Chapter 390 The Contempt Chain of the Extraordinary World
Three days later, a group of people suddenly appeared in a woodland outside Venice.
A moment later, a luxurious carriage, escorted by several knights, headed towards a manor outside the city.
Arriving in front of the manor that Gino and others purchased locally, John looked up and saw that it was an ancient Roman-style manor. The classically beautiful mansion was solemn but not exaggerated. In the large garden, there were many incomplete buildings.
The Roman columns and other ancient buildings are really handed down from the ancient Roman era, making the whole garden look full of incomplete beauty and sense of history, making people feel like they have returned to ancient Rome or ancient times more than two thousand years ago.
The same vicissitudes of life as in the Greek period.
"good!"
John nodded to Gino in appreciation.
Gino introduced with some pride:
"Sir, this used to be the territory of a great nobleman in the Middle Ages. It was later bought by a bishop from the Holy See, and an ancient Roman ruin was demolished before it was built into what it is now. From that time on, it was a well-known luxury manor in this area, and then
It fell into the hands of a big businessman more than a hundred years ago, and he further collected many remaining buildings from ancient Rome. After being passed around several times, I finally bought it from a down-and-out aristocratic family and cleaned it up again.
Let this centuries-old manor be rejuvenated and restore its former glory."
In the past hundred years, due to the impact of the Industrial Revolution and the bourgeoisie, the aristocrats' original resource-based industrial structure that relied on their subjects and serfs to develop agriculture has been unable to survive. Many aristocrats have also immediately switched careers and invested in emerging industries.
, relied on power and heritage to become an emerging aristocracy, and in just a few hundred years, there were basically only a few aristocrats left who clung to old ideas.
Therefore, many nobles had to sell their ancestral properties to make ends meet. After all, the annual repair and maintenance costs of a manor like this could wipe out a middle-class businessman worth tens of thousands of pounds in a few years. For those down-and-out nobles who are not well managed,
For me, it's like a big mountain weighing on my head, like a ghost. If it weren't for the bad reputation of selling ancestral property, I would have been unable to get rid of this kind of negative equity that can only go out but not come in.
The carriage drove into this vast manor and stopped in front of the gate of a palace-like mansion.
It is not an exaggeration to say that it is a palace. Traditional European palaces were developed from castles or manor villas. For example, many palaces of the British royal family are not as majestic, vast and closed as the palaces of China. They are just
A holiday villa built on a piece of green space and gardens. This may seem a bit petty in the eyes of Chinese people.
In terms of scale and beauty, the mansion in front of us may not be comparable to famous royal palaces such as Versailles and Neuschwanstein Castle, but it is completely better than many "palaces" that are actually villas and manors.
When John moved in, he was surprised to find that the mansion actually used electric lighting.
It's 1929, and although electric energy has not yet become widespread, wealthy homes in big cities can basically use electric lights. Naturally, John's manor has been connected to the circuit for a long time, and has also been installed behind the manor.
The most advanced diesel generator set of this era.
Gino is a smart kid who knows something about John's character. He knows that although this master is not addicted to pleasure, he will not refuse the enjoyment he deserves. Moreover, John is rich and wealthy, and anything that can be solved with money is easy to handle.
So after buying the manor, I found someone to renovate the manor mansion to make it more comfortable to live here.
For the next period of time, John did not do anything, but stayed in the manor to sort out the collection of books in the space and the extraordinary items that the Hatches team and Henry collected for themselves during this period.
To the outside world, Hatches and his colleagues are responsible for social activities.
After all, after buying one of the most famous manors in the local area, people from the upper class will be very curious about the new owner of the manor.
John still used his identity as a Scottish tycoon, and under the arrangement of Hatches, he selectively attended several gatherings held by local dignitaries, so as to become familiar with the upper class.
At other times, John remained reclusive, and only occasionally came forward in person when there were antique auctions that might involve extraordinary aspects.
At the same time, he also had contact with the local underground supernatural forces through the Hatches Team.
…
"You mean, the people from the Wizards' Federation want us to join?"
In the manor, John, who had just finished an enchantment job, said to Hatches who came to report.
Hatches bowed and replied:
"Yes sir, the invitation was sent by a local branch of the European Federation of Wizards. This branch can actually be regarded as an independent extraordinary organization. Its background is the wealthy businessmen and dignitaries of Venice. The leader of it is the so-called 31 European Organizations.
The Amorim family, one of the pure-blood wizarding families, had these people involved in the previous auctions and transactions that Gino participated in. This time, the head of the Amorim family sent an invitation to sir. I think they have already
We have been secretly observing us for a long time, and we don’t know the specific reason for sending this invitation letter.”
After listening to this, John pondered for a moment, and he was a little confused as to why the Amorim family was targeting him.
Now he is no longer a novice who has just arrived in this world and knows nothing about the pattern of the extraordinary world.
In Europe, there are three major extraordinary powers. The first one is of course the Holy See. Although the Holy See no longer has the power of life and death that it had in the Middle Ages, and the number of clergy who can obtain extraordinary powers is decreasing year by year, due to its semi-official nature,
It also controls the promotion channels for the profession of demon hunter, so it is still the largest supernatural force in Europe.
The second is an organization called the European Federation of Wizards, which is a relatively loose organization of supernatural spellcasters. Most of them are traditional spellcasting professions in continental Europe, such as wizards, alchemists, druids, warlocks and other extraordinary people. It was established.
The main purpose of the organization is to communicate and communicate with each other. Therefore, there is no formal headquarters and leader. All localities work independently and only discuss major issues together.
The third one is the Royal British Mages Association. Over the past few hundred years, as the British Empire has become increasingly powerful, it has also devoted a certain amount of power to support the extraordinary, making the spellcasters of the British Isles who originally belonged to the Wizards' Federation independent.
, the Royal Magisters Association was established with the support of the British government.
The above are the three largest extraordinary organizations in the Western world.
Other extraordinary organizations are basically more secretive, or they are weak, or they are alien and rarely known to the public.
In a short period of time, John and his men were not able to come into contact with more extraordinary powers. They only had some interactions because their behavior of buying antiques attracted the attention of some people.
To put it bluntly, being able to connect with the local extraordinary forces is the result of Hatches and his company's operation here in the past two years, and it is not their intention.
"To go or not to go?"
John is also thinking about this issue.
In fact, John is quite interested in this wizarding association. When he was in the Mage Holy Land, he learned a little bit about this organization from some wizards.
Of course, the mages in the Holy Land basically look down on this traditional European spellcasting profession. That is to say, a few professions such as druids and mediums will make them take a high look. Usually European wizards basically rely on their blood to make a living.
of.
If extraordinary people also have a chain of contempt, then Holy Land mages are definitely at the top, followed by clergy, druids, mediums and warlocks in the second rank, but those wizards who claim to be noble pure-blood families are only
Being in the middle and lower reaches, they are only one level higher than the lowest level magicians, liars who can do two tricks, etc.
Then all spellcasters will despise those warrior professions that feed on flesh.
So despite the fact that the Wizards' Union is an organization that prides itself on being noble, with royal families and nobles from various European countries standing behind it, its actual strength is not too strong. This means that the Holy Land mages have not taken root in Europe to develop their influence, except for those who live in seclusion around the world.
Holy Land Master, there is only one holy land in Shangri-La.
Otherwise, the structure of the extraordinary world in Europe would never be what it is today.