According to the information given by Caterina, Girolamo Lirao joined the Knights Templar at a young age, unlike his papal uncle who remained neutral.
When Rodrigo launched his conspiracy against Florence, Girolamo was originally part of the plan.
However, because the Brotherhood learned part of the inside story of the conspiracy in advance, the Templars had to significantly advance the launch time of the plan. As a result, Girolamo, who had not yet been appointed by the lord at the time, was not able to directly participate in the plan.
Girolamo, who had been indoctrinated in the Templar ideals since childhood, did not give up. While Rodrigo focused most of his attention on the intrigues with other cardinals, he was still determined to continue to fight against the Medici family.
Unfortunately, just as Caterina mocked, Girolamo did not have the talent to lead troops in battle.
Under the attack of the well-armed Florentine army, the Romagna army was quickly defeated. Girolamo also fled the battlefield in a hurry, leading a small group of guards to escape in the direction of Romagna in embarrassment.
Leaving Da Vinci waiting patiently in the hotel, Lu Xiao rode on a temporarily purchased horse and left the city, quietly entering a wetland forest in the harsh ground environment of the Romagna region.
The retreat route of Girolamo's defeated army was not far outside the woods. Lu Xiao wrapped his assassin uniform and hood tightly and spent a difficult night in the wetland woods full of mosquitoes. Finally, he arrived at Girolamo around 5 a.m.
The arrival of Rollamo.
This army of less than fifty people looked very miserable. Most of their weapons were badly worn, and the soldiers were wrapped in many bandages oozing blood.
Including the leader on horseback, the morale of the entire team was very low. It would not be an exaggeration to say that they lost their armor after losing.
'Is that Girolamo Lirao?'
Lu Xiao narrowed his eyes and looked at the knight in front of him. The messy beard on his face made it difficult for Lu Xiao to tell his actual age, but he was at least over 20 years old.
"Three years to start, the maximum penalty is the death penalty, young man."
Taking out the hidden sword and the boot blade repaired by Da Vinci for inspection, Lu Xiao said sarcastically in his heart, 'I will carry out your death sentence. I hope you will stop being a copper sorcerer in your next life.'
Due to the dense trees in the forest, it was difficult for the bow and arrow to hit the target. Lu Xiao jumped forward above the low trees with his waist bent. The dejected army never thought that there would be an enemy ambushing them near their lair in Romagna.
Walking with Leonardo da Vinci requires you to always endure his unrestrained thinking and almost never-ending thoughts, but Lu Xiao's journey was not without gains.
During the exchange with Leonardo da Vinci, the two jointly developed a small folding hand crossbow.
The idea for this hand crossbow came from Assassin's Creed Unity, with ideas provided by Lu Xiao and perfected by Leonardo da Vinci, who is extremely capable.
At this time, Lu Xiao unfolded the crossbow on the inside of his left arm armor and pointed the green arrow at Girolamo, who had his head lowered and looked suspicious of life.
Before setting off from Florence, Federico sent back a note from Altaïr from Siena, which described Altaïr's use of plant extracts - commonly known as high-performance poisons.
"Whoosh!"
With the help of the clairvoyance skill, the small poisonous arrow fired from the hand crossbow accurately grazed the back of Girolamo's neck and sank into the ground in the distance. The surrounding soldiers had no reaction to this pocket crossbow arrow.
Under the paralysis effect of the poison, Girolamo could only feel a slight stinging sensation on the back of his neck. He thought it was just a bite from a ferocious mosquito in the swamp and did not pay attention to it.
System: "The random mission is completed, and 1 free attribute reward has been issued."
Lu Xiao refolded the crossbow and put it back into the arm armor, silently watching Girolamo, whose body gradually began to shake.
The high-performance poison prepared based on Altaïr's formula took effect quickly, and his body became increasingly weak. Finally, Girolamo was unable to support himself and fell off his horse.
"Lord Lord?!"
The distraught defeated troops came to their senses only after hearing the noise coming from the front. They all nervously gathered around Girolamo, who was turning blue and foaming at the mouth.
'May death bring you peace, short-lived Lord of Romagna.'
…
When she saw Catalina again, the lord's wife was not as calm as she showed last time. She dismissed all the maids and paced back and forth anxiously in the rooftop garden.
"Da~"
When Lu Xiao reached the rooftop, he deliberately made a slight sound to remind Catalina of his arrival.
Seeing Lu Xiao return unscathed, Catalina looked a little complicated, with anticipation mixed with a little uneasiness: "Is it done?"
"Hmm." Lu Xiao showed the poisoned crossbow arrow to Catalina: "The quick-acting poison recorded in Altaïr's handbook, and the news that Girolamo 'died suddenly due to illness' should come back soon."
"Huh~"
Catalina let out a sigh of relief, leaned back on her special lounge chair as if relieved, and took a sip of the dark brown drink on the table.
"Would you like some?"
Catalina raised an exquisite assembled container and gestured to Lu Xiao: "This is a new drink brought back by Venetian merchants from the Ottoman Empire. It seems to be called...coffee?"
"coffee?"
Lu Xiao was originally ready to refuse, but the name spit out from Catalina's hand made him swallow the words that were already on his lips.
'Is there coffee in this day and age?'
Lu Xiao always thought that coffee beans were a specialty of South America. It was not until the discovery of the New World that coffee became popular in Europe.
But in fact, his understanding was wrong. The word coffee originated from Arabic. As early as the 11th century, the habit of brewing coffee was already in the Middle East and Africa.
Before the 15th century, the cultivation of coffee beans had been controlled and monopolized by the Arabs. It was not until the Renaissance in the early 15th century that it began to flow into Europe. For contemporary Europeans, coffee is indeed a very new thing.
Lu Xiao doesn’t have a particular preference for coffee, but when shopping on the street with her friends, she drank a lot of Starbucks and 20% off Luckin Coffee.
Since coming to the world of Assassin's Creed, he has never had the chance to drink coffee, and suddenly seeing this drink really made him miss it.
Catalina noticed Lu Xiao's heartbeat, placed the cup in front of him, and poured the brown liquid in the pot into the cup.
Lu Xiao, who was focusing on his coffee, didn't notice that Catalina's light green eyes were quietly looking at him with a strange light.
Taking a sip of coffee, the familiar bitter taste immediately overwhelmed Lu Xiao's taste buds.
"Uh~ Black coffee is still a bit too bitter."
After swallowing the coffee with a grimace, Lu Xiao put the cup on the table and suggested: "If you can add some milk and neutralize it with sugar, the taste should be more... huh?"
Before he finished speaking, Lu Xiao suddenly felt a slight dizziness in his brain. He immediately stood up from the chair and looked alertly at Catalina, who had a strange smile on her face.
"You...you drugged the coffee? Why?"
Suddenly seeing the long-awaited coffee, Lu Xiao was indeed a little relieved, but Lu Xiao was not so excited that he lost his vigilance about his surroundings, but he really couldn't figure out why Catalina, an ally of the assassin, would use such a small trick on him.
It was impossible to silence him. Both Giovanni and Lorenzo knew Lu Xiao's itinerary clearly. Once they learned that he died in Forli, they would immediately suspect Caterina.
Losing the support of Florence and the Assassins would be detrimental to Caterina's future career, and she had absolutely no reason to do so.
Putting down the coffee cup gracefully, Catalina showed a coquettish smile that did not suit her age.
"Don't worry, I won't hurt you."
"Remember? I said that in addition to the manuscript, I would give you a generous reward. Now, it's time."
At this time, Lu Xiao was so affected by the drug that he could not speak, but his mental activities were still very rich.
‘Gan! I didn’t expect that one day I would be knocked down by sleeping coffee, and the meaning of this expired luoli is no way, I don’t want to be captured by the river crab master yet!’