The pungent smell of alcohol made people's heads hurt. Amid the unbearable stench, Cesare sat up suddenly. He covered his head, feeling dizzy for a while. Everything he had experienced before was so unreal. It took him a long time to slowly see the surrounding environment clearly, but only barely. The surrounding environment was extremely dark. The windows in the room were boarded up. Only a few gaps could let in light. There was a huge cross hanging on the wall. There were empty wine bottles on the ground, and he was lying on his back. On the straw bed, his sister Crocia was lying quietly on the bed not far away.
Only then did Cesare realize that all his experiences were real.
As if he heard the sound of Cesare waking up, an old man's figure appeared at the door of the house. He was leaning against the door frame, still drinking wine. The man was dressed in a priest's clothes, with a cross pendant hanging around his neck. He had a priestly style from head to toe, but Cesare had never seen a drunken priest, with his sideburns and messy hair. He was already pale, his eyes were blurred with a layer of white mist, and his face was red from drinking.
"Are you...priest?" Cesare asked tentatively, but the other party just took a sip of wine and leaned against the doorframe again just as he was about to take two steps.
"You...hiccup!" The man dressed as a priest closed his eyes tightly and calmed down for a while. "How do you know this place? Huh?"
Cesare did not answer this question directly. He only heard that the Hunyadi family had a small church nearby as a temporary settlement. There should be more than one such settlement, but Cesare only knew the general outline of this one. Location. Unsure of the accuracy of the rumors he had heard, Cesare simply stretched out his hand, wanting to prove his identity with the ring on his finger, if the ring was still in his hand.
Looking at the bare fingers, Cesare opened his hands in surprise. He couldn't believe that his family ring was missing. He quickly checked the straw bed under him to see if he had dropped it there when he fell asleep.
"Hehehe..." The old man dressed as a priest smiled gloomily, and then took out the sparkling silver ring from his pocket. "Are you looking for this brat, or should I call you... Cesare?"
"Please give it back to me, Father." Cesare was a little annoyed by the other person's attitude.
"I'm not those priests you've seen. Don't confuse me with those magicians, hiccup." As he said that, the old man threw the ring to Cesare, who quickly caught it with both hands. Then the old man looked at Continue talking to Cesare. "Istvan, a classic name from the Hunyadi family, just call me this, hiccup... You were confused as soon as you came in with that little girl on your back. Maybe you were too tired and had a nightmare. I think You were really uncomfortable, so I poured you some wine while you were unconscious. Did you sleep soundly, kid?"
"Wha, what?" Cesare couldn't believe his ears. He smacked his tongue carefully a few times and found that there was really a smell of alcohol in his mouth, and it was an extremely bad alcohol product. No wonder he was dizzy just now. He was unconscious and shook his head violently. You must know that now is not the time to chat with a crazy old man.
"Where is my sister? How is my sister's injury?"
"What can I do? I am a priest, not a miracle doctor. I should disinfect and bandage. It is not an ordinary infection. After a while..." Mr. Istvan took another sip of wine and sighed. tone. "This little girl will turn into the same thing as the guys who scratched her."
"What do you mean?" Cesare reluctantly stood up, unable to understand what the other party was saying, and it always seemed to imply some kind of terrible future.
"You should have seen those monsters with grass growing on their bodies. They have claws...and fangs. Because they always come out of the fields, we call them straw men, or scarecrows...it's really bad. Name." Istvan poured down the empty wine bottle and pointed to Crocia's wound with some disappointment. "Those hyphae will enter your blood vessels along the wound, reach every part of your body through the heart, and finally get into your brain and make your head grow grass, hahaha... Soon, every muscle in your body will be It belongs to him, including your nerves, skin, and mind..."
Listening to the appalling words, Cesare couldn't believe what Istvan said. He tremblingly walked to Crocia's bed and gently stroked his sister's hair. "No...this isn't true..."
"It's a pity that this is true. You may not know it, but these things are the counts running out of the neighborhood. I have experienced too much... Now we have to end your sister's poor life before she jumps up and bites someone. Should you do it or should I do it? But don’t worry too much, the infection is not too serious, so before she turns into a monster, your sister will not be able to withstand the continuous high fever. "
Istvan revealed without hesitation that there were indeed monsters in Hunyadi's territory, and the monster that hurt Crocia also came from Hunyadi's territory. Those rumors were not completely groundless, but now Cesare Lei didn't care about this, he just watched Crocia's hands trembling uncontrollably.
"Is there no other way? There must be some way... I will never let anything happen to Crocia, never..." Cesare was unwilling to accept it, but he also realized that the other party did not lie. The old man was a member of the family, and he obviously knew very well about monsters and the consequences of being scratched by monsters.
Seeing Cesare slowly kneeling beside the bed, Istvan raised his eyebrows and casually threw the empty wine bottle aside.
"If you think about it, there is a way, but until now... only one child has survived the infection."
There is a mountain peak next to Feilengcui, called Mount Lavanne. On the slopes of Mount Lavanne, there is a small monastery. Unlike other monasteries, this monastery usually has its doors closed and few people go there. , others may just regard it as an idle ordinary monastery.
But the closer people are to the center of power, the more they understand the importance of this monastery. Because the owner of this monastery is the Pope.
The monastery was unusually lively today, with several black ceremonial cars parked at the door.
"Informing the Holy See, Carlius's 'enemies' have been eliminated. Several red archbishops have taken action together, and the Knights Templar are dealing with the aftermath." A middle-aged man in armor stood at the long table in the conference hall. Reporting from the front, the whole hall was silent.
"Very good, you have worked hard." The Pope continued to flip through the books in his hands without raising his head. Several other bishops looked at each other and no one dared to say a word.
The hall was so quiet for a moment that even the sound of breathing could be clearly heard. Only the sound of the Pope turning the pages of the book was left. The middle-aged man waited for a moment and saw no one spoke, then continued, "Then I would like to ask the Holy See, everyone who has seen monsters." What should be done with people and civilians?”
The Pope stopped what he was doing, thought for a moment, and then replied lightly, "All civilians will be executed. As for the nobles, they have indeed been killed a lot in recent years. Just warn them not to talk too much, otherwise they know what will happen to them." What."
The middle-aged man's big beads of sweat fell on the tiles, and the crisp knocking sound reached everyone's ears, "Holy See, you... I mean you mean all civilians?" "What? ?Captain Kasapa, do you have any objections to my handling of this matter?"
Upon hearing these words, Captain Casapa immediately explained, "Holy See, I just... just..." Captain Casapa has never been as scared as he is now, no matter how many pagans he faces. The name of this Holy See is written in blood.
The cardinals shuddered in unison. Like Captain Casapa, they were now afraid that they would not be able to get out of this room alive.
"I have a few bottles of good red wine here. You can taste it together during lunch." The Pope put down the book in his hand, stood up, and walked to the cabinet next to him. "But this order is really..." Even though Captain Kasapa was afraid, he still expressed his thoughts. "I'm afraid we won't be able to explain to the people..."
"Oh? Explain to the people? What explanation do they need? A group of heretics rushed into the city and killed many people, sacrificing for their evil magic, that's all. Our knights heroically eliminated them and protected Most people." The pope took out a few wine glasses from the cabinet next to him.
"Don't worry, while we were drinking, the Knights Templar and the Inquisition were already in full force." The Pope surrounded the long table and poured a glass of wine for each bishop. Captain Kasapa was startled and asked quickly. "But, why didn't I know?"
"I personally arranged this matter. Captain Casapa must have no doubts. Sit down and taste the wine I brewed." The Pope walked up behind Captain Casapa and pressed him down. on the chair next to him.
There was silence in the hall for a long time. A red archbishop slowly raised his head and asked: "Holy See, since Captain Casapa is here, who is commanding the Knights Templar and the Inquisition ahead?"
"Blood Rose."
Hearing this code name, the temperature in the entire hall instantly dropped a few points.
"I'm afraid there will be a river of blood again today." Everyone was thinking in their hearts.
"Inform the City Hall of Caliu that there is a curfew today." The Pope ordered, "Don't let the number of deaths increase anymore. Let's stop it here." As if this order was so merciful.
"But..." Captain Casapa hesitated, "According to the report from the priest of Carlius Cathedral, there were two children, a boy and a girl. The girl seemed to be scratched by a monster and infected. The two left after a conflict with the guards. Church." "Is there anything that needs to be reported? Do you still need me to teach you how to deal with it?" The Pope frowned slightly, obviously very unhappy.
"But they don't seem to be ordinary civilians. The boy seems to care about the girl very much, and..." Captain Casapa hesitated, "And what?" The Pope looked more and more irritated. "And they appear to be from the Hunyadi family."
Upon hearing these words, the wine glass in the Pope's hand slipped and fell heavily to the ground.
