Chapter 12: The Man in the Center of the Vortex

It was already early in the morning when Count Boger returned to his residence. The strange experience of this night made his nerves, which had been in a tense state for a long time, feel like they were broken after breaking through the boundaries.

He stared at his eyes, his mood could not calm down for a long time. When he thought of the black-haired man, Tianyi, who was a real wizard, the count's temple would thrust.

Recalling the scene during the "Telection"... the pot of boiling water drifted out a disgusting and terrifying atmosphere. Every material put in was soaked in evil. The magic cube on the ground was painted with Satan's symbols like graffiti. Those difficult and long spells were undoubtedly notes from hell. But this combination was really effective! When the count opened the bookstore again, he had already arrived at another corner of Rome, far from the dirty alley.

When the sun rose, the count gradually became tired. He fell asleep in a drowsy manner and had nightmares. When he woke up at noon, he had a severe headache. After getting up, he ate some food randomly and hurried out alone.

The Count wanted to see the person who sold his intelligence to him again. He wanted to find out what the origin of Tianyi was.

The well-informed intelligence dealer was called "Parrot". No one knew his real name. Anyway, everyone called him that. He was in his fifties, with a bite of waxy teeth and had never raised a parrot. I think even if he had raised it, he would have eaten it by him.

After leaving the door, the Earl came to the "chimney" bar in the city, which was a wooden house, a little far from the road. Outside the door, a disheveled drunkard sat on the ground, leaning against the wall, and stretched out his hand and said, "Give me some money for wine, lord."

Faced with such a person, the count naturally ignored him. When he pushed the door and walked into the tavern, he could hear the drunkard whispering behind him: "What a noble miser. If he had no stinking of money on his body, it would not be of any use to people."

The house is as smoky as most taverns. Even though it is only two o'clock in the afternoon, the tavern has just started business, but the drunkards have already occupied most of the room.

Earl Boger walked straight to the bartender, a middle-aged man with gray and white beard.

"What do you need? This master." The bartenders at that time had basically had a stingy vision. They often worked in dim environments, but they could accurately distinguish the penniless and alcohol-absorbed pauper from the rich master who came in to have a drink.

"I'm looking for someone." The Count replied.

"I don't have a 'someone' here," the bartender replied.

Several golden coins were placed on the table by the count. The bartender's eyes were lit in an instant. Before someone noticed this, one of his big hands covered him, pressed the money, and quickly flipped to the edge of the table near his side. All the gold coins fell into the palm of his other hand.

The bartender picked up one casually, stared at the count's eyes, put the gold coins in his mouth and bit it. He looked at him several times, then put the money away and said, "Name?"

"I'm looking for a 'parrot'." The Count replied.

Of course the bartender knew that this was referring to people, not birds, but after hearing this name, his face became very strange: "He is dead."

"What?" the count said in surprise. He had only seen the parrot yesterday morning and had paid for information about the "bookstore".

"Yesterday afternoon, someone found his body near the church." said the bartender.

"What is the cause of death?" said the count.

"You should ask the sheriff for this question." That's all the bartender's words.

…………

After leaving the chimney bar, Earl Boer's heart was covered with a layer of haze. The intelligence dealer who had just met in the morning died in the afternoon. If it was a murder, would this matter have something to do with him?

For the past few months, the count has been monitoring the back of his head. It would be fine if he doesn't know. Now that he already knows, the count has become suspicious, as if everyone who has had contact with him and has encountered misfortune may be implicated by himself.

But everyone is dead. As a wanted criminal, it is naturally not convenient for Count Boer to investigate. There is no way. It seems that the understanding of the figure like Tianyi can only be based on your own eyes.

I was nervous to the new site of the bookstore and pushed open the empty door. The count leaned into it. It was still the same inside, with a sea of ​​books rolling in, the walls and tables all over the ground, and there were very few places for people to step down.

Tianyi was sitting behind his desk, holding his chin with one hand and elbows on the armchair, and reading a letter with the other hand.

"Master..." the count called him.

Tianyi yawned, put down the letter, and sighed: "The sad poet."

The Count knew what he was saying about the letter and asked casually: "Is the one who wrote to you a poet?"

"Just a poor man, he fell into his family when he was young, and he was politically wrong again, and was exiled, and could not return home. Last year, Henry VII died in Siena, and the hope of this poor man was finished with the declining Holy Roman Empire monarch. I think he was destined to be able to vent his emotions in long poems. Twenty years ago when the woman left him, he was like this, and still so..." Tianyi said in a helpless tone: "The backbone of these literati often makes people feel tragic and funny. I once told him that the compromise and servile villains would live more comfortably than him, but he replied: Go your own way and let others say it." Tianyi smiled and said: "I think this sentence will sooner or later become popular. Don't you think so? Mr. Earl."

The count listened for a long time and didn't know what Tianyi was saying, but just said with a haha: "I believe that your poet friend's situation will improve in the end."

"No, I don't want his situation to get better. He is a genius, so he should die as miserably as possible. The miserable evening is, and the right way to die in a foreign land is, and sympathy and lamentation are what the mediocre people in the world are willing to give. Only such an experience will make him regarded as a great literary master by later generations and praised by countless people." Tianyi said: "Remember, Mr. Earl, a perfectly successful person in life, often accepts only accusations, hostility and jealousy. No matter what decisions they make or do, they will be faulted and will be regarded as having other intentions.

If one day you live to the state of "success, success, clear and clear clouds", you will see the dirty things in this world and the ugliness of humanity more and more clearly. You will re-examine and judge everything you do and see, everyone. In the end, all you get is boredom, disgust... and helplessness."

The Count felt that his ears were dripping blood. Every word from Tianyi seemed to be a sermon from hell. He actually spread this kind of desolate voice to a leader of the Knights Templar who believed in God, and he started to talk in an unintentional chat.

The count stood up when he heard this, and thought to himself: I shouldn't have answered the poet's words at all, no! I shouldn't have spoken at all! Next time, I must wait for him to speak first, or I will say hello to him when he is free.

"That... Master, what we said yesterday..." The Count wanted to bring the topic to the main point. The content of his transaction with Tianyi last night was: He went to send Walleau to medical treatment, and Tianyi solved his personal safety issues.

But the security issues of this count are not something that can be solved in a short while, because there are many forces who want to kill him, or those who pursue him, are very complicated, and those forces may not know the existence of the other party, so the situation is very complicated.

"Where did we talk about yesterday... Oh, by the way, secret wanted." Tianyi said.

Here we have to talk about something. In the early 14th century, Europe was a period of fierce struggle between royal power and religious power. Before 1314, Italy was divided into two factions of the Emperor's Party and the Pope, and they had a great time fighting each other. Then Henry VII, the first German king of the Luxembourg Dynasty, got involved and entered Italy in 1310. Mediated between the Emperor's Party and the Pope, and actually expanded his power. In Milan in 1310, he was crowned the king of Italy with the Iron Crown of Lombardy; on June 29, 1312, he was officially crowned the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in Rome.

Many Italian patriots, including the poet who wrote to Tianyi, hoped that Henry VII could lead the fragmented Italy to achieve unity. Unfortunately, the king died suddenly in 1313 and failed to successfully conquer the poet's hometown Florence.

Since Henry VII is likely to restore the feudal lord's power in Italy, of course, it touched the rebellious scales of many people and affected the interests of those people. Among those who opposed Henry VII, Pope Clemon V was included.

We cannot ignore his contribution to the academic aspects of the church, but from a political perspective, the deeds of this man are really not satisfactory. As we all know, it has been more than a year or two since Clemen V and Philip IV colluded with each other for a year or two. He was able to ascend to the position of pope entirely by the French behind the scenes.

I don't know if it was because of his limited IQ and didn't know how to cover it up, or because he could be so unscrupulous at that time. Anyway, as soon as he ascended to the apostle, he immediately announced that he would dedicate 10% of the tax on the French church territory to Philip IV. Later, he moved the entire Holy See to Avignon, controlled by France. In order to strengthen his strength and ensure that the future pope was monopolized by French people, Clemen V also promoted nine French cardinals, five of whom were his relatives, and three of these five were children... Even if it was explained that it was to be a talented person but not avoid relatives, you had to at least find adults. It can be seen that when he used his power, he really didn't care much about other people's gossip.
Chapter completed!