Ferdinand stood in the corridor with a gloomy face, not far behind him, his faithful entourage was lowering his head and waiting for the king to vent his anger.

Queen Isabella once again rejected Ferdinand's suggestion to build a dam in the upper reaches of the Ebro River. Not only that, she said to her husband in a very affirmative tone: "As long as I live, you will not see this dam being built."

This was the first time Isabella talked to him in this tone, which made Ferdinand feel uneasy while angry.

Many years have passed, and the husband-wife relationship between him and Isabella has long transformed into a relationship of mutual dependence and utilization in the political alliance. Sometimes, he even thinks that even if they already have a few children, perhaps from the beginning they have no feelings but only interests.

There are many reasons why Isabella would firmly oppose the establishment of dams in the upper reaches of the Ebro River, but Ferdinand believes that the main reason is to use it to curb the development of Aragon.

Although Castilla is obviously much larger than Aragon in terms of territory, Aragon has more fertile land and plains suitable for cultivation, which forms a huge difference compared to Castilla's mountainous and barren land.

Castilla gets a lot of food from Aragon every year, which can alleviate the various embarrassment caused by the mountains and few fields of Castilla. Similarly, Castilla can use its huge advantages in maritime industry to provide Aragon with many business opportunities, which seems fair, but Ferdinand clearly knows that the result will eventually be that Aragon will gradually become a vassal of Castilla.

This is something Ferdinand never wants to see. Even if the two kingdoms will become a unified country in the future, Ferdinand still hopes that Aragon will have an equal or more important position in this United Kingdom. Isabella's purpose is too obvious. She only wants an obedient Aragon, which makes Ferdinand angry.

"Your Majesty, the Queen has been a little strange recently," said the entourage carefully. The man did not return to Aragon with Ferdinand before, but stayed in Valliardott, which made Ferdinand look more eye-catching in Babyaridott. "The Queen seems to be a little anxious, and it is like this in many things. Although she doesn't know what happened, she can clearly feel that she seems to be in a hurry."

"What?" Ferdinand turned to look at his subordinates. He wanted to see the answer from his entourage's face, but when he saw the man's cautious look, he gave up on his plan. "What is Juana doing?"

"The princess still locked herself in the castle, but she refused to come out." The follower replied helplessly. He was not very optimistic about the princess who was about to inherit the future kingdom. In fact, it was not just him. Everyone around Ferdinand expressed doubts about whether the princess could become a qualified queen in the future, which made them put their hopes on the king because they did not want to see a foreigner rule them.

Fortunately, the threat seems to be gone now. The beautiful Philip has now become a pile of rotten meat. It is said that the servant must constantly wipe his body with clean water every day, and then squeeze out smelly pus from him. Sometimes he even has to use a knife to scrape off the rotten meat that has already grown maggots.

Such torture is creepy just thinking about it, but what is surprising is that their princess is still unwilling to leave the pile of rotten meat. She stayed by the bed all day and refused to leave. Whenever Philip shouted in pain, she would kiss the wound on his body to relieve his pain.

This affection is exchanged for people's surprise and fear of her behavior. People think that the princess is crazy. At least although there have been various legends before, her current actions prove that she has really lost her mind completely.

Some people have already suggested whether the Queen would forcibly break into the Highland Castle and snatch the princess out of it, because no one knows whether Philip's strange disease would spread to the princess, which makes many people worried, because if Juana had a shortcoming, it would mean that Castilla's throne would probably fall into the hands of someone they absolutely did not like.

Who will this person be?

Maybe it was Ferdinand, or worse, maybe Maria, the wife of Portugal King Manuel.

This is absolutely unacceptable to the Castile nobles. Although they also did not like Philip, they were even more worried that the throne would fall into the hands of an ambitious man in the future.

However, Juana had someone blocked the castle gate with a large piece of stone, and she even brought scissors to her body, which made people worry about whether it would completely anger her if she broke through, leading to a terrible result.

Because he was worried about this, Juana still locked herself in the Highland Castle. Apart from providing food to the castle, people had no way to contact the princess.

This made Isabella and his wife very angry. Ferdinand felt that his daughter was really crazy. He was planning to give up Juana. But when he thought that only Juana had the qualification to inherit the throne of Castilia, and that only she inherited the throne was beneficial to him, Ferdinand had to helplessly continue to tolerate this daughter's crazy behavior that he could not understand.

It was just that Isabella's behavior confused him. Although Isabella had conflicts with him in her early years, she had never been as impatient or even impulsive as she is now. She was not like the wise queen who always thought deeply.

This is actually very unfavorable to her.

They all know that there are still many people in the two countries who oppose unification, whether out of hatred or interests, and these people believe that a unified United Kingdom will cause them losses, so even if they hate each other, they united in this matter.

Isabella's actions obviously provide these people with a good opportunity, which makes things even more complicated.

What made her suddenly become so abnormal? Ferdinand thought secretly in his heart.

It has been a few days since he returned to Valliardo, but he and Isabella did not have many opportunities to meet. They were always busy during the day, and at night they slept in their own rooms. They were all devout believers, so they carefully abide by the rules of the canon that the reproduction of husband and wife is an obligation rather than a joy, at least they think so.

Maybe he should have a good idea of ​​what happened. Ferdinand thought secretly that although the entourage was very smart, he was not as good as he did to have more opportunities for close contact with Isabella. Isabella's actions made him feel a little nervous. An idea suddenly flashed through his mind. Although it was fleeting, it had already made his back feel cold and secretly frightened.

When Ferdinand summoned his entourage, in the Queen's living room, Isabella was taking a dark green and steaming drink from her Moore servant.

Looking at the slightly swelling and broken bubbles in the cup, Isabella frowned and looked at the attendant, then pinched her nose and poured it down.

The spicy, sour and strange smell of the nose made her almost vomit. If the servant had not stuffed a piece of honey into her mouth in time, she might have spitted the things on the floor.

"What's in it?" Isabella asked angrily.

"You won't want to know, your majesty." The servant took the cup and poured the slightly sticky residue inside into a pool of living water next to it. The residue would flow along with the running water to the river outside, so that no one could see the queen taking herbs.

Isabella felt that she had improved a little, and she stroked her painful shoulders and shook her back, feeling that she was so uncomfortable that she was about to vomit, and then she walked to the mirror and looked at her face. Seeing that she was still a little pale, she ordered the maid standing beside her to put on makeup.

Only the closest people around her knew that she was sick, and even Ferdinand didn't know that the makeup, masks and various red tape were popular in the palace to protect her well, allowing her to hide her husband.

Suddenly getting sick is obviously not part of Isabella's plan, and Juana's irrational behavior is completely beyond her plan.

Isabella is now worried that she might suddenly fall ill. If that were the case, there might be various turmoil within the United Kingdom, even Castilla.

Isabella knew Ferdinand's ambitions too well. It can be said that the reason they were able to unite was because of the mutual attraction between the two people. They used this ambition to drive Enrique off the throne, but now she is beginning to worry that this ambition will make Ferdinand a threat to the future.

"How was the war in Andalusia?"

Isabella suddenly missed Gonzalo very much. Her love affair was the soldier she trusted the most. She had been specially training Gonzalo since a long time ago. She indulged Gonzalo's arrogance and arrogance, and opened her eyes and closed her eyes when he was full of money in the war. This made Gonzalo not only more unscrupulous, but also gradually became the most unlikely minister in everyone's impression of betraying the queen.

Because Gonzalo himself and others knew deeply that no one could favor and indulge him as much as Queen Isabella, so his only choice was the Queen.

"Do you want to know the war in Andalusia? I will inform your ministers." The attendant Moore immediately said that this man knew very well what his role was. He could be the only insider of many secrets of the Queen, but as a Moore, he could never interfere in even a little bit of court affairs. He was a loyal servant. Even with a little ambition, what awaited him would be the most terrible end.

"Go and call them, that Don Bavi has caused me too much trouble. Now our enemy is Portuguese, so we can't waste too much time on him."

The attendant Moore seemed not to hear the Queen's words, and he asked the servants guarding outside the door to summon the ministers, and then he hid in the room on the other side of the living room.

The ministers were also waiting for the Queen's summons, and they brought him news that was not good or bad.

"The Pope has arrived in Valencia?" Isabella looked at the people in front of her unexpectedly. The first thought that flashed through her mind when she heard the news was, "Don't Ferdinand know about this in advance, or is he deliberately concealing it?"

Then she asked: "Is the Pope coming to attend any major ceremony in Aragon?"

It is obvious that although Valencia is the hometown of the Pope, it is definitely not as important as the Pope himself arrives, so the only explanation is that the Aragonese court or the church will hold a major event.

But Ferdinand didn't reveal it to her at all, which cast a shadow in Isabella's heart.

But in the end she found that the ministers showed strange expressions. They looked at each other and seemed to be discussing how to report to the queen with their eyes. Just when Isabella was already a little impatient, someone finally reported: "Your Majesty, something terrible has just happened in the Vatican. The Cardinals' Party believes that the Pope is no longer able to command the Vatican. They unanimously believe that what the Pope should do now is to leave the Vatican to inspect the major dioceses. As for the specific affairs of the Vatican, it is now presided over by the Cardinals led by Cardinal Rovere."

Isabella was a little stunned for a moment. She raised her hand and made a gesture that she didn't seem to understand, and then slowly lowered it. For a moment, the room seemed very quiet because no one spoke.

"It's such a bad situation," the queen said, and then suddenly remembered something and looked at the ministers. "So has the Pope sent an envoy?"

Seeing the minister's confused eyes, Isabella already knew the answer.

Obviously, for some reason, Alexander VI did not seem to be in a hurry to let the courts of both countries know about his plans for arrival.

But Isabella did not think that this must be what the pope meant.

Ferdinand's figure passed by her heart, and she suspected that Ferdinand deliberately concealed the whereabouts of Alexander VI.

But she still didn't know why this was for the sake of.

At the same time, the Pope's arrival in Iberia without warning also made her confused.

Although according to the ministers, Alexander VI was more like being deposed, Isabella could not take it lightly.

The establishment of the Pope's meridian made Isabella deeply impressed by Alexander VI's smooth wrist. Now, because she didn't know what kind of changes the arrival of the pope would cause, Isabella couldn't help but wonder in her heart how to deal with the various changes that might happen with the arrival of the pope.

But before that, she has more important things to do.

The war in Andalusia has been dragging on for too long. If I had not been aware of Gonzalo's loyalty, Isabella might have doubted whether he had any intentions.

So she first sent someone to send a complaint letter to Gonzalo, and then reminded him to resolve the war in Andalusia as soon as possible.

"I don't know why the Pope returned to Valencia. Although it was his hometown, it was still too strange. Given that you had publicly expressed disrespect to him in Rome, I cannot help but suspect that the Pope's return may not be a good thing. So, the war in Andalusia should be ended as soon as possible before many things become complicated, because I will soon have another more important war that needs you to command."

Isabella mentioned her concerns directly in the letter, and at the same time expressed dissatisfaction with Gonzalo's delay for so long.

Speaking of which, if it were other generals, Isabella would never be so straightforward, but she would not need to be so gentle with Gonzalo, because she knew that just as she believed Gonzalo would never betray her, Gonzalo must also know how much she trusted him.

Then she sent someone to Valencia to send an invitation to Alexander VI.

"We should ask the Pope to come to Valyaridod. Although we all know that his reputation as Archbishop in Valencia was not very good, it does not prevent us from listening to the Pope to spread the gospel, right?"

While having lunch with Ferdinand, Isabella said to her husband across the long table. Seeing Ferdinand greet her, Isabella smiled and raised her glass to respond.

But she didn't know that just after leaving the dining table, Ferdinand immediately summoned his confidant again.

Ferdinand was also surprised by the arrival of the Pope, especially when he heard that Alexander VI returned directly to Valencia, he couldn't wait to send someone to find out.

Although like the Bogia family, many of the Aragonese nobles had an unshakable influence in the local area, the Bogia family had two popes after all.

This made this family have an extraordinary special status not only in Valencia, but also in the Kingdom of Aragon.

But this also made Ferdinand, who was determined to weaken the power of the nobles, even more worried.

However, after the impulse at the beginning, as he heard about Alexander VI's encounter, Ferdinand suddenly realized that this might be a rare opportunity.

What would have been a deported pope, almost as if he had been deposed, would have excited Ferdinand if he thought about it, and he immediately sent his confidants back to Zaragoza to deliver a letter to the Archbishop of Aragon.

In the letter, Ferdinand asked the Archbishop to send someone to Valencia immediately and send a formal invitation to the Pope who was inspecting there to ask him to come to Zaragoza. At the same time, the Archbishop must ask the Pope to hold a blessing mass in the Cathedral of Zaragoza.

Ferdinand's actions were not hidden from Isabella, but he didn't care. This was originally a very common thing, and he believed that Isabella would not think about what he was going to do for the time being.

Isabella did not care much about her husband's actions. She was too busy. The rebellion in Andalusia, the battle for the Azores, and the imminent situation with the Portuguese on the border made her feel a little worried, and the trouble Juana brought to her made Isabella even more troubled.

So when I heard that Ferdinand sent someone to write a letter to ask the Archbishop of Zaragoza to invite the Pope to preach to Zaragoza, Isabella just felt that this might be just her husband's desire to show his piety.

But what made Isabella strange was that Ferdinand, who was also annoyed by Juana's nonsense, seemed to be no longer interested in her affairs. Even when Isabella proposed the idea of ​​sending someone to break into the Highland Castle again, Ferdinand first responded perfunctorily, and later said, "Maybe this is better."

Isabella felt very strange. She didn't know why Ferdinand suddenly became less concerned about Juana's affairs. It was not until she heard the news from Zaragoza that she suddenly understood the reason for Ferdinand's strange transformation.

In mid-August, Pope Alexander VI visited Zaragoza and at the Catholic Saving Cathedral in Zaragoza, the Pope personally presided over a grand blessing mass.

At this mass, the Zaragoza people noticed two compelling things.

One is that the Pope suddenly mentioned "the temptation and depravity of the devil" in his sermon after the Mass.

Another, among the Pope's entourage, was a rather surprising person, Duke of Romanthesia, Alexander Juliant Gombrey.

And with this surprising sermon by the pope, a topic that has been vaguely mentioned among the Barrialidots but no one dared to discuss publicly finally revealed to everyone with the public doubts of a bold priest in the religious trial.

"Prince Philip's illness is so strange, and Princess Juana is even more like a foreign object occupying her body. So is this the temptation of the devil and the depravity of the soul?"

When Isabella in the palace heard this question, she finally understood Ferdinand's intention.
Chapter completed!