Creed of the heavens

A few years before the Duke of Milan was assassinated, 10-year-old Caterina was engaged to Pope Sixtus IV's nephew, Girolamolilao.

Before Lu Xiao and Da Vinci set off from Florence, they just heard the news of their marriage. The Pope designated Forli, the capital of Romagna, as the fief of Girolamo, and asked him to closely guard against possible invasions by the French.

The contemporary king of France is Louis XI. He has just defeated the last powerful enemy in the country, Charles the Bold, and is now ambitiously preparing to expand abroad.

The Papal State is not an idiot either. Sensing Louis XI's intention to invade the south, Sixter IV immediately arranged for Girolamo to sit in Forli. This is the place where the French army must pass through to invade the core territory of Italy.

Lu Xiao has no interest in the conflict between France and Italy, and Romagna and Foli are just one stop on his journey.

As long as they get the Assassin's token and the possible Altaïr Codex in the local area, Lu Xiao and Da Vinci will board the boat to Venice.

Lu Xiao still has some impressions of the name Caterina Sforza. She appeared in both Assassin's Creed 2 and the sequel Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, and seemed to be one of Ezio's lovers.

However, the relationship between the two is more out of political considerations, and it is difficult to say whether there is any relationship between them.

After quelling the internal crisis, the Florentine Republic led by Lorenzo turned its attention to the outside world. In order to resist the next round of conspiracy that the Holy See may launch, Florence needs the support of more allies.

Giuliano Medici took the order of his brother and personally went to the Republic of Siena, hoping to persuade them to stand on the same front with the interests of the Tuscany region.

On the other hand, the Republic of Venice, which has huge financial resources and impressive military strength, is also an ally that both the Holy See and private capitalists hope to win over.

Of course, Romagna, which is stuck in the middle, has become a favorite.

As the Pope's nephew, Girolamo's position in favor of the Templars is self-evident.

Fortunately, Caterina Sforza, who has just completed a political marriage with Girolamo, has a different position from her husband. She is more inclined to cooperate with emerging capitalists such as Florence.

The time for Lu Xiao to go to Venice was just right, and Giovanni sent him a commission on behalf of Lorenzo, hoping that Lu Xiao could hand over a letter written by Lorenzo to Caterina "by hand".

By hand?

Looking at Forli Castle gradually appearing in sight, the corner of Lu Xiao's mouth curled up in a sarcasm.

It seems that the relationship between Caterina and his husband is not good at all. I don't know if Girolamo, who has different dreams in the same bed, is guarding against his wife who has a good relationship with the Assassin Brotherhood every night.

Chapter 43

The road conditions in the Romagna area are very bad, full of swamps, wetlands and large fragments of abandoned buildings.

After the carriage entered the Romagna region, it had to slow down. Lu Xiao had to concentrate on driving. If she was not careful, the wheels might fall into a dark pit in a certain pond.

Da Vinci was very interested in the strange scenery of Romagna, and he sat in the swaying carriage and drew the frame for the brand-new painting carelessly.

After finally driving to avoid countless ponds and pits, the carriage finally stopped in front of the gate of Foro Castle.

The defense of this castle is very complete. A typical medieval suspension bridge connects the inside and outside of the city. The natural moat adds a lot of difficulty to the attacking side.

The large number of cannons erected on the city wall also shows how much Sixter IV valued this city connecting the north and south arteries.

Most of the civilians who came and went from inside and outside the city had wet soil under their feet, and the fishy smell wafting from the vicinity of Foley Harbor by the sea made Lu Xiao very uncomfortable.

i hate seafood

Forli is a small city, except for certain privileged classes, carriages of ordinary people are not allowed to enter the city.

After arriving in Romagna and on their way to Venice, Lu Xiao and Da Vinci no longer needed a carriage.

Selling the carriage at a discounted price to a post station outside the city on the spot, Lu Xiao and Da Vinci took a lot of luggage and entered Foli City to find a hotel for accommodation.

Lu Xiao himself has very little luggage, only some change of clothes and necessary belongings.

In contrast, even after dismantling, the large number of packages carried by Da Vinci is enough to attract the attention of passers-by.

Lu Xiao grumbled angrily: "So didn't I say that, you only need to bring the necessary things when you travel abroad, and your gadgets can be shipped to Venice by the Auditore family."

"No, no, no." Da Vinci shook his head in disapproval: "These unfinished works I made can help me pass the boring time on the road. To use the oriental saying you mentioned, sharpening a knife is not a mistake to chop wood Work."

Lu Xiao shook her head helplessly: "Forget it, it's up to you."

Although the sparrow is small and well-equipped, Foli City is far from Florence, but there are all the necessary infrastructure here.

After finding a reasonably clean hotel to stay in, Leonardo da Vinci went to the streets to gather scenery with great interest, intending to take a closer look at this small city with different customs and customs from Florence.

Lu Xiao was not as leisurely as he was. Taking the letter from Lorenzo handed over to him by Giovanni, Lu Xiao first habitually climbed up to the tallest tower in the city, scanned the layout of the city through clairvoyance, and kept the more important places in mind.

There are very few places of interest in the small town of Forli, and there are only two places worthy of detailed records.

One is the Church of St. Mercury in the center of the city, and the other is the Levadino Rock Castle, where the local lords lived.

As usual, Lu Xiao took a tour of Foley City through the roof route, and saw Da Vinci who was arguing with a local artist on the way.

As expected, Lu Xiao found a familiar skeleton mechanism next to a hidden pool near the edge of the city wall.

After confirming that no one was watching around, Lu Xiao pulled the mechanism and entered the tomb smoothly.

Counting the assassin's tomb buried under Foley City, Lu Xiao has already experienced the baptism of four tombs, and is already familiar with the exploration process.

The tomb of Foli City seems to be connected to the basement of Levadino Rock Fortress. During the exploration, Lu Xiao found a small number of soldiers from Foli City, as well as some food, horses and other supplies.

Without alerting the guards, Lu Xiao sneaked into the depths of the tomb without anyone noticing.

The last time-limited trap door gave Lu Xiao some fresh experiences, but this little problem didn't bother him.

The token was successfully taken out from the tomb of the Mongolian assassin Gao Qulan. A set of bows and arrows representing Gao Qulan was engraved on the disk of the token.

Opening the manhole cover of the sewer and observing quietly, Lu Xiao found that he had come to another corner of the city, but he was still outside Levadino Rock Fortress.

Quietly closing the manhole cover, Lu Xiao gave up this exit and dived into the tomb to search again. Finally, following the action route of Foley's soldiers, he found a direct passage to the inside of the castle.

Next, let me find out where Princess Katerina's room is.

Caterina, who was born in 1463, just turned 14 this year. Marrying a girl of this age would take at least three years in modern times, and the maximum penalty would be death.

But this was not uncommon among nobles during the Renaissance.

The defense inside the Levadino Rock Castle is not as tight as Lu Xiao imagined, and it is not the same as the defense outside the castle. It should be a defensive strategy of tight outside and loose inside, which provides a lot of support for Lu Xiao's actions. less convenient.

In fact, think about it, who would have thought that someone could bypass the tight defense outside the castle and sneak into the interior?No one wants their daily living place to be full of unsightly guards.

Avoiding the few guards in the city, Lu Xiao's eyes followed a relatively gorgeously dressed maid, and slowly moved to the lord's living room at the highest point of the castle.

The maid did not stay in the living room, and continued to go up to the open-air garden on the roof.

An overdue loli with an unhappy face was tearing the petals in her hands, and the maids beside her all lowered their heads tremblingly, for fear that the lord's wife's anger would be vented on herself.

The girl who happened to be at the junction of the loli and the girl had a baby fat face, and her appearance was very delicate. The tall and beautiful bridge of the nose supported the wonderful outline of the whole face, and her light green eyes were as eye-catching as lake water.

But at this time, there are surging waves brewing in the lake that should be calm and peaceful, intuitively showing the owner's extremely unhappy mood.