The Mysterious World Under Steampunk

After nightfall, Todd Bruce put on the dress prepared for him by the owner of Belmont Manor, took a briefcase full of research project documents, and rode in a carriage towards the Great North Cape.

"Mr. Professor, don't you have a female companion?" asked the servant who was in charge of receiving him in the car.

"Girlmate?" Todd Bruce thought of his ex-wife first in his mind, but quickly shook his head again.

The servant said again: "If you have your own partner, you can go with me. If you don't have my master, I can arrange one for you."

Todd Bruce shook his head and said, "No, no! I don't need a lady."

Seeing Todd Bruce like this, the servant didn't say anything more, just sat quietly opposite.

The quiet carriage made people feel a little uncomfortable. In order to relieve this feeling of discomfort, Todd Bruce could only take out the documents from the briefcase and sort them out repeatedly. At the same time, he prayed in his heart that the carriage could reach its destination as soon as possible. land.

Compared with the train, the speed of the carriage was obviously a bit slow, and the carriage did not drive outside Belmont Manor until it was getting dark.

At this time, Belmont Manor was already very noisy, and many fireworks were set off in the manor, illuminating the sky, so that people outside the manor could also feel the excitement of the banquet.

Due to the increase in the number of carriages, the speed of the carriages slowed down a lot. It took more than ten minutes to walk from the outermost wall of Belmont Manor to the gate of the manor. As the gate appeared outside the window of the car, the carriage also stopped. The servants in the carriage After getting out of the car, he put down the pedal for Todd Bruce, opened the door, and handed the invitation letter to the butler next to the door. After reading the invitation letter, the butler loudly announced Todd Bruce's name and title in the academy.

At this moment, Todd Bruce could feel the strange eyes of the people around him looking at him, and he could also guess why these people might have doubts about why they invited a professor of folklore. He took a deep breath, did not look at the people around him, and Guided by the servant, he walked into the manor and walked along the avenue to the garden of the manor.

Belmont Manor or the former Monte Manor is also a very famous manor in Beruk City. The reason why it is famous is not only because of the case back then, but also because this manor is the largest manor in Beruk City, and the garden is completely It was built in imitation of the jewel garden of the Landau Empire Summer Palace in the Old World, and it is one of the most famous private gardens in the entire New World.

It's a pity that as the manor was abandoned, no one took care of the garden, and it had already been abandoned. Even if it is renovated now, it is difficult to compare with the garden scenery of that year.

Although Todd Bruce is not an architect, he has also studied this garden, because there is a complete Buchan bucket stone in the garden. There is only one bucket stone in the New World, and there are not many in the Old World. The best material for Continental Buchan folk beliefs.

After entering the garden, the first thing Todd Bruce saw was a bronze statue. He could tell at a glance that these statues were not newly cast, but old statues were refurbished, and he could also see that these statues should be The belief statues of early religions were migrated. At that time, because a large number of copper and tin mines were discovered in many migration points, and the smelting technology was extremely mature, the statues of gods used in religious beliefs were changed from stone carvings to easier to manufacture and lower cost. bronze statue.

Although a lot of bronze statues of this kind were produced back then, there were still not many life-sized bronze statues of this kind, so their value was quite high, but now these valuable bronze statues are regarded by the new owner of the manor as They were placed in the garden as ordinary decorations, either because the owner of the manor did not understand the preciousness of these bronze statues, or the value of these bronze statues was the same as that of decorations in the eyes of the manor owner.

Among the guests in the garden, not many people know the value of the bronze statues. Compared with these cold statues, they are more interested in the fireworks that are currently being set off, as well as several circuses specially invited from neighboring cities to perform. More interested, the atmosphere of the whole manor also became very lively during the fireworks and performances. Exquisite food and mellow wine were delivered to every guest in the manor on the tray of the manor servants. Everyone was taking advantage of this banquet Deepen the relationship with each other, make new partners, etc. It has to be said that such a lively and luxurious banquet is also very rare in Beiruk City.

Originally, Todd Bruce was going to greet the manor owner like other invited guests, but he hesitated when he saw the manor owner and his wife surrounded by a large number of Beruk city dignitaries by the garden fountain in the distance. In the end, he didn't go forward, but picked up the wine glass on the waiter's tray, and walked towards the main house of the villa while drinking.

His low self-esteem made him not have the guts to walk over, push other people away to greet the owner of the manor, and he also found that he was thinking too well about things. He only knew that he didn't know how to sell his research projects when he was engaged in research. He felt that Even if I stand in front of the manor owner and his wife now, I am afraid it will be difficult to take out my project documents from the purse and show them to the manor owner.

Todd Bruce felt that his trip might be in vain, but he was not reconciled, so in order to make his trip worthwhile, he decided to go to the main house of the villa to see if he could find the second person who came to the banquet. The goal is to fulfill my long-cherished wish for many years.

Although the main house is guarded by guards, guests are not prohibited from entering. Only a few rooms on the entire third floor and the second floor are guarded, and no one else is allowed to enter. Guests in other rooms can use them at will.

Based on the information about the Mont Manor villa in his memory, Todd Bruce went directly to the former study of the villa. Although the villa has undergone large-scale reconstruction and renovation, and the functions of some houses have changed, the study is one of the few intact ones. The preserved room here is really well preserved, from bookshelves, books, to carpets, tables and chairs, and all decorations. The previous engineering team just cleaned it up and gave books and bookshelves Wait for some moldy and rotten parts to be replaced locally.

When the Monte family built this study, they also thought about fire protection, moisture resistance, etc. The materials used to build the study were all anti-corrosion special wood. After so many years, except for a few places where the wood has become moldy and rotted, Most other locations are in good condition and do not require replacement or repair.

Because of this, after entering the room, Todd Bruce quickly found what he wanted to see, a slate mural inlaid in the middle of a bookshelf wall.

Todd Bruce walked quickly to the slate mural, took out the notebook and pen from his pocket, leaned in front of the slate mural, and carefully looked at the content on the mural, because the light was a little dim, so he had to take it from the side He picked up a gas lamp and put it on the shelf next to it.

After he finished the entire mural, he couldn't help but let out a long sigh, and said, "This thing should not be kept in a private collection, but should be placed in a public museum for the public to watch and for scholars to study."

"You're right, I'll consider this proposal." Just as Todd Bruce's voice fell, another voice sounded behind him.

Todd Bruce was taken aback, turned around quickly, and looked behind him. When he saw the person behind him talking, he immediately saluted him awkwardly, and introduced himself: "Hello, Leo Do Your Excellency, I am Tond Bruce, Professor of Folklore at City College."

"I know, I wrote your invitation letter myself." Leo smiled and said: "I read your article on the connection between folklore, religion and ancient civilization published in the Folklore Journal, and I think it is necessary to know Look at a scholar like you."

After listening to Leo's words, Todd Bruce couldn't help showing obvious embarrassment. The article Leo mentioned was purely a piece of writing he put together in order to swindle some money when he was shy. A research report, in which everything is conjecture, without any substantive evidence.

After the article was sent, he regretted it, because in his eyes, the article was too bad and would make him a laughing stock in the academic world. He originally thought that the article would not pass the review, but what he didn't expect was That article was unexpectedly published, and it was still published on the second edition. Since then, the academic circle has also given him the title of a visionary, which has also become a stain on his academics.

He didn't think that Leo's mention of this matter was just to laugh at him, but he regarded Leo as the rich people who came to him because of this article.

Although that article made him the object of ridicule among folklore scholars for a while, for those who did not understand folklore, his article was so attractive that some wealthy people even took it to publish it. The magazine of that article approached and offered to provide investment funds for the projects mentioned in the article.

This was a windfall for him. At that time, he agreed without even thinking about it, and spent two days writing a research project proposal, and obtained the first research funding.

However, the good times didn’t last long, and soon the opinions of the academic circle on this article also flowed outside the circle. The investors thought they were cheated, so they withdrew their capital without hesitation, and the project was naturally abandoned.

Now that I think about it, his lack of investment in projects over the years may not only be related to the fact that folklore is a marginal academic, but also related to this project investment called fraud.

Thinking of this, he hesitated for a moment, looked at the briefcase on the chair just now, and finally did not take out those research projects from the briefcase, although he also knew that now is a very good time to sell himself, If this opportunity is missed, it will be difficult to recover, but the complicated emotions in his heart make him unable to produce documents, and he doesn't even have the courage to sell.

"Don't be nervous. I mentioned that article not to ridicule you, but I really think that some of the conjectures made in it make sense." Leo patted the other party's shoulder, and seeing that the other party did not relax due to this, he shifted topic, pointing to the slate mural that the other party was looking at just now, and asked: "Can you explain to me what this mural says?"

Speaking of what he was interested in, Todd Bruce was no longer nervous. He explained seriously: "This slate mural is engraved with scenes from the life of the Tonian people."

"Tonians? It's that pseudo-New World civilization." Leo thought for a while and said.

"No, the Tonyan civilization is real, it's just that someone deliberately hid it." Tom Bruce immediately retorted, without the slightest timidity and nervousness just now.

Leo didn't say anything, but took a serious look at the slate mural.

Leo had read about the Tonian civilization in some historical books, but almost all of the books said that this civilization was just a creation created by scholars among the migrants in the past in order to defraud money from the powerful. field scam.

People who migrated from the Old World in the early days believed that the New World was so large and rich in products, so they thought that there should be other humans in the New World, and those humans might have built some civilizations.

Therefore, the initial actions of the early New World colonies were cautious, for fear of conflicts with the humans and civilizations existing in the New World. In addition to strengthening the camps at the landing sites, the external expansion was limited to opening up some farmland and so on.

Until a team of scholars went deep into the interior of the New World, after two years of exploration, they said that there were no traces of human existence on the New World, nor any man-made objects, so there were no humans in the New World, and it was a real virgin land. .

It is also because of this that the pioneering of the New World by the migrants was officially launched.

Until decades later, members of that team of scholars passed away one after another. Before his death, the last scholar suddenly mentioned that the fact that there were no other traces of human existence in the New World they announced back then was actually false. In fact, they found some man-made objects, only However, at that time, in order to allow the migrants to open up the land freely, they made up a lie.

Although this incident attracted some people's attention at the time, because the scholar said this in a dying state before his death, most people still thought that the scholar was unconscious and talking nonsense before his death. This is because if there is a New World civilization, why haven't other people found any clues related to the New World civilization after so many years of development.

Originally, this incident subsided with the death of the last scholar of the expedition team, but some years later, some people successively claimed that some ancient artifacts that had nothing to do with the civilization of the Old World had been discovered, and that these artifacts were probably the The civilization of the New World, and also named the civilization of the New World after the head of the expedition team at that time, called the Tonian Civilization.

This incident caused quite an upsurge back then, and even the countries in the Old World were alarmed, sending a large number of scholars to the New World to explore, but in the end they discovered that these so-called artificial artifacts of the New World civilization were actually forged by later generations Yes, this also makes the Tonian civilization called a scam, or a pseudo-civilization.