taboo, and I can't make the decision alone." Shermans said, compared with Salicado's strength, he is like a dead tree that is about to die.
"Actually, I'm tired."
Shermans sighed and glanced at his robe, which was as bright as blood.
"I wanted to quit as early as Advent Night. I didn't care about those struggles for power. At that time, I could understand why Cardinal Medici chose to loosen his power."
"What about you now? If you say that, you should surrender to the new pope."
Salikado looked at the sad Shermans, this guy was indeed very old, his skin wrinkled together, like an old tree.
"No, this is the bottom line, I can accept these, but I can't accept those new popes," Shermans replied, "I am a cardinal, no matter how you judge the right or wrong of the evangelical church, but I Always a member of it, and the new Pope is different."
Shermans opened his mouth to say something, but after hesitating for a while, he swallowed those words back, refusing to reveal the key secret.
"At least I want to die with dignity, instead of accepting the pity of that kind of person and living."
He said again, with the tiredness of a foreigner in his voice.
Salicardo looked at him, and Shermans looked at the end of the night, in the direction of the Seven Hills. For a moment, he seemed to see through everything about this old man.
"You are different from Miguel. That guy just wants to be the pope, but you just want to die, right?" Salicardo said.
"Every cardinal should be buried on the Seven Hills, among the other holy beings, and not die in a foreign land."
Shermans said in an old-fashioned way, but this seemingly ridiculous old-fashioned way was the old man's last insistence.
"I am different from them. I still believe in the ancient holiness and am willing to spend my life defending it. Miguel and I came together just because we seem to have the same stance."
"I don't care who the pope is, I just hope that the holiness I believe in will not deteriorate."
Shermans has a firm belief. Even if he is reduced to such a situation, he is still unwilling to take off the red robe. This is not power and status, but represents his belief.
"Then why can't the Pope be Seny Lothair?" Salicardo asked.
"Because he is a heretic."
Shermans answered with anger and irony.
"Seni Lothair is a heretic!"
(End of this chapter)