Toaru Majutsu no Index: New Testament-Volume 3, Afterword

To those who have bought the volumes one at a time: welcome back. To those who bought them all at once: welcome.

This is Kamachi Kazuma.

New Testament has reached its third volume! The stage for this volume is the Hawaiian Islands. I put a bit of a restriction on how things were presented, but that was to go along with a certain gimmick.

The occult keyword was people-controlling magic.

However, as also indicated in the volume, I don’t think there is any type of occult that would make an investigation more of a pain in the ass. Even if someone acts in accordance to the spell user’s instructions, it can be unclear whether that is actually the occult or if they are cheated by planning it together earlier. The issue might be similar to the question of whether a supposed genius dog is actually doing the calculations in its head.

Since I was dealing with the remnants left by World War III, I of course went with Russia. Since I was going with the Russian Orthodox Church, I went with a fairy. However, I felt something like the Lorelei was too straightforward, so I did some research to see if there was a more twisted one. What I found was the Leshy. Like many other fairies, the Leshy has a frightening side of not hesitating to kill, but it has a bit of charm too.

And of course Cendrillon uses a similar method to Vasilisa from the Russian Orthodox Church, so I guess you can check that out too.

We’ve really started to get into the Imagine Breaker countermeasures now.

I think you will be able to sense a different feel to those who appeared at the end than with the Russian remnant types.

I give my thanks to my illustrator, Haimura-san, and my editor, Miki-san. This story was probably a bit of a pain due to having so many people in it. I am truly thankful that they have stuck with me this far.

I also give my thanks to all the readers. It is thanks to all of you that I am allowed to write these stores that are such a pain. I am truly thankful.

It is time to close the pages for now while praying that the pages of the next book will be opened.

And I lay my pen down for now. 𝑓𝒓𝚎e𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯𝘰𝐯𝒆𝑙.c𝚘m

The name of the Magic God has finally appeared.

-Kamachi Kazuma