Chapter 105: – Assassination
Following the strained breakfast, a busy day began. Both Julius and Rafael were incredibly occupied. The fervor surrounding the promulgation of the Religious Freedom Act had not yet passed. Thanks to the Portia family’s frequent liaison activities, the Florentine nobility no longer voiced any criticisms against the Pope—at least on the surface. Meanwhile, the voices of the lower class had long been steered in a different direction under the organized, large-scale guidance of the Holy Crows.
The people might still have reservations about the Religious Freedom Act, but what His Holiness the Pope had done for them over the years was tangible. When it came to their vital interests, they also knew how to be wisely silent.
As the waves of turmoil began to subside, the remaining voices grew especially jarring.
Without much effort, Ferrante pulled Cardinal Lombardi’s name out of the tangled web of clues.
When he saw the name, Ferrante froze for a moment.
He still remembered how he had left the Holy Grail Church in the slums.
As a penniless poor boy, in order to quickly obtain the two gold florins needed to bribe the monks into putting his name on the recommendation list, he could only go to the glass workshop to market himself—this was something Ferrante was always unwilling and afraid to mention to Rafael. His mother had ruined her life in the Rose House, yet her son was actually about to follow in her footsteps. What a pathetic joke it was, as if that place were a vortex from which one could never escape once stepping inside.
Fortunately, Ferrante was smarter and more ruthless than his mother.
He seduced three moderately wealthy clerks, dangling them like dogs chasing a meat bone, draining them of all their assets, and using them to borrow high-interest loans from black-market moneylenders. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to acquire such a massive sum of capital so quickly.