7_Afterword

AFTERWORD To all the returning patrons of my series: It’s good to see you again. And to all the bourgeoisie out there who bought up all four volumes at once: Nice to meet you. I’m Kazuma Kamachi. We’ve gotten to the fourth volume before I realized it. But when I look back on it calmly, I haven’t even been active for a year yet, huh? Well, thanks to that, my work has managed to get to the point where it can be called a “series,” but when I think about that, I get the keen realization that a year is really worth a lot and can’t be taken lightly. When I sit down and think about it, I realize I’ve poured a hundredth of my total life span into this A Certain Magical~ series, haven’t I? If you take that sentence out of context, it sounds pretty high-handed and ceremonious, though. In any case, as those of you who have finished reading the book will know, the theme this time was “summoning spells.” There’s plenty of varieties of “summoning” bundled up in just that word, from the necromancer who places dead souls into bodies to talisman accessories imbued with the power of Mercury—there’s apparently a whole lot of methods of summoning and lots of different things that can be summoned. When I thought about summoning angels or demons, I would get this image of praying into an eerie magic circle, but it seems that actual Christianity (in its legends) is a bit different. Like how there’s an angel and a demon that come as a pair for every single person, even if you don’t go through all the trouble to call on them, and things like that. The entire concept that I see in comics a lot is of “a tiny angel and a tiny demon spinning around your head and arguing with each other whenever you’re stimulated by things like worldly desires.” If you try to trace this back to its roots, you’ll run into some unexpectedly serious references. To my illustrator, Mr. Kiyotaka Haimura, and my editor, Ms. Miki, thank you, again and again, and sorry for all the trouble. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration if I were to say that all of the merits of this book were thanks to you two. I look forward to working with you in the future. And to all my readers—the fact that you’re all allowing me to publish at such a high pace, rivaling that of weekly manga tankobons, is the result of you having purchased my work. I would like to bow my head to you twice; at the same time that I wish you a great “thank-you,” I also ask for your continued support in the future. Now then, for the time being, as this page of my work is closed, and ever wishing that the continuation of the work remains in your imaginations, today, here, I rest down my pen. …Summer vacation is so long, this work isn’t turning out to be a school drama. 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: A Parallel World in the World of Reality Chapter 1: The Hex Suspect in the World of Sorcery Chapter 2: Detectives in the World of Combat Chapter 3: Angel Fall in the World of Injury Chapter 4: The Last Sorcerer in the Single World Final Chapter: My Betrayer in the World of Normalcy Afterword Yen Newsletter Copyright Navigation Begin Reading Table of Contents Copyright A CERTAIN MAGICAL INDEX, Volume 4 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 August 2015 by Yen On. ISBN 978-0-316-31661-3 E3