Casting statues is a traditional craft of Europeans.
Especially when it comes to religious statues. With the blessing of faith, they always pour in an amount of effort that ordinary people can hardly imagine, striving for absolute perfection.
The most typical examples are the statues inside the great cathedrals across Europe.
No matter what material they are made of, it is hard to imagine that in an era with such low technology and productivity, someone could actually cast statues that lifelike.
However, the bronze statue that appeared before Link and Emily right now was an exception.
This bronze statue, themed around the Virgin Mary giving birth, was over the height of a person.
Overall, it looked like some assembly-line product cast in a large factory. The shape was stiff, the expression rigid, and the joints unnatural.
Link even suspected it might be hollow inside.
And because of years of exposure to wind and sun, or perhaps because the bronze quality was too poor, this statue, which should have been shining brilliantly under sunlight, was now covered in a grayish black layer, looking dirty and grimy.
The only part of the entire statue that was still smooth and almost like new was the chest area the Virgin had opened to breastfeed.
That spot still shone with a beautiful brass color, so bright people almost didn't dare look directly at it.
Any adult with basic education and common sense should understand the reason behind this phenomenon.
If everyone present were men, they probably would have exchanged knowing smiles.
But the problem was, there was also a girl here.
"Hmph!"
Emily snorted coldly and swept her gaze over Dumbledore from head to toe with the look she would use on a piece of trash, making Dumbledore extremely embarrassed.
Faced with this kind of ironclad evidence placed right in front of him, even though he didn't do it, Dumbledore found it hard to explain.
So he simply didn't explain. After touching his nose, he walked straight toward the statue.
"This statue is actually the entrance. We just need to gently touch it…"
As he spoke, Dumbledore lightly touched the statue's arm.
The next moment, the scenery around Link and the others suddenly changed.
The grand castle and the passing Muggles all disappeared, replaced by a plaza surrounded by all kinds of magical neon signs and towering magical buildings reaching into the clouds.
Even the crude statue of the Virgin had turned into a nearly five-meter-tall statue of a girl with a resolute face, wearing armor and holding a giant banner.
On the base of the statue were words written in both French and English, To the greatest witch, Saint Joan of Arc.
"Saint Joan of Arc?"
Link couldn't help reading the words on the base aloud, his expression extremely strange.
Of course he knew who Joan of Arc was.
France's great hero. She rose to fame at thirteen, carrying out the will of "God" as a young girl, leading a group of French men to drive out foreign enemies and save a collapsing nation.
Several hundred years later, Joan was canonized as a Catholic saint.
Such a figure was actually a witch?
That was just too bizarre.
But thinking about it carefully, it actually did seem possible.
After all, Joan was captured at nineteen by the English and then sentenced to death by burning by a religious court under English control on charges of heresy and witchcraft.
Originally, from the Muggle perspective, this was just another foolish act by the church.
But now it seemed… maybe they didn't burn the wrong person?
"Sigh! Joan!"
Dumbledore noticed Link's confusion and sighed as he explained, "She is a great hero of the French magical world. In her era, the wizarding world wasn't as peaceful as it is now."
"There were quite a few ambitious people who wanted to unify all the wizards of the world."
"At that time, the French magical community suffered an unprecedented large-scale invasion."
"Faced with that level of invasion, the French wizards had no ability to resist at all."
"Then Joan stepped forward."
"She learned from the enemy's methods, uniting the Muggle forces and wizarding forces of France, and through cooperation drove out the invading foreign wizards, returning freedom to the French magical community."
"But in the end, she herself was captured by enemy wizards and brutally killed."
After saying that, Dumbledore awkwardly and guiltily touched his nose again.
Link and Emily both had strange expressions.
Because according to magical history records, English wizards had launched an expedition against the French magical world around the fifteenth century.
So the ones Joan resisted were English wizards?
Emily shook her head and still asked in confusion, "I still don't understand. If Joan was a witch, how did she get involved with religion?"
"She was even canonized as a saint! Those religious groups and wizards have always been opposed to each other!"
Hearing this, Dumbledore only smiled without speaking, while Link shook his head and explained, "There's nothing hard to understand about that."
"Wizards are people too, and as people, they need faith. The object of their faith might be an idea, a family, or even a real existing god."
"So there are actually quite a lot of wizards who submit to religion."
"The most typical example is the ghost of our Hufflepuff House, the Fat Friar."
"That guy was a high-ranking clergyman!"
"With his devotion to God and the abilities magic gave him, if he had lived, he might even have become Pope."
"But he was too high-profile."
"He never hid his spellcasting, whether it was using his wand to remove smallpox from believers or pulling rabbits out of communion bread."
"You might not understand this, but the most firm atheists in this world are actually those high-ranking believers in the church."
"So when faced with these 'miracles,' the Fat Friar was naturally executed by those frightened high-ranking believers."
Emily nodded and didn't ask anything more.
But the way she looked at Joan's statue still carried resentment and dissatisfaction.
She still didn't understand why Joan and other wizards would devote themselves to the church.
The witch hunts started by the church swept across Europe for a full 300 years.
Although these Muggles could hardly ever catch real witches.
Most of those they burned as witches were just ordinary Muggle women.
There were still large numbers of girls under eleven, who had just awakened magical power and caused strange phenomena around them, who were captured and executed.
Strictly speaking, these girls weren't yet wizards, but they could already be considered seeds of wizards.
In Emily's view, this was no different from slaughtering wizards.
People like Joan and the Fat Friar naturally became traitors among wizards.
Taking a deep breath, Emily finally moved her gaze away from Saint Joan's statue and followed Link and Dumbledore toward the pedestrian street not far away.
It was called a pedestrian street.
But the street that appeared before Link and the others was actually dozens of meters wide, wide enough even for horse racing.
As soon as they stepped onto the street, they saw a huge magical signboard.
On it, written clearly in two languages, were the words, Lionheart Street.
Lionheart?
Why would the commercial core street of the French wizarding world be called Lionheart?
Link's expression became strange again.
Because the word Lionheart had always represented England.
For example, the emblem of the English Muggle monarchy had lions engraved on it.
And for another example, England's very famous king, Charles I, was called the Lionheart King.
But this time Link quickly figured out the reason himself.
Obviously, the Saint Joan in the plaza earlier hadn't completely driven out the English invaders as the French wizards boasted.
At least at the wizard level, that was the case.
On the Muggle side, France did win the Hundred Years' War against England and achieved unification.
But the French wizarding world was very likely actually crushed and colonized by English wizards.
The reason it wasn't written that way officially might have been to better rule these French wizards.
This also perfectly explained why even the description on Saint Joan's statue had to be written in both English and French.
Otherwise, given the deep hatred between England and France, the French wizards would never write English on the statue of their own symbolic hero even if they were beaten to death.
After understanding all this, Link's mindset changed.
He stopped observing everything around him from the perspective of a foreigner.
And after changing his perspective, he realized that the buildings on Lionheart Street really did carry a strong English style.
The only difference was that the buildings on Lionheart Street were larger, more magnificent, and more luxurious than those on Diagon Alley.
But the similarities between the two magical communities ended there.
In other aspects, the difference between the English and French magical worlds was as great as if they were two completely different planets!
For example, the pedestrians on the street.
Although wizards liking strange clothing had already become common knowledge between Muggles and wizards.
Link and Emily were already used to the clothing of English wizards.
But facing the bizarre outfits of the wizards coming and going on Lionheart Street, Link and Emily were still shocked.
Compared to French wizards, English wizards dressed like normal Muggle office workers.
The various outrageous hairstyles and clothes of the French wizards almost turned the street into a Halloween festival.
The difference in goods between the two countries was even greater.
England's commercial system was basically in a state of stagnation under the monopoly of the Wizengamot oligarchs.
It was very hard for wizards to see imported products on Diagon Alley.
Only in recent years had the Flamel family, thanks to their good relationship with Fudge, and later after Old Barty and Percy effectively sidelined the Ministry of Magic, managed to bring in some imported goods.
As for other imported products, they were all blocked by the exaggerated tariffs deliberately set by the Wizengamot oligarchs.
The direct result of this was that in terms of product variety, Diagon Alley and Lionheart Street simply couldn't be compared.
If one had to describe it, Diagon Alley was like a shabby rural convenience store specializing in products like "six nuclear bombs," while Lionheart Street was like a massive chain supermarket in a big city.
Such a huge difference made Emily almost go crazy with joy at first.
She dragged Link like she had lost her mind, rushing into every shop. Whether useful or not, she just kept buying and buying.
The most outrageous part was that she even bought matching hooded cloaks for herself and Link, something almost everyone on Lionheart Street seemed to have.
These cloaks were designed based on various magical creatures. Some of the more expensive ones were even directly made from the skins and skulls of those same magical creatures.
According to the shop assistant, these were all inspired by the natural spirits worshipped by centaurs, as imagined by their famous designers.
As long as you wore these cloaks, you could feel as if you had transformed into those magical creatures and merged with nature.
That's not what the centaurs' natural spirit is about at all.
Link, who had only recently talked with the centaur Firenze, knew this very clearly.
And also...
Why do these cloaks look so much like the lion heads used in Chinese lion dances?
The only difference was that the lion heads had been turned into Erumpent heads, Thunderbird heads, Nundu heads…
And they were ridiculously expensive. For two purely decorative cloaks, they actually dared to charge 500 Galleons.
This was basically absurdity's mother opening the door for absurdity, absurd to the extreme.
Fortunately, Emily's crazy behavior stopped after a short while.
She reached up and adjusted the Nundu hooded cloak on her head that matched Link's, and said in a rather low mood, "Link, why do you think the difference between Diagon Alley and this place is so big?"
Hearing this, Link almost instinctively wanted to bring up his earlier theory about oligarch monopolies.
But just as the words reached his mouth, he suddenly stopped.
Staring at the dazzling magical signboards shining all around, Link thought for a moment before saying seriously, "The oligarch monopoly of the Wizengamot members is the main cause of the growing gap between Diagon Alley and Lionheart Street. But the deeper reason that drove all this is, the Second Wizarding War!"
"The Second Wizarding War?", Emily repeated with a frown.
Even Dumbledore turned his head to look over.
"Yes, it's because of the Second Wizarding War." Link said firmly.
"The terrifying shadow called Voldemort hovered over the English wizarding world for far too long."
"In that brutal war, the English magical world lost nearly thirty percent of its young and middle-aged population."
"Of course, that doesn't mean they were all killed."
"Most of those people fled to other countries as refugees."
"And along with them were many rising noble families who made the same choice."
"These wizards, who didn't come from particularly prestigious backgrounds, controlled large amounts of wealth and industries."
"But because of their fear of Voldemort, they transferred all their industries and wealth overseas."
"This was a devastating blow to the industry and commerce of the English magical world."
"And it was exactly because of that that the entire English magical world declined completely, becoming the private property of a small number of people."
Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!
Just as Link finished speaking, a burst of loud applause rang out.
Dumbledore clapped as he said, "Wonderful! Link! Your view of the current situation of the English magical world is absolutely spot on!"
"If we were still at Hogwarts, just based on what you said, I should give you a full hundred points!"
Although Dumbledore's words sounded to Link like empty politeness, like saying "let's have dinner sometime,"
upholding the idea of respecting elders and caring for the young, Link still gave a slight bow to Dumbledore.
It counted as a response.
Meanwhile, after hearing Link's explanation, Emily had completely fallen into deep thought.
Before this, Emily had never thought about the condition of the English Ministry of Magic, even though she had studied magical history well.
But her situation was somewhat similar to Hermione's. When learning this history, she had only memorized it by rote, lacking the ability for independent analytical thinking.
And what Link had just said opened up a new line of thought for her.
It allowed her to follow that line and think in her own way.
This was definitely a very good thing for Emily.
So neither Link nor Dumbledore had any intention of disturbing her at this moment.
The group simply escorted the thoughtful Emily as they continued forward.
And finally, they arrived beneath a huge pure gold signboard.
On it was a line of French clearly engraved, Zangwill Wands.
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