Prince Miguel's funeral was held on a slightly gloomy day. The sky full of dark clouds blocked the sun. Everyone attending the funeral looked gloomy on their faces. The people on the roadside where the funeral procession passed by were crying in a low voice. Many people slowly knelt down when the hearse passed and silently drew crosses on their chests.

Prince Miguel was only 2 years old when he died. He was so short that he could only say that the two years of life that flashed like lightning had no effect on the Portuguese. Except for Lisbon, many places did not even know that Manuel had such a son, or at least he didn't even know the name of the prince, so the death of this child should not cause any trouble, but when he really died early, the Portuguese discovered that the death of this 2-year-old child was not only the son of the king, but also related to the fate of the country.

As Manuel's eldest son and only son so far, Miguel was the natural first heir to the Portuguese throne. This may not be much noticed when he was alive, but when he suddenly died, the Portuguese realized what kind of difficult situation they were facing.

The impact of Miguel's death was huge. Queen Maria was suspicious of the Portuguese nobles who were originally hostile to her. Among the people, rumors that the prince was poisoned by his stepmother were no longer a secret. As for how many of them really thought so, and how many of them just wanted this, there was no way to rely on verification.

The prince's funeral was held in such a treacherous situation.

According to the previous arrangement of Manuel I, Prince Miguel's coffin was temporarily placed in the Great Spirit Room of the auxiliary hall on the east side of the Church of San Francisco of Evora. This small and semicircular ascending auxiliary hall has a typical Manuel circular dome. The dome connected to the wall is a circle of windows inlaid with stained glass, which makes the entire auxiliary hall colorful and does not appear gloomy and terrifying because of the parking of the coffin.

Manuel I stood in front of the sarcophagus that was about to be closed. Because no one expected that the prince would die suddenly, he could only make a new small sarcophagus. Looking at Prince Miguel lying in the toy-like sarcophagus, Manuel did not say a glance, which made Archbishop Buruzong, who had just finished the requiem mass, feel a little embarrassed. He wanted to whisper to remind the king, but when he took a step forward, Manuel raised his hand to stop him.

Manuel turned around, looked at the people standing below, pondered for a moment, and finally spoke: "My son Miguel, my eldest son, is the heir who I originally thought could inherit my kingdom and continue my career, but now he is lying here, he was brutally murdered. I don't know who is so cruel to a 2-year-old child, but I know they will do this because of their timidity and cowardice. They can't attack me, so they turn to murder my son. They want to use this method to intimidate and stop me, because they know what I want to do.

, I know that if I do that, they will shake their status. But today I will tell you here that I have made the decision that I will send my most powerful fleet and bravest sailors to explore new routes under the command of my best captain, and I will tell you that I have authorized my captains to, whatever they have found in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean, they have the right and obligation to declare that there are owned by the Kingdom of Portugal, and that any person or country who attempts to deny and rob these discoveries will be regarded as enemies of the Kingdom of Portugal."

Manuel's voice echoed in the auxiliary hall, and then came outside. His voice was full of anger, but also unconcealed enthusiasm. At this moment, everyone had even ignored the sarcophagus behind him and the funeral of a child. Listening to the cheers, the expression on the face of Earl Don Luvigo, the messenger of Castile to Portugal, became increasingly ugly.

Like everyone else, Count Donluvigo also noticed that Queen Maria did not attend the funeral, which was undoubtedly bad news for him. He had written what happened in Lisbon as a report and sent someone to return to Valladot, but he did not expect the situation to become so bad. Now it seems that Manuel I has determined that Queen Maria was the mastermind of murdering his son. Given the relationship between Prince Miguel and the two kings, Count Donluvigo wanted to imagine what attitude the couple should treat this matter with the same attitude.

What attracted the Count to more attention was Manuel's words, from which he heard strong hostility and even provocation, which surprised Earl Donluvigo in his anger. He didn't know what Manuel thought of saying such words, which made him unable to help but feel embarrassed to see the king immediately or to write a letter now to report everything that happened to Queen Isabella.

Earl Donluvigo was a very cautious person and one of the ministers Isabella trusted most, and because of this, he was also one of the people who were most familiar with the Queen's thoughts.

He knew very well what Isabella wanted to get, whether in faith or in the world, Isabella actually had ambitions far exceeding her husband Ferdinand. This was also the reason why many people were willing to follow her when she was a princess, and even participated in the adventure of overthrowing her brother Enrique.

It turned out that this adventure was worth it, and when she finally won her followers were rewarded with great rewards, and the Queen seemed not only satisfied with it, but her ambition made many people really excited and worried because they saw her staggering ambitions in Isabella's actions.

Earl Donluvigo knew what he had to do, and he wondered how he had such great confidence with Manuel. After all, although their power may not be underestimated at sea, if it really turned into a war between countries, then Portugal would obviously be at a disadvantage.

Because of this, Count Tangluvigo finally decided to take a look at the king first.

Earl Donluvigo was a very cautious person. As Isabella's confidant, he knew clearly the situation of the seemingly solid, practical but fragile United Kingdom between Castilla and Aragon, especially the domestic situation of undercurrents between the nobles of the two countries, which also made Earl Donluvigo feel that he should be more careful in his attitude towards Portugal.

So the Earl of Donluvigo took advantage of the time when the king was stationed in Evora after the funeral. At the same time, he also visited the powerful people of the Lisbon court closely, trying to get more reliable information from them.

Alexander also attended Prince Miguel's funeral. When Manuel gave the passionate speech, he stood in a slightly remote place, but he had always paid attention to not the king, but the cold sarcophagus behind him.

When the lid of the sarcophagus finally closed and sealed with dull friction, Alexander seemed to feel that something was tightly sealed inside with the sarcophagus. At that moment, he was a little lost.

Then a servant-like man came over and whispered to him. Alexander looked in the direction he signaled, and then saw Earl Modillo standing far away in a corner outside the auxiliary hall.

What surprised Alexander was that the Count was wearing a dirty and worn-out dress, and the mud stains on his face and messy hair were almost unrecognizable. If he hadn't looked closely, he wouldn't have thought that this man who looked like an ordinary civilian would be the Count of Naples.

When Alexander looked at him, the count's eyes also came, and after a glance at each other, the count turned around and left.

In a slightly remote house in the city of Evora, Alexander met Earl Modillo again.

"I see the guilt in your eyes," the count pushed the glass to Alexander sitting opposite him. "Maybe you feel guilty and uneasy about killing a 2-year-old child, so I will do it for you."

A trace of gloom flashed in Alexander's eyes: "Sir, you don't know what I'm thinking."

"Oh, forget it, Qiaoer, of course I know what you are thinking. What you think is not much nobler than me, so you are not qualified to condemn me," Earl Modilo waved his hand impatiently, and then his hand holding the wine glass paused and stared at Alexander's eyes. "But a king must be kind and open. Legend has it that the Emperor Nero of Rome was a very cruel person. He could poison the enemy quietly at the banquet, and then watch them poisonously before his eyes calmly.

He was even laughing at the ugly behavior of those people before his death. It was awful, and it gave him a bad reputation and became the biggest tyrant of history. But is this true? Didn’t Nero’s bad reputation fall for his detriment to Peter and his followers? And his successors, they were much better than Nero, but many became heroes of Rome. As for Charlemagne, he was even more a barbaric monarch, but see what people said about him.”

Modillo said as he raised his glass to Alexander, and he drank in small sips. Only at this time did he look like the famous nobleman of Naples.

"Joer," Modilo stood up and walked behind Alexander, reached out and put his hand on his shoulder and tried slightly. "It's almost a little bit. The preparations for so many years are a little bit less. I don't want to fail. I believe you don't want to fail, right?"

Alexander looked down at the red wine in the cup in front of him. He was silent for a moment and then nodded, raised his cup and drank it in one sip.

Modilo gasped in a breath of relief from behind him, and then moved the hand on his shoulder away.

"I have to know what you are going to do," Modillo sat back on the opposite side, filling the two of them again, and then looked at Alexander with some curiosity. "I know you said you wanted Portugal to restrain Castilla, but I don't understand do you really think that fighting for the new colony can attract Isabella's attention and even cause greater changes? Do you really think it's worth doing this?"

Looking at Count Modillo's confused expression, Alexander thought about it and could only respond with a nod. He knew that even if he explained, there would probably be no one who would really believe it without reservation. After all, in the eyes of others, what he said was always just speculation.

Compared with the new Eastern route to real India, the more magical new world on the other side of the ocean is too magical after all. Manuel, who has decided to invest huge strength, later revealed that "even the new colony is just a large archipelago, is worth it."

Even Castilla, which has already paid more and more attention to the new colonies, has a simple plundering mentality for the existence of the new colonies because of Columbus's previous judgment. However, Alexander knew that this blindness would soon pass. When the true face of the New World was fully revealed, people will find how insignificant everything they had done before was compared to this magical land.

"I'm old after so many years," the count twisted the edge of the wine glass with his hands, and then looked up at Alexander. "But it's all worth it. I've prepared everything I can think of. Maybe now is different from many things I thought of at the beginning, but it doesn't matter, because there are you."

Earl Modilo said as he pushed a thick leather bag on the side to Alexander: "My hard work and hope, and everything I dreamed of, are yours now."

Alexander reached out and gently stroked the surface of the rough leather bag. He knew that this should be the arrangements of Count Modilo's lower left of Iberia over the years. This leather bag, like Pandora's box, might once opened, create huge waves on this continental peninsula.

"But you have to be careful," Earl Modilo suddenly said, "Some people here are not easy to deal with."

Alexander noticed a strange look that flashed in Modillo's eyes as he said these words.

"Believe me, all you want is a crown, and some people want to get something that you are not interested in, so there is no need to offend those enemies that are not necessary for you." Earl Modillo's tone was low. His eyes looked at Alexander with a complicated look, as if he was going to say something at this moment, but in the end he swallowed the words back.

"Joer Modilo," the count stood up, with a strange smile on his face as if he was relieved and slightly sarcastic. "Tell me, do you love Ruosha?"

Alexander was stunned for a moment, then nodded silently.

"Love her like a sister, or love her like a woman?"

"Sir, is there any difference?" Alexander asked calmly. "I had written a letter to her before. In the letter, I promised to give her the most special crown in the world. I think this is enough to prove everything."

"That only proves that you don't want to owe her. As for love," Modilo glanced at Alexander with a ridiculous look. "I believe you must have written more than one such letter, so be careful and beware of the curse that your name may bring. If you can't make your dynasty last, then even if you succeed when you are alive, you will only have Alexander's fate."

As he said that, Modillo stretched his open collar and walked out the door.

But when he walked to the door, he stopped and turned around, looked at Alexander with a strange look for a while, and finally asked, "Can you tell me who you are?"

Facing the count's gaze, Alexander spoke after a little silence, "Duke of Romanesia, Alexander Juliant Gombre."

Listening to this name, Count Modillo smiled and turned around to open the door.

Then, Earl Modillo's figure disappeared outside the closed door.

The European continent was still full of troubles over the past 1500 years, but most of the attention was attracted by the war destined to be protracted on the Apennines.

So no one noticed that in the last few days of the year, a fleet of two huge sea ships set out from the Portuguese Tejo River Boatyard and finally entered the Port of Rotterdam in the lowlands.

No one knew that at about the same time, a team entered Castilla from eastern Portugal.

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