I Am Louis XIV

Under the torches, there are faces full of threatening expressions. If the carriage came from Nancy, this kind of expression is not surprising, but the carriage came from Verdun, such behavior is open to question .

The unsteady light of the fire not only illuminated the faces with good intentions, but also illuminated the armor of steel and cowhide, the cold light of swords and crossbows passed by the indifferent eyes of the coachman, and finally fell on the most splendidly dressed person in the crowd— —It is said to be the most magnificent because he is wearing a steel armor that is obviously tailor-made. The surface of the armor is gilt, engraved with curly grass patterns, and the family's coat of arms is on the chest. Sneered: "Why?" He asked, "Is Mr. Reville's Viscount going out to rob now?"

This... Mr. Viscount, since he was wearing such armor, did not intend to conceal his identity, but he couldn't help but be filled with anger for the other party to speculate on his purpose in such a way—even though the lord of Levini had It is true that they are keen on robbing merchants, but the current lords can collect taxes from commerce, minerals and land, which is not so common anymore.

"I'm not here to rob." Surprisingly, the Viscount Mr. was unusually calm: "I heard a terrible news."

"Oh, what kind of news?" asked the coachman, who was still sitting high in the carriage, motionless, not feeling at all that this was a great humiliation to a nobleman.

The Viscount's gaze slipped from the coachman to the door that was always closed tightly. The curtain on the glass window was drawn tightly without revealing any gaps, making one wonder if it has been fixed to the window frame Up: "Tell the master here, who are you and where are you going?"

"We were sent here by a noble person to do an extremely important thing. As for what it is, Mr. Viscount, you have no right to know."

"Further ahead is Nancy. The people of Lorraine are running to Verdun, but you are doing the opposite. It is really puzzling." Mr. Viscount said.

"I don't need to explain to you."

"But to pass through my territory, you must have my permission."

The coachman was silent for a while, "I have the king's permission."

Mr. Viscount seemed to be waiting for this sentence. As soon as this sentence landed, he smiled: "Show me, sir, it's not that I don't want to believe you, but your behavior is really weird."

The closed window was suddenly opened, and Mr. Viscount took a step back in fright, but then stopped again, and stretched out a hand from the window, holding a brass letter box with pale and slender fingers. Mr. Viscount One of his attendants stepped forward to take it, and the Viscount took out the document inside to look at it. There was indeed the king's signature and seal on it. His smile became wider. Not only did he not return the document, but he even continued to retreat into the crowd. inside.

Some other people in cloaks with their hoods pulled up surrounded them. Under the wide cloaks, there was the sound of steel clashing. It seemed that they were not unarmed farmers either.

"What do you want to do?" asked the coachman.

"Fulfill the duties that God has entrusted to us." The leader of those people said this, he raised his head, and the gray hair was exposed by the side of the hood. He was not young, but his eyes were still sharp.

The man in the carriage sighed.

"It turns out that the Roman Church has such an idea." He said, and after he uttered the first word, the seemingly confident and calm old man showed a look of disbelief.

"Balas, it's you." The door of the carriage opened, and the one who stepped out of it was not the vampire prince as the former chief judge thought, but the current chief judge Eraro.

The two presiding judges faced each other ironically in this way. Eralio was smiling, as gentle and respectful as every time he had seen Ballas before, but Ballas knew that his true face was exactly the opposite of his appearance.

After becoming the chief judge directly from an ordinary judge, he knew that this young junior who was always smiling might have colluded with Cardinal Mazaran, otherwise, how could the Paris Tribunal be so quickly dismissed in hand? I'm afraid he has been waiting for a long time, but Barras also has nothing to say about it, because he was the one who first turned his back on the inner world, the king, and Bishop Mazarin. He went to Rome, but unfortunately Things did not go as smoothly as the Pope and he thought. The king was safe and sound, Paris regained peace, and Bishop Mazarin even took the opportunity to bring the tribunal under his command.

And their second plan also failed.

Eralio looked at the hand of the former chief judge Barras, that hand did not wear the bishop's ring, was it for this mission, or... the pope did not fulfill his promise, it seems that it was the latter, After all, Ballas came forward this time as an emissary of the church—maybe with this credit, he will be a bishop or archbishop when he returns, but since their conspiracy has been guessed by Eralio ... Even the king didn't make a wrong decision in his panic, he appeared like a clown.

———————

Let's turn back the time a little bit to the night when the king just learned about the Nancy Incident.

Knowing that the blood race can ignore the plague and come and go freely, only they can complete the task of bringing Philip, the Duke of Orleans, out of Nancy, but just before the king made a decision, he saw Eraro.

For Eralio, the king still has some understanding. This bold and reckless guy seems to be born with nothing that can restrain him, except for the people in the inner world-he may be pious, but his pious It is not the Roman Church, but the real God. It is for this reason that he only hates the Roman Church, but has no respect for it, and he does not have the natural instinct of a wizard for other people, including kings or mortals. With a superior attitude, he... it should be said that he didn't care about them at all. From the beginning to the end, he kept his attitude on the relationship between the employed and the employing.

Maybe other people would be dissatisfied with this attitude, such as the former bishop of Mazarin, but Louis didn't care. In his time, there were too many people like this, and Eralio and his people were quite professional Morally, as far as he knew, since the Dunkirk omission, the two monks beside him had never really fallen asleep—they used secret methods to keep themselves awake, so even if they would wake up every once in a while If they are exchanged, their lifespan will inevitably be irreparably damaged.

The king has nothing to say about this, in fact, he has nothing to complain about the assassination in Dunkirk. During the city entry ceremony, he forgot to bring the kitten, otherwise he could at least escape. So the king can only give them a lot of aid - from wheat to armor, it is said that they are still fighting werewolves and wizards in the inner world, but since the Mancini family bowed their heads to the king, these monks in the inner world also have With a chance to breathe, the wizard and they still hate each other, but there is no large-scale war anymore.

But just to be a crow that brings bad news, it is not enough for the chief judge to come here in person. It can only be said that besides the change of the Roman Church, what else should he have noticed?

What did you notice? Bishop Mazaran said that starting from King Arthur, as long as he is a king, he will inevitably keep wizards by his side, even the most devout kings, just like they hold a sword in one hand and a shield in the other, and use werewolves or Goblins and monster rulers are also numerous. Louis raises wizards and werewolves, and has a close relationship with blood princes. Maybe no one will know about it for a while, but the church must be clear about it, but they will not easily point out that a king is suspected of heresy , this is too dangerous for the Church of Rome - they need real evidence, or even if it is only a half-true rumor, they want to shake the position of Louis in the hearts of the nobles and the people, just like they once shook the sacred The throne of the Roman Emperor Henry IV.

At this point, the development of the matter became clear. Of course, the church wanted to use the plague to teach the French King Louis XIV, who almost repeated the incident in Avignon, a profound lesson. It also wanted to weaken France again and prevent the church from being destroyed. The second real threat. At the same time, the Duke of Orleans, who is taking the post of governor in Lorraine, also gave them an opportunity. If the king ignores it, or reluctantly gives up, they will definitely take the opportunity to provoke the relationship between the clan and the king. The king wants to ensure that his younger brother is safe. Isn't the blood clan who will not be affected by the plague the best person to ask for help?

But the church is not even willing to give up a cardinal, here is only Barras, a poor guy who can be given up at any time, when he saw Eraro, he showed a look of despair, he can go back to Rome , can continue to be his monk or priest, but it is impossible to go further in this life...

"Where are the vampires?" he asked.

Eralius glanced at him like a lunatic and waved his hand. Everyone, starting from the coachman, got out of the carriage and took off their hoods. They all had their hair trimmed into St. Paul's monks, with solemn expressions. , for this former great judge, they are also contempt and pity, maybe Ballas is just tired of making pawns or tools, weapons, but he chose the wrong person, the fall of the Roman Church, others do not know, they Still not clear? If it was just for power and enjoyment, he should not have chosen Rome. The political system of Rome was established within a hundred or two hundred years after the birth of the church. Allowing an outsider to join it, not to mention that Barras is still a member of the inner world, the bishops of Rome only hope to be able to enslave them like cattle and horses, but they will not sit on an equal footing with cattle and horses.

"There are no vampires, only the enemies of vampires here." Eralio drew a sign of the cross on his chest, "We are going to investigate whether the plague in Nancy is caused by wizards or dark creatures." Viscount Levini behind the priest: "Mr. Viscount, you can return the king's papers to us."

Viscount Levini hesitated for a while, and then a flash flashed in front of his eyes, and the iron glove was empty. He looked at Ballas, the bishop's special envoy from Rome, in horror, but found that his face was as deep as water, without saying a word. Inside, the monks outside the carriage each hung a silver cross, shining brightly under the firelight, with ruddy complexions and calm postures, none of them looked like the legendary vampires,

Eralio had no intention of continuing to entangle with them. Since the person here was just an abandoned child, he casually assigned two monks to step forward. The moving tree moved aside, the driver and passengers boarded the carriage, and the carriage sped away again, leaving the bewildered people behind.

—————

Since the king already knew the plan of the church, it was impossible for him to throw himself into the trap. The people Ballas was waiting for, or in other words, vampires didn't have to travel long distances like humans. They disguised themselves as doctors, plague doctors, and always wore black cloaks at the time, with elbow-length Gloves, a bird's beak mask covering his face, and seeing people from round glasses with brass frames. With blurred lenses and heavy clothes, the sun can hardly harm them, and people avoid them even more. They gallop their horses during the day, and leave their horses at night, turning into smoke and being blown by the wind. Pushing away, anyway, they or the king don't care about the little money to buy horses.

So when they arrived in Lorraine, they were even earlier than Errael and others, because they could walk from the wilderness, and they would never meet people from the church.

It's just that when they turned into bats and passed Nancy at night, they couldn't help but feel a tremor. The viciousness of the church was beyond imagination for these inhumans. Looking down from the sky, all they saw were groups of people. They are either lying on their backs or crawling, but more people are climbing the castle, just like groups of ants climbing a wine glass filled with honey juice. What illuminates them is the dense forest on fire, dense The smoke rises directly into the dark night sky, and the fire illuminates the smoke bamboo, changing from coal black to crimson red to bright golden yellow. Such a beautiful scenery is refreshing, if you don't care about its origin.

"When will we enter the castle? Your Highness?" asked one of Theodric's earls. As a member of the Ventrue blood clan, after taking off his mask, he revealed a pale and elegant face, except for those pair of With blood-red eyes, no one would probably regard him as an outlier, but his stable position in the Vanjo family meant that his hands must have been stained with a lot of blood.

"Without further delay, we will enter the castle before dawn." Theoderic said, because of the witch's raven, they knew that Philip, Duke of Orleans, hadn't been infected with the plague yet, but the spread of the Black Death always spread quietly. Silently, no one knows when pustules will appear on the body and fever will start.