7_Afterword

AFTERWORD To those of you who have been reading from the first volume—welcome back. And to those brave ones who suddenly picked up the second book—nice to meet you. This is Kazuma Kamachi. Now then, the afterword. It seems like depending on the person, some of you read this part first. Apparently, the afterword is like a second summary. Or that there are people who read the afterword first, and if it tickles their fancy, they head straight for the cash register. However, I’d like to advise caution to those of you who dive straight into the afterword. It would probably not be a good idea to read it until you’ve gone through the story first. The next thing here is an afterword meant for those of you who enjoy reading the afterword at the end or those of you with the courage to brave spoilers. The concept this time was a “bad end.” To put it clearly, Aureolus is Touma Kamijou’s failed state. I tried to write this book while thinking about what kind of person Kamijou might have become if he hadn’t succeeded at the end of volume 1. Even Himegami had the pitiful role of the girl who couldn’t become the story’s heroine. So for various reasons, things were pretty brutal this time around. Contrary to volume 1, where even the enemies would at least hear you first, the final boss—to say nothing of the candidate for heroine—never listened to a word anyone said. Ars Magna was the occult “keyword” everything developed from. I mentioned somewhere in the story that it was the “true form of alchemy” or something, but that was actually a total lie. Apparently, the first major school of alchemy, the Bohemian school (the one famous for turning lead into gold) appeared in the later stages of the Roman Empire, while Ars Magna didn’t come in until quite a bit later, in the seventeenth century. In addition, at the time, the seventeenth century was kind of a dark age for alchemy. It was a fad, where fake magicians would con nobility out of their money. In other words, Ars Magna was just some new-age cult sort of thing that rode the tailcoats of the alchemy boom. Anyway, the real Ars Magna wasn’t something that could create gold or make an elixir of immortality. It was really only something like humans being an incomplete version of God, so if a human was to train and become “complete,” then he could become a god. Obviously that all sounds like a mess of cultic hubbub, but as you can see the term God in there, you can tell that Crossism got mixed into alchemy. The thing Aureolus was doing in this book, with the “everything in his head becomes reality” and so on, is actually more the Zurich style of alchemy. This mixed the original alchemy with the psychology of Carl Jung; “doing alchemy in your head” is the gist of it. There was another version of alchemy from Vienna, but that used some perverted techniques called sex magic, so it’s not allowed in Dengeki Bunko (laugh). One explanation for the abundant number of variations of alchemy is apparently that no one knew what it originally was, but the correct answer seems to go more like this: Alchemists would con royalty by saying they could convert lead into gold, but no matter how long they waited, they could never produce that all-important gold. To soothe the nobles that angered, they told all kinds of different lies. I wrote quite a bit, but well, in the end, this is what I really wanted to say: Despite all the investigation, the word alchemy isn’t really used well, huh? I might as well have given Index a bit more time onstage and mixed in some kind of “easy kitchen alchemy” plot. I wonder how that sort of deep theme would have done in the story? Now then, here’s where I thank everyone involved with this production. My editor, Ms. Miki, is an amazing person, and one who placed the order for me to write an entire novel in seventeen days. Seriously, thank you for sticking with this book until the end, despite all the holes in it. My illustrator, Mr. Haimura, is someone I’ve actually never met face-to-face before. It would sound cool if I called him my “invisible partner,” but I really do want to meet him and give him my thanks. For now, I’ll just practice it on paper: Thank you so much. And to all of you readers who bought this book, a huge “thank-you” to you for staying with me the whole way. As I pray that you’ll all have the chance to look through the next one, and the ones after that, I lay down my pen for the day. Mikoto Misaka never got a word in edgewise this time, either (cry). Kazuma Kamachi Thank you for buying this ebook, published by Yen On. To get news about the latest manga, graphic novels, and light novels from Yen Press, along with special offers and exclusive content, sign up for the Yen Press newsletter. Sign Up Or visit us at www.yenpress.com/booklink Contents Cover Welcome Insert Title Page Prologue: Days Like Usual Chapter 1: The Fortress of Glass Chapter 2: Witch-Hunting with Fire Chapter 3: The Master, Like a Closed World’s God Chapter 4: The Sevens of Murder Final Chapter: Deep Blood Encroaches Afterword Yen Newsletter Copyright Navigation Begin Reading Table of Contents Copyright A CERTAIN MAGICAL INDEX, Volume 2 KAZUMA KAMACHI Cover art by Kiyotaka Haimura Translation by Andrew Prowse and Yoshito Hinton This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental. TOARU MAJYUTSU NO INDEX ©KAZUMA KAMACHI 2004 All rights reserved. Edited by ASCII MEDIA WORKS First published in Japan in 2004 by KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo. English translation rights arranged with KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo, through Tuttle-Mori Agency, Inc., Tokyo. English translation © 2015 Hachette Book Group, Inc. All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights. Yen On Hachette Book Group 1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10104 HachetteBookGroup.com YenPress.com Yen On is an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc. The Yen On name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc. The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher. First Yen On eBook Edition: February 2016 Originally published in print in February 2015 by Yen On. ISBN 978-0-316-31658-3 E3